[doraymon]

Brief OT, sorry...
I am trying to setup a basic A/B to compare the Dave connected to two different sources:
1) Mac Mini direct USB connection
2) Mac Mini through ethernet feeding the network player SMS-200ULTRA

Do you think that something like THIS would work or would it completely mess up the sound quality?

 

[elviscaprice]

Brief OT, sorry...
I am trying to setup a basic A/B to compare the Dave connected to two different sources:
1) Mac Mini direct USB connection
2) Mac Mini through ethernet feeding the network player SMS-200ULTRA

Do you think that something like THIS would work or would it completely mess up the sound quality?

I wouldn't. I think the difference in sound will be so great as to make it easy to distinguish the winner.

 

[doraymon]

I wouldn't. I think the difference in sound will be so great as to make it easy to distinguish the winner.

You mean I shouldn't bother buying the thing and just do it manually?
If so, I'm surprised you say there will be a clear winner because from my very first tests I could not spot big differences...

 

[flyte3333]

You mean I shouldn't bother buying the thing and just do it manually?
If so, I'm surprised you say there will be a clear winner because from my very first tests I could not spot big differences...

Just to add a datapoint from my own personal and highly subjective experience. As I shared in my own observations the last few pages, I wasn’t able to hear any significant differences doing quick A/B’ing.

The listening fatigue aspects and desires to want to turn the volume up louder (or down) only revealed themselves after extended listening sessions, like an hour and more of relaxed listening, not quick A/B’ing.

But I didn’t test exactly the same setup you have and with the same music you have and it’s all subjective anyway, so it’s all very much YMMV

 

[elviscaprice]

You mean I shouldn't bother buying the thing and just do it manually?
If so, I'm surprised you say there will be a clear winner because from my very first tests I could not spot big differences...

Shocking, I would have thought the sCLK-EX component a clear outright winner. Are you bridging to it? Did you give it some break in time? Are you using a good power supply? If it's not determinable doing it manually, it isn't worth the upgrade.

 

[TheAttorney]

Is there any table with the output voltage of DAVE changing with the volume?
I'd like to check the listening levels with my Clear to avoid destroying my ears...

Much better is to get a sound meter and measure the actual volume coming out of the headphones. Such devices start at around $15. The cheapest ones probably won't be the most accurate, but I don't think 1 or 2 dbs will make that much difference for the intended purpose of protecting your hearing. If you can afford a DAVE, you can afford a sound meter. Most have a fast/slow switch and max hold function, both very useful. This also removes the several db differences between recordings. Trying to use theory and a table is only valid if you know exactly how that relates to the loudness of the recording.

 

[doraymon]

Are you bridging to it? Did you give it some break in time? Are you using a good power supply? If it's not determinable doing it manually, it isn't worth the upgrade.

Not sure what you mean by bridging?
Yes the sMS-200ultra and tX-USBultra chain has say around 200h on it, I was using them with my previous DAC (Holo Spring KTE L3).
The power supply used to feed bot of the above is the matching sPS-500 always from SOtM.

Edit: at the moment I don't have a real need for a networked solution to be honest, so if further tests will return the same results I will be happy to sell the whole trio.

 

[doraymon]

After a few more hours I can confirm my initial impressions of the direct USB connectIon Dave / Mac mini and the connection through SOtM network player / USB cleaner sounding extremely close.
If anything, the direct connection sounds slightly silkier, smoother and definitely more enjoyable especially with tracks with high dynamic range.

Only for the records the USB cable used for the direct connection is an Audioquest cinnamon loaded with ferrites and the connection through network player uses a plane set of QED Reference USB cables.
Next round I will play with the power cord as well,

 

[yakaway]

I have an alienware m17r2 laptop that I run spotify and tidal to my new chord dave. The usb cable is generic from amazon.com. I've tried other cables and encounter the same issue.

The dave runs xlr out in dac mode to my yamaha-rx-3070 pre-amp and then to my polk lsim speakers. The left and right lsim 707s go through a mcintosh 7300 amp. The rca's are kimber kables. The xlr's are zu mission cables.

Spotify works fantastically well, but tidal has a problem. I get distortion in the mids. Almost like a crackle. Its subtle and not noticable all of the time.

Has anyone had such an issue? I would of thought tidal would be better with Dave because of the HIFI source level, but I don't think the results show this.

Thoughts?

 

[music4joy]

I have now had a Schiit Yggdrasil (Yggy) dac in-house for over ten days. During that time, I’ve listened to Yggy

Hi

I liked the review, however, it has been couple of years and things may have changed.

I am looking for a DAC and the two products I am interested is Yggy and Dave. I know its a big gap between the two in price but I have to limit the options otherwise the purchase will be on hold forever.

Has anyone compared Schiit Yggy on Analog2 with Dave given all other variables remain constant?

I read great things about Analog2 in general. So also I can easily acquire a Yggy whereas finding Dave for in-home demo is near to impossible, unless anyone here could send some pointers. So banking on review to influence my decision.

Thx
P

 

[yellowblue]

https://www.whathifi.com/news/munich-high-end-show-2018-preview

Chord plans to go big this Munich by unveiling a number of new products - with each one covering a distinct area of the brand’s portfolio, and one of which is (according to Chord) set to be a landmark product in the company's history.

Davina?

 

[miketlse]

https://www.whathifi.com/news/munich-high-end-show-2018-preview

Chord plans to go big this Munich by unveiling a number of new products - with each one covering a distinct area of the brand’s portfolio, and one of which is (according to Chord) set to be a landmark product in the company's history.

Davina?

I doubt it, but the digital amps and 2Go have been mentioned as in development for a long time, so they would be obvious candidates.
The High End show would be the right event to reveal the Hugo TT2, but there has been no hint from Chord about the TT2, so it would be wrong to regard it as more than an outside chance at present.
Chord have an extensive range of high end non-dac products, so any of these could be ripe for a revamp at the show.
So potentially several reasons to be interested, but we will only find out for sure, when the show opens.

 

[Jawed]

I have an alienware m17r2 laptop that I run spotify and tidal to my new chord dave. The usb cable is generic from amazon.com. I've tried other cables and encounter the same issue.

Does your laptop have an optical output? If so, then DAVE comes with an optical cable and this will make a good comparison.

Spotify works fantastically well, but tidal has a problem. I get distortion in the mids. Almost like a crackle. Its subtle and not noticable all of the time.

Has anyone had such an issue? I would of thought tidal would be better with Dave because of the HIFI source level, but I don't think the results show this.

Make sure you set Tidal to Exclusive mode as well as with HiFi sound quality. There is a cog next to the Digital Output (Chord Async ...) entry in the Settings for Streaming. Click on the cog and turn on all three settings (Exclusive, Force volume and Pass Through MQA). Tidal doesn't give me any hint of noises that shouldn't be there.

Also, make sure you have installed the Windows driver that matches your version of Windows from the Chord website.

The latest update of Windows 10 apparently is able to drive Chord DACs (newer than Hugo TT) even though the driver hasn't been installed. I don't think many people have tried this (I haven't).

Now playing: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - An Intention

 

[Crgreen]

Does your laptop have an optical output? If so, then DAVE comes with an optical cable and this will make a good comparison.

Make sure you set Tidal to Exclusive mode as well as with HiFi sound quality. There is a cog next to the Digital Output (Chord Async ...) entry in the Settings for Streaming. Click on the cog and turn on all three settings (Exclusive, Force volume and Pass Through MQA). Tidal doesn't give me any hint of noises that shouldn't be there.

Also, make sure you have installed the Windows driver that matches your version of Windows from the Chord website.

The latest update of Windows 10 apparently is able to drive Chord DACs (newer than Hugo TT) even though the driver hasn't been installed. I don't think many people have tried this (I haven't).

Now playing: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - An Intention

For what it’s worth, my experience of Tidal in Hi-Fi mode, using an Aires Mini into Dave via optical, is that MQA with software decoding only sounds rather papery and not quite right. The position using hardware decoding might very well be different, but Dave is not MQA enabled. I found the best results were using Red Book, which sounds excellent.

 

[rayl]

...

The latest update of Windows 10 apparently is able to drive Chord DACs (newer than Hugo TT) even though the driver hasn't been installed. I don't think many people have tried this (I haven't).

Now playing: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - An Intention

This has been the case for some time. I tested it back when trying to debug the soft drop-outs using Windows mixer. Indeed, using the Windows driver, the problem did not occur.

The only issue was, as I recall, you were quite limited in what sampling rates and bit depths can be selected.