[thePhones]

Ive got a chord dac but I also enjoy others.

I was just joking around/doubling down
But in all seriousness, I am convinced Chord dacs are the best on earth, that is how I see it. That does not mean I stand behind a brand or person blindly. For example I am not a fan of Chords streaming devices and I have no interest in their speaker amps (except looks, the design John goes for is awesome). But every device Rob was involved in until now was just brilliant. Once that changes I am gone faster as you can say WTA. But I think this will not happen until someone has a better concept. Rob is asking the right questions and was therefore making continuous progress not because of being lucky.

 

[Playtron]

I was just joking around/doubling down
But in all seriousness, I am convinced Chord dacs are the best on earth, that is how I see it. That does not mean I stand behind a brand or person blindly. For example I am not a fan of Chords streaming devices and I have no interest in their speaker amps (except looks, the design John goes for is awesome). But every device Rob was involved in until now was just brilliant. Once that changes I am gone faster as you can say WTA. But I think this will not happen until someone has a better concept. Rob is asking the right questions and was therefore making continuous progress not because of being lucky.

What other high end dacs have you heard? How can you be convinced without hearing everything else? Absurd statement bordering on zealotory.

 

[thePhones]

What other high end dacs have you heard? How can you be convinced without hearing everything else? Absurd statement bordering on zealotory.

I would rather put it like this: I have not heard anything even close to the musicality and realism Chord dacs give, no matter the price. Even in busy hifi meets I am magically drawn just by sound to the rooms a Chord dac is involved. It is like the only room where real music is playing. Things like tonality of speakers or headphones are harder to hear in a busy environment but the artificial quality of most dacs is easy to hear, so easy sometimes that I can't stand the sound longer than five minutes and I leave the room irritated.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

You would of had to have tried every dac technology made to make a statement like that though.

I've tried quite a lot of them, not gonna bother listing them. MY preference is satisfied by Rob's DACs, to the point that I'm done going around listening to DACs, sometimes I get invited to friends houses and they happen to have all sorts of DACs, they don't do anything for me. Take for instance the RME ADI top DAC, a lot of people love that thing, to me it sounds like a digital, overly analytical and sterile box of nonsense. What I don't do is criticize their stuff, or go to other chats to disparage off the shelf stuff, or Chi-Fi . Let me tell you. It is MY preference.

 

[Lgn3]

I am aware of one forum contributor who seems to prefer the sq of BNC into his DAVE compared to USB. I am looking at a streamer which lacks a USB output but has AES/EBU and SPDIF (coax) Just wondering if anyone has compared these inputs compared to USB.

 

[FunkyBassMan]

@Rob Watts check this out:


This guy was an engineer in Belden for over 30 years and his cables focus on getting time right, he has a ton of technical information and white papers, no snake oil with this guy.

Love this.

 

[thePhones]

I am aware of one forum contributor who seems to prefer the sq of BNC into his DAVE compared to USB. I am looking at a streamer which lacks a USB output but has AES/EBU and SPDIF (coax) Just wondering if anyone has compared these inputs compared to USB.

If your source produces little to no noise (every input would sound the same in that case) use what ever feels convenient. Complete isolation against noise has optical, second is usb with good isolation, worse would be coax and AES with no isolation. People who prefer BNC do it because it adds artificial brightness and sense of speed/attack/dynamics through added noise floor modulation, so not recommended if you want the biggest variation in your music. If you still want to test it, I would get a streamer which at least has optical as an option.

 

[Lgn3]

If your source produces little to no noise (every input would sound the same in that case) use what ever feels convenient. Complete isolation against noise has optical, second is usb with good isolation, worse would be coax and AES with no isolation. People who prefer BNC do it because it adds artificial brightness and sense of speed/attack/dynamics through added noise floor modulation, so not recommended if you want the biggest variation in your music. If you still want to test it, I would get a streamer which at least has optical as an option.

Thanks. The streamer in question is reviewed here
https://www.fairaudio.de/test/metronome-dss-2-streaming-bridge-digital-transport/

No optical as you can see but the review is encouraging.

 

[Playtron]

delete

 

[Malcyg]

Years ago, this used to be the best thread on the forum. That was back in the early, pioneering days of Dave when people were either trying to learn about the new kid on the DAC block, or were sharing their thoughts and ideas on how to get the best out of it. There was a lot of genuinely useful and helpful stuff posted by many good people who were trying to help each other. I don’t see too many of those guys posting latterly. It’s a real shame to see how it has descended into some kind of playground scuffle. It‘s beneath the dignity of a man like Rob Watts to be exposed to it imo.

Music is not a competition. To keep shouting at each other that ‘my DAC destroys your DAC’ is simply futile and unproductive. I hope that the thread can get back onto a more productive and less argumentative footing, but I’m not overly confident. I expect I’ll get a lot flak for these comments, but they are just a reflection of my disappointment.

 

[SteveHulk]

It still is a very good thread, with lots of useful information and ideas posted by good friendly people.

You just need to see past the trolls because they pollute the whole Internet, not just here.

The "ignore" button is quite helpful...

 

[GuiltyRocker]

Years ago, this used to be the best thread on the forum. That was back in the early, pioneering days of Dave when people were either trying to learn about the new kid on the DAC block, or were sharing their thoughts and ideas on how to get the best out of it. There was a lot of genuinely useful and helpful stuff posted by many good people who were trying to help each other. I don’t see too many of those guys posting latterly. It’s a real shame to see how it has descended into some kind of playground scuffle. It‘s beneath the dignity of a man like Rob Watts to be exposed to it imo.

Music is not a competition. To keep shouting at each other that ‘my DAC destroys your DAC’ is simply futile and unproductive. I hope that the thread can get back onto a more productive and less argumentative footing, but I’m not overly confident. I expect I’ll get a lot flak for these comments, but they are just a reflection of my disappointment.

That's nice, I'm.sure back then you didn't have a mob of people coming in here trying to disparage the DAVE and trying to make Rob Watts/Chord fans look like idiots who have been conned. After a while, they need to be told off, it gets old and frankly ridiculous.

 

[miketlse]

Years ago, this used to be the best thread on the forum. That was back in the early, pioneering days of Dave when people were either trying to learn about the new kid on the DAC block, or were sharing their thoughts and ideas on how to get the best out of it. There was a lot of genuinely useful and helpful stuff posted by many good people who were trying to help each other. I don’t see too many of those guys posting latterly. It’s a real shame to see how it has descended into some kind of playground scuffle. It‘s beneath the dignity of a man like Rob Watts to be exposed to it imo.

Music is not a competition. To keep shouting at each other that ‘my DAC destroys your DAC’ is simply futile and unproductive. I hope that the thread can get back onto a more productive and less argumentative footing, but I’m not overly confident. I expect I’ll get a lot flak for these comments, but they are just a reflection of my disappointment.

You may get flak, but not from me.
I missed the early Hugo thread but I have followed all the chord threads since.
Yes I agree that the threads do feel different now, but there are a couple of things to bear in mind.

1. Like SteveHulk mentions a lot of social media has evolved during the last few years to become less collaborative, and more confrontational instead
2. You also have to factor in the lifecycle of threads/forums

I will explain point 2 in more detail here.
During the past decade parts of my day job included setting up/maintaining user forums, and outsourcing engineering technical support. I started to wonder if the real world of forums like head-fi bore any relation to the 'theoretical model' of forum/thread development/life that was used to train me at work.
This question enthused me to test this theoretical model, using the weekly post data for the chord threads.
The theoretical lifecycle of a community is supposed to follow this type of curve.

The lifecycle of individual threads in a forum is expected to be similar to the right hand 3 elements of this model.
This might not be noticeable for many head-fi threads, based around short-lived products with a life cycle of 6 to 12 months.

In contrast for products with long production life cycles (for example the Mojo), many threads do seem to be a good match.

Inevitably most of the enthusiasts from the early days have moved on. After a few years, some of the early enthusiasts still remain, but many posts will be by newer owners. In addition, negative trolls who might have been swamped during the early days of the thread, are now much more visible once they are competing with fewer enthusiasts.

Given that many Chord products (and their head-fi threads) are several years old, it is inevitable that the threads will feel full of negative trolls, until new products/threads arrive.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

You may get flak, but not from me.
I missed the early Hugo thread but I have followed all the chord threads since.
Yes I agree that the threads do feel different now, but there are a couple of things to bear in mind.

1. Like SteveHulk mentions a lot of social media has evolved during the last few years to become less collaborative, and more confrontational instead
2. You also have to factor in the lifecycle of threads/forums

I will explain point 2 in more detail here.
During the past decade parts of my day job included setting up/maintaining user forums, and outsourcing engineering technical support. I started to wonder if the real world of forums like head-fi bore any relation to the 'theoretical model' of forum/thread development/life that was used to train me at work.
This question enthused me to test this theoretical model, using the weekly post data for the chord threads.
The theoretical lifecycle of a community is supposed to follow this type of curve.



The lifecycle of individual threads in a forum is expected to be similar to the right hand 3 elements of this model.
This might not be noticeable for many head-fi threads, based around short-lived products with a life cycle of 6 to 12 months.

In contrast for products with long production life cycles (for example the Mojo), many threads do seem to be a good match.



Inevitably most of the enthusiasts from the early days have moved on. After a few years, some of the early enthusiasts still remain, but many posts will be by newer owners. In addition, negative trolls who might have been swamped during the early days of the thread, are now much more visible once they are competing with fewer enthusiasts.

Given that many Chord products (and their head-fi threads) are several years old, it is inevitable that the threads will feel full of negative trolls, until new products/threads arrive.

Well said

 

[thePhones]

Given that many Chord products (and their head-fi threads) are several years old, it is inevitable that the threads will feel full of negative trolls, until new products/threads arrive.

I will be extra mindful sucking in the good vibes on the new scaler thread when it’s out