CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE

[EVOLVIST]

At the end of all this, I'll know what my bridge strategy is until the Chord digital amp comes out (or at least until I have a Blu/Davina to distract me

Yeah, the only thing is, I feel it's going to be a good while until the Chord digital amps come out with enough wattage for big speakers. The first one will be only 20w, and it sounds like it will be an incremental rollout. Oh well, it will allow me to save my pennies, because I have the Blu2 on pre-order, so I had better stop for awhile. Heh. Also, I'm on a mini vacation and I'll be back at the house on Monday, where I have a brand spanking new TToby waiting for me to eval and review. I might just end up going with that one in the meantime.

One thing about the Benchmark, though; I've read at least 20 reviews and a number of people swear by the Benchmark cables, too, as an all-in-one package. People have sat aside their $1k cables for Benchmark quad-star cables with speakON connectors. I'm going to try those, as well, along with their RCA to XLR cables, because I still want the better single-ended advantage of the DAVE's single OP, being more pure than the DAVE's XLR outs.

 

[SunWarrior]

Been reading about high-end fuses and how they (can) improve sound.

But does the DAVE take fuses? Can't see that in the unit.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[EVOLVIST]

Been reading about high-end fuses and how they (can) improve sound.

But does the DAVE take fuses? Can't see that in the unit.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No. No fuses.

 

[Triode User]

Been reading about high-end fuses and how they (can) improve sound.

But does the DAVE take fuses? Can't see that in the unit.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 
Quote:

No. No fuses.

You were forgetting the obvious fuse hidden in plain sight.
 
From the Chord tech support web page,
 
"If DAVE is no longer functioning, please first try replacing the 3amp fuse contained within the supplied mains IEC cable and perform a full power cycle. If no signs of life are detected please contact your original retailer to arrange repair at an authorised service centre."
 
Now SunWarrier can go searching for a $5,000 foo cable, plug and 3 amp foose. And not forgetting a foo IEC plug into the Dave.

 

[EVOLVIST]

!!!!

 

[smial1966]

The `problem' with this theory is that American mains plugs aren't fused and instead rely on trip switches (within the household fusebox or consumer unit) to cut electrical power to a circuit.  

 
 
Quote:

 
You were forgetting the obvious fuse hidden in plain sight.
 
From the Chord tech support web page,
 
"If DAVE is no longer functioning, please first try replacing the 3amp fuse contained within the supplied mains IEC cable and perform a full power cycle. If no signs of life are detected please contact your original retailer to arrange repair at an authorised service centre."
 
Now SunWarrier can go searching for a $5,000 foo cable, plug and 3 amp foose. And not forgetting a foo IEC plug into the Dave.

 

[Triode User]

The `problem' with this theory is that American mains plugs aren't fused and instead rely on trip switches (within the household fusebox or consumer unit) to cut electrical power to a circuit.  

 
 

I hadn't realised that about American plugs. Do they normally have a mains fuse within the chassis of the HiFi component?
 
Some of my UK manufactured kit has an IEC input socket incorporating a fuse as well as the one in the UK plug.
 
My HiFi kit has been saved on at least two occasions by blowing the low amp mains fuse.
 
Still, at least our American friends are saved from spending on $$$$$ foo fuses.

 

[Articnoise]

   
I'm totally concur with you but the membrane movements in Electrostatic headphone differ than in Planar and Magnetic headphone to produce the frequencies. 

 

The driver and principle for electrostatic headphone differ from planar and dynamic con woofers. The membrane/diaphragm on the other hand is very similar between planar and electrostatic headphones. Planar and electrostatic transducers use a very thin, flat film as diaphragm which moves to make sound waves the same way. Dynamic woofers are more different and have a con shaped woofer as diaphragm that is thicker and moves a bit different to make sound waves. 

 

[ray-dude]

Yeah, the only thing is, I feel it's going to be a good while until the Chord digital amps come out with enough wattage for big speakers. The first one will be only 20w, and it sounds like it will be an incremental rollout. Oh well, it will allow me to save my pennies, because I have the Blu2 on pre-order, so I had better stop for awhile. Heh. Also, I'm on a mini vacation and I'll be back at the house on Monday, where I have a brand spanking new TToby waiting for me to eval and review. I might just end up going with that one in the meantime.

One thing about the Benchmark, though; I've read at least 20 reviews and a number of people swear by the Benchmark cables, too, as an all-in-one package. People have sat aside their $1k cables for Benchmark quad-star cables with speakON connectors. I'm going to try those, as well, along with their RCA to XLR cables, because I still want the better single-ended advantage of the DAVE's single OP, being more pure than the DAVE's XLR outs.

 
I fear the same about the Chord digital amp, which is why I'm playing with the Benchmark as a bridge solution.  I am pretending the Blu2 doesn't exist, thank you very much!
 
I do have a couple of the benchmark cables on order as well, but only the NL2 to banana speaker cables.  I'm not a cable guy, but I'm happy to give them a go and see if anything stands out.
 
Interesting that singled ended out of the DAVE is superior to the balanced outputs?  I'm about 80 pages into this thread (only 450+ pages to go! and haven't seen that discussion yet.  Is SE >> Balanced on the DAVE?  

 

[astrostar59]

  Having emphasised the problems with delta-sigma or noise shaping you may think its better to use R2R DAC's instead. But they too have considerable timing errors too; making the timing of signals code independent is impossible. Also they have considerable low level non linearity problems too as its impossible to match the resistor values - much worse than DSD even - so again we are stuck with poor depth, perception of timing and timbre. Not only that they suffer from substantial noise floor modulation, giving a forced hard aggressive edge to them. Some listeners prefer that, and I won't argue with somebody else's taste - whatever works for you. But its not real and it not the sound I hear with live un-amplified instruments. 
 
Rob

Do the above issues you are quoting occur in an R-2R chip implementation to such an extent?
 
Also what is your view (guess you have heard one) on an R-2R DAC with the filtering removed and playing at resident Redbook (no oversampling)? I know said designs can look poor in the lab, but I find they can sound fantastic regardless.
 
Audio Note, Zanden and Areas Cerat Kassandre come to mind (all using R-2R chips).

 

[EVOLVIST]

Interesting that singled ended out of the DAVE is superior to the balanced outputs?  I'm about 80 pages into this thread (only 450+ pages to go! and haven't seen that discussion yet.  Is SE >> Balanced on the DAVE?  

Yes, the single-ended RCAs on the DAVE are superior to the XLR OPs, because the RCAs share the same path as the headphone OP. The sound is identical. The XLRs, on the other hand, have an additional OP amp, thus the 12vRMS they produce.

Whether you can hear the difference, I don't know. I would rather err on the safe side to get the best out of the DAVE, especially after putting money into the 2ulB (whatever that is).

 

[x RELIC x]

Yes, the single-ended RCAs on the DAVE are superior to the XLR OPs, because the RCAs share the same path as the headphone OP. The sound is identical. The XLRs, on the other hand, have an additional OP amp, thus the 12vRMS they produce.

Whether you can hear the difference, I don't know. I would rather err on the safe side to get the best out of the DAVE, especially after putting money into the 2ulB (whatever that is).

Exactly! The more components in the audio path the less transparency, no matter what the gear is. However, there is also the consideration from the amp side of things. If the amp just sounds that much better using the balanced inputs it will likely supersede any small degradation in transparency from the XLR out vs RCA.

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

Yes, the single-ended RCAs on the DAVE are superior to the XLR OPs, because the RCAs share the same path as the headphone OP. The sound is identical. The XLRs, on the other hand, have an additional OP amp, thus the 12vRMS they produce.

Whether you can hear the difference, I don't know. I would rather err on the safe side to get the best out of the DAVE, especially after putting money into the 2ulB (whatever that is).

I compared a pair of Chord Sarum Super Aray RCAs on the Dave against the Chord Sarum Tuned Aray XLRs so a slight advantage to the RCA cables but found I preferred the XLR connection which produced a more dynamic performance. My speakers are fairly large and take a bit of driving. Maybe that is the reason but there was a clear difference in dynamics on my system at least.

 

[EVOLVIST]

I compared a pair of Chord Sarum Super Aray RCAs on the Dave against the Chord Sarum Tuned Aray XLRs so a slight advantage to the RCA cables but found I preferred the XLR connection which produced a more dynamic performance. My speakers are fairly large and take a bit of driving. Maybe that is the reason but there was a clear difference in dynamics on my system at least.

What are your speakers rated?

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

What are your speakers rated?

Piega Coax 90.2
http://www.piega.ch/e/produkte/coax902.htm