[lovethatsound]

Hi smail1966

I think i place my order on the HeadTrip, but just want to ask some minor questions to you before.

Have you have had time to listen for a more extended time on DAVE in combination with the HeadTrip yet?

And second can you place DAVE in a LINE OUT mode as on the Hugo, or do you turn upp the volume on the DAVE and then regulate on the HeadTrip for pitperfect and for best sound ?

All the guys in the Abyss thread screams Moon 600i instead of the HeadTrip ;(, whats your opinion?

You put DAVE in dac mode when you use a different headphone amp.

 

[smial1966]

Beolab,
 
I haven't felt the need to connect DAVE to my Headtrip again as it drives the HD800 beautifully.
 
There is a DAC Mode and this function is described in detail at the top of page 10 in the instruction manual:
 
http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/files/Dave%20Manual.pdf 
 
Jeff designed the Headtrip specifically with the Abyss cans in mind so there should be excellent synergy between them. 
 
Quote:

 
Hi smail1966
 
I think i place my order on the HeadTrip, but just want to ask some minor questions to you before.
 
Have you have had time to listen for a more extended time on DAVE in combination with the HeadTrip yet?
 
And second can you place DAVE in a LINE OUT mode as on the Hugo, or do you turn upp the volume on the DAVE and then regulate on the HeadTrip for pitperfect and for best sound ?
 
All the guys in the Abyss thread screams Moon 600i instead of the HeadTrip ;(, whats your opinion?

 

[Beolab]

 

Last question =)
 
Do you hear any big diffrence when you feed the Headtrip with balanced signal 6 volt vs Single RCA 3 Volts, or is it even according to Rob ?

 

[smial1966]

Only used RCA thus far, but perhaps other DAVE owners could kindly comment about this. 
 
Quote:

 
Last question =)
 
Do you hear any big diffrence when you feed the Headtrip with balanced signal 6 volt vs Single RCA 3 Volts, or is it even according to Rob ?

 

[Mavwong]

Unfortunately no. I purchase it direct from uptone in US.
 
As for end Dec, there's already a demo Dave in the showroom. But it might be sold if there's customer interest.
 
For me I have not heard the HD800S but the older version HD800. I opt for HEK Do go for audit with the combo, that's how I get poison lolz.
 
 
 
 
Quote:

  Hello  mavvong,
and thanks for the advice. Do you know if any of the shops at the Adelphi stocks it?
I will be back in Singapore again  on the 7th February.
Hopefully AV 1 will have a Dave for demo by then.
I am  a bit tempted to buy HE 1000 headphones from them too. 
But I need to audition the new HD800S as well before deciding which is the best ,most neutral and  accurate and resolving and  transparent on large scale acoustic music  of them.

 

[Mavwong]

Finally today I get to hear the Dave in my main speaker system.
 
Stage is so accurate, so transparent! My system never sounded so good before. Background is pitch black, yet high is airy, clear, with so much detail. Bass is deep yet control with texture. Like many said before, once music starts, I couldn't stop
 
http://www.136888.com/new/goods.php?id=3001823, Those who could understand chinese, this album is a must get, last track is a live recording in studio.

 

[rkt31]

try Fiona joy signature solo too. it's a great work and recorded very accurately and cleanly !

 

[Hiyono]

Anyone in Tokyo interesting in meeting and hang out?  I am receiving my Dave from my friend on the 10th.  I'll have free time between the 14th-16th.  Interested in making new friends with similar hobbies.

 

[lovethatsound]

Anyone in Tokyo interesting in meeting and hang out?  I am receiving my Dave from my friend on the 10th.  I'll have free time between the 14th-16th.  Interested in making new friends with similar hobbies.

I'm sorry,but once you start listing to DAVE you'll find you don't have any free time.

 

[Beolab]

This is a unique opportunity / comparison!!

Simon alias Isquirrel are about to loan a friends Chord DAVE in a few days and compare it to his MSB Select II DAC. Very interesting to see if the DAVE can hold up against the $99999 MSB Select II.


http://www.head-fi.org/t/613387/msb-analog-dac-review-p3/450_50

 

[Beolab]

Going back to when Hugo first came out, I noticed different SQ with different lap-tops and PC's.

Now the problem is definitely not jitter from the source - my DAC's can tolerate 2uS of jitter and it will have zero difference to the measurements - also the USB is isochronous asynchronous so the timing comes from the DAC clock, so source jitter is not a problem.

So I looked into the issue of different SQ with sources and found two sources of error:

1. RF noise. RF noise is a major pain with audio. With analogue electronics, very tiny amounts of RF noise will cause intermodulation distortion with the audio signal, and the intermodulation products is noise floor modulation. The effect is that the noise floor changes with signal level, and the effect is very audible - you perceive it as a brightness to the sound quality. Less noise floor modulation, smoother sound quality. The curious thing about this is that the brain is very sensitive to it, so you can easily hear it. Problem is that many listeners hear the brightness as more detail resolution, and so think it sounds better - but that's another story.

2. Correlated current noise. If a tiny current that is signal related but distorted enters the ground plane, then this current will be a source of error, as the current in the ground plane induces small voltages. Now this then adds or subtracts to small signals, thus degrading small signal resolution - and this upsets the brains ability to calculate depth. Now one of the most fascinating things I discovered with Dave is there is no limit to how small this error can be without a degradation in depth perception - so it does not matter how small the error is it will have an impact.

So the solution to the above problems is galvanic isolation. This means that RF noise from the source can't get into Dave, and small correlated currents can't get in too. And this approach gave two benefits - much smoother sound quality, and a deeper soundstage.

Now with Dave I can no longer hear which source is connected, but before without the galvanic isolation it was easy to hear. Additionally, optical sounds almost identical to the USB, as optical is clearly galvanically isolated too.

Rob

Zero jitter means in almost that you can use a BlueSound Node / Iphone with camera kit or a High End Aurender / CAD , end the sound should end up almost the same!

This is huge Rob!

 

[highendhifi]

I would first of all not claim that im a electro engineer in any way, im a guy with very often a great comon sence and do not belive in all special snake-oil parts, cables, ghosts, or any like that sorts of things.
But im always happy to try it out, but if i can not see it or hear any diffrence, and in most cases you cant, or if you can it is very often placebo, because the brain register and samples an incoming sound a slight different everytime you hear the same sound/song depending on if you are tired, have listening fatigue, because you have had an trip on your motorcycle the last hour, this can play a huge factor from time to time when you listen to your equipment, so if you one day buy a LH Lightning USB for $$$ and you are hearing a diffrence could be that you over sleept one hour and drank 2 coffes before you had the first listening on your new cable.
But not everytime i should say. I have a tuff time to hear any diffrence btw digital cables, and power cables if they are in deacent quality to begin with.
I read about a guy no names here, that had worked at Nordost Cables and he told us a story that the only way to make a power cable to sound diffrent was to make the conducters thinner and weaker on some spots along the twisty way, or make it thicker, because then the transformer was fed with a poorer or not as fluid current feed, so the sound can have some affect of this if the transformer is very poor and weak Great or bad?
I think its better to spend that money on something else if you just want to make the sound to sound diffrent, because you cant control it in what way you want it to sound diffrent, if you are not happy with the result.
To me it like run in the woods when its pich black.
But hey! I can hear s diffrence in analog cables and when my neighbur put o their TV without sound, i just hear the high pitched sound from the cathodes in the TV, so im not complete death


I think many hifi designers incl Rob most laph their buts off very often, when they are reading about peoples poor in dept technical knowhow, where they buy small gadgets, super snake-oil cables, granit weights, sandbags, homemade elegal electrical earthing, other made up solutions or self educated theories about HiFi, and thinking this have to be good, but in most cases it have been much worser or no diffrence at all if you try to measure it, because it is very easy to trick someone when it comes to sound, its a little bit harder when it comes picture area.
This is because of the big loss of kowlage and great mass of belivers that trust the not so trustfull reviewers and many developers that see the big $$$ bucks when it is so easy to trick people like pills for instant 20 pounds of weightloss in one day and so on..

My point to this statement is that the big designers like Rob for example can by his huge kowlage and experience in testing and designing, tweak away all of the second descending factors that involes the incoming signal weaknesses, thats huge!

One of the things I like about Rob and his approach is that he listens as much as, if not more than, he measures which for me, coming from a psychological background, is vital in the experience of listening to music. This is where cables, stands, filters, weights, etc all start to impact on the listening-even in cases where changes can't be externally measured. It's precisely because the brain "hears" differently as a result of mood, alertness, anxiety, expected change, volume, brightness, even light levels! My point here is that this gets us into the very vague and nebulous area of what is "real"-if it is heard then it is real, arguably. The important thing is to keep an item in place for some time to acclimatise to the sound and to listen to music through it over many different times and occasions to try and account for these effects.
Just my tuppence of course.

 

[Beolab]

One of the things I like about Rob and his approach is that he listens as much as, if not more than, he measures which for me, coming from a psychological background, is vital in the experience of listening to music. This is where cables, stands, filters, weights, etc all start to impact on the listening-even in cases where changes can't be externally measured. It's precisely because the brain "hears" differently as a result of mood, alertness, anxiety, expected change, volume, brightness, even light levels! My point here is that this gets us into the very vague and nebulous area of what is "real"-if it is heard then it is real, arguably. The important thing is to keep an item in place for some time to acclimatise to the sound and to listen to music through it over many different times and occasions to try and account for these effects.
Just my tuppence of course.

Agree with you totally !

 

[Hiyono]

I'm super excited. I'll have mine in 17hrs.

 

[lovethatsound]

I'm super excited. I'll have mine in 17hrs.

maybe you could do an unboxing of a chord DAVE on here.