[Reactcore]

Read my mod of placing my Dave's original PSU in an external box in my thread here:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/supercharging-chord-daves-internal-amplifier.966040/post-17501293

 

[Somatic]

@Somatic
John has it right, think that too.
Just reheat the pins on the PCB

But first swap the cables.. if the problem moves channel with it.. its your plug

Yeah. I’ll do it myself or get someone local to repair. Spoke to a repair shop recommended by Chord and was unimpressed. He mentioned that he would have to replace the LCD display as well as it’s glued to the heat sink? I don’t remember this being the case. Also said it takes time to get to the back of the board to get the repair done.

Quoted me 2 hours of labor. I think it was $125-150 an hour.

 

[Reactcore]

He mentioned that he would have to replace the LCD display as well as it’s glued to the heat sink?

Yeap the display is gluekitted on it.. but it can be taken without damage by using a knife under it.. no need replacement.


Now listening to some 50's jazz.. omg so breathtakinginly real.. my phones are disappearing from my head

 

[Somatic]

Yeap the display is gluekitted on it.. but it can be taken without damage by using a knife under it.. no need replacement.


Now listening to some 50's jazz.. omg so breathtakinginly real.. my phones are disappearing from my head

Ok good. At least he wasn’t totally lying. Found out that replacing the main board is about $1k for the part. $75 for the display. Not bad.

Is your audio experience with any new mods? I got to catch up on your thread. I wish you lived near me. I definitely would ask you to mod it for me.

Edit: NM. Caught up. Looks cool. You think your PSU mod has similar sound benefits as farad3 or Sean Jacobs?

 

[Reactcore]

Ok good. At least he wasn’t totally lying. Found out that replacing the main board is about $1k for the part. $75 for the display. Not bad.

Is your audio experience with any new mods? I got to catch up on your thread. I wish you lived near me. I definitely would ask you to mod it for me.

1k?? Lol they wouldnt sell that board alone.. ill CNC and assemble a Dave then

Btw i think you can reach and solder the XLR pins from up side of the PCB too.. no need to take the board out

 

[Reactcore]

You think your PSU mod has similar sound benefits as farad3 or Sean Jacobs?

Yeap i heard the Farad and my cap mod side by side.. with Farad having the benefit of being outboard keeping possible RFI and heat out of Dave.. its what made me decide to place the smps outboard too.

I have another Dave with a SJ arc6 with cap board coming my way soon.. i see if i can make a grand comparison with it vs Farad and my solution.. i think i should invite some extra ears lol fun times ahead

 

[GuiltyRocker]

Yeah. I’ll do it myself or get someone local to repair. Spoke to a repair shop recommended by Chord and was unimpressed. He mentioned that he would have to replace the LCD display as well as it’s glued to the heat sink? I don’t remember this being the case. Also said it takes time to get to the back of the board to get the repair done.

Quoted me 2 hours of labor. I think it was $125-150 an hour.

Send it to React core for repair

 

[ecwl]

My XLR outputs on the Dave are not 100%. If the XLR cable is tugging it a bit it starts to crackle. If I jostle the XLR cable it produces some noise when listening to music.

I just read this and was wondering why the XLR cables would be jostled. Because of the high impedance of the XLR output, it’s not recommended to use the XLR to drive headphones. So if your XLR cable is connected to the headphone amp, it really should not be tugged. I have to admit with Dave and/or M-scaler, I find that if any cable gets tugged or jostled, sound would crack or make noise. But since everything is set in my stereo system, I never hear any crackles or noise hours and days on end.

 

[Somatic]

I just read this and was wondering why the XLR cables would be jostled. Because of the high impedance of the XLR output, it’s not recommended to use the XLR to drive headphones. So if your XLR cable is connected to the headphone amp, it really should not be tugged. I have to admit with Dave and/or M-scaler, I find that if any cable gets tugged or jostled, sound would crack or make noise. But since everything is set in my stereo system, I never hear any crackles or noise hours and days on end.

Ok that’s good to know. I need a small rack for my desk or get longer XLR cables.

 

[TheAttorney]

I have another Dave with a SJ arc6 with cap board coming my way soon.. i see if i can make a grand comparison with it vs Farad and my solution.. i think i should invite some extra ears lol fun times ahead

I've been waiting for this comparison for a long time

 

[Somatic]

Not to beat a dead horse but wondering on the consensus of crossfeed again. Seems dependent on chain and particular headphones. Seems like the higher the crossfeed you go up the more bass you get but lose some soundstage, instrument separation, high-end extension?

Envy gives the Susvara quite the bass heft. I tried cross feed 1-3 again today after a year at 0 and noticing slight differences. I always sense more focus on center stage with crossfeed on but I lose some soundstage width and instrument separation.

Wondering what others think?

 

[alxw0w]

Not to beat a dead horse but wondering on the consensus of crossfeed again. Seems dependent on chain and particular headphones. Seems like the higher the crossfeed you go up the more bass you get but lose some soundstage, instrument separation, high-end extension?

Envy gives the Susvara quite the bass heft. I tried cross feed 1-3 again today after a year at 0 and noticing slight differences. I always sense more focus on center stage with crossfeed on but I lose some soundstage width and instrument separation.

Wondering what others think?

For me crossfeed is essential with classical/orchestral recordings.
Yes the width of the soundstage shrinks, but it's like... it's very unnatural at the first place and just strange without crossfeed. Sounds are panned left-right nothing like you have while listening to real music or even speakers. With crossfeed you can really hear the venue of the recording how sounds bounce and travel through the "air", depth and placement cues are improved vastly.

On the other hand with recordings that are "smaller" or don't have soundstage cues (for example many jazz recordings) I don't see any point in using crossfeed.
Sounds many times are already panned strongly to center and with crossfeed it can sound congested or lacking in spacing between instruments.

So I assume it strongly depends on music that you listen. For me with orchestral music it's essential - without it soundstage is flat as a pancake with very unnatural sounds panned to left-right.

 

[Somatic]

For me crossfeed is essential with classical/orchestral recordings.
Yes the width of the soundstage shrinks, but it's like... it's very unnatural at the first place and just strange without crossfeed. Sounds are panned left-right nothing like you have while listening to real music or even speakers. With crossfeed you can really hear the venue of the recording how sounds bounce and travel through the "air", depth and placement cues are improved vastly.

On the other hand with recordings that are "smaller" or don't have soundstage cues (for example many jazz recordings) I don't see any point in using crossfeed.
Sounds many times are already panned strongly to center and with crossfeed it can sound congested or lacking in spacing between instruments.

So I assume it strongly depends on music that you listen. For me with orchestral music it's essential - without it soundstage is flat as a pancake with very unnatural sounds panned to left-right.

How about newer recordings? Non classical? 80s-90s music? Electronic, hip hop, Rock, etc. Thanks.

 

[TheAttorney]

How about newer recordings? Non classical? 80s-90s music? Electronic, hip hop, Rock, etc. Thanks.

As a dedicated CF fan, I use CF on all my recordings all of the time. There are some recordings where no CF would be acceptable to me, but these are sufficiently few that I don't bother ever changing the CF setting. It could be my OCD tendencies, but once I've noticed the broken sound stage characteristics of no CF, I just can't stand hearing it at even minor levels. CF does bring it's own issues, as has already been noted, but these are less annoying to me than a broken sound stage.

It's strange that I find that the central image benefits from CF, being more solid, realistic and 3D - you'd think it should be the edges of the sound stage that would be most affected.

All this applies to headphones directly driven by DAVE. The same headphones driven by a lesser DAC/Amps don't seem to need CF as much. I guess this is because the accuracy of the sound stage is already blurred by the lesser DAC/Amps, such that the lack of CF is less obvious.

 

[alxw0w]

How about newer recordings? Non classical? 80s-90s music? Electronic, hip hop, Rock, etc. Thanks.

Hard to say. As I barely listen to that kind of music.
But I'll agree with @TheAttorney:

There are some recordings where no CF would be acceptable to me, but these are sufficiently few that I don't bother ever changing the CF setting. It could be my OCD tendencies, but once I've noticed the broken sound stage characteristics of no CF, I just can't stand hearing it at even minor levels. CF does bring it's own issues, as has already been noted, but these are less annoying to me than a broken sound stage.

Especially this sentence:

It's strange that I find that the central image benefits from CF, being more solid, realistic and 3D - you'd think it should be the edges of the sound stage that would be most affected.

Exactly. Even singers voice is much better with CF. Like it has shape, edges of the center images are rounded more 3D if you will.

Strong left right panning like it is happening with headphones and to some degree with speakers is just unnatural and plain wrong - to some degree of course.
Stereo was invented so you can place sounds between speakers in the space not on left or right side - like it's happening with headphones or many lesser speaker systems.
So as @TheAttorney said, I keep my CF on like 90% of the time and don't really care what type of music is being played. Sometimes when I hear that it's really off (too congested) I turn it off.

ps. this track is really nice example where I just love crossfeed even though it changes the sound so it sounds almost like a mono recording, but with amazing depth, layering and just positioning in the 3D space. You can really hear event hapening in front of you it's really an expierence.