CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE

[Darkliner]

I borrowed a Dave again.
does anyone here use USB into the Dave as primary input? or is everyone on the dual BNCs?

I use usb into Dave as primary input. But I use a innous phoenix reclocker before that.

 

[DJJEZ]

How's the Holo May sounding in comparison to the Dave so far?

It's seriously impressive. Give me more time and i will do a detailed comparison

 

[DJJEZ]

I borrowed a Dave again.
does anyone here use USB into the Dave as primary input? or is everyone on the dual BNCs?

what do you think of it?

 

[Roasty]

what do you think of it?

I'm not entirely sure if I'm getting the whole/proper Dave experience.. which is why I asked the question on USB input. unfortunately, I don't have the mscaler this time round, nor do I have a source with toslink/optical coax.

I'll have some time over the weekend to move components and cables around, but to be completely honest, I'm not going to try too hard to "make this work" as i only borrowed it so I can have a dac for my lounge setup (moved the Rockna into the study, after lending out the May).

I don't want to ruffle any feathers since this is the Dave thread, but I can see why people like it, but at the same time, also why some people don't.

 

[GryphonGuy]

I borrowed a Dave again.
does anyone here use USB into the Dave as primary input? or is everyone on the dual BNCs?

Once you add an SRC-DX USB to DX adapter (USB to dual BNC), you'll wonder why you ever listened to the USB input. Using the same USB cable and port on the PC, the difference for me is night and day, even on the 4FS material (single BNC mode) but the 16FS material (Dual BNC) is mind-blowingly great. When DAVE switches to the 705.6kHz DX mode, I swear there is magic that happens inside DAVE (I speak romantically here).

Just for reference, my DAVE, in comparison between straight USB input and DX via SRC-DX adapter, the USB sounds fuzzy, loosely defined, and slightly edgy in the top end relatively speaking. The SRC-DX on the otherhand has a blacker background, bigger soundstage, more focused soundstage, pristinely pure but natural sounding top-end. The DAVE's ability to reproduce accurate sounding timbre of instruments is enhanced because the low-level signals in the top-end are where finesse happens for me. A tiny triangle hit that is barely audible but very clear against a "black" background of silence can thrill me.

So I am a convert. Native USB input port is now dead to me on my DAVE. That's a change in me after about 6 years of happy DAVE ownership.

Regards
GG

 

[marcmccalmont]

Has anyone auditioned the Playback Designs MPD-8?

https://www.monoandstereo.com/2019/04/playback-designs-mpd-8-dream-dac-review.html?m=1

 

[801evan]

Once you add an SRC-DX USB to DX adapter (USB to dual BNC), you'll wonder why you ever listened to the USB input. Using the same USB cable and port on the PC, the difference for me is night and day, even on the 4FS material (single BNC mode) but the 16FS material (Dual BNC) is mind-blowingly great. When DAVE switches to the 705.6kHz DX mode, I swear there is magic that happens inside DAVE (I speak romantically here).

Just for reference, my DAVE, in comparison between straight USB input and DX via SRC-DX adapter, the USB sounds fuzzy, loosely defined, and slightly edgy in the top end relatively speaking. The SRC-DX on the otherhand has a blacker background, bigger soundstage, more focused soundstage, pristinely pure but natural sounding top-end. The DAVE's ability to reproduce accurate sounding timbre of instruments is enhanced because the low-level signals in the top-end are where finesse happens for me. A tiny triangle hit that is barely audible but very clear against a "black" background of silence can thrill me.

So I am a convert. Native USB input port is now dead to me on my DAVE. That's a change in me after about 6 years of happy DAVE ownership.

Regards
GG

That is correct ...after reading the last couple pages here, it reminded me how I even forgot to keep track of the 'high energy and detailed upper mids' on the Dave at first listen as i moved on to the src dx route.

I was underwhelmed with Dave on USB and felt happy coz I saved some money and it was exactly how I heard it in a store demo years back. I have observed and would agree to the impressions of other people on what seems to be the unique quality of the Dave that is described as 'more detail than usual'. Basically, too much going on on the upper mids that it lost balance. But after doing src dx and cdt via toslink, a lot of that was gone and proper balance was back. It is here that after a proper warm up of at least 24 hours that it really starts to peel away from the other DACs.

Also the Dave has a lot of open ports in the back. Cover them up and enjoy less interference.

The upcoming ifi zen one sig would be a good alternative to the src dx because it will probably have a better USB input implementation then you can do coax out. I personally prefer the original frequency sampling rate than oversampling to the Dave due to my multi stage filtering. Oversampling sounds more flat and timbre is shifted.

 

[Sampajanna]

What did you cover the back ports with?

 

[801evan]

What did you cover the back ports with?

 

[Sampajanna]

Thanks. That is interesting. Did you make those or buy them?

 

[801evan]

It's audioquest rca caps and xlr caps is from AliExpress, gold is better performance. Bnc to rca adapter is from AliExpress

For the USB port do electrical tape over copper tape over electrical tape over copper tape over electrical tape.

 

[Roasty]

hooked up the Dave via aes/ebu cable from a Singxer su-6 ddc.

well, the aes connection is a fair bit nicer to my ears than USB. low end is stronger and the edginess/grain and harshness I heard with the highs has gone away.

*edit wow the bass is bloody punchy! again, much nicer top end.

 

[Jawed]

hooked up the Dave via aes/ebu cable from a Singxer su-6 ddc.

well, the aes connection is a fair bit nicer to my ears than USB. low end is stronger and the edginess/grain and harshness I heard with the highs has gone away.

*edit wow the bass is bloody punchy! again, much nicer top end.

Hmm, you're one of those very rare people who's tried AES on DAVE.

AES always seemed to be a logical solution to the RF noise related sound quality problems of BNC (or USB), since common-mode noise is the primary sickness that afflicts electrical digital inputs. AES should genuinely isolate DAVE from a lot of common-mode RF noise.

I think it's quite exciting to find someone who hears a substantial benefit here.

 

[Roasty]

Hmm, you're one of those very rare people who's tried AES on DAVE.

AES always seemed to be a logical solution to the RF noise related sound quality problems of BNC (or USB), since common-mode noise is the primary sickness that afflicts electrical digital inputs. AES should genuinely isolate DAVE from a lot of common-mode RF noise.

I think it's quite exciting to find someone who hears a substantial benefit here.

Oh I didn't know it that. thanks for the info! I can only use either usb or aes right now.. just glad I decided to try aes.

I'm using a synergistic research lvl 2 aes/ebu cord. Dave does sound much better with aes. I would have liked to use my Bibacord AES cable but it is being sent back for an upgrade.

I just checked the Dave crossfeed and it is on setting 3. tried 0 and the bass impact is substantially less. seems airier up top with 0 though, but the relative lack of low end made me swap back to 3 quite fast.

 

[Jawed]

Oh I didn't know it that. thanks for the info! I can only use either usb or aes right now.. just glad I decided to try aes.

I'm using a synergistic research lvl 2 aes/ebu cord. Dave does sound much better with aes. I would have liked to use my Bibacord AES cable but it is being sent back for an upgrade.

I just checked the Dave crossfeed and it is on setting 3. tried 0 and the bass impact is substantially less. seems airier up top with 0 though, but the relative lack of low end made me swap back to 3 quite fast.

Your description of the sound of Crossfeed agrees with mine, though I have the opposite preference.