CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE

[DJW50]

I have a large collection of HDCD's and UHQCD's that I play through a Cyrus CDt XR CD transport so you could say pretty decent.
I have yet to notice the difference of one of these Cd's and the same track played through my Auralic Aries G1 trust me I have tried. The only reason I added a CD to my system was because I'm able to get a lot of old rare CD's that are just not available via a streaming platform.

 

[zen87192]

Aren't HDCD's and UHQCD's different from regular CD's? You need a special player and the quality of these discs are higher than regular CD's? Mine is just a regular CD Player. I've never experienced either of these formats or those SACD's either. Must be quite something

 

[801evan]

Cannot agree more... playing CD's on even my 'simple' Pioneer PD-S904 Stable Platter Player offers more sublime sounds than when streaming.

Wow. You saved me from being curious on the silent angel/ Forester streamer stack then. CD is hard to beat. MQA with a crazy USB chain on the Zen stream is the only one that can get ahead of CD.

 

[zen87192]

I've tried many Streamers of varying prices. The expensive ones are pretty impressive.... but not to the extent of difference in quality of 'sound per pound'. Yes... they may sound that much better to some but my ears are either not tuned accordingly to notice a massive difference or my set up with Network switch isolation and separate PSU bodes me very well. I've never had the need to go bananas over a Streamer even though I do run a DAVE which many would say I would need a multi thousand Steamer to match in order to gain the best sound. Even when I use the Fiio M17 as a Streaming source that sounds mighty impressive through the DAVE. I'm just looking forward to my Feliks Envy delivery next week to see what happens then.....

 

[DJW50]

Aren't HDCD's and UHQCD's different from regular CD's? You need a special player and the quality of these discs are higher than regular CD's? Mine is just a regular CD Player. I've never experienced either of these formats or those SACD's either. Must be quite something

Yes the HDCD's require a particular chipset in the CD DAC/ transport to get the best out of them, but UHQCD's are slightly different and come across well with any decent transport. But like I say not really noticed any real difference.

 

[Powersquat]

@Triode User and @Ragnar-BY honestly speaking I think there is something magical about spinning CDs. It may be similar case with reading paper books vs. reading an ebook, and current research shows there are differences in chemical processes in our brains when doing those both things while both are theoretically just reading. I know that despite the quality and price of my audio chain, the CD as a source always sounds best for me (even without additional upsampling). It could be complete misconception, yet I still love spinning CD vs streaming or listening from files. Just my 2 cents...

I've optimised my system around playing physical red book CD's, having a visual impairment, controlling a server/ streamer via a digital device is not that easy for me, also I believe to achieve the SQ I'm currently enjoying from my PS Audio Perfect Wave SACD player I'd need to source a top tier server/streamer.

There is also something very cathartic about choosing, locating and playing my music from a physical disc, one tends to listen to complete albums when you have to get off your backside to play the next album.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

I've optimised my system around playing physical red book CD's, having a visual impairment, controlling a server/ streamer via a digital device is not that easy for me, also I believe to achieve the SQ I'm currently enjoying from my PS Audio Perfect Wave SACD player I'd need to source a top tier server/streamer.

I listen to albums (not tracks, or playlists) and I think Roon controlled with an iPad is a closest to physical media experience you can get out of computer based system.

If you are looking for streamer, check Rockna Wavedream NET. It is a streamer/server and a CD transport in one box. It does excellent job in both modes. I listened to Perfect Wave SACD and Wavedream NET at home. Really liked both, but decided to keep Rockna. It's more practical and sounds better IMO. However, it should be noted that I listened to these two transports not with DAVE but with Holo May via i2s. It is possible that with DAVE via AES I would have chosen a different transport. Anyway, Rockna is worth listening to.

 

[alekc]

I listen to albums (not tracks, or playlists) and I think Roon controlled with an iPad is a closest to physical media experience you can get out of computer based system.

If you are looking for streamer, check Rockna Wavedream NET. It is a streamer/server and a CD transport in one box. It does excellent job in both modes. I listened to Perfect Wave SACD and Wavedream NET at home. Really liked both, but decided to keep Rockna. It's more practical and sounds better IMO. However, it should be noted that I listened to these two transports not with DAVE but with Holo May via i2s. It is possible that with DAVE via AES I would have chosen a different transport. Anyway, Rockna is worth listening to.

@Ragnar-BY I wonder if you had a chance to compare either Rocka WaveDream NET or Perfect Wave SACD with Chord Blu directly?

 

[Triode User]

I’m VERY interested in your comparisons between the ARC6 mDAVE and Rossini Apex

As am I, though I'm sure I already know what the result is going to be. I'll grab my popcorn anyway.
Just my 2 cents: I love Dave and think it can’t be beat below 10k. But Imo the upgrade from Dave to the non Apex Rossini is bigger than the upgrade from Mojo to Dave. So I can't wait to hear how the SJ psu makes it pull ahead of the Apex version

It is arranged. My friend with his Rossini Apex is visiting this coming Friday.

 

[Powersquat]

I listen to albums (not tracks, or playlists) and I think Roon controlled with an iPad is a closest to physical media experience you can get out of computer based system.

If you are looking for streamer, check Rockna Wavedream NET. It is a streamer/server and a CD transport in one box. It does excellent job in both modes. I listened to Perfect Wave SACD and Wavedream NET at home. Really liked both, but decided to keep Rockna. It's more practical and sounds better IMO. However, it should be noted that I listened to these two transports not with DAVE but with Holo May via i2s. It is possible that with DAVE via AES I would have chosen a different transport. Anyway, Rockna is worth listening to.

Thank's, however I have no interest in streaming at the moment, there are several iterations of the PS Audio Perfect Wave CD players, Perfect Wave CD/DAC,, the Perfect Wave Memory Transport and the Perfect Wave SACD Transport, which I own and was launched last year,, which Perfect Wave player were you referring to?.

The new Perfect Wave SACD transport is a complete redesign and is the best CDTransport I've heard under £12,000, however the PS Audio DAC's are not at all to my taste.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

@Ragnar-BY I wonder if you had a chance to compare either Rocka WaveDream NET or Perfect Wave SACD with Chord Blu directly?

Always wanted, but unfortunately never owned or demoed Chord Blu.

which Perfect Wave player were you referring to?

The current one. Before I've heard Wavedream NET, I was sure that this PerfectWave SACD is the best transport ever. My latest and greatest Cyrus transport (which is very good on it's own) was not even close. Between Rockna and PS Audio the difference was not that big. I'd say that these are more or less devices of same class, but Rockna sounds better from dynamics perspective. Both units sounded natural and "effortless" on it's own, but in comparison Wavedream NET was "even more effortless" and "even more natural" if that makes sense. I would probably be completely satisfied with either of these two, but Rockna's ability to play Roon stream almost as cool as CDs really made me happy.

 

[Powersquat]

Always wanted, but unfortunately never owned or demoed Chord Blu.


The current one. Before I've heard Wavedream NE T, I was sure that this PerfectWave SACD is the best transport ever. My latest and greatest Cyrus transport (which is very good on it's own) was not even close. Between Rockna and PS Audio the difference was not that big. I'd say that these are more or less devices of same class, but Rockna sounds better from dynamics perspective. Both units sounded natural and "effortless" on it's own, but in comparison Wavedream NET was "even more effortless" and "even more natural" if that makes sense. I would probably be completely satisfied with either of these two, but Rockna's ability to play Roon stream almost as cool as CDs really made me happy.

That's good to know, I haven't heard the Wavedream, but it sounds special if it can perform as well as the PS Audio sSACD, then it must be in the same class as the top end Inuous and Antipodes units, the Inuous Statement, Sean Jacobs ARC6 combo is excellent and I thought SQ wise was pretty much on a par with my transport.

I did demo the latest Cyrus transport, I really disliked the touch pad controls and it's sound signature really didn't appeal to me, I also had the Project RS2 transport for a while and much preferred it to the Cyrus, sadly for the sake of my bank balance neither of these transports came close to the Perfect Wave SACD, of course YMMV.

 

[nkj1]

No im on stock PSU but added buffering aside it inside Dave.

Thanks very much for the details.

 

[ZappaMan]

I’ve ordered the audio lab 6000 cdt, I’m curious to see if it sounds better than my pc streamer, I hope so.

 

[zen87192]

The 6000CDT is absolutely awesome value for money!