[iDesign]

I find it surprising Rob is not working on a successor. The level of following for Dave is immense for a HIFI component of this price bracket. Even if Chord did a mark two with separate redesigned power supply and chassis, better shielding, tweaked filters I would be am immediate buyer and I am sure I would not be alone. You don’t have to change the tap length if it doesn’t improve things. Fujifilm for instance just released the 4th edition of their flagship crop camera line the XT3 and didn’t even change the sensor. They are still backed up on orders and that is not Coronavirus related.

I think not releasing a Dave II after 5 years is a missed commercial opportunity tbh. Still nobody could accuse Chord of being money-grabbing

It is only surprising because we live in a hyper-consumerist society where companies like Apple, Fuji, and others have driven you to expect new products every year. Fortunately, Rob Watts rejects the notion of making small, dishonest changes to existing products and then advertising them as new so consumers feel they need the latest version.

I'm glad that there's no successor on the horizon. Who needs something better than DAVE + M Scaler!?

This.

 

[vellocetplus]

I have gone upto +8dB with Blu2 connected and playing DSD; +5dB with PCM but I like to listen loud.

G

And that is with your Voxativ 9.87s which are 4 Ohm? I thought Rob advised against driving 4 Ohm speakers altogether.

 

[astrostar59]

High end single box solutions tend not so sell well in large numbers. I have no idea why. Possibly it is too big a risk to have a one-size fits all design? Many high end DACs such as MSB, dCS, TotalDAC make big profits on ext clocks, PS, bridge etc.

The DAVE then MScaler has let many to buy at 8K level, then bolt on later. They may not have spent more at the start.

 

[JaZZ]

Music...

...that lets you forget Corona & Co. for 8 minutes.

 

[Skyhawk182]

Perhaps this question has been asked before. I looked, albeit not super hard, there are simply waaaaay to many posts.
Does adding an Mscaler to a DAVE make the most substantial portion of the DAVE redundant? We are paying for taps. Using an Mscaler with a Dave would simply go around the build in WTA, would it not?

Is there a laymans explanation of the benefits of the 20 element pulse array over the 10 of the TT2?

Thanks in advance.

 

[hmartin]

Perhaps this question has been asked before. I looked, albeit not super hard, there are simply waaaaay to many posts.
Does adding an Mscaler to a DAVE make the most substantial portion of the DAVE redundant? We are paying for taps. Using an Mscaler with a Dave would simply go around the build in WTA, would it not?

Is there a laymans explanation of the benefits of the 20 element pulse array over the 10 of the TT2?

Thanks in advance.

Better noise performance (3dB) and better resolution (6dB), but dave has also better noise shaper so the improvement is much larger than just 2x the number of elements.

 

[HeeBroG]

And that is with your Voxativ 9.87s which are 4 Ohm? I thought Rob advised against driving 4 Ohm speakers altogether.

The crossover-less driver has an impedance of 10.5 Ohms. I'm guessing that doesn't change very much putting it in a box.
I've been connecting it direct for the almost 2 years now without any issues. The speakers are about 3.1m from my listening position.
I can get up to 100-103dB SPL from here using an SPL app on my iPhone on some classical crescendos.
I would prefer more headroom so am eagerly awaiting the digital amps.
I have no plans to add an analog amp in the interim as the drive is enough for most material.
I won't trade the loss in transparency for more drive.
With the same app I've measured 100-105dB at my local concert hall (mid-hall seats) with some classical pieces. Quartets are in the 75-80dB range. Some local jazz clubs with amplified big band stuff also come out at 100-105dB.

To give you an idea of the volume I listen at; I play my Focal Utopia at -20 to-18dB with Blu2 attached.

G

 

[Ratephi]

I appreciate this is a topic that has been brought up a few times here and there but I was never able to read a solid conclusive position on it (the 1000 pages of this thread are not always easy to scan..). The topic being "powering DAVE from batteries".

I'm referring in particular to the scenario of plugging DAVE into a battery source (e.g. Goal Zero Yeti or other similar battery packs). In other words, I am not considering any scenario which would require the modding of the DAVE itself...

Can anybody help me understand whether or not that has been tested, if results have been achieved and whether that is overall something worth trying or not?

Thanks!!

 

[Triode User]

I appreciate this is a topic that has been brought up a few times here and there but I was never able to read a solid conclusive position on it (the 1000 pages of this thread are not always easy to scan..). The topic being "powering DAVE from batteries".

I'm referring in particular to the scenario of plugging DAVE into a battery source (e.g. Goal Zero Yeti or other similar battery packs). In other words, I am not considering any scenario which would require the modding of the DAVE itself...

Can anybody help me understand whether or not that has been tested, if results have been achieved and whether that is overall something worth trying or not?

Thanks!!

It may be that the quality of the mains from such a device is inferior to the mains from the wall socket. Because mains voltage is involved you will need to have an earth to Dave for safety and wouldn't that defeat any intended isolation? I would say proceed with caution if you decide to have a go.

 

[Ratephi]

It may be that the quality of the mains from such a device is inferior to the mains from the wall socket. Because mains voltage is involved you will need to have an earth to Dave for safety and wouldn't that defeat any intended isolation? I would say proceed with caution if you decide to have a go.

Thanks, appreciate the word of caution.
I literally don't have a clue about this topic so please excuse in advance any stupid questions I might ask... What you are saying is that, because of the high voltage involved in powering DAVE, I would necessarily need to have DAVE grounded but a battery pack solution like e.g. the Goal Zero would not offer that. Am I correct?

 

[Triode User]

Thanks, appreciate the word of caution.
I literally don't have a clue about this topic so please excuse in advance any stupid questions I might ask... What you are saying is that, because of the high voltage involved in powering DAVE, I would necessarily need to have DAVE grounded but a battery pack solution like e.g. the Goal Zero would not offer that. Am I correct?

I am saying that Dave is not a double insulated electrical item and therefore requires to be earthed for safety. The Goal Zero is by definition not connected to earth so you would still have to connect Dave to the mains earth. It would not be safe to use Dave without it being earthed just in case of a fault situation.

 

[Ratephi]

I am saying that Dave is not a double insulated electrical item and therefore requires to be earthed for safety. The Goal Zero is by definition not connected to earth so you would still have to connect Dave to the mains earth. It would not be safe to use Dave without it being earthed just in case of a fault situation.

Very clear, thank you again! It's quite obvious that it's clearly not worth the risk then...

I guess this would not apply to other lower voltage devices (e.g. M-scaler), correct?

 

[Triode User]

Very clear, thank you again! It's quite obvious that it's clearly not worth the risk then...

I guess this would not apply to other lower voltage devices (e.g. M-scaler), correct?

Correct, those devices do not have mains voltage in them and so do not require to be earthed for safety reasons. There are some specific cases where Rob has advised that earthing the cases can be beneficial but it is not a safety issue.

 

[rgs9200m]

Is there any way to install (in Windows 10) both the Chord Driver for the DAVE and the KEF driver for the LS50W speakers?
I can't seem to get the KEF driver to load when the Chord Driver is installed..

(I use the Chord for headphone listening only and want to just hook up the KEF speakers to my computer via a USB cable so it uses the KEF's internal DAC.)

I'm hesitant to use the RCA inputs for the LS50s because I once fried a speaker from a spurious output from my computer, and I don't want that to happen to the KEFs.

 

[ZappaMan]

Is there any way to install (in Windows 10) both the Chord Driver for the DAVE and the KEF driver for the LS50W speakers?
I can't seem to get the KEF driver to load when the Chord Driver is installed..

(I use the Chord for headphone listening only and want to just hook up the KEF speakers to my computer via a USB cable so it uses the KEF's internal DAC.)

I'm hesitant to use the RCA inputs for the LS50s because I once fried a speaker from a spurious output from my computer, and I don't want that to happen to the KEFs.

When you say load, what do you mean?
After the drivers are installed, then you can choose between them in the sound options (icon in the system tray, area bottom right of the windows screen).