[LouisArmstrong]

Anyone tried some serious IEM listening with the Dave? Just curious. Using the Dave with IEM should be the best IEM experience of all time, no? 
 
Cheers,
Louis Armstrong

 

[pkcpga]

Anyone tried some serious IEM listening with the Dave? Just curious. Using the Dave with IEM should be the best IEM experience of all time, no? 

Cheers,
Louis Armstrong

It's funny with the IEM's I have, mostly under a grand the mojo is friendlier sounding, for headphones like hd800 and gs1000 or rs2 or lcd 3 the Dave is amazing. I think the IEM's need such little to drive them and they're already mostly bass shy and bright so the mojo is more soothing and easier listening for longer periods with IEM's.

 

[romaz]

  Anyone tried some serious IEM listening with the Dave? Just curious. Using the Dave with IEM should be the best IEM experience of all time, no? 
 
Cheers,
Louis Armstrong

When I first sent out my DHC headphone cables to get re-terminated with 6.35mm jacks for the DAVE, all I had for a couple of weeks was my Noble Kaiser 10 CIEMS and so they got a lot of time with my DAVE.  The DAVE drives them beautifully.  Where I could hear a hiss with several of my previous tube amps on the Kaiser 10s, no hiss at all with the DAVE.
 

 

[Rob Watts]

   
Rob,
 
Are you referring to something like this, plus a wireless dongle?
 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Personal-Cloud-Media-Storage/dp/B00U8XA4WI
 
Mike

No its portable so I can use it in planes and hotels:
 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Backup-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B01127CY26/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1469424022&sr=1-2&keywords=portable+hard+drive+4tb+usb+3.0
 
Portable means it takes power from the USB connection from the lap-top, so its easy to travel around, and by disconnecting the lap-top power chord, ground is still isolated.
 
Rob

 

[rkt31]

4tb portable earlier required external power now portable version too available.

 

[Arpiben]

  For Dave to be completely isolated from the USB source, then it needs to be completely separate from the earth or mains power; so no cables attached.
 
In my case I used 4TB portable hard disks for the music. Doing it wireless should be OK.
 
Rob  

 
 A pity that fiber connections (850nm) are not so common in Consumer Electronics' regarding wire Ethernet transport.
Therefore no other 'earth protected' choice as the one you proposed for time being.
Rgds

 

[miketlse]

  No its portable so I can use it in planes and hotels:
 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Backup-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B01127CY26/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1469424022&sr=1-2&keywords=portable+hard+drive+4tb+usb+3.0
 
Portable means it takes power from the USB connection from the lap-top, so its easy to travel around, and by disconnecting the lap-top power chord, ground is still isolated.
 
Rob

 
Thanks Rob,
 
I have been thinking about buying an additional backup drive.
It is amazing that a 4Tb drive can be powered by just the 5V line in a USB cable.

 

[rgs9200m]

GTech makes great external solid state drives up to 4tb. I've been using nothing but external Gdrives (conventional and solid state) for about 15 years and they have always performed flawlessly; they all run cool and quiet.
No external power is needed for the solid states.
My oldest ones still work fine.

 

[britneedadvice]

Originally posted by Roy (Romaz)
 
"I think it's impossible for any one component to be all things to all people but I think there are reasons why the DAVE will fail to positively distinguish itself in some systems."
 
"1)  Poor recordings.  The DAVE strives to be transparent to the recording.  It can unmask unbelievable detail and depth from even low-resolution recordings but if the recording is poor, the DAVE isn't going to sugar coat it.  I had one person tell me he couldn't tell a difference with the DAVE against his Hugo.  When I asked him what he listened to, it was almost exclusively 80s heavy metal.  "
 
Hi Roy
 
Probably like you , I have many recordings of the same piece of music. (This is common for collectors of Classical Music) In some cases,I seek to have all the available recordings of my 'favourites' Many of these recordings pre-date CDs,Now,if I were to have a 'set-up' that only show cased the best, most 'transparent' recordings, then I would have to 'bin' a the greater percentage of my 'library'.
 
Transparency is good but only to a certain point.I'm not decrying the DAVE's many attributes but there are other considerations!
 
I have listened to many systems which would be described as 'totally transparent' and I find them hard work!
 
Older " poor recorded" just don't sound good on such equipment .
 
It's a balance - take for instance the well regarded Telefunken Tubes - sounded great in older 'not-so-clean' Amps but in newer 'cleaner' Amps, then maybe too bright for some/most??
 
You have many good interesting observations to make that many seem to appreciate(me included)but be careful not to alienate yourself with such comments as "coloured harmonics" etc( especially in the light of your recent reviews ) and stated views on how you've moved your thoughts on the 'balanced system' ( again only recently expressed)
 
As an aside, I have mentioned in the past "why no love for the Meridian system" (on Roy's thread re Music Servers).As one of the first to audition Meridian's MQA , it was evident that older poorly recorded music (from the 1950s) could be 'restored' with this system.As such , having heard this and auditioned the DAVE(and other DACs) I intend to keep my powder dry a little longer to see where this all unfolds. Interestingly, whilst this audition opened my eyes to the potential of MQA, it also made me realise that a complete Meridian System, with  their Active Speakers, was not for me -- too Transparent !! Sometimes a little "harmonic colouration" (call it what you want), pays off!
 
 
BTW, I'll get round to replying to your recent PM-I've been pre-occupied with Family Health issues - it looked too long to read !!  probably, as always,  full of mind provoking information , there's no one on this site that gets this old Dinosaur 'moved' to try new things!!
So, I was looking on the HFC website- as I'm sure you have? Go to ' Magnetic RCA Adapters ' a product you recommend ? Look at the picture ! What's that I see ? Looks like an Allnic HPA-5000 Headphone TUBE Amp- just like mine - HFC obviously do not think it's too bad???
 
Cheers !

 

[maxh22]

Another nice mini-review of the DAVE with the new Focal Utopia ($4,000) and Elear ($1,000) headphones by Jude himself. He compares these headphones with a variety of amps from the Woo WA8 Eclipse, the Dragon Inspire IHA (by the legendary Dennis HAD), SimAudio 430HA and Cavali Liquid Carbon (both fed by the Schiit Yggy), the Meridian Prime headphone amp + DAC, and the new TotalDac d1-integral headphone DAC + amp.

Which unit drove the Focals the best? According to Jude, "In terms of ultimate fidelity...I'd have to give the edge to Chord Electronics DAVE. Frankly, the Chord DAVE is simply incredible. I don't think I've heard a more resolving DAC or DAC/amp combo ever. I haven't yet measured anything quite like it either...So DAVE offers incredible sound and incredible measured performance. It's great with both Focals and just about any headphone you plug into it as well and when paired with the Utopia, the sheer resolution and amount of detail and information being hurled at me, it's otherworldly. Spectacular stuff."

Here's the video. To cut to the part about DAVE, skip to 36:40 into the video.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/811270/focal-elear-and-utopia-launch-with-impressions-head-fi-tv

I saw this video as well, Jude recently received the MSB Select II dac and MSB Select headphone amp. A $104,000 system that he said was also offered "mind-blowing resolution from a digital source (more resolution than I've ever heard from digital), without any imparted edginess, bite or harshness as a price." The headphone amp is an electro static amp so it can't directly compare to Dave's transparent amp. I also read about their dac. Hear is what it said on their website: "

For the very first time in history, the output of a discrete Ladder DAC drives the headphones directly, with nothing in the way to color or degrade the highest resolution (173 dB dynamic range) DAC in the world, clocked by the lowest jitter (33 femtoseconds) clock in the world.

" 
 
I pm'd Jude and asked him to do a comparison between the Select II and Dave. Hopefully I get a reply back from him.
 
http://www.msbtech.com/products/headphone.php?Page=../index

 

[romaz]

  Originally posted by Roy (Romaz)
 
"I think it's impossible for any one component to be all things to all people but I think there are reasons why the DAVE will fail to positively distinguish itself in some systems."
 
"1)  Poor recordings.  The DAVE strives to be transparent to the recording.  It can unmask unbelievable detail and depth from even low-resolution recordings but if the recording is poor, the DAVE isn't going to sugar coat it.  I had one person tell me he couldn't tell a difference with the DAVE against his Hugo.  When I asked him what he listened to, it was almost exclusively 80s heavy metal.  "
 
Hi Roy
 
Probably like you , I have many recordings of the same piece of music. (This is common for collectors of Classical Music) In some cases,I seek to have all the available recordings of my 'favourites' Many of these recordings pre-date CDs,Now,if I were to have a 'set-up' that only show cased the best, most 'transparent' recordings, then I would have to 'bin' a the greater percentage of my 'library'.
 
Transparency is good but only to a certain point.I'm not decrying the DAVE's many attributes but there are other considerations!
 
I have listened to many systems which would be described as 'totally transparent' and I find them hard work!
 
Older " poor recorded" just don't sound good on such equipment .
 
It's a balance - take for instance the well regarded Telefunken Tubes - sounded great in older 'not-so-clean' Amps but in newer 'cleaner' Amps, then maybe too bright for some/most??
 
You have many good interesting observations to make that many seem to appreciate(me included)but be careful not to alienate yourself with such comments as "coloured harmonics" etc( especially in the light of your recent reviews ) and stated views on how you've moved your thoughts on the 'balanced system' ( again only recently expressed)
 
As an aside, I have mentioned in the past "why no love for the Meridian system" (on Roy's thread re Music Servers).As one of the first to audition Meridian's MQA , it was evident that older poorly recorded music (from the 1950s) could be 'restored' with this system.As such , having heard this and auditioned the DAVE(and other DACs) I intend to keep my powder dry a little longer to see where this all unfolds. Interestingly, whilst this audition opened my eyes to the potential of MQA, it also made me realise that a complete Meridian System, with  their Active Speakers, was not for me -- too Transparent !! Sometimes a little "harmonic colouration" (call it what you want), pays off!
 
 
BTW, I'll get round to replying to your recent PM-I've been pre-occupied with Family Health issues - it looked too long to read !!  probably, as always,  full of mind provoking information , there's no one on this site that gets this old Dinosaur 'moved' to try new things!!
So, I was looking on the HFC website- as I'm sure you have? Go to ' Magnetic RCA Adapters ' a product you recommend ? Look at the picture ! What's that I see ? Looks like an Allnic HPA-5000 Headphone TUBE Amp- just like mine - HFC obviously do not think it's too bad???
 
Cheers !

Hi David, I believe you've missed the point of my post.  You're suggesting I have something against sound tuning and that specifically, I have something against tubes.  This couldn't be further from the truth having owned several tube amps in the past and as I'm currently exploring tube-related gear now for my speakers.  Sound tuning is a very subjective thing and I would never propose to someone that green is better than blue or that scrambled eggs are better than eggs over easy.  What I am proposing is that you make sure your eggs actually look, smell and taste like actual eggs first before you decide to add salt and pepper to them.  
 
There's no question that some recordings benefit from beautification and that it can be quite fun to hear different presentations of a selected piece of music.  Variety, after all, is the spice of life and it's why many of us own several headphones and why many maintain a broad collection of tubes.  I just don't think tuning should be done at the DAC level and certainly not at the expense of transparency and all of the rich detail and depth that I equate with transparency.  Once you give up transparency from the one piece of equipment that is most responsible for providing it, you can never get it back downstream.  Those magnetic RCA adapters won't bring them back and neither will your very fine Allnic headphone amp.

 

[lovethatsound]

@ maxh22
I believe their is already a thread on head-fi about the MSB Select II Dac and the MSB Select headphone amp . somebody has already heard it going and was very unimpressed with it.
MSB Technology's New Super Expensive Electrostatic Headphone Amp
Go To Post 23

 

[ecwl]

Originally Posted by britneedadvice /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
I have listened to many systems which would be described as 'totally transparent' and I find them hard work!  
Older " poor recorded" just don't sound good on such equipment .

 
I think there are two aspects to this. Older recording can sound better with certain components/headphones because of sound tuning.
 
But sometimes, people feel that transparent systems don't sound good with older recordings but the reality I find is often that the "transparent" DACs are DAC chip based and has noise floor modulation that made the sound harsh and fatiguing. So it would be interesting to see your opinion on Chord DAVE where there is no noise floor modulation. I wonder if you would still find the transparency on older recordings suboptimal.
 
I'm definitely hearing more warts and defects on older classical recordings but I find the listening experience more enjoyable with Chord DAVE because the DAC also captures the timbre of the instruments and sometimes the recording space so much better.

 

[miketlse]

   
I think there are two aspects to this. Older recording can sound better with certain components/headphones because of sound tuning.
 
But sometimes, people feel that transparent systems don't sound good with older recordings but the reality I find is often that the "transparent" DACs are DAC chip based and has noise floor modulation that made the sound harsh and fatiguing. So it would be interesting to see your opinion on Chord DAVE where there is no noise floor modulation. I wonder if you would still find the transparency on older recordings suboptimal.
 
I'm definitely hearing more warts and defects on older classical recordings but I find the listening experience more enjoyable with Chord DAVE because the DAC also captures the timbre of the instruments and sometimes the recording space so much better.

 
Based on what i have just read in the Bill Bruford autobiography, you can also say that many old recordings did not receive any DSP from a sound engineer, so there will be some background noise as well. Listen to some jazz recordings and you will hear the chink of glasses or knives, as the audience eats dinner in the music venue, but this was left in the recording because it helps provide context to the jazz performance. Transparent DACs and amps can reveal this detail.
 
In contrast a lot of modern rock recordings receive much DSP by the sound engineer, so that end result is a step removed from a real life performance (in effect the music has become artificial), but all this DSP ensures that the music is enjoyable on lower end kit and mobile phones.

 

[Rotijon]

Hmm why not the LX150 for the DAVE, it has double the capacity of the LX75 chip used and is only 30 bucks more a piece.