I'm integrating a SME turntable into the system. Tried the benchmark, the AAA tech uses too much feedback to get the low distortion killed the life of the music. DAVE balanced into my amps was not as good as DAVE single ended into the Spectral preamp. Just my opinion that low distortion achieved by good circuit design sounds better than low distortion achieved with excessive feedback. Your system might be different.
Feedaback can't remove all types of distortion. AAA tech is something different than simple feedback as far as i know.
Yes you are correct but I tried the benchmark, sounded worse than it's numbers would tell you. I spent several years listening to DAVE directly into my Spectral power amps, liked it so much I sold my Spectral 20 SII and 30 Ss II preamps. I'm now back home and want to integrate a turntable into the system. My friend who I trust his ears and technical expertise and I have been searching for a great preamp that would not limit our systems. He worked for Bell labs , has a audio precision analyzer and a distortion analyzer designed by Bob Cordell. The best we have found so far is the Spectral 30sv but the Schitt might be a contender, I just want to give it a fair chance, let it break in, don't overload the input etc. For years I stayed away from Spectral because of its wide bandwith design but for the last 7 years I've adopted it and must agree with their design philosophy Ultra wide bandwidth means feedback artifacts are ultrasonic thus inaudible. The fastest cleanest sweetest sounding electronics that I have had in my system, wish they weren't so expensive
Did you try dave direct into benchmark ahb2 in low gain mode ? I don't have Dave but have TT 2+HMS which feeds ahb2 directly into low gain mode. Tt2 also being low gain mode. The advantage is that TT 2 this way operates in it's high output range and low gain of benchmark ahb2 multiplies it only by 3x factor in low gain. So it's a win win situation. If you use any pre, it has output sensitivity of only 1v (or at the most 2v) so even if you set Dave at 3v or more the output of it first goes through analog volume pot of pre where the output of Dave would get reduced to much much below 1v as 1v is the max the pre can take. Then that highly attenuated signal goes into pre gain stage and buffer etc . So why to degrade clean and high output by unnecessary electronics.
) I'm gradually working my way through the 900+ pages of this thread. I'm on page 120 something from 2016 where the digital amp Rob is working on is first brought up. What has happened to this amp? As an Abyss 1266 TC owner this is an intriguing option that would minimize or eliminate the loss of transparency from using an add on amp.
As a recent Dave owner (got mine last Friday
Yes the talk of the DX amps did get everyone excited, but here is the Chord feedback about them.As a recent Dave owner (got mine last Friday
As a recent Dave owner (got mine last Friday
My local dealer here in Vancouver is getting the Formula S in so I’ll give it a try.
