CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE

[musicday]

Does Decware make a full size speaker?? Floor standing? Is Omega better??

From my research, keep in mind that I have never heard neither, Omega seem superior, and Louis the CEO is a great guy to discuss with. And yes Decware does make full size tower speakers.
http://www.decware.com/newsite/speakers.html

 

[rrolls]

From my understanding and own experience if you have high sensitivity speakers like Decware, Omega or other similar one in the region of 94+ dB @ 8 ohm Hugo 2 drive them okay, not very loud but enough for moderate listening levels, where Dave will do so much better because of the higher 2 watts output.
Always is best to try before buy, but sometimes if you read good reviews is more then enough for the above mentioned products.
So moderate listening levels near field both Hugo 2 and Dave paired directly with speakers will give you fantastic sound, that cannot be reproduced by any headphones in my opinion.

Our daily experience with Hugo2 or DAVE is different, I would like to clarfiy this, otherwise people may think that it is sounds like you have put the handbrake.
No, both Hugo and DAVE can go very loud with our Omegas (97db), we tried it the first evening, when
my good friend had just bought Hugo2 (look above for the walnut Omegas test setup), and after a couple of minutes we had to lower the volume, the room is about 50m2. And there is more:
The sound does not get congested at higher volumes, I have not heard them running out of steam yet. Of course it is not a party combo. As soon as there are more than a few people talking in the same room, they will not suffice. And by the way, the sound is so rich with timbre, you do not have to turn up the volume to compensate for the missing quality. Using the word "nearfield" does not say anything here. You can see that the speaker setup is nearfield in the photo (maple Omegas), because distance to the speakers is less than a couple of meters, but the soundfield expands to the window in the back, I have yet to compare this with the horns (105db).
I strongly hope that more people have a chance to listen to it. And last my personal opinion: The wizard is the Blu2 with its double coax, I could not live just with DAVE any more.

 

[miketlse]

I get the impression that What HiFi like the Blu 2.

 

[musicday]

I get the impression that What HiFi like the Blu 2.

Nice, thanks for the link and quite fresh also 22.11

 

[Deftone]

I get the impression that What HiFi like the Blu 2.

They sure do love to use the word sense.

 

[tunes]

I have heard amazing things about Omega speakers but concerned that my love of headphones will spoil a less detailed high frequency response with a single driver speaker without a tweeter. Is there enough upper range clarity, sparkle and shimmer to compete with speakers using ribbon or dome tweeters??



Our daily experience with Hugo2 or DAVE is different, I would like to clarfiy this, otherwise people may think that it is sounds like you have put the handbrake.
No, both Hugo and DAVE can go very loud with our Omegas (97db), we tried it the first evening, when
my good friend had just bought Hugo2 (look above for the walnut Omegas test setup), and after a couple of minutes we had to lower the volume, the room is about 50m2. And there is more:
The sound does not get congested at higher volumes, I have not heard them running out of steam yet. Of course it is not a party combo. As soon as there are more than a few people talking in the same room, they will not suffice. And by the way, the sound is so rich with timbre, you do not have to turn up the volume to compensate for the missing quality. Using the word "nearfield" does not say anything here. You can see that the speaker setup is nearfield in the photo (maple Omegas), because distance to the speakers is less than a couple of meters, but the soundfield expands to the window in the back, I have yet to compare this with the horns (105db).
I strongly hope that more people have a chance to listen to it. And last my personal opinion: The wizard is the Blu2 with its double coax, I could not live just with DAVE any more.[/QUOTE]

 

[GryphonGuy]

They sure do love to use the word sense.

3 times. Based on usage, they love DAVE more (7 times on page) and blu even more (11 times on page).

Regards
GG

 

[musicday]

3 times. Based on usage, they love DAVE more (7 times on page) and blu even more (11 times on page).

Regards
GG

I will love Dave more when I will own it

 

[Matez]

The Omega monitors get a great write-up in this review by @ray-dude , especially in direct driven mode. https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/chord-hugo-2.22209/reviews#review-19435
An alternative is the KEF LS50 wireless. @Peter Hyatt has just added a pair to his Hugo 2, and he describes the sound as "something special".

In their price range, LS50 does sound awesome indeed.

 

[aldavey]

In their price range, LS50 does sound awesome indeed.

My understanding is that connecting an external DAC - H2, Dave - will provide no benefit as the LS50 wireless internal DACs will be the final link in the digital chain.
This also applies to the aux input as anything connected to this input also goes through the LS50's digital conversion.

 

[musicday]

My understanding is that connecting an external DAC - H2, Dave - will provide no benefit as the LS50 wireless internal DACs will be the final link in the digital chain.
This also applies to the aux input as anything connected to this input also goes through the LS50's digital conversion.

I think that you are right. To benefit from the high quality sound output of Hugo 2/Dave you need to connect high sensitivity speakers direct, so you get best possible sound, without any alterations.

 

[Christer]

3 times. Based on usage, they love DAVE more (7 times on page) and blu even more (11 times on page).

Regards
GG

But they also briefly mentioned the weird loading mechanism of BLU 2 which reminds me personally of my mum's waffle iron lid from the fifties and is about as sophisticated to use as one of those.

 

[Christer]

In their price range, LS50 does sound awesome indeed.

I am pretty sure it does, without having heard it yet. The passive predecessor is one of the best bookshelf speakers on the market.Nevertheless quite interesting to read about people who used to rave about the SQ of HUGO 2 and very aggressively defend its against any criticism,now raving about the inbuilt DAC in their active speakers.
Possibly without even knowing they are doing so before it's been pointed out to them.

 

[Triode User]

My understanding is that connecting an external DAC - H2, Dave - will provide no benefit as the LS50 wireless internal DACs will be the final link in the digital chain.
This also applies to the aux input as anything connected to this input also goes through the LS50's digital conversion.

I have not listened to the LS50 apart from briefly at a Hi Fi show but I don't think your statement is entirely correct. Others have said that the essential character of the Chord DACs still comes through despite the LS50 ADC / DAC processes.

 

[Triode User]

I think that you are right. To benefit from the high quality sound output of Hugo 2/Dave you need to connect high sensitivity speakers direct, so you get best possible sound, without any alterations.

Well high sensitivity speakers direct may be one option but it is not the only one and some will say that in many ways it is easily bettered by having a high quality external amp and speakers that can then be driven by that amp.

Then you can hear REAL music, not that flimsy stuff that you direct guys like!