CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE

[bmichels]

Since DAVE's upsampling is much more advanced than BLU, is it possible to have BLU NOT upsampling, that is to say transmiting 16/44 to DAVE, and then letting DAVE do all upsampling if needed ?

 

[Kakki]

  Yes it needs to be earthed from a safety POV. But the PSU is a medical grade unit.
 
I have used it unearthed on my travels, and it was OK though but this is from the SQ POV only. I agree with Chord unearthed may be hazardous though.
 
Rob 

 
Thank you for your answer. I'm relieved to hear that it is OK from the sound quality perspective.
I may also ask the dealer how they treat the warning in the manual in Japan ... as usually it is difficult to have products correctly earthed in Japan because of the standard 2 pin plugs.

 

[CallMeCynical]

An update on Dave...After switching off the amp for a number of hours - usually I leave the amp permantly on - the unit powered up and I was able to listen to Dave for an extended period. I completely retract my previous statement that Dave is slightly better than the QBD76. This thing is increadable! It really is in a different league to QBD76. I was particularly impressed with the ability if the unit to give a very convey a very convincing bass guitar note. In fact, everything about the music that flows from his unit has to be heard to be fully appreciated. Vocals are projected so convincingly that it feels like the band/musicians are right there in the room. I listened to Van Morrison's Back ON Top CD, which, in my view, is a great example of an excellently recorded album. Dave projected a very convincing 3D sound stage as his vocals just projected out so convincingly, it felt like I could literally reach out and touch him. I was grinning from ear to ear track after track. I was able to follow individual instruments with ease such is the Dave transparency/resolution. The instruments sounded so much more life like and I particularly enjoyed the sax and bass guitar work in the tracks - again conveyed very convincingly. I cannot wait to run through my CD collection - to the extent that I had a somewhat sleepless night trying to prioritse which albums in my collection I would play first - assuming my amp will play ball...

Hats off to what Mr Watts has achieved here > a significant stepped improvement over QBD76.

With regard to response Blu transport data rate question to Matt at Chord, he, as usual, was very prompt with a response and confirmed that dual data rate of 176.4kHz represented the combined data rate. As said, the thing that confused me here was that I had always understood that each channel gave 176.kHz data rate and not 88.2kHz. Well, now I know. Not sure that, in reality, data rate would really make a difference given Rob's previous comments on this subject.

 

[lovethatsound]

Since DAVE's upsampling is much more advanced than BLU, is it possible to have BLU NOT upsampling, that is to say transmiting 16/44 to DAVE, and then letting DAVE do all upsampling if needed ?

Yes you just leave the switch at top on your blue transport and just use 1 cable instead of 2.

 

[bmichels]

An update on Dave...After switching off the amp for a number of hours - usually I leave the amp permantly on - the unit powered up and I was able to listen to Dave for an extended period. I completely retract my previous statement that Dave is slightly better than the QBD76. This thing is increadable! It really is in a different league to QBD76. I was particularly impressed with the ability if the unit to give a very convey a very convincing bass guitar note. In fact, everything about the music that flows from his unit has to be heard to be fully appreciated. Vocals are projected so convincingly that it feels like the band/musicians are right there in the room. I listened to Van Morrison's Back ON Top CD, which, in my view, is a great example of an excellently recorded album. Dave projected a very convincing 3D sound stage as his vocals just projected out so convincingly, it felt like I could literally reach out and touch him. I was grinning from ear to ear track after track. I was able to follow individual instruments with ease such is the Dave transparency/resolution. The instruments sounded so much more life like and I particularly enjoyed the sax and bass guitar work in the tracks - again conveyed very convincingly. I cannot wait to run through my CD collection - to the extent that I had a somewhat sleepless night trying to prioritse which albums in my collection I would play first - assuming my amp will play ball...

Hats off to what Mr Watts has achieved here > a significant stepped improvement over QBD76.

With regard to response Blu transport data rate question to Matt at Chord, he, as usual, was very prompt with a response and confirmed that dual data rate of 176.4kHz represented the combined data rate. As said, the thing that confused me here was that I had always understood that each channel gave 176.kHz data rate and not 88.2kHz. Well, now I know. Not sure that, in reality, data rate would really make a difference given Rob's previous comments on this subject.

 
CallMeCynical , I am happy that you solved your DAVE issue.
 
- Did you also tried to listen to DAVE through headphones connected to DAVE internal headphone amp ? 
 
- Also, will you try to have, as I mentioned above, BLU sending native 16/44 to DAVE and letting DAVE do the upsampling ? 

 

[rkt31]

just a query, while rca out of dave is connected to a power amp, can xlr out be fed to rca in of a powered sub ? has anybody checked the audio delay at both pcm+ and dsd+ settings for movies ?

 

[Mavwong]

Good news for me. Just got the Dave.

My burn in setup. The hd600 is rocking with Dave Lolz.

 

[tkteo]

  In light of Rob's earlier discussion, in the Mojo thread, regarding soundstage depth (see quote below), the remarks about soundstage width in this review of a different DAC make for interesting contrast:
 
http://inearspace.com/2015/04/17/exogal-comet-dac-shooting-for-the-stars/
 
 

The more I think about it, the more I think "soundstage" in terms of width, be it wider or narrow(er), kind of misses the point. I mean if I were to use live performances as the real life example, sound stage literally depends on the dimensions of the room, auditorium, setup of the orchestra or band, etc.
 
So, whether "soundstage" reproduction in terms of what we hear from our audio decoding and playback devices should ideally be "wider" or "narrower" depends on the music. I should also mentioned that "width" is not the only idea but also "depth" and "height". But again surely this depends on how the music is meant to be performed?
 
When I listened to Mojo using my favorite vocalist tracks, what I felt Mr Rob Watts has done so impressively is the *presence* of the vocals. If I were listening via floorstanders I would also have thought about "projection" of the vocals.
 
I don't even use so called audiophile tests tracks such as those I keep being played in stores in Singapore -- like I stated, use your own fave tracks cos it is your enjoyment and your money -- I was listening to some George Michael and James Ingram and I went "wow" cos I never heard George Michael "feel" that way.
 
my two cents above, given that the more I read posts on head-fi the more I read about this idea of "soundstage".
 
I don't wanna get started on this other word: "warm", which I understand its usage for *temperature* but not musical reproduction!

 

[Mython]

 

  In light of Rob's earlier discussion, in the Mojo thread, regarding soundstage depth (see quote below), the remarks about soundstage width in this review of a different DAC make for interesting contrast:
 
http://inearspace.com/2015/04/17/exogal-comet-dac-shooting-for-the-stars/
 
 

The more I think about it, the more I think "soundstage" in terms of width, be it wider or narrow(er), kind of misses the point. I mean if I were to use live performances as the real life example, sound stage literally depends on the dimensions of the room, auditorium, setup of the orchestra or band, etc.
 
So, whether "soundstage" reproduction in terms of what we hear from our audio decoding and playback devices should ideally be "wider" or "narrower" depends on the music. I should also mentioned that "width" is not the only idea but also "depth" and "height". But again surely this depends on how the music is meant to be performed?

 
 
No one has missed that point. Your point does not contradict the aforementioned -  far from it - it's simply restating what has already been discussed, using different words.
 
There are depth cues present in recordings, but it is apparent that many DACs do not accurately resolve that information, and thus, relatively-speaking, this propensity can lead to a subjective emphasis on the perceived soundstage  'width' of a recording. Of course, the extent to which this is subjectively perceptible, during playback, is extremely dependent on how many of, and how accurately, the minute audible cues reaching the microphones, in a given recording venue, are actually encoded into digital data. Increasing tap-length is a mathematically-logical way to improve this accuracy (and is why I feel the benefits of Rob's DACs will never be truly experienced until some time in the near future, when studios begin using that very same approach for their ADC). And, as many of us have read, from Rob's detailed posts, he has apparently found that improving SNR in the digital domain has also yielded unanticipated improvements in the subjective perception of accurate proportions of the recording acoustics.
 
The point is that ALL of this STILL relates not only to the accuracy of digital processing, but also to the auditory information encoded in the digital recording, which, as you have rightly pointed out, very much varies depending on the acoustic of the recording venue.
 
So, in a situation where a DAC does not resolve the data as mathematically-accurately as Rob's designs, it appears, from Rob's recent findings, that (whilst being very much dependent upon the cues encoded within the recording) the perception of depth is, subjectively, likely to swing towards emphasising depth less-so than width. And any such emphasis can justifiably be labeled as 'artificial', even though other aspects of reproduction may be subjectively perceived as sounding quite convincingly realistic.
 
 
 
It seems all of us have a lot to learn and experience, in the coming years, about how realistic digital music reproduction may possibly be, by comparison with what we are currently accustomed to.
 
My personal motivation for saving for, and purchasing, one of Rob's DACs will not fully kick into overdrive until some studios have adopted his technology on the ADC side of the equation. ...At which point, I eagerly look forward to being blown away by the fruition of Rob's work.
 

 
 
 
NB: @ Rob, if I have misconstrued any of your meanings, then please feel free to correct me.

 

[analogmusic]

Quite relieved to see your conclusion on Dave, that it is meeting and exceeding your expectations. Please let us know more.

 
 
Quote:

An update on Dave...After switching off the amp for a number of hours - usually I leave the amp permantly on - the unit powered up and I was able to listen to Dave for an extended period. I completely retract my previous statement that Dave is slightly better than the QBD76. This thing is increadable! It really is in a different league to QBD76. I was particularly impressed with the ability if the unit to give a very convey a very convincing bass guitar note. In fact, everything about the music that flows from his unit has to be heard to be fully appreciated. Vocals are projected so convincingly that it feels like the band/musicians are right there in the room. I listened to Van Morrison's Back ON Top CD, which, in my view, is a great example of an excellently recorded album. Dave projected a very convincing 3D sound stage as his vocals just projected out so convincingly, it felt like I could literally reach out and touch him. I was grinning from ear to ear track after track. I was able to follow individual instruments with ease such is the Dave transparency/resolution. The instruments sounded so much more life like and I particularly enjoyed the sax and bass guitar work in the tracks - again conveyed very convincingly. I cannot wait to run through my CD collection - to the extent that I had a somewhat sleepless night trying to prioritse which albums in my collection I would play first - assuming my amp will play ball...

Hats off to what Mr Watts has achieved here > a significant stepped improvement over QBD76.

With regard to response Blu transport data rate question to Matt at Chord, he, as usual, was very prompt with a response and confirmed that dual data rate of 176.4kHz represented the combined data rate. As said, the thing that confused me here was that I had always understood that each channel gave 176.kHz data rate and not 88.2kHz. Well, now I know. Not sure that, in reality, data rate would really make a difference given Rob's previous comments on this subject.

 

[paul79]

CallMeCynical,
 
What transport are you using to the DAVE?

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

Call Me Cynical
Wait until you hear what it 'really' sounds like.

I have never had a piece of HIfi that took so long to burn in or change so much as the Dave. I guess it's because no other product I have owned produced so much detail and dynamics. Key times on my unit were 170 hrs and 240 hrs.

Have written a review but holding back and tweaking due to sound and dynamic changes. Three words are uppermost in my mind: Purity, Dynamics and Emotion.

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

I guess what has surprised me the most is the 'absolute purity' of the reproduction of instrument sounds. I expected detail and I expected dynamics but not this level of purity.

It makes me wonder what a recording with Chord ADC's would sound like through Dave.

 

[bmichels]

I guess what has surprised my the most is the absolute purity of the reproduction of instrument sounds. I expected detail and I expected dynamics but not this level of purity.

It makes me wonder what a recording with Chord ADC's would sound like through Dave.

 
This is very encouraging, but... this also make me wonder if the Chord BLU, which is 10 years old, is at the level to feed DAVE with the perfect signal for DAVE to shine ? 

 

[rkt31]

yes if even the minutest burn in improvement are audiible due to extra details of dave, it means the quality of transport will also matter. so what can be the best transport for Dave specially for high resolution files ? how about a universal/ blu Ray player ? or daps like fiio or ak ?