I respect your opinions and general input on this thread, I am sure you know that, or at least I am assuming it, but I am also reaffirming it now, so that you will know I am not asking the following question with any inappropriate intentions. I am absolutely convinced that the DAVE will shine with the HPA4, as you say, but is that shining more attributable to the DAVE or to the HPA-4?. I ask because there is a question that this evaluation is begging. The Dave is a very expensive DAC that many cannot afford. Now if I were to purchase an HPA-4 on the basis of this recommendation and pair it with, say, a Schiit Bifrost or an RME ADI-2 DAC, will the HPA-4 do as well with the Susvara, or will it all but lose the delta between itself and the Topping A90, as it did for
this other reviewer who was pairing the HPA-4 with "Matrix Audio Element X, Denafrips Venus and Topping D90 MQA as TOTL DACs." It almost strikes me that your evaluation here is more of an unequivocal thumbs up for the DAVE, or for the
HPA-4 paired with the DAVE, rather than it is an unqualified endorsement of the HPA-4 itself, which is the real component of interest in this particular issue. That indeed makes me curious as to how the Topping A90 too might fare with the DAVE, for example, were it to be given that opportunity.
The more important question, though, is this : If I have a Schiit Bifrost or an RME ADI-2 DAC, and I know that I can never afford a DAVE in the foreseeable future or even in my lifetime, then which of the these two would be the smartest buy for my money? The HPA-4, which will never give me
the HPA-4 + DAVE performance with the susvara, or the Topping A90 which might give me a performance rivaling that of the HPA4 (at least according to that review from soundnews.net) while saving me around $2500, that I could spend on other enhancements to my system? I know you see where I am going with this line of thinking...
