[jscmd2000]

Does anyone have any experience with Pass Labs HPA-1 as hp amp for the Dave?

 

[minibox]

Does anyone have any experience with Pass Labs HPA-1 as hp amp for the Dave?

Yes, I spent some time with the Pass paired with the blu2/dave at our last mini meet. I used Utopia's, Clears, he1000's and abyss phi's. I did an a/b between the pass and the cavalli liguid gold and preferred the liquid gold. Wider soundstage, more air and separation. Both amps are impressive and showed control and extracted detail from all the phones I used, but to my ears the cavalli was the clear winner.

 

[Chartreuse]

I spent some time with the Pass paired with the blu2/dave at our last mini meet. I used Utopia's, Clears, he1000's and abyss phi's. I did an a/b between the pass and the cavalli liguid gold and preferred the liquid gold. Wider soundstage, more air and separation. Both amps are impressive and showed control and extracted detail from all the phones I used, but to my ears the cavalli was the clear winner.

How additive was it over the amp built in to the DAVE?

 

[minibox]

How additive was it over the amp built in to the DAVE?

All of the phones were great directly out of the Dave, especially the Utopia. Using the he1000 v1 and abyss, I preferred the addition of the cavalli.

 

[minibox]

How additive was it over the amp built in to the DAVE?

Still, in my opinion the best sound was blu2/dave -> xlr -> Blue Hawaii SE -> Stax sr-009.

 

[musickid]

Does the ipad pro upsample to 48kHz? If so is that an issue with tidal? i assume as an endpoint with roon it stays at 44.1khz?

Would optical imac to dave solve all the above mentioned issues?

Finally how does dave improve on TT if anyone has an idea?

 

[ecwl]

Does the ipad pro upsample to 48kHz? If so is that an issue with tidal? i assume as an endpoint with roon it stays at 44.1khz?

Would optical imac to dave solve all the above mentioned issues?

Finally how does dave improve on TT if anyone has an idea?

IPad Pro is bit-perfect with Tidal app, or you can use the Onkyo HF Player to play hi-res content/DSD bit-perfectly. I have never tried using it as a Roon endpoint though but I’m sure it’ll be bitperfect if that works.

Optical iMac also works but you would have to make sure you’re playing bit-perfect off the iMac. You can manually program it in settings or run a software that’ll set it right, like Audirvana.

I presume TT not TT2 you’re asking. DAVE has 20 elements in the pulse array DAC and TT has 4 elements (TT2 has 10 elements). That’s going to give you better resolution/noise floor. DAVE also has a superior power supply (power filtering network) compared to TT2 and over TT so once again you’re going to get bettter resolution and noise floor. Similarly, DAVE has a better noise shaper than TT2 which is better than TT. DAVE has 164000 taps vs TT2’s 98304 taps vs TT’s 28000 taps. Moreover, DAVE & TT2 uses the WTA filter to upsample to 256fs whereas TT only upsamples to 16fs. These improvements would give better transients and timing accuracy. The summary of these results means in addition to better transients, timing accuracy, lower noise floor and better resolution but I think sonically, more importantly, you’re actually going to hear more realistic instrumental and vocal timbre with better macro dynamics and micro dynamics. Smooth vocals would sound smoother while dynamic drum strikes or guitar string plucks would sound more dynamic. You would also get deeper soundstage if that was originally in the recording (but a more compressed soundstage if the recording never captured it becauase you’re getting more accurate reproduction of the original digital signal).

 

[musickid]

Many thanks ecwl. Doesn't dave have an inferior noise shaper to TT2 which has the a second order analogue noise shaper unless i'm mistaken? What is the real world listening sensation dave to TT ie what do you feel?

 

[AFWannabe]

Does the ipad pro upsample to 48kHz? If so is that an issue with tidal? i assume as an endpoint with roon it stays at 44.1khz?

Would optical imac to dave solve all the above mentioned issues?

Finally how does dave improve on TT if anyone has an idea?

As a Roon endpoint it will keep the original format (PCM or DSD) and the original sample rate.

 

[ecwl]

Many thanks ecwl. Doesn't dave have an inferior noise shaper to TT2 which has the a second order analogue noise shaper unless i'm mistaken? What is the real world listening sensation dave to TT ie what do you feel?

DAVE and TT2 (and I think TT) have the same second-order analog noise shaper. The difference is in the digital noise shaper.
So I have to admit I have never A/B'd TT & DAVE. I ordered a DAVE and then my dealer liked it so much he brought in a demo for himself at the store. (It actually helped him sell a lot of speakers and amplifiers although most people don't realize DAVE was doing most of the work). Before he got his demo DAVE, he ordered a Hugo TT for a client. We got to audition TT but not TT vs DAVE. There is simply no comparison between DAVE and the original TT. We listened to them in a Wilson speaker system with Krell amplifiers by the way. I don't even know if people can get TT2 yet. I doubt my dealer will bring one in.

 

[etnt]

I did audition the TT vs Dave, but on a headphone (Kennerton Odin). The difference was apparent enough that I bought the Dave.

 

[GryphonGuy]

Does anyone have any experience with Pass Labs HPA-1 as hp amp for the Dave?

I have always liked the Utopias direct out of DAVE headphone socket. Having said that, the ONLY device that I like from the auditions of headphone amps is the HeadAmp GS-X Mk2.

Regards
GG

 

[rgs9200m]

So should I try optical on my DAVE? So far I have only used USB input from my Windows 10 box.
I read this in the conversation with Rob Watts a few months ago (pasted below from this thread). That is why I just used USB so far.
If I decide to use optical, can someone recommend a good mid priced cable or point me to something about this in this thread? Thanks in advance.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

USB is widely believed to be a noisy interface. Some music server companies (Baetis) suggest you should avoid USB at all costs and that SPDIF is superior. Does this apply to the Mojo or DAVE?

Just to make it 100% clear - the USB input will measure absolutely identically to the coax or optical inputs if the USB data is bit perfect.

I have set up my APX555 so that it uses the USB via ASIO drivers, and I get exactly the same measurements on all inputs - 125 dB DR, THD and noise of 0.00017% 3v 1k 300 ohms. I have done careful jitter analysis, FFT analysis down to Mojo's -175dB noise floor, and can measure no difference whatsoever on all inputs (with the APX always grounded on the coax).

If somebody does measure a difference its down to mangled data on the USB interface (or perhaps poor measuring equipment...)

Which input sounds the best on the DAVE?

With Dave the best input (by a tiny margin) is USB, then optical is very close. The BNC/AES depends upon the source and cabling.

 

[Jawed]

That's not Rob's current opinion. Optical is the reference and a preference for USB amounts to being fooled. It's not difficult to search for Rob Watts and the word optical and order by most recent first.

DAVE comes with an optical cable, there's no reason to buy another unless you need a longer cable. In which case you will have to pay for a high quality cable because cheap cables of 2m or longer will probably not support sample rates higher than 96KHz. Note that TOSLink optical never supports higher than 192KHz sample rate.

You must disconnect all electrical digital cables from DAVE to hear the benefit of optical.

It may turn out that your USB setup sounds the same as optical. I'd say that's extremely unlikely, but it can be done.

Now playing: Low - La La Song

 

[rgs9200m]

OK, thanks Jawed for all that good info.
OK, would a mid-grade Audioquest like a Carbon or Cinnamon Optilink 10-footer do (around $100 to $200)?