[Ashrunner]

Given the current Pound / US Dollar exchange rate, Dave is just a bit over $9000 if purchased in pounds.  Has anyone successfully purchased one in the UK and had it shipped to the US?  If so, where?  If not, to save $4000, probably worth just getting on a plane and buying in person in the UK...
 
Any reason the UK version wouldn't work in the US?
 
EDIT:  Looks like the import duty fee would be around $350 - not bad.

 

[EVOLVIST]

I would presume so as he mentions the RCA and headphone out in the same sentance:

Mmmm...yeah, I probably need to work on my reading comprehension. Heh.

 

[jlbrach]

with the exchange rate it would be about 9800.00...plus the 350 plus i believe there is a 20% VAT then shipping etc....and the other inconveniences....

 

[Rob Watts]

 

Maybe this will help:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/766517/chord-electronics-dave/3030#post_12586759

Yeah, but that's in DAC and preamp mode. Are we sure that applies to the headphone out? It seems to be I had read Rob say +6db for headphones, but I could be mistaken.

 
Yes you only need to worry about clipping with headphones with the volume at +5 dB. The other cool thing about Dave is when you load the OP with say 33 ohms, the SQ does not harden up as there is no change in distortion (apart from 2nd harmonic increasing slightly). This is due to the unique second order noise shaper and the discrete OP stage.
 
Rob 

 

[analogmusic]

Hi Rob
 
you posted 
 
"Pulse Array is a constant switching scheme - that is it always switches at exactly the same rate irrespective of the data, unlike DSD, R2R, or current source DAC's. This means that errors due to switching activity and jitter are not signal dependent, and so is innately immune from jitter creating distortion and noise floor modulation and any other signal related errors. The only other DAC that is constant switching activity is switched capacitor topology, but this has gain proportionate to absolute clock frequency - so it still has clock problems."
 
So finally it starts to make some sense to me, as it a constant switching scheme. So how does it make an analog signal? 

 

[Rob Watts]

So with Dave we have 20 elements that are resistors and flip-flops. So we can have them all on, and in voltage mode the OP would be +5v (the reference voltage) and all off and it would be 0v. With half on and half off we have 2.5v. Now actually I don't use voltage mode as it creates too much distortion - the switching activity propagation delay gets gets modulated by the actual OP voltage - so the resistors go into the single I to V converter. In this case the other input of the I to V is set to 2.5v, so now when they are all on it pushes current (5 mA) into the I to V node, when all off it sucks current (5 mA) out of the node. When current is fed into the node, this is balanced by an equal and opposite current from the OP stage - and due to the feedback resistor, we get an output voltage. Now this will be a noise shaped analogue output, which just needs some gentle filtering to get you analogue that can then drive HP or power amps directly. And the filtering is done by a couple of capacitors in the feedback path.
 
Simple really.
 
But getting the I to V node so it was exactly 2.5v under all conditions without RF noise ain't easy. And getting the reference voltage so that that was noise free and never changing was also not easy. Remember that only a 10 nV change in reference voltage that is signal related will create measurable distortion...
 
Rob

 

[analogmusic]

Hi another question (apologies)
 
In one of your youtube interviews about the Dave, the interviewer asks you about the WTA 256 filter, and you finally make it possible, so why it is significant? Why does Dave have an additional 256 WTA filter, and still the initial 16 WTA filter?

 

[Rob Watts]

The simple answer is it sounds a lot better that way. Before I had the 256 FS WTA filter, Dave was sounding very rich and dark - soft almost. But adding the 256 FS WTA allowed for a better appreciation of the starting and stopping of notes - and things sounded sharper, faster and tighter. Now technically its because it is much closer to the ideal sinc function response, so the timing of transients is more accurate. Now its a very subtle difference technically, but has a profound impact when you actually listen to it as instruments sound much more real.
 
The real lesson I learned with Dave is that extremely small technical defects are very audible; we need to worry about minute timing errors and insignificantly small signal amplitude errors.
 
Rob

 

[jlbrach]

Well,the Dave has created quite a dilemma for me.I own both the LCD-4 and the Utopia and the decision as to which one to listen to and which one is better has become impossible...the Dave exposes so much music i never heard before even through my TT which was superb.The Utopia has a smaller soundstage and less bass although not bass shy at all ...it is more comfortable and a bit more detailed.The LCD-4 has to me the perfect soundstage,not too wide that it sounds artificial like the HD800's but still wider than the Utopia which is more closed in.There is something about the Audeze sound that makes it so easy to listen to for long periods of time...the LCD-4 requires far more power and volume and really puts the Dave to the test while driving the Utopia proves to be a cinch.I know,i know...everyone should have such problems but they are both so damn good it makes it an impossible choice.....The bottom line is the Dave is simply a thrilling product for those of us who love music

 

[Jawed]

Did you notice a change in the sound staging ability of Utopia as it ran in? Did it become more expansive?

Do you use the crossfeed feature? I would imagine that would diminish the difference in sound staging between the two. If you like what crossfeed does, that is....

According to my scrobbles:

http://www.last.fm/user/Jawed/library?page=2

I've been listening to music for about 11 hours so far today with about another 4 to go (OK, there was a break for lunch), so listening for long periods of time is really normal for me. Perhaps that means I don't need to upgrade!

 

[jlbrach]

The Utopia's are fabulous..and they pair incredibly well with the Dave...before I bought them I thought the LCD-4 to be the best i ever heard but now I am not sure,one day I think it is the Utopia and the next the LCD-4...the thing is they are a completely different listening experience...the one thing they have in common is the Dave which is superlative.In terms of crossfeed  I am a bit of a tradionalist,I tried it but haven't used it much

 

[drabbish]

are most people just leaving the HF on regardless of music format?

 

[JaZZ]

I prefer the HF filter turned off. (With that I might be in the minority.)

 

[x RELIC x]

I also have the HF filter on mine turned off.

 

[TheAttorney]

I also prefer my HF filter turned off (playing exclusively redbook files). Ever so slightly more transparent, but the difference is too subtle for me to worry about this setting - and I haven't yet discounted imagination on this one. So I'm not too bothered if it's on or off. Unlike the absolute phase switch, which my OCD side is compelled to check for each album I play.
 
Speaking of subtle differences, which of the 4 Display options do you guys prefer for best SQ?
This is not entirely a joke question