[Hiyono]

I put my order back in early October.  Still no idea when I'll be getting it.

 

[Sonic77]

  I put my order back in early October.  Still no idea when I'll be getting it.

I was told first batch goes out mid December and second batch goes out in January 2016, in North America that is, I don't know about anywhere else in the world, what the time line will be there, that is what I was told today.

 

[Hiyono]

 
I was told first batch goes out mid December and second batch goes out in January 2016, in North America that is, I don't know about anywhere else in the world, what the time line will be there, that is what I was told today.

Cool, Thanks for the info.

 

[Sonic77]

 
Cool, Thanks for the info.

No problem.

 

[Whazzzup]

Looking forward to some reviews then.

 

[Sonic77]

Looking forward to some reviews then.

I'll be getting my order later then others, so I'll probably just be confirming everyone else's reviews.

 

[brightonjel]

Very late to the party here, but just wanted to echo everyone's sentiments that having Rob participate to the breadth and depth that he does is hugely appreciated.  I had the pleasure both of meeting him and hearing Dave at the Audio High event recently (and thanks to Hiyono for cross posting my brief review of that evening at #567 in this thread).  From what I heard that evening, and even in the very challenging circumstances that prevail at those events, posters here who have "pre-bought" Dave won't be disappointed.  The ability of Dave to bring back depth to the hi-fi experience was very noticeable, and something I heard even before Rob's talk went into more detail, in particular about where the technology was different relative to his earlier work on Hugo and hence highlighted what he learned during its development.
 
I will be very interested to see the results of Rob's further investigations here. Initially, I was a bit surprised that it was improving the SN ratio through adding further high-order noise shapers that seemed to be the thing that made the most difference in this area.  
 
If you think about audio depth perception, numerous studies have shown that it's driven by the ear hearing time-delayed reflections from the original sound source interacting with the environment.  Indeed, if you sat in an anechoic chamber with one fixed and one moveable sound source, moving one source further away would just make it sound quieter, not more distant, which is not what happens in real world acoustics.  In practice, environmental reflections reach the ear both delayed and significantly attenuated, with both parameters providing clues about the acoustic in which the sounds occurred. The brain then does its own remarkable thing and creates the impression of a soundstage that we can bring to mind even with our eyes closed, one that can be intimate or expansive, studio or stadium.  But this attenuation also means that the depth cues are, therefore, akin to signal-modulated noise, heard by the ear some time after the primary signal. Therefore, I went away from Rob's talk thinking that it was his work in removing the tendency of a DAC to itself modulate the noise floor of the signal chain with the source waveform that was improving depth perception, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
 
Of course, we live on the world of engineering here and not pure theory, so it may just be that it's in the interaction of the noise shapers with the - now - signal-independent noise floor that makes the difference; pull down the quantization noise far enough and it enables other engineering parameters to become evident.  Regardless, my speculating won't answer the question but Rob's experiments can, so I hope he will keep us in the feedback-loop as he gets closer to un-picking the complex, interwoven threads in this area.
 
Looking forward too to hearing first impressions as people get to plug Dave into their own systems, as well as what comes back from professional reviewers once they get to do more of a comparative analysis than most of us can do from our own resources.
 
Exciting times indeed, and thanks again, Rob, for coming to visit and spending time chatting!  As an expat Brit it's always fun to meet visitors from the UK, especially when they come with 20+ years experience in digital audio design .

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

Thanks for your thoughts brightonjel. I am one of those waiting to receive my Dave DAC. More than greater perceived depth of soundstage, it's the greater focus and more natural (analogue) presentation that I seek most. I rarely listen to my hifi via cans so room reflections are unavoidably a part of the hifi experience for me unfortunately. I therefore wish to hear as clear a focus in the sound generated by my Dac as possible. Hopefully Dave will raise the bar in this respect. That and an improved soundstage.

I will of course be happy to provide my impressions here after a period of listening.

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

Another weakness I would like hear irradiated with the new Dave dac is 'hardness' of CD presentation. CD is still a great medium but it often sounds to me like someone has put a brick wall limiter on the recording. Obviously there is only so much Dave can do with a bad production but if I use my own chosen instrument (acoustic guitar) as an example. When I pluck or pick a string there is an impulse dynamic to it that is missing with CD delivery through all dacs playing CD that I have heard so far. In the real world it is this impulse dynamic in the sound created that can even tell me how old the strings are. New strings are unmistakeable. It's not just the harmonics they throw off. New strings have a greater ability to deliver a varied dynamic and a silky sound. I hope to hear that with Dave given Robs explanation of what is going on in Dave.

 

[brightonjel]

Gosh, my pleasure Dave.  It's fun to find an interesting forum where the postings don't descend into rancor within the first two pages, and being able to read Rob's posts meant I was able to get a much better handle on the points he was making about the design work inside Dave than I could from trying to remember what I heard when he presented.
 
You will I am sure be thrilled when Dave shows up on your doorstep (which sounds a little strange ...!)  The focus is there and the overall imaging is outstanding.  (I too, rarely use headphones, but because of room size limitations listen near field in any case which largely avoids too many room interaction problems.)  I don't specifically recall hearing string instruments like a guitar, but I did grab the controls for a while and played a Scarlatti piano piece.  This brought out an excellent tone, with no blurring of the individual notes; you could hear the keys working their magic.  Very compelling, though again I'd prefer to hear it with a different amplifier to help gauge what Dave can do.
 
Your question about "analogue" sounding is an interesting one.  I'd put it that the sound is more holistic and free-flowing, and is certainly free of the digital "spikiness", for want of a better word, that was evident when digital first came to dominate audio reproduction.  However, I don't think it sounds like an analogue arm/vinyl/pre-amp front end, which to me is a good thing.  My ideal system has an incredibly accurate front end, with amps and speakers to deliver to taste thereafter.  I've heard quite a few high-end, vinyl-based systems and with the right recording/pressing, the results can be wonderful.  However, for me that rarely goes past closely-miked jazz-type discs.  Throw a much wider range of music into the mix and now I find there's too much that gets lost for it to be an approach to hi fi that works for me.
 
Regardless, I think you will find that your new addition to the family will bring a whole new lease of life to your existing collection of recordings, forcing you to spend many happy hours going through them all again and again, always being delighted anew!
 
John

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

When I say analogue John I am referring to 'real world' music rather than vinyl. I am not looking for vinyl sound. Just a realism of natural, smooth, organic and dynamic presentation. Anyway, I am sure I will be suitably impressed. I have been buying chord and following Robs digital development for many years now.

Edit: of course the musicality, emotion must be there too. After all, isn't that what draws people to music in the first place?

 

[brightonjel]

Excellent - then you are in for a treat!  "Real world" - at least as far as the recording engineers allow it - is an excellent description of the native sound of Dave!
 

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

Thank you Chord for your reply to my comments in your post 793 btw

 

[maximus12]

Unquestionably the sound is first rate, but the elaborate 'support' is a bit over the top, and takes a good chunk of the price. Could have been more accessible and not so flashy. These people are electronic geniuses, but somewhat lacking artistically!

 

[Beolab]

Thanks for your thoughts brightonjel. I am one of those waiting to receive my Dave DAC. More than greater perceived depth of soundstage, it's the greater focus and more natural (analogue) presentation that I seek most. I rarely listen to my hifi via cans so room reflections are unavoidably a part of the hifi experience for me unfortunately. I therefore wish to hear as clear a focus in the sound generated by my Dac as possible. Hopefully Dave will raise the bar in this respect. That and an improved soundstage.

I will of course be happy to provide my impressions here after a period of listening.

OT:

If you want to get rid of your room reflections your answer to this is our new upcoming and worlds most advanced speaker the
Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 90

Almost 9 years developing with near 300 people involved in the project:

http://forum.beoworld.org/forums/p/17334/151442.aspx#151442