[driggs]

Can anyone state sonic differences between the Chord Hugo TT and the Pavane.  I have the Stax 009's and BHSE and am between these two dacs...

 

[sensui123]

  Can anyone state sonic differences between the Chord Hugo TT and the Pavane.  I have the Stax 009's and BHSE and am between these two dacs...

 
I don't have a TT.....but I can't imagine it being that far off from a Hugo (which I own).  It's not in the same league compared to the Pavane in detail, sonic staging, and musicality.  Like the Metrum Hex (which I own also), the Pavane takes the characteristic of presenting music effortlessly with all the nuances/details if you care to listen close enough....to another level compared to the Hex.  My Pavane pairs beautifully with my BHSE and Carbon FYI.

 

[TokenGesture]

The TT is quite different to Hugo actually. Much more musical.

 

[EVOLVIST]

As a Chord DAVE owner, I would take the Pavane over the TT any day of the week, but the DAVE over the Pavane.

The Pavane is a minor miracle in itself. The TT sounds etched and lifeless compared. I've had them both.

I'm fact, I would say the Pavane edges the Yggy and the TotalDac Duel.

 

[MacedonianHero]

As a Chord DAVE owner, I would take the Pavane over the TT any day of the week, but the DAVE over the Pavane.

The Pavane is a minor miracle in itself. The TT sounds etched and lifeless compared. I've had them both.

I'm fact, I would say the Pavane edges the Yggy and the TotalDac Duel.

I would say the Pavane is too mushy and laid back...I prefer the Yggy. The TT bests all of these DACS, and etched is the last word I would use to describe the TT. In fact, I find the DAVE brighter than either. Great DAC for sure, but still brighter to my ears and neither is "etched". I owned the Hex and really liked it, but the Pavane was a bit of a let down for me.

 

[astrostar59]

  I would say the Pavane is too mushy and laid back...I prefer the Yggy. The TT bests all of these DACS, and etched is the last word I would use to describe the TT. In fact, I find the DAVE brighter than either. Great DAC for sure, but still brighter to my ears and neither is "etched". I owned the Hex and really liked it, but the Pavane was a bit of a let down for me.

Oh my, careful, the Yggy fanboys will be after you.....

 

[MacedonianHero]

 
Oh my, careful, the Yggy fanboys will be after you.....

I wasn't talking about the Yggy (which was still a bit on the disappointing side for me).

 

[jibzilla]

Metrum really needs to address windows. I had issues in the beginning and now 2 people I have sold my Pavane can not get it to work. I do not mind if metrum does not like windows but at least advertise your product as mac only. Sorry if metrum already does that but I have not seen anything like that and I did a decent amount of digging. The two gents I sold the Pavane to really seemed to make a genuine attempt and it took me almost 2 weeks to get it to work without issues. That is way too much hassle for a $5k product.

 

[MLGrado]

  Simply put, the Pavane sounded real, like the real thing, perfect. No thinness, no harshness, nothing. The bass did not sound strong, nor weak, nor tight, nor loose, it sounded like the real bass instrument.
 
Everything sounds good and correct. Tons of clear details instead of a mess of sound on other DACs. 
No faults with the sound. Even at whisper level it still sounded good.
 
This is how other DACs sounded compared to the Metrum Pavane :
$6000 PS Audio Directstream: Thin and flat and incorrect, this sounded so bad that if you did an A/B with the Metrum you'd think it's defective and in need of repairs.
$2000 Benchmark DAC2: Hints of thinness. Lots of bass. Shares traits with the Directstream sound.
$2200 Emotiva XMC-1: This thing sounded surprisingly good. A bit veiled at lower volume, also hints of incorrectness from time to time.
 
Pavane sound reminded me of the sound you used to get out of CD players of the 90s (except way better of course)... What happened to this industry...
 
I may want to try cheaper dacs of this type, $4000+ is a lot to lock up in a DAC...
 
Edit: just got to add, Pavane sounded good right out of the box, you don't have to burn in your brain for the sound signature.

 
I am not surprised you like the DAC in the Emotiva.  They use the Burr Brown DSD1793, which was one of the last creations of the best minds at BB before Texas Instruments bought them out.  I know for a fact there are industry folk who think those late 90's segment DAC's made in Japan were and are still some of the best DAC's on the market.  The top 6 bits in these DAC's are real multi-bit PCM, and the chip can be run in a non-oversampling mode, that measures and sounds just like true R2R dacs in NOS mode.  (The rest of the signal is handled by a Delta Sigma modulator.  The datasheet suggests it is a 5 bit DS modulator, but measured behavior suggests otherwise... I know if you talk to Thorsten Loesch of iFi he will tell you the truth of the matter is the chip has 64 equally weighted switches... a thermometer code multi bit DAC.  63 of those switches handle the top 6 bits, while the 64th switch is a one-bit delta sigma modulator working at 256x..  It truly is a special design).  
 
But, I am getting way off topic... carry on!

 

[grizzlybeast]

As a Chord DAVE owner, I would take the Pavane over the TT any day of the week, but the DAVE over the Pavane.


The Pavane is a minor miracle in itself. The TT sounds etched and lifeless compared. I've had them both.


I'm fact, I would say the Pavane edges the Yggy and the TotalDac Duel.

I would say the Pavane is too mushy and laid back...I prefer the Yggy. The TT bests all of these DACS, and etched is the last word I would use to describe the TT. In fact, I find the DAVE brighter than either. Great DAC for sure, but still brighter to my ears and neither is "etched". I owned the Hex and really liked it, but the Pavane was a bit of a let down for me.

To get a clearer sense of your tastes do you run:

TT>GSX2>HD800/UTOPIA?

 

[Gibalok]

Got this dac a couple days from my friend for nice price of 3k since he got Metrum Adagio. And i would say that im crazy on that and spending nights near to him. It is gorgeous. Fantastically detailed, very fast and punchy, wide and deep and in the same time natural, smooth.. im enjoing cimbals, sax with my Burson soloist/TH900. I immediately put on sell my Eximus dp-1 as it is considerably less natural and dynamic with notable digital glare but ok.. yet involving. I also had Metrum Musette and it is a good dac for its price but nithing near to Pavane.
Thank you Metrum!!!


Somebody tells that its dark and laid back.. its not true. Its natural. It plays music as it should be. If you think that its is dark your ears broken by artificial glare of delta sigma or sabre.. it is so natural that allows you just relax and enjoy music flow without any loosing of details and annoying sss zzz and piiii

 

[audiobill]

Got this dac a couple days from my friend for nice price of 3k

since he got Metrum Adagio. And i would say that im crazy on that and spending nights near to him. It is gorgeous. Fantastically detailed, very fast and punchy, wide and deep and in the same time natural, smooth.. im enjoing cimbals, sax with my Burson soloist/TH900. I immediately put on sell my Eximus dp-1 as it is considerably less natural and dynamic with notable digital glare but ok.. yet involving. I also had Metrum Musette and it is a good dac for its price but nithing near to Pavane.
Thank you Metrum!!!


Somebody tells that its dark and laid back.. its not true. Its natural. It plays music as it should be. If you think that its is dark your ears broken by artificial glare of delta sigma or sabre.. it is so natural that allows you just relax and enjoy music flow without any loosing of details and annoying sss zzz and piiii

Congrats on getting the Pavane and glad that you're so pleased with it! I haven't seem much commentary at all about the Adagio and would be curious to know you or your friend's thoughts on how it compares to the Pavane, whether it's a significant step ahead or more of a minor evolution, etc. Your perspective would be most appreciated! TIA

 

[Gibalok]

As the owner of Adagio told that the difference comparing to Pavane is notable but subtle. The big advantage is incredible preamp built in. Comparing the preamp with Manley Shrimp he dicides to put Adagio into his tube monos directly. He is absolutely happy with Adagio.
Now my experience with Pavane. There is bIg difference of xlr outputs comparing to RCA. Its like earth and heaven. Xlr gives more air, space, punch, resolution. I use Harmonic Technology Pro silway MKIII+ xlr interconnect with neutrik XLR-RCA adapter.
As i heard but didnt study thoroughly when xlr are used all 8 transient modyles angaged. Whereas RCA - it is limted.. i would like to hear more advanced explanations.

 

[Spamateur]

I have a Pavane on the way, hopefully by this weekend. Very curious to try it out as the other R2R DACs I've owned in the past are mostly PCM1704-based designs and the Gumby.

 

[Spamateur]

Got the Pavane in today. After a few hours of listening, I'm impressed by this DAC compared to the Gumby in terms of detail, clarity and timbre. However, I do notice that it seems a bit bright. I'm getting some listening fatigue that I didn't have with the Gumby.
 
Did anyone else notice this? Does this go away after a day of warming it up or is this part of the final sonic characteristic of the Pavane?