ecwl
500+ Head-Fier
Huh? But the stock optical and USB cables that come with DAVE and M-Scaler can handle 24/96.
CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE
- Thread starter magiccabbage
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I can't test to compare ,since it's too short. The Sonorous one can as well, theoretically, if i play the windows sound options test tone through it at 24/96 it goes through, but if i Tidal Mqa track comes along it switches outputs.
Is it me or they screwed the manual up? https://chordelectronics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Dave-User-manual.pdf
I followed the manual and I believe they miswrote the position of the left and right xlr connector. The Dave sounded really bad I was regretting my purchase 2 days into the Dave before I swapped my xlr cables connector around and got relieved!
I followed the manual and I believe they miswrote the position of the left and right xlr connector. The Dave sounded really bad I was regretting my purchase 2 days into the Dave before I swapped my xlr cables connector around and got relieved!
ecwl
500+ Head-Fier
Huh... You’re right. The manual is wrong. Didn’t even notice it because I just assumed the connector closest to the right speaker is the right XLR connector and same for left.
I've just stated my personal opinions, just like with the m-scaler.I take what Adrian says with a big grain of salt. I advise you to do the same.
You can take this with a big grain of salt though, this cable made a bigger difference then the m-scaler (for the better) and i'm sure it's because the old optical cable was crap. It still sounded better than a 100 euro usb cable + jitterbug out of a macbook pro though so i'm not sure what's happening. I feel like i got a new dac though.
I can only conclude that's why the m-scaler sounded so bad and i'm getting it for another audition tomorrow.
JaZZ
Headphoneus Supremus
Good move!
I also felt the M Scaler made the sound brighter, but didn't equate it with «worse» – it was just brighter. It took me a few seconds to reduce the treble on my equalizer by a few µdB. Synergy is a dangerous thing (given that no audio component is really neutral, let alone sound transducers). It can fool you into thinking the less honest electronics component be the better one. Whereas to my ears the M Scaler is a revolutionary step towards high fidelity. It manages to make 44.1 kHz recordings sound better (more lifelike) than hi-res recordings, and hi-res recording still better than without it.
Well for me , with usb it was a lot brighter and with a noisy background, less definition, etc out of gaming pc. Better out of macbook, but still not as black a background as optical.
On optical though it was borderline unlistenable with the amount of smoothness added, it only later hit me that even solo Dave, though not as bright is a bit smoother on optical than usb, with a less clarity.
So much so that i could never go past CF2, since the image became too blurry, even at 2 sometimes.
With the new cable it's just as laser focused on CF3 as on CF0 and i honestly barely recognize my playlist. There's much more depth, the timbre is much improved and there's a sense of higher resolution.
I'm still shocked there's such a difference between optical cables when the popular opinion is "they all sound the same ". I don't know if Kabeldirekt or other "cheap" usb cables are closer to the QED or the dumpster fire of the Sonorous i was using, but it kinda makes me also want to try a better power cable.
I'm sure this will fix the weird veil on the m-scaler, but i'm still left with the brighter sound that i'm not sure how much the ferrites and lpsu's can compensate for.
With this new cable Dave sounds even darker though so maybe a bit of brightness wouldn't be the end of the world.
I guess i'll see tomorrow.
JaZZ
Headphoneus Supremus
Dont forget that you're not bound to your headphone's factory setting! (In case it's still too bright.)
IMHO the most important thing with optical connections to Dave is that they fit tightly and click into place. Dave's housing and recessed optical inputs prevent this with optical cables with large connectors. Did your original optical cable fit correctly? It should be hard to disconnect? Perhaps high signal attenuation is the issue not jitter. Rob Watts doesn't do bs. I had problems with a van den hul optocoupler optical cable. The optical fibre must have failed as it didn't work at all, even though it transmitted the red light.
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Well the Z1R is far from bright, but i guess i just prefer a darker sound signature. I haven't tried eq'ing my headphones yet, that's a whole other can of worms i'm not sure i'm ready to open.
No the old one wouldn't click in Dave(thought it would go in deeper) or the m-scaler, it didn't even lock into the m-scaler, one nudge and it would fall off. It doesn't really click securely into anything , not like the new one.
Has any one tried the Supra Optical cable? It is suppose to transmit high band width, guaranteed for 32 bit/384 kHz. Up to 20 metre cables are available. I'm not sure if the Supra connectors will fit the Dave though?
That was the problem, attenuation and focus on the optical receiver, not jitter. I have no idea why Chord fit recessed optical connectors. I experienced this problem on a Chord QBD 76 DAC years ago.
Yes the XLR connections shown in the Chord User Manual (photo in section 3.4, page 14) is incorrect. All Chord Choral products that have XLR balanced or RCA single connections have the red / right channel on the RHS of the unit as you look down at the unit with the units front facing towards you. I did the same thing when I first connected it up and it didn't sound good. So I guessed the manual was wrong and changed them over.....and then wow...great sound !
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