By the end of this month, I'll be doing my own comparison of DAVE vs my Yggy (and a CAD).
At 4 times the price, the DAVE (or CAD) damn well better be better. But if they are substantially better, it will make for an interesting decision point.
Apart from the SQ, I like certain aspects of the DAVE's design:
The CAD is not really a contender because its deliberately minimal design (USB-only input, SE-only output) is too minimal for me, but it's got a great SQ reputation and is close to DAVE in price, and my local dealer has them both, so I may as well try it.
At 4 times the price, the DAVE (or CAD) damn well better be better. But if they are substantially better, it will make for an interesting decision point.
Apart from the SQ, I like certain aspects of the DAVE's design:
- It's a very small, single box
- You can get it in black
- Integrated headphone and preamp section (and it's still very small)
- Low power consumption and a standby option for even lower power consumption - anyone tried this yet? Is there a warm up time required after using it?
- Cross-feed options for the headphone output - anyone used this yet?
The CAD is not really a contender because its deliberately minimal design (USB-only input, SE-only output) is too minimal for me, but it's got a great SQ reputation and is close to DAVE in price, and my local dealer has them both, so I may as well try it.