I have a few questions on these DAC:
1) Chord is that good? How's Chord Hugo 2 compares to Sony PHA-3? And is there any portable DAC better than Chord Hugo 2?
2) if you were an "absolute" audiophile, why go w/ Chord Dave? Why not go w/ dCS DAC Rossinni? I believe Stereophile rated the dCS as world's no. 1
Hi happy hopping,
Well I need to clarify two things ((A)-(C)) before going into your questions ((1)-(2)) :
A) I didn't speak of DACs (in general) but of (integrated) DAC-amps for headphones. Evaluating DACs in relation to a kind of headphones is much more complicated because one would have to take into acount many combinations of the DACs with all amps for these headphones. As a theoretical example if there 30 separate DACs and 30 separate amps, that wou make 30 x 30 = 900 combinations to take into account. Plus one would also add the DAC and the amp taken separately of the DAC-amps combos.
Speaking only of (integrated) DAC-amps for the Focals makes sense because they require so little power (integrated amps are in general less powerful that separate ones) and it has been reported several times that they do not combine well with some very powerful amps, especially some powerful tube amps.
B) There is no universal agreement, just because we listen to different kinds of music, at different levels, with different tastes and different cultural backgrounds; we also have different ear-shapes, our brain priduced different FR curves, etc.
In my case I speak many languages and can check through the internet what people say in different countries, this helps me getting an idea of what would be the more common views.
C) All my points where only in relation to the Focal Clear, and also to the Elear and Utopia to place the Clear in the immediate context of its brothers with whom it shares many "genes".
Now to your questions:
1a) Chord is that good?
Yes Chord is seen by most as "that good". First the FGPAs for their DACs have many more filters than usual, but especially their integrated DAC-amps have the advantage of not having the usual separation between the Digital to Analog Conversion stage followed by a separate amplification stage of the produced analog signal (which stage downgrades the SQ) , but of performing these both stages in one go.
1b) How's Chord Hugo 2 compares to Sony PHA-3?
I haven't heard personally the Sony PHA-3 not heard hardly anything about it, so I don't know how it compares to the Hugo 2 (you could ask in the Hugo 2 forum), but I wouldn't expect it to be a competitor given this "silence".
1c) And is there any portable DAC better than Chord Hugo 2?
The Astell & Kern SP1000 Ultima may be better than the Chord Hugo 2, some prefer its SQ to that of the Hugo 2. Some don't prefer it to the Hugo 2, especially if you require more power. Although already powerful for a DAP, it is not as powerful as the Hugo 2, so if more power is required the Hugo 2 is a better alternative. But the SP1000 has certainly enough power for most people for Focal headphones. When some can hear a difference between the SP1000cu and SP1000SS, they usually prefer the cu.
Don't forget: as far as I could see, people will find out that RME's DAC-amps (they are quite small re. form factor) are better than the Hugo 2.
RME has many decades of experiences of developing, manufacturing and improving audio electronics for the professional (studios) audio world. They recently developed DAC-amps directed at us amateur audiophiles and they were direct hits, and even so much cheaper than the Hugo 2, and already seen by many as reference or endgame for mid-priced DAC-amps.
2a) if you were an "absolute" audiophile, why go w/ Chord Dave?
Again, as far I could check (e.g. you can check out the Utopia threads on Head-Fi or google it), everyone who listened to the chain Dave --> Utopia found it the best for the Utopia. After listening to it I too wanted to buy one (but find the Dave too unpractical).
2b) Why not go w/ dCS DAC Rossinni? I believe Stereophile rated the dCS as world's no. 1
I don't know of reports of this with the Utopia, and this doesn't seem to have a headphone output (but it might be fine for the Susvara?).
In general I find the German magazine Stereoplay the most reliable of all magazines I know of.
Re. the ranking of DACs separate from an integrated amp, Stereoplay ranks this one as number one:
#1 [ / Stereoplay] : Nagra HD DAC/MPs ( € 22500),
but apparently they haven't tested the dCS DAC Rossinni so far.
