[ecwl]

I had the same experience. The best sound I get is straight out of the Dave. And I use Stealths and the Heddphone which are both power hungry. I'm also not a blind Chord fanboy because the amp I tried was the Chord Anni and I truly hated how it sounds.

I haven’t had the opportunity to hear the Anni. But to me, the strangest thing about it is that it clips at 2V and most Chord DAC’s DAC mode is 3V. So the Anni manual tells you to set the Qutest to 2V output. But it doesn’t tell you to set DAVE to -7dB in pre-amp mode or what color to set your Mojo 1 to (green I’m guessing, just like Qutest). My guess is that they’re expecting Anni to be paired with non-Chord DACs? Not sure

 

[FunkyBassMan]

I haven’t had the opportunity to hear the Anni. But to me, the strangest thing about it is that it clips at 2V and most Chord DAC’s DAC mode is 3V. So the Anni manual tells you to set the Qutest to 2V output. But it doesn’t tell you to set DAVE to -7dB in pre-amp mode or what color to set your Mojo 1 to (green I’m guessing, just like Qutest). My guess is that they’re expecting Anni to be paired with non-Chord DACs? Not sure

Well that's interesting. I just ran RCA from the Dave right into it. Maybe I need to change a setting?

But in fact it didn't sound like a gain issue. It definitely was a smearing of the image/HF that killed a lot of that MDave transient magic.

 

[ecwl]

Well that's interesting. I just ran RCA from the Dave right into it. Maybe I need to change a setting?

But in fact it didn't sound like a gain issue. It definitely was a smearing of the image/HF that killed a lot of that MDave transient magic.

Hmmm. My guess is that you’re hearing two things. One is that DAVE headphone Jack output is simply more transparent than other headphone amps/amps. And you may be at times hearing clipping if your volume of DAVE was set to DAC mode or above -7dB in pre-amp mode. Just to clarify, you're obviously not listening so loud that you're clipping the headphone output of Anni. It's just that the 3V RCA output of the DAVE is clipping the max 2V input of the Anni so it can potentially cause clipping distortions that way.

 

[Vyyy]

Hi everyone,

A quick question to foster some speculations, it was mentioned by Rob earlier this spring in one of his interviews that there will be two new products/designs this year. I wonder whether we should expect something from an upcoming London CanJam (Choral Scaler, potentially Hugo 3? )

A word from Rob sure would be very appreciated.

Thank You.

 

[Mediahound]

Hi everyone,

A quick question to foster some speculations, it was mentioned by Rob earlier this spring in one of his interviews that there will be two new products/designs this year. I wonder whether we should expect something from an upcoming London CanJam (Choral Scaler, potentially Hugo 3? )

A word from Rob sure would be very appreciated.

Thank You.

FWIW, he said in one of the videos that it will be announced at CanJam SoCal 2023.

 

[Rob Watts]

I am hyper busy at the moment on two new designs, the Ultima DAC and the M scaler that will be in the Chord Choral range like Dave.

I am expecting delivery of the pre-production new M scaler to match Dave in the next few weeks - so all going well we hope to show this unit at a CanJam sometime this year. But this project is certainly by far my most complex design to date. We will not show the unit until Chord and I are 100% happy with the SQ, hardware and functionality of the unit.

So please be patient - I can tell you two things though; firstly it's going to be well worth the wait, and secondly John and I have agreed a few days ago on a new name that we are both happy with.

 

[adyc]

I am hyper busy at the moment on two new designs, the Ultima DAC and the M scaler that will be in the Chord Choral range like Dave.

I am expecting delivery of the pre-production new M scaler to match Dave in the next few weeks - so all going well we hope to show this unit at a CanJam sometime this year. But this project is certainly by far my most complex design to date. We will not show the unit until Chord and I are 100% happy with the SQ, hardware and functionality of the unit.

So please be patient - I can tell you two things though; firstly it's going to be well worth the wait, and secondly John and I have agreed a few days ago on a new name that we are both happy with.

I hope you will use XMOS USB chip for the new choral scaler. It should not cost much to use them. Maybe you don’t believe USB chipset has any sound influences . But many people found XMOS is the best USB sounding chipset and Amanero is the worst sounding.

 

[Reactcore]

If only i knew how much$ i have to start putting aside.. hope John stays decent on his pricing

 

[GuiltyRocker]

If only i knew how much$ i have to start putting aside.. hope John stays decent on his pricing

I imagine the new scaler will be around $10k US Dollars.

 

[FunkyBassMan]

I am hyper busy at the moment on two new designs, the Ultima DAC and the M scaler that will be in the Chord Choral range like Dave.

I am expecting delivery of the pre-production new M scaler to match Dave in the next few weeks - so all going well we hope to show this unit at a CanJam sometime this year. But this project is certainly by far my most complex design to date. We will not show the unit until Chord and I are 100% happy with the SQ, hardware and functionality of the unit.

So please be patient - I can tell you two things though; firstly it's going to be well worth the wait, and secondly John and I have agreed a few days ago on a new name that we are both happy with.

Congratulations, and can't wait!!

 

[Christer]

Congratulations, and can't wait!!

Hmm, I would and I guess many more than me would also have been MUCH MUCH happier to read that Rob and John had agreed on a low price music lovers without lots and lots of money could afford to buy instead of , a NAME?

Who cares what it is called???
I certainly DO NOT.

The two things I really care about will be if it sounds more HIFI ie closer to how actual unamplifed instruments sound live. And if it does, also marketed at a price low enough so many more than only the Super Rich Elites can afford to buy it. I could not care less about how it looks either, more than that it should be as small and transportable as possible and preferably built into in any cheap but funcional and sturdy enough little box needed to protect its vital internals. Fancy casings and expensive design choices are COMPLETELY irrelevant to me. EYE FI or HIFI? Or maybe NAME FI?
Cheers CC

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

I understand personal requirements in a commercial marketplace, but let’s face it, this new product is going to be SotA and ‘SotA and cheap as chips’, are not part of commercial reality. Add to that, a product release in the ‘Choral’ range needs to fit aesthetically with other products in the Choral range. Chord has a very good record for pricing realistically I feel and they also have a very good record for ‘trickle down releases’ to fit most audiophiles budgets imo. I am just glad they are nearing sign-off.

 

[thePhones]

Hmm, I would and I guess many more than me would also have been MUCH MUCH happier to read that Rob and John had agreed on a low price music lovers without lots and lots of money could afford to buy instead of , a NAME?

Who cares what it is called???
I certainly DO NOT.

The two things I really care about will be if it sounds more HIFI ie closer to how actual unamplifed instruments sound live. And if it does, also marketed at a price low enough so many more than only the Super Rich Elites can afford to buy it. I could not care less about how it looks either, more than that it should be as small and transportable as possible and preferably built into in any cheap but funcional and sturdy enough little box needed to protect its vital internals. Fancy casings and expensive design choices are COMPLETELY irrelevant to me. EYE FI or HIFI? Or maybe NAME FI?
Cheers CC

For me the Dave was an absolute passion purchase. It was a show model from a dealer so I got a really good deal and it was still almost unobtainable or unreasonable for me.
But my feeling is that Chord is trying to keep the prices as reasonable as possible as the demand for their dacs is high and lower pricing means more people are able to buy it. The M Scaler for example completely undermined the (more than double the price) Blu2. It was the updated model with better isolation on the bnc connections and was only missing a CD player which I would maybe use once a year. Due to the huge excitement over the M scaler I think they made a lot more money with a lot of sold M scalers vs considerably lower sales in Blu2s.
So my believe is that even from a pure ego perspective Chord is trying to find a low enough price in their own interest, as it will become unobtainable for a lot of people going beyond a certain price while still not compromising any parts for a better price as it is in the Choral range.

 

[Jawed]

Rob has described the new scaler as being stuffed, i.e. considerably more complex than DAVE, so expect it to cost about £13K or $17K - that's my guess.

 

[FunkyBassMan]

Hmm, I would and I guess many more than me would also have been MUCH MUCH happier to read that Rob and John had agreed on a low price music lovers without lots and lots of money could afford to buy instead of , a NAME?

Who cares what it is called???
I certainly DO NOT.

The two things I really care about will be if it sounds more HIFI ie closer to how actual unamplifed instruments sound live. And if it does, also marketed at a price low enough so many more than only the Super Rich Elites can afford to buy it. I could not care less about how it looks either, more than that it should be as small and transportable as possible and preferably built into in any cheap but funcional and sturdy enough little box needed to protect its vital internals. Fancy casings and expensive design choices are COMPLETELY irrelevant to me. EYE FI or HIFI? Or maybe NAME FI?
Cheers CC

Hmmm I and I guess many more than me could care less whether you can afford it. If you can't afford things, I'd suggest you earn more money and in the meantime go buy yourself a Mojo2. It's very good.

So I thank Rob and John for working so hard to put out yet more of the best sounding digital audio conversion possible, something that could bring so much enrichment to so many peoples' lives.