CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE

[rayl]

Yeah, I did that once with my power amps still turned on. I thought the speaker cones were going to hit me in the face!! That will teach me to ignore the golden rule of switching off amps BEFORE switching off any source devices (and I didn't have music playing). No harm done though.

This fact pattern seems to be the classic DC pop when something is first connected to an already powered amp (or pre-amp).

But if playing music vs not matters -- that sounds like something different.

Isn't there an old saying in the recording world that says every time you make a DC pop, a sound engineer somewhere dies....?

 

[STR-1]

Rob, while I would be interested to know your views on what the main challenges are for you to overcome to take your dacs on to the next level, I realise that would be asking you to show your hand far more than you would want to. Instead, can I ask what developments you would like to see from component/cable manufacturers etc that would make your life easier as a dac designer.

 

[Rob Watts]

Does this mean that it would be quick to change code in a separate M-Scaler.

It would for example be very nice to automatically pick reconstruction for different inputs, i.e. pick full 1 M taps for the USB and then have a BNC/optical for TV-decoder and Blu-ray and automatically pick minimum phase low latency for those inputs?

Different latency for video is already on the Blu 2, so it's easy to do.

Rob, while I would be interested to know your views on what the main challenges are for you to overcome to take your dacs on to the next level, I realise that would be asking you to show your hand far more than you would want to. Instead, can I ask what developments you would like to see from component/cable manufacturers etc that would make your life easier as a dac designer.

Yes - hopefully see my posts in a few years time about new DAC developements!

As for digital and mains cables - my job is to try to eliminate sensitivities, so that any old cable will work. As far as analogue cables goes, then there are things that can be done to reduce sensitivity, but only to a limited extent.

Rob

 

[supabayes]

It is likely to be your particular unit. When I received my first Dave, I used the Hifiman HE1000 and HE6 with the headphone output. After a while, serious distortion on loud passages manifested itself in the right channel. The distortion sounded like clipping. I emailed Chord's customer support who noted that the Hifiman headphones are very power hungry and are probably tripping the current protection on one side sooner than the other. The problem was fixed ultimately and my current unit (a replacement) has no discernable distortion even when driving loudspeakers through the RCA outputs. You may wish to contact Chord to inspect your unit.

Thanks for sharing this. I have the same distortion/clipping using the Dave headphone out with HE1000 and HE6. Mine is for the left channel. The problem does not happen with Senn HD650. I am going to check with Chord customer support.

 

[rgs9200m]

So, I have a big library with both regular 16/44 redbook files and (many) dsf files (which I listen to with my DAVE in DSD mode, where they sound best to me).
So I switch between PCM+ and DSD mode frequently.
How would I integrate a Blu2 into this setup?

 

[miketlse]

So, I have a big library with both regular 16/44 redbook files and (many) dsf files (which I listen to with my DAVE in DSD mode, where they sound best to me).
So I switch between PCM+ and DSD mode frequently.
How would I integrate a Blu2 into this setup?

Here are nearly 200 pages of users talking about the Blu2 https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-blu-mk-2-the-official-thread.831343/

 

[Jawed]

Thanks @rayl and @Jawed ! Sadly Jawed the link to the 10 ferrite core packs do not ship to the U.S. Though the USB Cable does. Will definitely look more into this. Seems like a good way to get rid of RF noise and other interferences at a cheap cost.

The USB cable is by an American company so you'll find that on Amazon.com. The ferrites are also on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E6PLXXC

The 5mm ferrites (which I use) do fit on the TrippLite cable but it's a very tight fit (causes sore fingers). So that's why I recommend 7mm inner diameter.

If you find there's an improvement with this setup, then buy another 20 ferrites and then just forget about any more tweaking. The key here is that lots of them work better than just a few.

I also use the twin Jitterbug setup that Audioquest recommends. Lots of ferrites were a vastly greater improvement than the Jitterbugs.

If you can connect just an optical cable to your DAVE (unplug all other digital sources you might have) this will give you the reference sound quality for your USB tweaking.

When you buy ferrites from Amazon it's a lucky dip, because the filtering characteristics are unknown. But no one has identified the best filtering characteristics for ferrites that go on a USB cable, so what can you do? Worse, when you do find the characteristics the data presented cuts off usually at very low frequencies like 100MHz.

Theoretically a mixture of ferrites is best to attack various frequency ranges, e.g. 100MHz and 1GHz. The 1GHz ferrites should be placed closer to DAVE than the 100MHz ones. Alternatively, just put a ridiculous number of them on your cable. It's not as if you'll be wearing the cable like a necklace, so it really doesn't matter if it looks strange. A longer USB cable is actually an advantage, since it will allow you to put a ridiculous number of ferrites on the cable. (I actually have 66 on the Tripp Lite cable, including the 2 that are built in, covering the entire length, just because I can.)

Fair-Rite is the most famous company that makes ferrites as far as I can tell and the range of products is huge. You can buy these on Amazon, e.g. here's one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005S45EWC

Very expensive, but in theory you know the characteristics. If you're feeling adventurous you can buy a large variety and then do listening tests to work out which ferrite characteristics are the best. I suspect 1GHz+ is preferable and there's not much choice of those, so it's up to you how tweaky you want to be. Specialist electronics suppliers should be a lot cheaper for Fair-Rite. Würth is another company that you could investigate.

I went for the brute force solution instead, which happens to sound the same as optical, i.e. it does exactly what I want.

Now playing: Dire Straits - Why Worry

 

[ray-dude]

I went for the brute force solution instead, which happens to sound the same as optical, i.e. it does exactly what I want.

+10 (or in my case, +40 Topnisus ferrites on my 2m TrippLite USB cable) Gets me VERY close to what I hear from the CD on my Blu2

That being said, everyone's system is different, and will have different RF challenges and strengths. What works for @Jawed and me may not work for someone else. Good news is that these are so cheap, that it is quick and easy to try and see what works for you.

 

[Jawed]

+10 (or in my case, +40 Topnisus ferrites on my 2m TrippLite USB cable) Gets me VERY close to what I hear from the CD on my Blu2

I think Rob said that he had to compromise on the strength of the filtering on the BNC outputs of Blu 2, otherwise the connection became unreliable.

So I suppose that means that the USB input on Blu 2 has less effective filtering as far as DAVE is concerned than DAVE has on its own USB input. If true, then that might be why it requires so much filtering on the USB into Blu 2.

Well it seems likely you have space on your USB cable for more ferrites...

Now playing: Till Brönner and Dieter Ilg - Eleanor Rigby

 

[Triode User]

Now playing: Till Brönner and Dieter Ilg - Eleanor Rigby

Did you pick up that from my post? Hope you like it. Did you see the first track is a Leonard Cohen one?

 

[ray-dude]

So I suppose that means that the USB input on Blu 2 has less effective filtering as far as DAVE is concerned than DAVE has on its own USB input. If true, then that might be why it requires so much filtering on the USB into Blu 2.

I found the USB input on the DAVE (no Blu2) to be VERY robust. Still could hear fine differences, but there was a much bigger lift in performance to be had through the Blu2 USB. Whether this is due to filtering in the Blu2 vs things being easier to hear because of the increased resolution of the Blu2 vs both vs neither, I can't say. I can say that with BluDAVE, good hygiene on the USB paid big dividends with my digital source.

(and yes, I have room for 20 more ferrites, but my ferrite shame overcame my ferrite lust when I couldn't hear any changes past ~30 ferrites

 

[Jawed]

Did you pick up that from my post? Hope you like it. Did you see the first track is a Leonard Cohen one?

Yes, I thought I'd cue it up on Spotify. Just finished listening to it for the second time. Favourite so far is Scream & Shout.

I've never been interested by Leonard Cohen, so, erm ...

Now playing: Niklaus Paschburg - Spark

 

[Beolab]

Last call for the Group Buy on the
Clearer Audio Silver Reference Coax digital

( Oppertunity for DAVE + Blu II owners )

New Deadline for the group buy is 20/3-2018 and it will not be post phoned.

If we order 5-10 pairs 2x BNC from Clearer Audio ,then Darren will give us 20% in discount at checkout.

( If we buy more than 10 pairs then he can stretch it slightly more, but he said that the margin is not that high because of the already fairly low price, and because of the expensive 6N silver he is using. )

When we have reached 5 or more members who are willing to goahead and purchase
2x CA Silver Reference BNC - BNC, then i will contact Darren at Clearer Audio, and then afterwords each of you can e-mail Darren at enquiries@cleareraudio.com with the lenght you need and your other details to complete the purchase with 20% discount.

Please PM If you are interested!

More info in the Blu II thread:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-blu-mk-2-the-official-thread.831343/page-195

 

[draytonklammer]

Anyone have thought regarding Dave + Stax 007 mk1?

Considering picking one up .

 

[tunes]

I have these

https://darko.audio/2010/09/omega-super-6-alnico-xrs-extended-room-speakers/

and thinking about adding a pair of

These http://www.rythmikaudio.com/F8.html

Each sub runs off XLR left and right outputs on the DAVE.

Will adding two subs to the DAVE affect in any way the RCA output quality to the main speakers run direct??