CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE

[Deftone]

Sennheiser’s new $55,000 Orpheus headphone system

Has anyone had a listening session with this incredible system and compared it to the likes of HEK V2 and Utopia using the DAVE and compared it with MSB Systems DAC?

Holy.. you just made me think of this as a possible combo!



Better get those lottery tickets in guys!

 

[Beolab]

Quest:



Have potential Dave or a Hugo TT customer that really likes the Dave, but he got a DCS Debussy today, and he want me to find a review DCS Debussy vs Chord DAVE / TT he can read before he place an order.


I have tried to search the net but can only find an old test on Debussy vs QBD76 :/


So if someone got a review or who own them both can wright a small one, and PM me or publish in here would be grateful!

 

[Crgreen]

I think some people have made comparisons in posts on this forum but I've never seen one in a hi-fi mag, possibly because they don't want to offend either manufacturer and risk not being able to review their products in the future.

 

[Triode User]

Quest:
Have potential Dave or a Hugo TT customer that really likes the Dave, but he got a DCS Debussy today, and he want me to find a review DCS Debussy vs Chord DAVE / TT he can read before he place an order.
I have tried to search the net but can only find an old test on Debussy vs QBD76 :/
So if someone got a review or who own them both can wright a small one, and PM me or publish in here would be grateful!

Can the customer not have a home demo and compare that way? That would be the only real way to assess. We all look for something slightly different out of what we want to achieve.

I have not heard a DCS Debussy but I have directly compared a Dave to a Bricasti M1 SE and to my ears I much preferred the Dave.

 

[Beolab]

My customer borrowed the DAVE home for 8 days, and he liked it alot, but he still want to read on what other think how it stands against the DCS in different setups

 

[ecwl]

My customer borrowed the DAVE home for 8 days, and he liked it alot, but he still want to read on what other think how it stands against the DCS in different setups

I think that would be hard because I doubt most people would have had dCS Debussy and Chord DAVE in a direct A/B comparison.
However, maybe this can convince your customer. There are online PDF versions of the Hi-Fi News and Record Reviews of dCS Vivaldi and Chord DAVE. Both reviews have measurements of the DACs and you can actually see Chord DAVE measures better than dCS Vivaldi. And technically, Chord DAVE got 91% and dCS Vivaldi got 90% although I think the magazine's review scoring is slightly price-based, which means a 91% score $1000 DAC may not outperform a 90% score $10000 DAC. But then your customer may not need to know that. Anyway, that's why I think the measurements might be more convincing to your customer.
Ultimately, I think your customer should buy what he likes. We all know people who buy gear with tons of sonic distortions but they just love the sound. Who are we to judge? It's their money.

 

[Matez]

Ultimately, I think your customer should buy what he likes. We all know people who buy gear with tons of sonic distortions but they just love the sound. Who are we to judge? It's their money.

I can't express enough how spot-on you are with this. There's a ton of gear out there that measures bad indeed, yet sounds awesome. I tend to think that measurements are important, but have complementary value. I've heard many devices that measured very well (sources mainly), yet didn't impress me at all. There were some which sounded very good and had their numbers in check. But the most pleasant one probably is nowhere near i.e. DAVE in terms of its measured performance.

As far as DAVE vs dCS matter goes, that's merely a subjective hunch, but something tells me that if I had to pick one, I'd go after DAVE.

 

[Triode User]

I can't express enough how spot-on you are with this. There's a ton of gear out there that measures bad indeed, yet sounds awesome. I tend to think that measurements are important, but have complementary value. I've heard many devices that measured very well (sources mainly), yet didn't impress me at all. There were some which sounded very good and had their numbers in check. But the most pleasant one probably is nowhere near i.e. DAVE in terms of its measured performance.

As far as DAVE vs dCS matter goes, that's merely a subjective hunch, but something tells me that if I had to pick one, I'd go after DAVE.

Also of course, the Dave is not the end of the story. The customer could ultimately add a Blu2 and take it to another level of sound and performance.

 

[tunes]

So far the best price performance device I have seen to be used as a transport on the go with the HUGO2 is the Pioneer XDP-100R. It can steam TIDAL to the HUGO2 with built in Wifi, has 2 200GB microSD card slots, decent battery life, touch screen, Bluetooth and USB output. I don't think it has optical out and not really sure if optical or USB is best option for a transport. Can anyone chime in regarding this option for a portable transport for the HUGO2???

 

[britneedadvice]

I was actually being polite; the MQA interpolation filters against a standard WTA interpolation filter (I compared it using a Mojo) sounds dreadful. MQA is technically flawed, with huge and completely unacceptable levels of aliasing. And it's those two reasons why I refuse to implement it in my designs.

I understood criticism of another Manufacturer's products was not allowed on Head-fi ( or does that only apply when the other manufacturer happens to be a Head-fi sponsor?)

 

[miketlse]

I understood criticism of another Manufacturer's products was not allowed on Head-fi ( or does that only apply when the other manufacturer happens to be a Head-fi sponsor?)

MQA is not a product. It is an audio codec using lossy compression. It is owned by MQA Ltd, and not Meridian Audio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Quality_Authenticated
Rob Watts is merely discussing the technical merits of an audio codec.

 

[ecwl]

I was thinking about how I listen to MQA tracks off Tidal. This is what I've observed off the DAVE +/- Blu2. If I go on HDtracks and the original source is >44/48kHz, I use my software MQA decoding in the Tidal app to feed Chord DAVE 88kHz/96kHz MQA decoded stream. Because that generally sounds better. But if I go on HD tracks and I can't find the tracks or I find out that the original source is 44kHz/24-bit or 48kHz/24-bit, I actually find that it's better not to listen to the MQA stream on Tidal. I found that the original non-MQA CD 44/16 track on Tidal off the DAVE sounds better than the 88kHz MQA decoded stream off the DAVE. To me, MQA seems to be a good high-res lossy compression scheme so if the original tracks were recorded at 88kHz or above, having the MQA decoding back to 88kHz/96kHz to feed DAVE sounds better. But MQA seems to be a crappy digital filter so if the original track is just 44/16, it seems that the MQA track that upsampled it to whatever resolution (say 88kHz or even 352kHz) just doesn't sound as good as if you just feed the 44/16 track to DAVE to upsample. That's my speculation and my sonic preferences while listening to DAVE. Obviously your mileage and preferences may vary.

 

[Jiffi32]

Currently have a Dave on home loan while my Hugo is having new batteries fitted. There is just Soo much more emotion coming through. Digging out lots of live albums as they sound more 'there' than with Hugo.

 

[astrostar59]

Holy.. you just made me think of this as a possible combo!



Better get those lottery tickets in guys!

No, but isquirrel has the MSB Select DAC and the DAVE with Stax 009s and a Woo Audio amplifier, inc the MSB electrostatic amp. I would ask him.

 

[astrostar59]

I was thinking about how I listen to MQA tracks off Tidal. This is what I've observed off the DAVE +/- Blu2. If I go on HDtracks and the original source is >44/48kHz, I use my software MQA decoding in the Tidal app to feed Chord DAVE 88kHz/96kHz MQA decoded stream. Because that generally sounds better. But if I go on HD tracks and I can't find the tracks or I find out that the original source is 44kHz/24-bit or 48kHz/24-bit, I actually find that it's better not to listen to the MQA stream on Tidal. I found that the original non-MQA CD 44/16 track on Tidal off the DAVE sounds better than the 88kHz MQA decoded stream off the DAVE. To me, MQA seems to be a good high-res lossy compression scheme so if the original tracks were recorded at 88kHz or above, having the MQA decoding back to 88kHz/96kHz to feed DAVE sounds better. But MQA seems to be a crappy digital filter so if the original track is just 44/16, it seems that the MQA track that upsampled it to whatever resolution (say 88kHz or even 352kHz) just doesn't sound as good as if you just feed the 44/16 track to DAVE to upsample. That's my speculation and my sonic preferences while listening to DAVE. Obviously your mileage and preferences may vary.

I found the Tidal app sounds so so. Audirvana+ V3 inc Tidal sounds much better. You may get better results...