[Rob Watts]

I am slightly confused by this paragraph @Rob Watts ! Do you mean the DSD filtering in DAVE is better than the original Hugo but Hugo 2 is even better? What about Blu2?

Yes technically it is better in that the filtering is greater than 200dB at 88.2kHz - so less out of band distortion and noise, and a warmer more natural SQ. But it still decimates. I prefer it to the DSD+ mode on Dave, which is why this new filter is used on Blu 2.

Congrats, and welcome to the Club!

Mine sounded great from the start, but I found the treble to be slightly enhanced or rather separated from the rest during the first two days, an issue that's completely disappeared after that. Later I read Rob Watts' comparison between his used unit and a brand new one, which sounded exactly the same to his ears. So maybe I have to accept that it was all just in my mind. After all the phenomenon is real, as it doesn't just happen to me...

I have had about 8 units (different prototype PCB's) and couldn't say I ever heard changes that I could put down to hardware break-in. But many times I would hear a change one month in with new code on old units; this I put down to brain break-in - most common being he sense of the soundstage opening up with deeper depth. Having said all that, all brand new units had a lot of measurements done beforehand, so would have clocked up 8 hours or more before listening.

I thought all Chord DACs convert DSD to PCM internally to apply the filtering...

Yes they do. But this conversion in the M scaler is done by the new Hugo 2 DSD filter, so it always outputs 705.6 kHz PCM from DSD64-DSD512.

 

[hattrick15]

Yes they do. But this conversion in the M scaler is done by the new Hugo 2 DSD filter, so it always outputs 705.6 kHz PCM from DSD64-DSD512.

Does this mean that I should set the DAVE to PCM+ mode when using with the Blu2 when playing DSD files?

 

[jonstatt]

Does this mean that I should set the DAVE to PCM+ mode when using with the Blu2 when playing DSD files?

I don’t think so because it is already PCM by the time it reaches DAVE and I believe no further filtering takes place. However Rob did mention that the HF filter on Dave is best set to Off when in use with Blu 2

 

[tunes]

I don’t think so because it is already PCM by the time it reaches DAVE and I believe no further filtering takes place. However Rob did mention that the HF filter on Dave is best set to Off when in use with Blu 2

Why is the volume on DAVE in negative dB for lower output rather than just making no sound at zero??

 

[tunes]

Hmmm.. I thought you said you were looking for a new battery powered transport since your DAP cannot stream music?

"So now I am looking for a battery transport and storage device to connect to DAVE via optical since can still get a 15 foot Toslink cable that will work across the room and eliminate all the fuss over EMI noise, ferrites and mains issues."

The MSI laptop happens to fit the bill but I understand it's not for everyone.

For convienence purposes one would be able to install an application such as Team Viewer or similar and wirelessly change their tracks.

Does the MSI LAPTOP play music files from solid state storage or an internal hard drive. The spinning drive without a solid state buffer will introduce noise won’t it?

 

[Triode User]

Does the MSI LAPTOP play music files from solid state storage or an internal hard drive. The spinning drive without a solid state buffer will introduce noise won’t it?

I thought that SSD drives can also introduce electrical noise. Indeed a I have a vague recollection that good internal hard drives (ie spinning) can be better than SSD.

Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks.

 

[maxh22]

Does the MSI LAPTOP play music files from solid state storage or an internal hard drive. The spinning drive without a solid state buffer will introduce noise won’t it?

I thought that SSD drives can also introduce electrical noise. Indeed a I have a vague recollection that good internal hard drives (ie spinning) can be better than SSD.

Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks.

I mostly stream files from Tidal but I did have about 100 songs stored on the built in NVME SSD, later I moved the songs to a 64 gb SD card which gave a slight improvement in sound quality. Most last gen MSI laptops come with an SD card reader which turned out to be very handy, but they recently removed it from the just released MSI laptops but thankfully kept the toslink output.

I use to read a lot of Romaz's posts so I do recall him saying on his blog at computer audiophile that he thought playing music from an SD card sounded the best.

His preference:
SD card> NVME SSD> first or second gen SSD> HDD>modern SSD.

 

[TheAttorney]

I thought that SSD drives can also introduce electrical noise. Indeed a I have a vague recollection that good internal hard drives (ie spinning) can be better than SSD.
.

From memory of various romaz posts on his servers thread, both SSD and spinning drives introduce RFI/EMI/etc noise, and SSD can introduce more such noise than spinning drives, and the faster (more recent) SSDs introduce more such noise than the slower older SSDs.

Personally, I'll be sticking with SSDs for my next server, as I can't stand the physical noise of any moving parts. And hope that the designer applies the necessary SATA filters etc to minimise that RFI noise.

 

[maxh22]

From memory of various romaz posts on his servers thread, both SSD and spinning drives introduce RFI/EMI/etc noise, and SSD can introduce more such noise than spinning drives, and the faster (more recent) SSDs introduce more such noise than the slower older SSDs.

Personally, I'll be sticking with SSDs for my next server, as I can't stand the physical noise of any moving parts. And hope that the designer applies the necessary SATA filters etc to minimise that RFI noise.

Yes that's all true to varying degrees. After comparing files being played back on an NVME SSD and a Samsung 850 EVO I prefer the NVME SSD since it sounds more relaxed and open, the SD card is better but there is a larger delta between the NVME SSD and the 850 EVO then an SD card and NVME SSD. Since NVME SSD's have gone down in price over the years its more affordable than ever to build a sever around them.

SD cards are terrible as OS drives on Windows 10 since they are unoptimized and and will cause many slow downs even when doing simple stuff such as web browsing and excel spreed sheets.

 

[Jawed]

After comparing files being played back on an NVME SSD and a Samsung 850 EVO I prefer the NVME SSD since it sounds more relaxed and open, the SD card is better but there is a larger delta between the NVME SSD and the 850 EVO then an SD card and NVME SSD.

What is the entire playback chain? I'm curious if this is a chain with maximum RF filtering/isolation into DAVE and headphones ... or something else...

 

[maxh22]

What is the entire playback chain? I'm curious if this is a chain with maximum RF filtering/isolation into DAVE and headphones ... or something else...

The playback chain is very simple:

MSI laptop with all peripherals unplugged>Jriver (Realtek ASIO)> Kabledirekt optical cable> Hugo TT

 

[Jawed]

The playback chain is very simple:

MSI laptop with all peripherals unplugged>Jriver (Realtek ASIO)> Kabledirekt optical cable> Hugo TT

TT is driving headphones? Running on battery?

 

[musickid]

Many congratulations Delirium!

 

[hattrick15]

I don’t think so because it is already PCM by the time it reaches DAVE and I believe no further filtering takes place. However Rob did mention that the HF filter on Dave is best set to Off when in use with Blu 2

My choices are either PCM+ or DSD+. My thinking is that if Blu2 is converting a DSD file to PCM then I should set my DAVE to PCM+ mode (even if the original file was DSD).

@Rob Watts Hope you can clarify for me.

 

[Rob Watts]

My choices are either PCM+ or DSD+. My thinking is that if Blu2 is converting a DSD file to PCM then I should set my DAVE to PCM+ mode (even if the original file was DSD).

@Rob Watts Hope you can clarify for me.

Actually I think it would be the same, but it's been a long time since I coded Dave - a 705/768 kHz file would be treated identically in DSD+ or PCM+ modes. Having said that, I keep my Daves' in PCM+ modes with M scalers.