Hi,
this morning I auditioned at my dealer the following DAC-amps with the Utopia, during 2h1/2:
Questyle Twelve Master, Chord Dave, Benchmark DAC3, Chord M-Scaler -> Dave and Focal Arche.
The Utopia's was the dealer's demo version, but because he no longer had the same cable as mine,
I brought my own Utopia cable, Nordost Heimdahl 2, to which I am used. I only had forgotten to take the XLR-4 --> 6.35 mm adapter,
so the dealer borrowed the adapter which comes with the Hifiman HE6se for those devices having no headphone XLR connector..
At home, I listen to the Utopia with my RME ADI-2 Pro DAC-amp,
in full dual mono (2 x AK4490 DAC chips, one for the L, one for the R channel) 2 x 6,35 mm jacks --> XLR,
and with upsampling at 192 kHz with the RME driver on my PC (higher upscaling rates are possible but require using the NOS setting on the RME, I haven't tried NOS at high upscaling rates, I should try once, I normally use filters).
My test tracks are metal and some polyphony.
The metal tracks are much louder than the polyphonic ones, so I have to change volume and there is not much point for me with level matching.
Anyway I always try to listen as low as possible relatively to the ambient background noise (lower in my study at home than at the dealer; he says that he knows nobody listening as low as I do), so I am very sensitive to the noise floor produced by DACs, amps or headphones.
I was lucky being the only client in the store on Saturday morning.
I am not seeking audiophile enjoyment in the sense of euphonics, but only hi-fi (fidelity, realism, neutrality; no distortion or artefacts how pleasant these may be).
I am giving my impressions in the auditioning order (I didn't have enough time to switch back and forth), because the one audition was relative to the previous one.
Questyle CMA Twelve Master (XLR connection)
This unit was new, with only 50 hours burn-in.
With its gain setting I could not adjust to a proper volume (zero sound or already too loud), which is still unusual for me. This tells me this unit is for people who listen very loudly or want to drive headphones requiring a lot of amplification. The dealer had to change several jumpers at the bottom of the unit to set a low gain, and even there volume adjustment was not ideal for me.
This unit really changed a lot the sound of the Utopia, like I had never experienced before: dark, full and lush, and yet overemphasized hi-hats (e.g. in Manowar's Call To Arms track from the album Warriors of the World) and more relaxed. It reminded me of how the sound of the HD 800 was changed in a lush, audiophile manner (compared to my HD 800 at home) when listening to it driven by a Questyle DAP at a headphone event several years ago). For some people looking for such an audiophile pleasure this may be a great unit, but not for me. To me this was obtained at the cost of a loss of neutrality, resolution and noise floor, away from hi-fi. Even this lush sound, how pleasant it may be, didn't feel like an "authentic" reproduction to me.
So I didn't spend too much time with this unit, it is not what I am looking for.
Chord Dave alone (for combination with M-scaler see below)
The dealer's Dave is always on and ready. Listening just after dark, colored and lush sounding Questyle unit, the "audio processing modules in my brain" were offset and experienced by contrast the Dave as bright, dull, weak and thin, quite unlike in my memories (I auditioned the Dave several times in the past years, incl. with other headphones than the Utopia, it sounded heavenly with the Utopia and didn't use to sound like this), I needed to take some distance from the audition of the Questyle to readjust my audio judgement and anyway what I was interested in today was the combination M-Scaler --> Dave, and secondly the DAC3.
Benchmark DAC3
This is the first time ever I listened to a device by Benchmark.
The dealer had to take some time to prepare it (he had i.a. to unscrew and open the housing to change the gain setting to low).
It sounded very neutral, very resolved, very clean, very fast. To my surprise, it actually sounded even better than my RME ADI-2 Pro!
(so far the Dave was the only device I had found to sound better than my RME -- I never auditioned the Hugo TT2).
It is more expensive (but not too much, not like a Dave) than my RME,
but compared to my RME with its color display, screens, menus and countless settings, the interface looked so limited, almost "prehistoric" (there wasn't even a L-R balance). Independently from the price, even if I get a little sonic improvement with the DAC3, would that be worth it in view of losing the possibility of setting about everything as I can with my RME?
Chord M-Scaler -> Dave
This blew all my past experiences re. resolution, separation, yet without any harshness or fatigue, the jump was obvious.
It seemed so clearly to be the best of the best that I just don't have more to say...
Negative side is of course the huge price (a thorny issue with my wife...) and that, in addition to the unpractical (not stackable) housing of the Dave, another device is required.
[edit: re. this combination, I forgot to say that each time I changed to another track, I curiously heard a "click" sound. The dealer changed some delay setting in his streaming system, but that only shifted the click from the right channel to the left one. Strange. ]
Focal Arche (XLR connection)
This unit was brand new with zero burn-in.
I hadn't much time left, so I could only gather quick impressions. Even though I auditioned it after the M-Scaler --> Dave combination,
it still felt excellent with the default setting (no headphone preset), I mean I would put in the league of professional hifi with RME or Benchmark (although I would doubt that, had I had more time to test it, I would have found it to be as good as those?), I mean it seemed to me that someone purchasing it would not make any mistake.
The dealer managed to find out how to select the Utopia setting, I tested this a bit, but this was very short and I was getting tired from those intense, focussed auditions, I did not manage to notice a difference between the default and the Utopia settings.
That was it.
Hoping that this may be of interest to you, even if you listen at much louder volume levels than me,
I wish you a nice weekend,
bidn
