Watts Up...?

[musickid]

hello Rob

a simple question... it has been said that the quartet will raise dave into a whole new higher level of performance.

can the same be said for TT2?

 

[Rob Watts]

hello Rob

a simple question... it has been said that the quartet will raise dave into a whole new higher level of performance.

can the same be said for TT2?

Absolutely - I use one with TT2 on my main loudspeaker system. And take Quartet with me when travelling and when in hotels use it with Hugo 2. All get elevated to a new level of performance.

 

[markkr]

Absolutely - I use one with TT2 on my main loudspeaker system. And take Quartet with me when travelling and when in hotels use it with Hugo 2. All get elevated to a new level of performance.

<la la la la la la> I didn't hear this <la la la la>

 

[Ards]

Absolutely - I use one with TT2 on my main loudspeaker system

Why not DAVE in the main system?

 

[Rob Watts]

TT2 single ended drives my B&W 803 D3 directly - Dave can't do that. The 7W OP gives me enough volume, even whilst playing back movies.

 

[thePhones]

Why not DAVE in the main system?

I’m saying this as a Dave owner without a TT2…
People don’t really like to hear it but feeding Dave through most (even class A) amplifiers gives you worse transparency than TT2 directly driving (efficient) speakers.
It’s like this for me:
Transparency when driving headphones (this is how I listen to music 99% of the time) directly Dave is a 10/10 transparency and TT2 a 8,5/10
But when you need to add a power amplifier to the Dave you go down to let’s say 7,5/10 but TT2 is still an 8,5/10 while driving the speakers directly.
There may be very transparent class A power amps but they are not pulse array. I hear it especially with fast transients in movies like a door shutting, that first smack of the wood, the klick of the lock is something that sounds way more realistic even with 500€ speakers when you can drive speakers directly out of the pulse array. This is why I keep shouting to Rob, like a little bird, that I need those power pulse arrays. I want 100% of the quality and 100% of the loudness when watching movies. No compromise.
When you mainly listen with speakers and you get them as loud as you’d like TT2 is the better option right now imo.
But maybe I just have not heard a good power amp….

 

[Vyyy]

Rob, may i ask, have you ever been listening the Etude with Dave, and have you preferred the RCA connection ir XLR? Thanks!

 

[GuiltyRocker]

I’m saying this as a Dave owner without a TT2…
People don’t really like to hear it but feeding Dave through most (even class A) amplifiers gives you worse transparency than TT2 directly driving (efficient) speakers.
It’s like this for me:
Transparency when driving headphones (this is how I listen to music 99% of the time) directly Dave is a 10/10 transparency and TT2 a 8,5/10
But when you need to add a power amplifier to the Dave you go down to let’s say 7,5/10 but TT2 is still an 8,5/10 while driving the speakers directly.
There may be very transparent class A power amps but they are not pulse array. I hear it especially with fast transients in movies like a door shutting, that first smack of the wood, the klick of the lock is something that sounds way more realistic even with 500€ speakers when you can drive speakers directly out of the pulse array. This is why I keep shouting to Rob, like a little bird, that I need those power pulse arrays. I want 100% of the quality and 100% of the loudness when watching movies. No compromise.
When you mainly listen with speakers and you get them as loud as you’d like TT2 is the better option right now imo.
But maybe I just have not heard a good power amp….

I don't know what amp you're referring to, but using my amp there is zero loss of "transparency" in fact it sounds better than with Chord by itself, there is synergy between the two units.

 

[SteveHulk]

I'm not sure if this has been raised before...

Will the Quartet have the DX Up and Down controls of the mscaler? Or is that idea now completely dead?

 

[Rob Watts]

Rob, may i ask, have you ever been listening the Etude with Dave, and have you preferred the RCA connection ir XLR? Thanks!

No I haven't tried Etude. I have had situations with power amps where balanced XLR was better than RCA, and of course vice versa.

I don't know what amp you're referring to, but using my amp there is zero loss of "transparency" in fact it sounds better than with Chord by itself, there is synergy between the two units.

The best sounding pre-amp is no pre-amp; the best sounding power amp is no power amp...

Of course that's pre-supposing that the DAC can deliver the required power and be load insensitive sonically - to do this you add a load (say 8 ohms) and listen via headphones - TT2 sounds the same loaded or unloaded with 8 ohms, proving it's sound quality does not change with large current delivery - the measurements do not change too, except for a minor increase in 2nd harmonic distortion.

I'm not sure if this has been raised before...

Will the Quartet have the DX Up and Down controls of the mscaler? Or is that idea now completely dead?

Absolutely, it has DX volume settings. The large power DX DAC concept is certainly not dead in my mind, and coincidentally I was thinking about a design detail just a few days ago - how to prevent turn on thumps without using an OP relay.

I think of M scalers as digital pre-amps, feeding headphone DACs or loudspeaker only DX amps.

 

[ecwl]

Rob, may i ask, have you ever been listening the Etude with Dave, and have you preferred the RCA connection ir XLR? Thanks!

I own Etude. I tried using identical brand and make of cables on RCA and XLR and in my system, RCA clearly beats XLR in terms of soundstage depth and transparency and microdetail. It was so obvious that I ate the cost of buying the new RCA cable and got rid of the XLR at a slight discount.
I think there are two factors here. One as previously mentioned is that RCA in theory has better signal integrity than XLR because it has to go through fewer parts. But the other factor here is that if you’re listening at 1V for example, DAVE would be set at -13dB on RCA but -19dB on XLR so when you’re running RCA, you’re getting slightly better signal-to-noise ratio on DAVE because the digital volume setting is 6dB higher.

 

[Vyyy]

Thanks for reply, interesting!

 

[ecwl]

Thanks for reply, interesting!

I forgot to mention my cable run is very short just by chance, only 1m. It is always possible that with an extremely long cable run, XLR would sound better because of external interference. I am also very careful to ensure the cables are not getting interference from other cables, e.g. power cords.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

No I haven't tried Etude. I have had situations with power amps where balanced XLR was better than RCA, and of course vice versa.



The best sounding pre-amp is no pre-amp; the best sounding power amp is no power amp...

Of course that's pre-supposing that the DAC can deliver the required power and be load insensitive sonically - to do this you add a load (say 8 ohms) and listen via headphones - TT2 sounds the same loaded or unloaded with 8 ohms, proving it's sound quality does not change with large current delivery - the measurements do not change too, except for a minor increase in 2nd harmonic distortion.



Absolutely, it has DX volume settings. The large power DX DAC concept is certainly not dead in my mind, and coincidentally I was thinking about a design detail just a few days ago - how to prevent turn on thumps without using an OP relay.

I think of M scalers as digital pre-amps, feeding headphone DACs or loudspeaker only DX amps.

I don't listen to headphones Rob, and I listen at high volumes using a pair of towers, my amplifier is fantastic and runs those speakers beautifully. Maybe one day you'll visit and you will hear the synergy it has with the M Scaler and TT-2. Perhaps soon I'll pick up a pair of Dan Clarke Stealths and use the TT-2 amp.

 

[Jawed]

@Rob Watts GaN FETs are meant to be good for high switching frequencies. Is it an advantage to have a switch mode power supply switching frequency at much higher frequencies, e.g. 500KHz or 1MHz, than say 50-80KHz which seems typical for traditional SMPSs?