I wish that the DAVE where miles better than dcs vivaldi , MSB Select II , PS Audio , Nagra
I agree with you but I think "miles better" is unrealistic for any device. On it's best day, the DAVE won't be miles better than a Mojo or even a $100 AudioQuest DragonFly (although this depends on how you define "miles") and this occurs for a variety of reasons including the quality of the actual performance, how well it was recorded, mixed and mastered, how good the transfer was and how good your ancillary equipment is. Just too many potential shackles. Of course, we never just hear the DAC or the amplifier or the speaker, it's always an interplay of all the components in the chain and so it's important to find the weak links in the chain. In the same way that your Prion4 headphone cables helped better reveal your Abyss's capabilities, I believe you will find DAVINA and Chord's amps will do the same for the DAVE.
There is also the matter of what I call listener accommodation. While most of us would probably prefer to sleep in a big luxurious bed, if all that was available was a small simple bed, I believe we all learn to adjust to this small bed and still get a good night's sleep. I find listening to music to be the same way because what is ultimately most important is the music itself, more so than the quality of the delivery. For example, let's say I was a fan of the Rolling Stones (which I am) and one of their songs was playing on a low quality AM radio. I certainly wouldn't turn off the radio since this would be better than no music at all and I would probably find a good level of toe tapping engagement with it and perhaps even sing along. Would this presentation be much more enjoyable on my better system? No doubt, but the point is that it is possible to have an engaging and even highly emotional listening experience with low quality gear. For a true audiophile, it is still more about the music and so just because I own a DAVE doesn't mean that my listening sessions are "miles better" compared to another person who listens to their music off an iPhone.
Regarding my comparison of the DAVE against the dCS Vivaldi and the Nagra, bear in mind that I believed the DAVE convincingly won the contest as far as resolution, transparency and fidelity, the qualities that I find are most important in a DAC even though this expensive system, I believe, could have been set up much more transparently. While it's easy to say I wish the DAVE could have been miles better, what does it say about the Nagra, which is 2x more expensive than the DAVE and the dCS, which is nearly 6x more expensive? Is there any reason to believe the Select II will fare any better? Even if you felt you preferred the Select II's presentation more for whatever reason, the divide will likely not be great, certainly not worth spending more than 10x the price of the DAVE for a fully loaded Select II. In my view, for the rational minded person, the DAVE basically makes all the more expensive DACs irrelevant once you factor value into the equation. Of course, you could make the same argument for the Mojo but once again, high-end audio is not a rational hobby.
As to the individual that might prefer the harmonic nature of the Nagra or the commanding imaging of the Vivaldi to the DAVE, my answer to this is instead of paying more money for these DACs, consider getting a more harmonic amplifier or an amplifier or speakers that image better but don't give up resolution to acheive it. What @JaZZ has recently opened my eyes to is the world of digital equalization, especially DSP. I have been playing around with a software product called Acourate, an extremely powerful piece of DSP software created by Dr. Ulrich Brueggemann of Germany. This software is used by professional sound mixers like Bob Katz and is quite capable of tailoring the sound coming from your headphones or speakers without the degradation that occurs with analog devices like equalizers or preamps. You can correct for the frequency irregularities of your transducers (for example, you can conform your headphones to the Harman Response Curve). You can also correct for your room and compensate for unwanted room nodes and with the help of Dr. Brueggemann (or Uli, as he likes to be called), you can make adjustments that suit you. What I have found is that I can improve my imaging to the extent that it is "pinpoint" just as I heard with the Vivaldi but it defintely comes at the expense of depth, just like I heard with the Vivaldi. What this offers me are options to tailor my sound back and forth but unlike the Nagra HD or the dCS Vivaldi, you can't create DSP filters that retrieve resolution. If the DAC couldn't resolve it to begin with, then it's lost forever. You could create DSP filters that add reverb and therefore, artificial depth but then everything sounds deep which isn't natural. Even better, Acourate isn't very expensive and included in the price, Uli will help you create your first set of filters. Highly highly recommended.
