Beautiful setup. I know Chord Etude is not Ultima 5. But I definitely hear more transparency, depth and detail when connecting my DAVE directly to Etude using RCA compared to XLR using the same length, brand and model of cables. I’d be curious if Rob Watts has done testing for RCA vs XLR specifically with Chord amps too.
Just some follow up on the hotly-discussed topic of Chord "balanced" vs "unbalanced" output.
You may recall I had enquired as to the best connection between my DAVE and my new Ultima-5 power amp, and the majority (though not all) of respondents felt that RCA sounded better (although this depends on the exact hardware being used). Rob had mentioned that DAVE requires an additional output stage for XLR which might impact the clarity somewhat, but advised me to do my own listening tests.
Well, my ever-helpful dealer, Oxford Audio Consultants, allowed me to do an extended (several weeks) test with otherwise-identical RCA and XLR cables: these are the new(ish) Audioquest Black Beauty cables, which were a big step up from my existing Chord Crimson Plus interconnects: a more-authoritative sound, especially in the low end.
The difference between XLR and RCA was stark - at least, for very-well recorded music. The XLR (when adjusted for output, i.e., -6 dB down) sounded "rounder", with the leading edges of notes smoothed off; by contrast, the RCA's gave a much crisper definition. This was most apparent with piano music - presumably the percussive aspect provides such a sharp transient that maximum clarity is required.
A good test was the excellent 24-bit/192 kHz Linn recording of Chopin preludes, played by the lovely Ingrid Fliter:
The "Raindrop Prelude" made a good test piece here - and both my son (who has better hearing than me) and I were immediately able to tell the difference. This translated to other pieces as well - orchestral music, vocals, etc. We couldn't find any music where the XLR sounded better.
One interesting observation was that of "burn in". Now, I'm a bit of sceptic regarding "cable burn in", but I did ensure that both cables were given 100h of playtime (leaving the CD player on "repeat" overnight, playing quiet Debussy…) and the XLR's did improve (slightly) at the end - but still lacked that initial crisp "bite" that the RCA cables gave.
Finally: about a year ago, shortly before I splurged out on DAVE + M-Scaler, I had the opportunity to test the then-new
Naim Unity Atom Headphone Edition which everyone was raving about, and which was in very-short supply. On its own, this worked well with my Focal Utopia headphones, but when compared with a Chord Hugo TT2 it paled in comparison. My key finding at the time was the way in which piano music sounded "rounded off" on the Naim, but sharp and distinct on the TT2. So I think this (more subtle) RCA vs XLR test shows a similar result: to get the ultimate in clarity from DAVE one requires the RCA outputs, as the XLRs give a more-veiled response - at least, when paired with the
Chord Ultima 5.
