[MacedonianHero]

Oh well, I finally gave in and after I sold enough stuff to fully finance a move up from my trusty (beloved actually) Hugo TT to a good minty pre-owned DAVE from the for sale-forum here on head-fi.
So could I ask a favor of answers to some questions? Thanks in advance.
1. If I ever need service, can I get it?
2. Is the Dave as rock solid reliable as my Hugo and Hugo TT have been for years?
3. Can I just use the same Windows 10 driver software I use for my TT? I am using USB input.
4. If I ever want to get a stand, how should I go about this (and do people here use the stand)?
5. The manual warns that you should always power up a Dave before powering up a connected amp (headphone amp in my case). True?
6. Any important operational tips I should know about? My Hugo and Hugo TT just seemed to be plug and play pretty much, so is the DAVE more temperamental?
(I am planning on using my external headphone amp to compare it with direct headphone use. I always liked the sound better this way with my Hugo and Hugo TT. But I have an open mind on this.)

Congrats! The TT is one impressive unit, but the DAVE is on a whole new plain of existence! Simply the best DAC I've heard...period!

 

[Christer]

Thanks Musicday. No speaker setup, but using Aud. LCD4; ZMF Atticus,Eikon; Grado GS1000e, PS1000e; Hifiman HE1000-V2; Sony Z1R.

Wow,that looks like quite a headphone selection you've got there. Any absolute favourite among them with DAVE? Or do you select your headphone also based on the recording you happen to be playing?
I haven't auditioned the Grados with DAVE,but I would suspect that the "hot" midrange /treble range of those might not be ideal with a DAC as transparent as DAVE is?
The Grados good as they are in some respects sounded "too treble hot" playing back DXD masterfiles at some sessions I covered.
The HD 800 came closer to the live string sound in the hall at playback than the Grados both to me and the recording engineer.
To my ears HEKV2 is a good match with many recordings and DAVE on its own. But I fear that the twice as expensive Susvara is an even better headphone than the HEKV2.
Unfortunately it is a very tough load for DAVE on is own and with BLU2.
But with a more powerful headphone amp in the chain it delivered some the best SQ I have ever heard from rbcd.
Clearly a notch above my HEKV2.
In photographer terms I would put what I heard as, even "less grain".
Enjoy your DAVE.
Cheers Christer

 

[tunes]

I currently have a HUGO2 and have been really enjoying it with both Focal Utopias and HEKv2. Two amazing headphones with very different flavors. To share with friends and spouse for occasional near-field social listening, based on this review (https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/chord-hugo-2.22209/reviews), I just placed an order for a pair of Super 6 Alnico XRS to use with my H2. My ultimate plan is to eventually get a DAVE with or without an upscaler and possibly in the future Rob's digital amplifier to add to the mix. Just curious if anyone else has heard the magic of near-field single driver speakers direct from HUGO2 to yet?

 

[marcmccalmont]

I currently have a HUGO2 and have been really enjoying it with both Focal Utopias and HEKv2. Two amazing headphones with very different flavors. To share with friends and spouse for occasional near-field social listening, based on this review (https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/chord-hugo-2.22209/reviews), I just placed an order for a pair of Super 6 Alnico XRS to use with my H2. My ultimate plan is to eventually get a DAVE with or without an upscaler and possibly in the future Rob's digital amplifier to add to the mix. Just curious if anyone else has heard the magic of near-field single driver speakers direct from HUGO2 to yet?

I currently have a HUGO2 and have been really enjoying it with both Focal Utopias and HEKv2. Two amazing headphones with very different flavors. To share with friends and spouse for occasional near-field social listening, based on this review (https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/chord-hugo-2.22209/reviews), I just placed an order for a pair of Super 6 Alnico XRS to use with my H2. My ultimate plan is to eventually get a DAVE with or without an upscaler and possibly in the future Rob's digital amplifier to add to the mix. Just curious if anyone else has heard the magic of near-field single driver speakers direct from HUGO2 to yet?

Just be careful and audition first, the history of Hi End audio is full of less is better. Sometimes it is and other times it is not. A good passive preamp might be better than a fair active preamp but an excellent active preamp is usually better than a passive, A moving coil transformer might be better than a fair head amp but not better than a world class head amp etc etc. The Chord DAC's are unique in that 1. volume does not effect signal to noise ratio and 2. the output op amps are world class so I no longer need my Threshold FET 10E in my secondary system (HUGO2) or my Spectral DMC 30 SS II in my primary system (Blu2/Dave). But this is unique to the Chord DACs. Loudspeakers evolved into 2 and 3 way design's with power amps because of improved sound quality: First order effect's; wider band width, better impulse response (damping factor), improved on axis frequency response, better room (power) response. Second order effects; reduced harmonic distortion, reduced inter-modulation distortion, plus improved 3rd and 4th order effects. So audition a single driver speaker, basically a large coned midrange driver with a whizzer cone ala car speakers of the 60's and 70's and audition a powered monitor like a Adam A7x and audition a good power amp (used Spectral DMA 80 or 90) with a pair of Scansonic monitors before you spend your money on a final decision. The Focal Utopias and HUG2 is world class (you should try them with the ProJect CD Box RS!) I'd hate to see you with world class headphones and speakers that are lacking. Marc

 

[Articnoise]

I been thinking, if putting lots of ferrites all with an impedance much higher than the digital cable are made to have, won’t it also increase impedance of the BNC 75 Ohms by some means?

 

[Rob Watts]

No.
It does not affect the impedance inside the cable - the path from signal, through 75 ohm load, and back through the ground. The reason being is this is a closed magnetic loop, so no net external magnetic field. It only affects common mode currents, that is current that travels down the ground connection that is not balanced by signal current. So it increases the ground common mode impedance, which stops current flow into Dave's ground plane. In effect, you are improving the GHz galvanic isolation, but not affecting the signal speed or bandwidth at all.

 

[marcmccalmont]

I been thinking, if putting lots of ferrites all with an impedance much higher than the digital cable are made to have, won’t it also increase impedance of the BNC 75 Ohms by some means?

The ferrites are increasing high frequency noise attenuation on the outer shield not changing the cable’s characteristic impedance (75 ohms)

 

[rgs9200m]

Thanks Christer. Yep, the HEKv2 takes a big twist of my amp's volume control to get it to sing, but it does manage to deliver the goods eventually, with great resolution. (I don't have plans for the Susvara for now.)
But the HEK is nothing like the power hog my old HE6 used to be (and I like the more mellow sound of the HEK much better anyway).

Bottom line is that I still think I need my amp to use the HEKv2 and the LCD4.

But I actually find myself spending the majority of my time with my ZMF headphones. There is something special about them I can't quite describe. They hit my musical happiness zone 100% for some reason. They have a nice organic flow.
I sold my HD800 (2 pairs) and TH900 along with the HE6. I sold my Abyss too. They all had some peakiness that just didn't please me. The Abyss was OK but somehow didn't bring me close enough to the music.
The Grados, now in the e version, are nothing like the shocking-treble Grados of the past. The bass too is much more controlled. I still like the Grado PS and GS a lot for their big sound from time to time.
It'll be fun to see how the Dave works with these.

I'll still be using my AQ diamond USB cable. After lots of experiments with various USB cable (on the Hugo and Hugo TT), I found the Diamond to be a surprisingly huge step up in sound. I was shocked how much the USB cable could make a difference, but I was turned into a believer with this one.

I have no idea why a USB cable could make such a difference.

 

[Articnoise]

Okay, so have anyone actually measured that it is still 75 Ohms with all this ferrites and not only theoretical. Many things gets better with them, but I lose some dynamics and bite.

 

[marcmccalmont]

Okay, so have anyone actually measured that it is still 75 Ohms with all this ferrites and not only theoretical. Many things gets better with them, but I lose some dynamics and bite.

Strange because I get better dynamics and leading edges (bite) with the ferrites

 

[Triode User]

Okay, so have anyone actually measured that it is still 75 Ohms with all this ferrites and not only theoretical. Many things gets better with them, but I lose some dynamics and bite.

Is it possible that what you perceive as 'dynamics' and 'bite' might actually be noise?

 

[Articnoise]

Strange because I get better dynamics and leading edges (bite) with the ferrites

Yes it’s strange, but OTOH I don’t have Chord DAC so maybe lower sample rates or frequencies are transmitted in my setup than yours.

 

[Articnoise]

Is it possible that what you perceive as 'dynamics' and 'bite' might actually be noise?

No I don’t believe that’s the case.

 

[Triode User]

No I don’t believe that’s the case.

I thought I recollected that Rob had mentioned the reduction in faux dynamics as being an indicator for RF noise being reduced. Certainly what I heard pre and post ferrite could be confused for a reduction in dynamics.

Edit to say I have just seen that you do not have Blu2 / Dave. My comments are specifically related to the BNC cables between Blu2 and Dave.

 

[marcmccalmont]

Yes it’s strange, but OTOH I don’t have Chord DAC so maybe lower sample rates or frequencies are transmitted in my setup than yours.

The ferrites are specifically for the coax cables between a Chord Blu2 and Chord Dave due to ground noise generated by Blu2 and passed to Dave by the coax outer shield. I don't think this was a general "lets improve all cables with all dacs"