[ZappaMan]

Hd800s sound really good with Dave. The orb/Neil young …..

 

[Rob Watts]

What's also surprising is the fact that crossfeed on Dave has much more profound effect.

I'm not sure exactly why this is happening.
On TT2 and also hugo2 crossfeed wasn't changing that much. Actually I preffered it to be off everything was squashed together and the depth was not as clear as it is on Dave.

With Dave crossfeed is huge. I mean the image really is more upfront you. The depth and instrument placement is completely changed - of course assuming that recording has it.
With classical music I'm like 99% of the time using crossfeed 3.

My guess why this is happening is that:
- high frequencies are more extended on Dave than TT2/hugo2
- better clarity and overall small nuances are clearer on Dave especially in higher frequencies
- as we know a lot of information about space and placement of sounds are contained in high frequencies

As far as I know implementation of xfeed is exactly the same on every chord dac.
So it's really interesting to see how much of a difference you can still hear. In my opinion that's the reason why dark sounding DACs have problems with overall soundstage.

It would be interesting to hear @Rob Watts view on why there is so much difference in crossfeed between his DACs - at least to my ears.

When developing Hugo 2 I took a prototype onto a flight, and was listening to a new Hildegard of Bingen track, with bells being played. But I initially thought the bells were from the aircraft, not the recording - it was a surprising experience. With cross-feed off, it was not convincing at all, back to sound inside your head. With the original Hugo, I never got that out of head experience from cross-feed. Hugo 2 was a big improvement in depth and transparency - so better small signal accuracy equates to cross-feed being much more effective - and Dave is a big improvement in small signal accuracy and transparency over TT2.

 

[Ards]

Would you recommend the Farad3 or Mscaler for a solo Dave? Which one gets more benefit? Thanks

That's a tough one. I think the power upgrade for the DAVE has made the biggest improvement overall, but the MScaler was a necessary improvement to the DAVE as well. Perhaps, without the MScaler, the DAVE power upgrade would be less pronounced because it's also highlighting the benefits of the MScaler...

But if I were starting over, I think I'd go DAVE, then power supply, to build the foundation, then add MScaler and then a power supply for the MScaler.

 

[Ards]

Hey guys, which of you is closer to me? (I am Leicestershire) If you offer coffee I’m very happy to get in my car and bring my Sean Jacobs version.

I'm down in the South West, but cannot physically accommodate the DC4, so would be a wasted journey!!

 

[Ards]

Does the Farad Super3 power supplies for the DAVE come with power cords included?

No. The requirement for three power sockets and three cords is the downside here with the Farad3 solution. This can be difficult to accommodate and expensive to set up if you like to use high end cables. For my purchase I picked up three of Farad's own power cords and will experiment later with my own cables to see if any further gains can be made.

 

[Reactcore]

No. The requirement for three power sockets and three cords is the downside here with the Farad3 solution. This can be difficult to accommodate and expensive to set up if you like to use high end cables. For my purchase I picked up three of Farad's own power cords and will experiment later with my own cables to see if any further gains can be made.

Ive seen @MvRBE10 terminated the 3 Farad AC cables into one plug. That saves you 2 sockets. But he also mentioned this wont be approved to sell in official market just cause of EU regulations about 16A fusing.

 

[MvRBE10]

So DIY and problem solved and much cheaper

 

[Reactcore]

Lol ever since i got HMS & Dave, i'm hunting Redbook CD's to Rip myself.. i only want original 44/16 content as it just sound better compared to most remaster and MQA stuff

 

[MvRBE10]

Lol ever since i got HMS & Dave, i'm hunting Redbook CD's to Rip myself.. i only want original 44/16 content as it just sound better compared to most remaster and MQA stuff

Try also some shirley horn ‘yesterday’ just downloaded her collection.

 

[Slim1970]

No. The requirement for three power sockets and three cords is the downside here with the Farad3 solution. This can be difficult to accommodate and expensive to set up if you like to use high end cables. For my purchase I picked up three of Farad's own power cords and will experiment later with my own cables to see if any further gains can be made.

Thanks for the response. I was reading on Farad's site and saw no mention of power cords being included and wanted to be sure.

You bring up a great point with accomodations. I'll have to get a larger power conditioner to fit the 3 additional power cords. The improvements in sound seem to make the purchase a worthwhile investment.

 

[Somatic]

I've been driving my Tannoy Canterbury GR speakers directly from the DAVE RCA outs for some time now. They are 8 Ohm nominal 5 Ohm minimal impedance. As long as you don't listen very loudly and/or do a lot of digital EQ (thus eating up the headroom), you'll be fine. I'm expecting a Benchmark AHB2 within a few weeks, so hopefully I won't lose much in terms of transparency while gaining more headroom.

Did you find this pairing good? Do you remember if you retained transparency?

 

[Somatic]

Thinking of buying the AHB2 again. This time pairing with Dave instead of TT2. Do I still use XLR interconnects to hook them up? Thanks.

 

[801evan]

What's also surprising is the fact that crossfeed on Dave has much more profound effect.

I'm not sure exactly why this is happening.
On TT2 and also hugo2 crossfeed wasn't changing that much. Actually I preffered it to be off everything was squashed together and the depth was not as clear as it is on Dave.

With Dave crossfeed is huge. I mean the image really is more upfront you. The depth and instrument placement is completely changed - of course assuming that recording has it.
With classical music I'm like 99% of the time using crossfeed 3.

My guess why this is happening is that:
- high frequencies are more extended on Dave than TT2/hugo2
- better clarity and overall small nuances are clearer on Dave especially in higher frequencies
- as we know a lot of information about space and placement of sounds are contained in high frequencies

As far as I know implementation of xfeed is exactly the same on every chord dac.
So it's really interesting to see how much of a difference you can still hear. In my opinion that's the reason why dark sounding DACs have problems with overall soundstage.

It would be interesting to hear @Rob Watts view on why there is so much difference in crossfeed between his DACs - at least to my ears.

There's a bit more space in-between in the mids and up and the Dave will be on the leaner side if the chain isn't optimized so crossfeed is more perceptible over tt2/Hugo 2.

 

[Triode User]

Thinking of buying the AHB2 again. This time pairing with Dave instead of TT2. Do I still use XLR interconnects to hook them up? Thanks.

In theory the RCA output from Dave is slightly better than XLR but in practice I use XLR from my Dave to my Pass Labs power amp because that is a fully configured balanced design, If you use the XLR output then I have found a cheap pro cable such as the Belden 8760 to be about as good as it gets.

 

[Somatic]

Anyone know the exact volume to volume match the TT2 and Dave? Doing comparisons, thanks.