CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE

[JaZZ]

Do we have to engage the poor Rob again for clarifying the issue? I have a hard time deducing something from DAVE's above block diagram.

 

[jelt2359]

 
This is why I'm hopeful that Hugo2 + Mscaler will be roughly equivalent to Dave + Mscaler.  My pro forma "What Would Watts Do" acquisition roadmap is
 
Mojo for mobile/office use (done)
Hugo 2 for my 2 channel system (preordered)
Add an Mscaler for my 2 channel system (take my money, please!)
Add digital amps to mscaler in my 2 channel system
"promote" my Hugo 2 to office use, with Mojo for mobile use.

What I've heard from those who have compared the two is that it is no contest.
 
Dave vs Hugo2 + Mscaler, however, is mixed. In some respects the Dave is better, in others, the H2+M is better.
 
Anyway, what you're doing is probably not wrong, you could even sell the Mojo later, use the H2 for mobile/office use, and then if you want step up to a DAVE.

 

[rkt31]

@Modwright01, are you sure you were feeding bit perfect to Dave all the time ? may be some settings changed accidentally in j river. for music I always use foobar . it is much more fool proof as it has bare minimum features and what it does best is to just send the bit perfect stream to your dac and nothing else until unless you install and activate some plugin for SRC etc.

 

[PANURUS]

@Modwright01, are you sure you were feeding bit perfect to Dave all the time ? may be some settings changed accidentally in j river. for music I always use foobar . it is much more fool proof as it has bare minimum features and what it does best is to just send the bit perfect stream to your dac and nothing else until unless you install and activate some plugin for SRC etc.

In foobar : Do you use Asio or Asio2?
https://sourceforge.net/projects/foobar2000-wasap2-output/
have you find informations about the differences?
Wich one do you prefer?

 

[highfell]

Apparently I have to link this block diagram on every page of this thread:



The 16FS primary WTA stage uses most of the FPGA (well, most of the DSP cores, there's programmable cells that are separate). The second WTA stage, to 256FS, is tiny by comparison. The final linear interpolation stage to 2048FS can't be large (not big enough to be given a size on the diagram). But the Noise Shaper that comes afterwards is so big that it couldn't fit, all on its own, into Hugo's FPGA.

The 16FS primary WTA stage is completely redundant when the M-Scaler feeds 16FS music into DAVE.

Now playing: Bettie Serveert - Balentine

My take is that in simple terms, if you look at the diagram above , the MScaler would theoretically have a feed input into the DX digital OP box, thus bypassing the 160 parallel DSP cores.

Dave has a 17th order noise shaper versus Hugo2's 10th and Dave has a 20 element pulse array modulator versus Hugo2's 10, so there is seemingly still a big difference between the two. For example, in the past, Rob has posted how important the increase in the noise shaper "order" between the original Hugo (5th order - I think) and Dave was in improving the sound.

 

[Modwright01]

@Modwright01, are you sure you were feeding bit perfect to Dave all the time ? may be some settings changed accidentally in j river. for music I always use foobar . it is much more fool proof as it has bare minimum features and what it does best is to just send the bit perfect stream to your dac and nothing else until unless you install and activate some plugin for SRC etc.

I suppose it is a software issue yes. Even i checked jriver was in bitperfect but sometimes jriver seems unstable...

I do not like foobar. I will try another software soon do not know whay playet yet.

EDIT : I just noticed now it is Jriver switching from Direct sound to ASIO sometimes when I use the Chord for window sounds... Pfffff...

So the this is not the dave's fault ! People if you have strange power variation on you dac out, please check if the player doesn't switch into a non bitperfect mode :rolleyes:

 

[Mojo ideas]

I love the Yin & Yang between Franks and Watts.

Hey John, why don't you send me a Scamp to audition?

The scamp is now a Ten year old product that we rarely build these days but the TToby is in full production though and was very well reviewed by Paul Miller in HFN recently PM me and I'll see if I can get one to you

 

[jelt2359]

My take is that in simple terms, if you look at the diagram above , the MScaler would theoretically have a feed input into the DX digital OP box, thus bypassing the 160 parallel DSP cores.

Dave has a 17th order noise shaper versus Hugo2's 10th and Dave has a 20 element pulse array modulator versus Hugo2's 10, so there is seemingly still a big difference between the two. For example, in the past, Rob has posted how important the increase in the noise shaper "order" between the original Hugo (5th order - I think) and Dave was in improving the sound.

For those with Blu2, maybe we can now have a 34th order noise shaper in the Dave, lol.

 

[rkt31]

@PANURUS, I see only chord asio 1.05 in drop down menu which I use as output.

 

[tunes]

"Dave vs Hugo2 + Mscaler, however, is mixed. In some respects the Dave is better, in others, the H2+M is better."

Can someone explain or point me to the thread about what an M-scaler is, how it can improve the SQ of the Hugo2 and bring it even closer to the DAVE and what it costs?

 

[Modwright01]

"Dave vs Hugo2 + Mscaler, however, is mixed. In some respects the Dave is better, in others, the H2+M is better."

Can someone explain or point me to the thread about what an M-scaler is, how it can improve the SQ of the Hugo2 and bring it even closer to the DAVE and what it costs?

Man, 
 
the M-Scaler costs £7995... Wich means, Hugo 2 + M scaler will cost the Dave price

 

[ray-dude]

   
Are you sure the M-Scaler can drive the digital amp? I don't recall such a statement from Rob (don't exclude it, though).

100% speculation (the first rule of digital amp is you don't talk about digital amp  
 
It is likely confirmation bias on my part, but my inference/wish for the digital amp has always been a DAVE with 100W output (200W mono block).  That is, a beefy amp fully integrated with an awesome DAC.  If one has a Mscaler and digital amp (with the express goal of minimizing the path between digital signal and analog output), it isn't clear to me what role a DAVE (or any other DAC) would play in that chain.  Since the Mscaler is basically upstream of the DAC, my assumption is that it could be used to feed a digital amp directly
 
Again, 100% speculation.  After John let's Rob out of solitary confinement, I'm looking forward to another "3 in the morning, haven't slept in a couple day" slip of the tongue

 

[jelt2359]

  Man, 
 
the M-Scaler costs £7995... Wich means, Hugo 2 + M scaler will cost the Dave price

It'll be like the Nintendo Switch, though- you can take part of it on the road.
 
The Dave will be more like a PS4!

 

[lovethatsound]

It'll be like the Nintendo Switch, though- you can take part of it on the road.

The Dave will be more like a PS4!

The Nintendo Switch is not getting a very good review,check out IGN for more information☺

 

[514077]

I assume the M-Scaler is part of the Blue II.  Is there going to eventually be an M-Scaler on its own without the CD player?