[Raghu6446]

Thanks minibox
Does dave require burn in . As out of the box sounds fantastic .

 

[musickid]

No burn in.

 

[SCBob]

I would say if you can afford Blu2 and you are an audiophile, getting Blu2 for the Utopia is a no brainer. It simply provides a level of performance I didn’t even know existed for a DAC system. You can definitely hear the Blu2 upgrade with the Focal Utopia headphones with great clarity. That said, DAVE is already so good, I have trouble recommending Blu2 to audiophile friends who have to stretch their finances to afford it or to people who probably wouldn’t appreciate the sonic upgrade because they’re not that into audio. But that’s more about money and how I think we should spend it. It probably has absolutely nothing to do with how great Blu2 is.

Thanks to all who have commented on adding Blu2 to Dave with headphones. It should be a good move to make. I also went back to a post by ray-dude, a review of Blu2, in which he discusses the incredible quality of CD play via Blu2/Dave. Since I still have all the CDs I collected over the years the Blu2 will have an advantage over the upcoming(?) M-scaler.

 

[commtrd]

What are Blu2 and Mscaler?

 

[miketlse]

What are Blu2 and Mscaler?

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

 

[STR-1]

davina?

Not according to this post from Rob
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cho...official-thread.831343/page-236#post-14286035

 

[Raghu6446]

Which is the best mode wen connected to external amplifier ( dac or preamp). Will there be difference in quality of sound if choosing one over the other.

 

[jonstatt]

For what it's worth, my DAVE has never made a horrible noise through headphones when switching on or off using the rear switch. Admittedly my DAVE is on 24/7, so the only time I use the switch is when doing a mains cable experiment, which, thankfully, I won't be doing again.

I have found DAVE can make a bit of a bang if music is playing while you switch off at the rear. It’s quiet if no sound is output. However I found the streamer I was using had a bug where it was outputting “something” that I couldn’t hear under certain scenarios and that would also cause a pop if switching off at the rear.

Occasionally if I switch on blu 2 while Dave is on but muted , I hear some digital noise for a brief moment.

So I think there are some scenarios where things aren’t quite ideal.

 

[ecwl]

Which is the best mode wen connected to external amplifier ( dac or preamp). Will there be difference in quality of sound if choosing one over the other.

DAC mode I think it's just the preamp mode with the volume set at either -3dB (I think but I can't remember for sure as it could be 3dB), providing 3V RMS unbalanced output. The best mode is to not have a preamplifier and directly connect Chord DAVE into a speaker amplifier via unbalanced output and then use the digital preamp of Chord DAVE to control volume. Because that way you have the best transparency. And you probably don't want to use a class D amplifier. If you have to use a preamplifier, the issue is whether your preamplifier would clip a 3V RMS unbalanced input. It turns out more preamplifiers than we think seems to do that. If they do, then obviously, you should attenuate DAVE to 1V or 2V RMS output by setting the volume of DAVE to maybe -13dB or -7dB respectively? Like I said, I can't remember the exact settings since I hook up my speaker amplifier to DAVE directly.

Another idiosyncracy you have to remember is that the crossfeed setting when you have the headphones plugged in stays even when you unplug the headphones and feed DAVE into speakers. So if you're listening to speakers, you'd want to plug in your headphones, set the crossfeed back to 0 before unplugging the headphones and listening to speakers. And then when you listen to headphones, you can set the crossfeed back to 3 if that's your preferred setting.

 

[Raghu6446]

I don’t use for speakers it’s for my stax 009 and WES 2 gen . In dac mode the output is -3db and can’t control the volume its fixed.
I tried out both preferred dac mode for headphones.
Should I keep HF fill on or off for headphones

 

[Raghu6446]

It’s +3db

 

[elviscaprice]

As much as I enjoy headphones with the DAVE, it really shines with external speakers direct/ sub. It's by far my preferred listening choice over my LCD-X's. A whole different level of sound stage listening that no headphone could ever give.

 

[jlbrach]

I'm using the bludave with headphones only and I do not need to debate about the performance or difference it brings over just dave alone.

I use my dave/blu2 with either the abyss, utopia or LCD-4...all sound fabulous...i have also used the HE-1000 v2 which is terrific as well...i originally thought I would be using it with my loudspeaker system but ultimately set it up with my HPs

 

[etnt]

If only chord have something for in car use

 

[ecwl]

I don’t use for speakers it’s for my stax 009 and WES 2 gen . In dac mode the output is -3db and can’t control the volume its fixed.
I tried out both preferred dac mode for headphones.
Should I keep HF fill on or off for headphones

HF On for DAVE. When you get your Blu2, you can turn HF Off