CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE
- Thread starter magiccabbage
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Due to the glue? and the solder points?
chesebert
18 Years An Extra-Hardcore Head-Fi'er
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Bad looking solder joints and I think I saw quite a bit of flux residue.
I think glue is fine
miketlse
Headphoneus Supremus
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Read this post.
It is easy to have cable mismatch problems preventing optical working at 192.
However even if Chord have not changed the design of their dacs, it is becoming more difficult to guarantee that the components in a music source will be able to stream 192 to the DAVE.
PhenixS1970
500+ Head-Fier
Thank you for this interesting read. Using the Auralic Aries G1 as source to DAVE optical worked flawless for me with these cables.
burbster
100+ Head-Fier
that post was interesting, but the complete opposite to my own experience. Without fail, the cheap plastic ‘free’ type toslink cable always supported 192 on my Dave, and hms with no issues, rock solid. Where as my aq diamond and qed reference, both glass, precision polished etc, would only ever support 96. I have a background in fibre optics but I am struggling to explain why the ‘superior’ cables behaved like this.
Hmmm I'm not an electrical engineer but I could even tell some of those solder joints looked suspect ... hmmm ...
It might be my optical card. Cheap S h i tz
shuttlepod
100+ Head-Fier
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For two weeks now, I have been listening to a Sean Jacobs ARC6 DC4 power supply hooked up to my Chord DAVE. It replaced a Sean Jacobs DC3, so I had already modified my DAVE to remove the stock SMPS. I bought the ARC6 used; a new one with the proper connections to a DAVE will cost you $10,000 USD.
Admittedly, that is a lot of money for a power supply, especially one that powers a DAVE, which can be bought on the used market for somewhere around $8000 USD if current listings are to be believed. Nevertheless, if you own a Chord DAVE and if you have the funds, I am hard pressed to think of another change for the same money that will improve your sound this much.
I’ll try to be succinct. The first words to enter my mind, approximately ten seconds into my first listen, were space and bass. That was followed quickly by vibrant. Then “resolution monster.” You don’t strain to hear these changes. They practically hit you in the face. Maybe it’s a cliché, but the ARC6 makes every single track sound new and better. Every single one. I’ll just quickly summarize my listening notes: deep black silence, easily heard improvements to bass in both quality and quantity (actually measurable), vivid colors, tonal density and richness, serious magnification including a lot of newly intelligible vocals, beautiful and true timbres, and powerful, controlled micro- and macro-dynamic swings.
Now I have not heard other replacement power supplies for the DAVE, so I can’t compare solutions from Farad or others. What I can do is give you a sense of the magnitude of the change I am hearing with other changes to my system. I certainly can’t think of any other power supply that has made anywhere near this impact, including Farad Super3s, Uptone LPS 1 and 1.2, and Uptone JS-2. None of these powered my Chord DAVE, but none had nearly the impact on the devices they did power. Paul Hynes made me a one-off custom power supply for my phono stage, but its impact is also dwarfed by the ARC6. Probably the closest is the Sean Jacobs DC3, but going from DC3 to ARC6 (I skipped the plain vanilla DC4) is quite clearly a larger leap than DAVE solo to DAVE plus DC3 (not that the DC3 is chopped liver – it is a huge and worthy upgrade for a fraction of the price, if you can find one).
In terms of overall system upgrades, perhaps the closest and most apt comparison is to the Taiko Extreme, which, not coincidentally, employs a heroic power supply. The Extreme and the ARC6 bring some of the same things to the table: increased tonal density and vibrancy, dynamics, bass quality and quantity. The overall magnitude of change in my system has been roughly similar. The Shunyata Everest, combined with a nice selection of Shunyata Sigma and Alpha power cords, was another great upgrade that transformed my system and did so across both digital and analog. But the sonic impact was not as great.
If I were advising someone on what to buy and when to buy it, I would prioritize an ARC6-DAVE combo over an Extreme or similarly priced server. This is especially the case if you already have a DAVE, but even if you don’t, a used DAVE plus ARC6 is going to cost you maybe 65% of what an Extreme will cost you (and that’s with a Euro that has declined a lot relative to the US dollar in recent months). All of this assumes that you already are using something better than an off-the-shelf computer as a music server.
Apart from the Extreme, I can’t think of any other change to my system that has been this dramatic, save for speakers. But I put speakers into a separate category, one that is highly personal.
Actually, if you own a Chord DAVE, I can think of one change that will give you greater bang for your buck: PGGB (see remastero.com). For a comparatively minimal investment, and assuming you can dedicate an appropriately powerful computer to remaster albums in your library, PGGB provides an incredible sonic lift. The combination of an ARC6-DAVE and music that has been PGGB’d is sublime. I have a nice vinyl setup (TW Acustic Raven, Raven tonearm, Miyajima cart, and Crayon phono stage) and PGGB albums sound better than all but a vanishingly small percentage of the same music on vinyl (and that was true before the ARC6 upgrade; the chasm has only grown since then).
Admittedly, that is a lot of money for a power supply, especially one that powers a DAVE, which can be bought on the used market for somewhere around $8000 USD if current listings are to be believed. Nevertheless, if you own a Chord DAVE and if you have the funds, I am hard pressed to think of another change for the same money that will improve your sound this much.
I’ll try to be succinct. The first words to enter my mind, approximately ten seconds into my first listen, were space and bass. That was followed quickly by vibrant. Then “resolution monster.” You don’t strain to hear these changes. They practically hit you in the face. Maybe it’s a cliché, but the ARC6 makes every single track sound new and better. Every single one. I’ll just quickly summarize my listening notes: deep black silence, easily heard improvements to bass in both quality and quantity (actually measurable), vivid colors, tonal density and richness, serious magnification including a lot of newly intelligible vocals, beautiful and true timbres, and powerful, controlled micro- and macro-dynamic swings.
Now I have not heard other replacement power supplies for the DAVE, so I can’t compare solutions from Farad or others. What I can do is give you a sense of the magnitude of the change I am hearing with other changes to my system. I certainly can’t think of any other power supply that has made anywhere near this impact, including Farad Super3s, Uptone LPS 1 and 1.2, and Uptone JS-2. None of these powered my Chord DAVE, but none had nearly the impact on the devices they did power. Paul Hynes made me a one-off custom power supply for my phono stage, but its impact is also dwarfed by the ARC6. Probably the closest is the Sean Jacobs DC3, but going from DC3 to ARC6 (I skipped the plain vanilla DC4) is quite clearly a larger leap than DAVE solo to DAVE plus DC3 (not that the DC3 is chopped liver – it is a huge and worthy upgrade for a fraction of the price, if you can find one).
In terms of overall system upgrades, perhaps the closest and most apt comparison is to the Taiko Extreme, which, not coincidentally, employs a heroic power supply. The Extreme and the ARC6 bring some of the same things to the table: increased tonal density and vibrancy, dynamics, bass quality and quantity. The overall magnitude of change in my system has been roughly similar. The Shunyata Everest, combined with a nice selection of Shunyata Sigma and Alpha power cords, was another great upgrade that transformed my system and did so across both digital and analog. But the sonic impact was not as great.
If I were advising someone on what to buy and when to buy it, I would prioritize an ARC6-DAVE combo over an Extreme or similarly priced server. This is especially the case if you already have a DAVE, but even if you don’t, a used DAVE plus ARC6 is going to cost you maybe 65% of what an Extreme will cost you (and that’s with a Euro that has declined a lot relative to the US dollar in recent months). All of this assumes that you already are using something better than an off-the-shelf computer as a music server.
Apart from the Extreme, I can’t think of any other change to my system that has been this dramatic, save for speakers. But I put speakers into a separate category, one that is highly personal.
Actually, if you own a Chord DAVE, I can think of one change that will give you greater bang for your buck: PGGB (see remastero.com). For a comparatively minimal investment, and assuming you can dedicate an appropriately powerful computer to remaster albums in your library, PGGB provides an incredible sonic lift. The combination of an ARC6-DAVE and music that has been PGGB’d is sublime. I have a nice vinyl setup (TW Acustic Raven, Raven tonearm, Miyajima cart, and Crayon phono stage) and PGGB albums sound better than all but a vanishingly small percentage of the same music on vinyl (and that was true before the ARC6 upgrade; the chasm has only grown since then).
You are at the top!
Happy to hear. Wish you a lot of listening time without needs to upgrade.
Back on the case... 
I am amazed by how black silence is. When it needs to, the music just stops dead. The suddenness with which it can restart is almost shocking. This is quite a feature of electro music amongst other genres.
I also am getting a distinctly better idea of what sounds actually are. It makes electro and synth much more interesting.
I was wondering initially: but wait where has all the detail gone? With the Patricia Barber I was worried for a little while but the detail is still all there. It is now in its right place. Before she was singing to me but right up in my face. Breathing all over me. Now she is still singing to me but at a close and normal distance. I can still hear her breathing but she just sounds so much more human.
I'll move on to organ and piano soon. Either of those can really destroy a sound system.
On a non-music matter...
... and my damned Windows tablet just ran out of battery
... what I was going to say is: it's amazing how cool the DAVE runs now without that fire-breathing smps and its uber-hot voltage regulators in the same case
I am amazed by how black silence is. When it needs to, the music just stops dead. The suddenness with which it can restart is almost shocking. This is quite a feature of electro music amongst other genres.
I also am getting a distinctly better idea of what sounds actually are. It makes electro and synth much more interesting.
I was wondering initially: but wait where has all the detail gone? With the Patricia Barber I was worried for a little while but the detail is still all there. It is now in its right place. Before she was singing to me but right up in my face. Breathing all over me. Now she is still singing to me but at a close and normal distance. I can still hear her breathing but she just sounds so much more human.
I'll move on to organ and piano soon. Either of those can really destroy a sound system.
On a non-music matter...
... and my damned Windows tablet just ran out of battery
... what I was going to say is: it's amazing how cool the DAVE runs now without that fire-breathing smps and its uber-hot voltage regulators in the same case
Hmmm my mono price cable couldn’t do 192. Maybe my Mscaler and Dave is bunk lol. I think it might be my shi t y soundcard
Hope to hear more information, thank you for your effortsBack on the case...
I am amazed by how black silence is. When it needs to, the music just stops dead. The suddenness with which it can restart is almost shocking. This is quite a feature of electro music amongst other genres.
I also am getting a distinctly better idea of what sounds actually are. It makes electro and synth much more interesting.
I was wondering initially: but wait where has all the detail gone? With the Patricia Barber I was worried for a little while but the detail is still all there. It is now in its right place. Before she was singing to me but right up in my face. Breathing all over me. Now she is still singing to me but at a close and normal distance. I can still hear her breathing but she just sounds so much more human.
I'll move on to organ and piano soon. Either of those can really destroy a sound system.
On a non-music matter...
... and my damned Windows tablet just ran out of battery
... what I was going to say is: it's amazing how cool the DAVE runs now without that fire-breathing smps and its uber-hot voltage regulators in the same case
Reactcore
1000+ Head-Fier
Did you listened solely on speakers.. or did you also use headphones on Dave's amp.. preferably with only one source connected to Dave
Im trying to see if Arc6 benefits are In Dave or more in a external Amp
burbster
100+ Head-Fier
Yes that’s weird. When I was using optical it was with an original auralic Aries, and later the G1. Is there anyway you can borrow a different source just to check?
801evan
Headphoneus Supremus
The build quality of the source output and It's connector is my usual issue indeed.
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