Chord DAVE, Aune S16 etc. - more comparative listening (rambling & tedious)

acousticsguru

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Spent another instructive afternoon evening with my audiophile friends in Zürich, a comparative listening session of three DACs in the same known system. For more details on the system and thoughts about the venerable old dCS Purcell/Delius combo, see:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?21387-Playback-Designs-Merlot-comparative-listening-session-(long-rambling-tedious)

In the meantime, our engineer friend returned the Playback Designs Merlot, sold his Berkeley, and is still looking to replace his Weiss DAC202 in his main rig. Actually, this time round, we didn’t even bother plugging in the DAC202, but given the conclusions reached last time, used the old dCS combo as reference, spending most time with the DAVE and comparatively little with the Aune (which also belongs to our engineer friend, who uses it in his holiday chalet, planning to replace it with the Weiss as soon as he’s made up his mind on what to use in his main rig).

Again, the old dCS combo was fed PCM, if necessary resampled from DSD by JRiver, via a Weiss INT202 FireWire converter, putting it at a theoretical disadvantage (but see earlier thread for our impressions/conclusions).

In short, another apples to oranges comparison in that:

- the DAVE will accept and convert DSD up do 512fs and PCM up to 768 kS/s (= double DXD?)
- the Delius/Purcell combo played back re-/upsampled 24/192 PCM regardless of the native format (our engineer friend created different zones in JRiver, which also converted all DSD to PCM on the fly for dCS playback via the Weiss FW/AES-converter). Filter 6 (minimum phase) was used for the Delius throughout.
- the DAC 202 will accept DSD at its USB (but not the FireWire) input, but internally converts to PCM before conversion
- the Aune S16 will accept and convert DSD up do 256fs and PCM up to 32-bit and 768 kS/s

All units were levelled to within less than 1 dB (while the dCS allows 0.5 dB steps, the DAVE’s volume control only does 1 dB steps).

Playing back music with the DAVE, we used PCM+ mode for PCM and DSD+ mode for DSD, and didn’t bother checking what happens if one didn’t.

As to the Aune, we used our engineer friend’s filter settings and never bothered trying different ones.

Needless to say, most time was spent with the DAVE this time, same as last time with the Merlot.

We played and compared some of every format, single-blind (one person at the Goldpoint switch, the others trying to guess which DAC they were hearing). Mostly classical (opera and symphonic), some jazz and blues.

Fast forward to my/our conclusions:

- Chord DAVE pros: one of the better PCM converters any of us has heard, in particular also because it does e.g. RBCD resolution well, too (quite a feat given this is a main asset of the dCS combo, the DAVE easily held its own in this regard). A bit warm with some emphasis on upper mid-bass (rather than the dCS combo’s typically wide-band deep bass extension), which can be nice with some recordings, especially classical. It’s clearly an “effect”/a peculiarity of the converter, however, and as such relies on the recording quality, in particular dynamically and in terms of (adding) coloration. All in all, (much) closer with PCM than than the Merlot, qualitatively almost a toss-up compared to the old dCS combo, which nevertheless emerged as the winner, because…
- Chord DAVE cons: …the mid-bass to midrange warming will add up to noticeable compression with “loud” recordings (not even referring to heavily compressed ones, but e.g. Alan Parsons or Dream Theater), and it somehow managed to make the piano in Jarrett’s Köln Concert, to quote our hobbyist jazz pianist engineer friend, “not sound like a piano at all” (more clattery/clangy than I’ve ever heard it sound with a converter in this price category, and I’m the first to admit it can be a problematic recording depending on the converter/playback system, as it was this very recording that originally sent me, as a teenager, on this ever-lasting pursuit, so to speak, of the audiophile grail). Disappointingly, the DAVE’s DSD playback doesn’t quite sound like native DSD conversion at all (is it or is it not, by the way?), but reminiscent of PCM resampling with tacked on resonance (as if some filter added “analogue” reverberation), i.e. it sounds overly resonant with DSD64, then gradually better with higher-rate DSD (noticeably less irritating with DSD128), but nowhere near the best we’ve heard (e.g. the Playback Designs Merlot). Compared to the dCS combo playing back the same music converted to PCM on the fly, the DAVE clearly did too much of its “own thing”, and consistently so to all DSD64 recordings we tried.

- dCS combo pros: same as last time of course, but in direct comparison to the DAVE this time, what struck again was the huge soundstage (which in particular in terms the depth the DAVE doesn’t quite match either, even though it was immediately apparent it does better with PCM in this and almost every other regard than the Merlot). The dCS was again clearly the more wide-band and dynamic of the two with its no-holds-barred realism, which…
- dCS combo cons: …still sounds ever-so-slightly raw compared to the fractionally warmer DAVE, but neither approaches the Merlot’s liquidity and (frankly unnatural/unrealistic) smoothness. Again, the sheer size of the holographic real-life soundstage occasionally makes images hang more loosely in space, it seems as if there were a direct relation between the soundstage “hologram’s” lifelike dimensions and its density (more forward converters tend sound more compressed and “wrong”, but also “thicker”), and it’s true one occasionally wishes the dCS would do all it gets so uncompromisingly right while sounding more suave.

In a nutshell, the DAVE will make (some) well-recorded PCM sound a bit “warmer” than the dCS combo, which presents everything unvarnished just like the studio gear it originally descended from, much preferable for long-term listening (we all listen to classical music as much or more than anything, our host opera singer wife in particular, so anything deemed “souped up” or “gratuitous short-term effect” is a no-go).

- Aune S16 pros: its price! Seriously, although I ultimately couldn’t live with it, it’s surprising for its category.
- Aune S16 cons: Far from craggy, it still makes the old dCS combo sound positively voluptuous if not opulent in this admittedly unfair direct comparison, not to mention the Aune’s comparative lack of (low-level!) resolution, soundstage size and palpability, and even more noticeably, dynamic heft and gradation. It’s DSD playback doesn’t quite sound like DSD playback either (e.g. compared to some converters that thrive on it), lacking liquidity and treble resolution and refinement. In short, although clearly worth the money, it belongs to the 99.9% gear that sounds like good HiFi but barely hints at lifelike realism.

(For our impressions on the Weiss DAC 202 please see earlier thread!)

Conclusions: the first shock, which is that 15-year-old digital gear could still hold its own, has worn off a bit since last time. Still looking for a jack of all trades device for our engineer friend (suggestions welcome, but note that the sheer mention of tubes will make him shriek and disappear in a cloud of dust) after one DAC that did DSD great but PCM less so (the Merlot), and another one that does (some!) PCM great but not DSD (the DAVE).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
 
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caesar

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Thanks for sharing! Why did your friend return Berkeley Reference? Is it too analytical?

Any thoughts on the Berkeley Reference vs. Chord Dave? If I am reading you correctly, is Chord DAVE always overly warm, or was this a system matching thing?

Have you heard any DSD that was not overly smooth (as you mention about Playback Designs)? Pretty much every time I hear DSD, with exception of great recordings originally done in DSD, all I hear from DSD DACs is that overly smooth coloration, and can't enjoy it.
 

acousticsguru

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His Berkeley wasn't the Reference but the standard Alpha, which he thought even worse than the Weiss DAC202 in those respects he complained about ("flat and compressed" - shockingly so in direct comparison to the old dCS combo, we thought). Berkeley is a no go for him as it won't convert all available formats - he's sick and tired of offline conversion, tagging etc., but wants a DAC that will convert both PCM and DSD preferably natively and does all formats great. Of course one could use e.g. HQPlayer to upsample all (thinking of the T&A DSD8 setup upsampling all data to DSD512 some have been proposing on this site and elsewhere) - we may still try that, guessing with Roon the convenience factor should be OK. Although "OK" isn't good enough - he really wants his wife to be able and use the system, i.e. self-explanatory…

As to the DAVE, "warm" in my book is an ambiguous term: it may refer to too much mid-bass and emphasis on the mid-range ("tube-like" fine-tuning that may or not be done on purpose), which is what the DAVE does, and which may be a plus with some RBCD playback. "Warm" may also refer to an overall quality of sound that e.g. high-ceiling all-wood and plaster listening room provides in contrast to modern concrete with glass front - something to do with attack, decay and reverberation. The latter is something that the DAVE seems to try and add during DSD playback (presumably a filter setting in the DSD+ optimization, but we didn't have the time to see if that behaviour would stop turning the setting off, as we decided to use the DAC as recommended by the manufacturer and importer), and the effect is frankly, well, an effect, and as such sounds tacked-on and just totally wrong. I can see that a designer might think it's what the customer expects from DSD, and maybe some do, but we're all concert-goers, and strive for realism.

As to DSD, I heard the dCS Vivaldi, if only with 64fs (at the time, it wouldn't accept higher rates, nor were there many recordings that matter - there are still few), and would have loved taking it home (coughing slightly in desperation…) as it did every format well (having said that, it was the complete stack for 110k plus cables etc., not just the Vivaldi DAC alone), apart from that, I've only heard smooth or bad DSD, none that sounded just right. With the exception of the Playback Designs Merlot, which sounded overly smooth and spatially constricted with PCM playback, but just right (or awfully close) with DSD. I haven't heard the Merlot and Vivaldi side by side, nor in the same system, just saying I did hear DSD that I could listen to for hours.

It may be worth remembering, however, that we compared the Merlot's DSD playback blind to the old dCS combo playing back the same music via the iffy JRiver PCM conversion, and had a hard time distinguishing between them (and given there are superior offline conversion tools like DSDMaster, and superior-sounding PCM media players like Daniel Hertz Masterclass, one may wonder if one finds oneself at the top or the bottom of the flagpole, so to speak).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
 
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wisnon

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David, I wish you had told me about round 2. You could have had a demo Atlantic (R2R PCM/DSD256 plus chipless DSD512) there to compare with the others. Your firend would likely change his mind about tubes. LoL

Maybe you can do another one at the end of October (final weekend)? I would llove to be there for that Dac-off and I think Christoph in Lichtenstein would want to be there too. Would be fun.

Chord is not a DSD believer, so dont look for great DSD from them, even though the designer says he does not devcimate DSD in this model.
 

acousticsguru

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David, I wish you had told me about round 2. You could have had a demo Atlantic (R2R PCM/DSD256 plus chipless DSD512) there to compare with the others. Your firend would likely change his mind about tubes. LoL

Maybe you can do another one at the end of October (final weekend)? I would llove to be there for that Dac-off and I think Christoph in Lichtenstein would want to be there too. Would be fun.

Chord is not a DSD believer, so dont look for great DSD from them, even though the designer says he does not devcimate DSD in this model.

Great idea! Let's do this! Sunday the 30th? I'll ask Andrea and Ruedi!

EDIT: they already said yes! Please note space is limited, however!

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
 
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christoph

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Hi David and Norman

I'm the bespoken Christoph from Liechtenstein and I would gladly like to join in your DAC shoot-out on Sunday the 30th.
I could bring a Resolution Audio Cantata MC to compare with the rest and hopefully with the Atlantic DAC.

If that would be too cramped at your place, I could offer my place, which is huge.
Btw. I will meet some audiophile friends from around ZH coming Saturday at the Swiss High End. I know the Show ist pathetic but meeting the friends is worth the trip for me. Do you intend to go to the show on Saturday as Well? Maybe we could meet there to get to know each other...

Greetings from Liechtenstein, Christoph
 
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wisnon

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Hi David and Norman

I'm the bespoken Christoph from Liechtenstein and I would gladly like to join in your DAC shoot-out on Sunday the 30th.
I could bring a Resolution Audio Cantata MC to compare with the rest and hopefully with the Atlantic DAC.

If that would be too cramped at your place, I could offer my place, which is huge.
Btw. I will meet some audiophile friends from around ZH coming Saturday at the Swiss High End. I know the Show ist pathetic but meeting the friends is worth the trip for me. Do you intend to go to the show on Saturday as Well? Maybe we could meet there to get to know each other...

Greetings from Liechtenstein, Christoph
Hi guys,

Not final yet (have to clear the weekend with my family), but Christoph offered to host me for that weekend and if all works out on my end, I will bring the Atlantic and der Siebener demo Dacs with some of my own spare DHT output tubes to swap in and out of the Siebener . I am thinking of the PX4, vinate WE 101ds and the Lampi special anniv mesh 45. I also have the stock Atlantic recti and will likely bring the WW2 RCA and maybe a Brimar 5r4gy and the Philips metal base Gz34. No fancy USB cables, but will bring along SwissCable RCA digital able and a couple USB cables...Corning and Supra maybe?

It would be great to get this plan to come together! From my side it would just be Christoph and me, AFAIK.
 

bonzo75

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Hi guys,

Not final yet (have to clear the weekend with my family), but Christoph offered to host me for that weekend and if all works out on my end, I will bring the Atlantic and der Siebener demo Dacs with some of my own spare DHT output tubes to swap in and out of the Siebener . I am thinking of the PX4, vinate WE 101ds and the Lampi special anniv mesh 45. I also have the stock Atlantic recti and will likely bring the WW2 RCA and maybe a Brimar 5r4gy and the Philips metal base Gz34. No fancy USB cables, but will bring along SwissCable RCA digital able and a couple USB cables...Corning and Supra maybe?

It would be great to get this plan to come together! From my side it would just be Christoph and me, AFAIK.

The Lampi 45s will win. If it's the Siebner, and you have 242s, 242 will win.
 

wisnon

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The Lampi 45s will win. If it's the Siebner, and you have 242s, 242 will win.

No 242. I had some last year for 2-3 weeks and they were great on a B7 and too much on the GG. The vintageWE 101ds are lovely as well.
 

acousticsguru

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Hi guys,

Not final yet (have to clear the weekend with my family), but Christoph offered to host me for that weekend and if all works out on my end, I will bring the Atlantic and der Siebener demo Dacs with some of my own spare DHT output tubes to swap in and out of the Siebener . I am thinking of the PX4, vinate WE 101ds and the Lampi special anniv mesh 45. I also have the stock Atlantic recti and will likely bring the WW2 RCA and maybe a Brimar 5r4gy and the Philips metal base Gz34. No fancy USB cables, but will bring along SwissCable RCA digital able and a couple USB cables...Corning and Supra maybe?

It would be great to get this plan to come together! From my side it would just be Christoph and me, AFAIK.

Space is limited, as you'll see, but we should be all right (I'm usually standing at the back, prefer that to sitting on the couch).

Andrea and Ruedi want to hear a Lampi (not necessarily several, but what you think would be best) in Andrea's known (to us anyway) setup in Zürich. I made an appointment for Sunday 2:30 pm, hoping it'll be convenient for all (= Norman?). What driver do they need to install on the server, Amanero?

Now, if you're spending the weekend in Liechtenstein, I could easily join you guys for some more Lampi listening on Saturday, as I don't live far. I'll let Christoph decide (on both aspects: wanting me to join you guys in Liechtenstein as well as wanting to join us all in Zürich on Sunday).

Personally, I'll just keep the weekend free and am open to anything that doesn't involve too much driving (my back).

@Christoph: I hadn't planned to visit the Swiss Highend Show for the same reason you mentioned (plus, again, the driving), unless there's anything particularly interesting to see/hear (= I need some convincing)? We'll meet one way or another on the last October weekend, I'm sure.

Very much looking forward to meeting you guys in person! :)

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
 

wisnon

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Space is limited, as you'll see, but we should be all right (I'm usually standing at the back, prefer that to sitting on the couch).

Andrea and Ruedi want to hear a Lampi (not necessarily several, but what you think would be best) in Andrea's known (to us anyway) setup in Zürich. I made an appointment for Sunday 2:30 pm, hoping it'll be convenient for all (= Norman?). What driver do they need to install on the server, Amanero?

Now, if you're spending the weekend in Liechtenstein, I could easily join you guys for some more Lampi listening on Saturday, as I don't live far. I'll let Christoph decide (on both aspects: wanting me to join you guys in Liechtenstein as well as wanting to join us all in Zürich on Sunday).

Personally, I'll just keep the weekend free and am open to anything that doesn't involve too much driving (my back).

@Christoph: I hadn't planned to visit the Swiss Highend Show for the same reason you mentioned (plus, again, the driving), unless there's anything particularly interesting to see/hear (= I need some convincing)? We'll meet one way or another on the last October weekend, I'm sure.

Very much looking forward to meeting you guys in person! :)

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
Super!

If we could make it earler than 2:30pm, that would be great, as I have a 3 hour drive home after that, remember! Plus, i would like to hear some of the other Dacs too. LoL
I dont think Christoph will mind for Saturday, but it is his call, I am only a guest!

Yes, the latest Windows Amanero driver (www.amanero.com)...none needed for Mac OSX or Linux. I will have both Lampis and recall that best is subjective. In any case, Christoph will want to hear BOTH.
 

acousticsguru

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Super!

If we could make it earler than 2:30pm, that would be great, as I have a 3 hour drive home after that, remember! Plus, i would like to hear some of the other Dacs too. LoL
I dont think Christoph will mind for Saturday, but it is his call, I am only a guest!

Yes, the latest Windows Amanero driver (www.amanero.com)...none needed for Mac OSX or Linux. I will have both Lampis and recall that best is subjective. In any case, Christoph will want to hear BOTH.

I forgot about, and underestimated the problem that the setup in Zürich is balanced only, with the Lampi units being SE, and unfortunately no preamp among the three of us. Have to cancel the meeting in Zürich. Hoping to join Christoph and yourself in Liechtenstein, as suggested by Christoph earlier. Sorry about any inconvenience! Looking forward to meeting you guys!

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
 

christoph

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Hi David

So then it's my place only? No ZH shoot-out?
Doesn't matter, no driving for me, then ;)

I would say on Saturday, my house is open from 11 o'clock on.

Let's exchange contact data and adress via email.

Cheers,
Christoph
 

wisnon

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Hi David

So then it's my place only? No ZH shoot-out?
Doesn't matter, no driving for me, then ;)

I would say on Saturday, my house is open from 11 o'clock on.

Let's exchange contact data and adress via email.

Cheers,
Christoph
Christoph, is it fine for the rest to come to your place on Sunday with another Dac or to to shootout at your place? No pressure, but you would get to hear other Dac flavors.
 

christoph

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Hi Norman

David said, that he doesn't think that the others would want come. They only want to compare in their known surroundings and I'm pretty much confident, that my gear is totally different from theirs. And iirc their room is rather small while mine is huge.

I would say if they want to come, they can come on Saturday as well.
What do you think?
 

wisnon

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Hi Norman

David said, that he doesn't think that the others would want come. They only want to compare in their known surroundings and I'm pretty much confident, that my gear is totally different from theirs. And iirc their room is rather small while mine is huge.

I would say if they want to come, they can come on Saturday as well.
What do you think?
Sounds good to me!

Even if the system is diffrent, if they take along some of the OTHER Dacs, they will still get a sense of how they sound/perform relative to each other.
 

Anatta

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Any budget limit for the replacement DAC? I'd try the new Weiss 501 (available?) and Medus, current Bricasti M1, Ayre QX-5, Accuphase DC-37/DC-950, dCS Rossini, Gryphon Kalliope, Mytek Manhattan II...
 

acousticsguru

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Any budget limit for the replacement DAC? I'd try the new Weiss 501 (available?) and Medus, current Bricasti M1, Ayre QX-5, Accuphase DC-37/DC-950, dCS Rossini, Gryphon Kalliope, Mytek Manhattan II...

Of these, the Rossini is on the "to do" list - logical given how well the old Delius/Purcell combo sounds. Our engineer friend had a discussion or two with Weiss, and has come to the conclusion that there's nothing new there, at least not affecting sound quality (he's known him for years). A couple on your list aren't available in Switzerland, which is also true of the dCS, unfortunately, but of those, the Rossini seems worth going out of our way to get a test unit.

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
 

Mark Preston

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Spent another instructive afternoon evening with my audiophile friends in Zürich, a comparative listening session of three DACs in the same known system. For more details on the system and thoughts about the venerable old dCS Purcell/Delius combo, see:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?21387-Playback-Designs-Merlot-comparative-listening-session-(long-rambling-tedious)

In the meantime, our engineer friend returned the Playback Designs Merlot, sold his Berkeley, and is still looking to replace his Weiss DAC202 in his main rig. Actually, this time round, we didn’t even bother plugging in the DAC202, but given the conclusions reached last time, used the old dCS combo as reference, spending most time with the DAVE and comparatively little with the Aune (which also belongs to our engineer friend, who uses it in his holiday chalet, planning to replace it with the Weiss as soon as he’s made up his mind on what to use in his main rig).

Again, the old dCS combo was fed PCM, if necessary resampled from DSD by JRiver, via a Weiss INT202 FireWire converter, putting it at a theoretical disadvantage (but see earlier thread for our impressions/conclusions).

In short, another apples to oranges comparison in that:

- the DAVE will accept and convert DSD up do 512fs and PCM up to 768 kS/s (= double DXD?)
- the Delius/Purcell combo played back re-/upsampled 24/192 PCM regardless of the native format (our engineer friend created different zones in JRiver, which also converted all DSD to PCM on the fly for dCS playback via the Weiss FW/AES-converter). Filter 6 (minimum phase) was used for the Delius throughout.
- the DAC 202 will accept DSD at its USB (but not the FireWire) input, but internally converts to PCM before conversion
- the Aune S16 will accept and convert DSD up do 256fs and PCM up to 32-bit and 768 kS/s

All units were levelled to within less than 1 dB (while the dCS allows 0.5 dB steps, the DAVE’s volume control only does 1 dB steps).

Playing back music with the DAVE, we used PCM+ mode for PCM and DSD+ mode for DSD, and didn’t bother checking what happens if one didn’t.

As to the Aune, we used our engineer friend’s filter settings and never bothered trying different ones.

Needless to say, most time was spent with the DAVE this time, same as last time with the Merlot.

We played and compared some of every format, single-blind (one person at the Goldpoint switch, the others trying to guess which DAC they were hearing). Mostly classical (opera and symphonic), some jazz and blues.

Fast forward to my/our conclusions:

- Chord DAVE pros: one of the better PCM converters any of us has heard, in particular also because it does e.g. RBCD resolution well, too (quite a feat given this is a main asset of the dCS combo, the DAVE easily held its own in this regard). A bit warm with some emphasis on upper mid-bass (rather than the dCS combo’s typically wide-band deep bass extension), which can be nice with some recordings, especially classical. It’s clearly an “effect”/a peculiarity of the converter, however, and as such relies on the recording quality, in particular dynamically and in terms of (adding) coloration. All in all, (much) closer with PCM than than the Merlot, qualitatively almost a toss-up compared to the old dCS combo, which nevertheless emerged as the winner, because…
- Chord DAVE cons: …the mid-bass to midrange warming will add up to noticeable compression with “loud” recordings (not even referring to heavily compressed ones, but e.g. Alan Parsons or Dream Theater), and it somehow managed to make the piano in Jarrett’s Köln Concert, to quote our hobbyist jazz pianist engineer friend, “not sound like a piano at all” (more clattery/clangy than I’ve ever heard it sound with a converter in this price category, and I’m the first to admit it can be a problematic recording depending on the converter/playback system, as it was this very recording that originally sent me, as a teenager, on this ever-lasting pursuit, so to speak, of the audiophile grail). Disappointingly, the DAVE’s DSD playback doesn’t quite sound like native DSD conversion at all (is it or is it not, by the way?), but reminiscent of PCM resampling with tacked on resonance (as if some filter added “analogue” reverberation), i.e. it sounds overly resonant with DSD64, then gradually better with higher-rate DSD (noticeably less irritating with DSD128), but nowhere near the best we’ve heard (e.g. the Playback Designs Merlot). Compared to the dCS combo playing back the same music converted to PCM on the fly, the DAVE clearly did too much of its “own thing”, and consistently so to all DSD64 recordings we tried.

- dCS combo pros: same as last time of course, but in direct comparison to the DAVE this time, what struck again was the huge soundstage (which in particular in terms the depth the DAVE doesn’t quite match either, even though it was immediately apparent it does better with PCM in this and almost every other regard than the Merlot). The dCS was again clearly the more wide-band and dynamic of the two with its no-holds-barred realism, which…
- dCS combo cons: …still sounds ever-so-slightly raw compared to the fractionally warmer DAVE, but neither approaches the Merlot’s liquidity and (frankly unnatural/unrealistic) smoothness. Again, the sheer size of the holographic real-life soundstage occasionally makes images hang more loosely in space, it seems as if there were a direct relation between the soundstage “hologram’s” lifelike dimensions and its density (more forward converters tend sound more compressed and “wrong”, but also “thicker”), and it’s true one occasionally wishes the dCS would do all it gets so uncompromisingly right while sounding more suave.

In a nutshell, the DAVE will make (some) well-recorded PCM sound a bit “warmer” than the dCS combo, which presents everything unvarnished just like the studio gear it originally descended from, much preferable for long-term listening (we all listen to classical music as much or more than anything, our host opera singer wife in particular, so anything deemed “souped up” or “gratuitous short-term effect” is a no-go).

- Aune S16 pros: its price! Seriously, although I ultimately couldn’t live with it, it’s surprising for its category.
- Aune S16 cons: Far from craggy, it still makes the old dCS combo sound positively voluptuous if not opulent in this admittedly unfair direct comparison, not to mention the Aune’s comparative lack of (low-level!) resolution, soundstage size and palpability, and even more noticeably, dynamic heft and gradation. It’s DSD playback doesn’t quite sound like DSD playback either (e.g. compared to some converters that thrive on it), lacking liquidity and treble resolution and refinement. In short, although clearly worth the money, it belongs to the 99.9% gear that sounds like good HiFi but barely hints at lifelike realism.

(For our impressions on the Weiss DAC 202 please see earlier thread!)

Conclusions: the first shock, which is that 15-year-old digital gear could still hold its own, has worn off a bit since last time. Still looking for a jack of all trades device for our engineer friend (suggestions welcome, but note that the sheer mention of tubes will make him shriek and disappear in a cloud of dust) after one DAC that did DSD great but PCM less so (the Merlot), and another one that does (some!) PCM great but not DSD (the DAVE).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

Hi David, I own a Weiss DAC202 and auditioned the PBD Merlot today along with a Mola Mola Makua Preamp/DAC versus my Weiss. Unfortunately (as it is expensive) the Mola Mola was by far the most superior DAC in sound quality being extremely smooth with ultra black background, excellent PRAT and amazing timbre in the voices. The dealer had the DAVE in for a while (I did not hear it) but saw a blog from another person who listened to the DAVE versus Mola Mola versus Merlot versus PS Audio and he decided to go with the Mola Mola over the DAVE (2nd best DAC). I am next going to get the Merlot and Mola Mola in my home system as the Weiss sounds better in my home system than at the dealers. I am hoping the Mola Mola provides the same incredible emotional involvement in the music that I experienced in the store. Cheers Mark
 

acousticsguru

Well-Known Member
Feb 17, 2014
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Hi David, I own a Weiss DAC202 and auditioned the PBD Merlot today along with a Mola Mola Makua Preamp/DAC versus my Weiss. Unfortunately (as it is expensive) the Mola Mola was by far the most superior DAC in sound quality being extremely smooth with ultra black background, excellent PRAT and amazing timbre in the voices. The dealer had the DAVE in for a while (I did not hear it) but saw a blog from another person who listened to the DAVE versus Mola Mola versus Merlot versus PS Audio and he decided to go with the Mola Mola over the DAVE (2nd best DAC). I am next going to get the Merlot and Mola Mola in my home system as the Weiss sounds better in my home system than at the dealers. I am hoping the Mola Mola provides the same incredible emotional involvement in the music that I experienced in the store. Cheers Mark

Must admit the Mola Mola is a product I don't know at all, and which I'm not sure is available in this country. Having said that, our engineer friend who was in the market for a new DAC when we started doing comparisons (still doing some, curious about the T&A for a secondary system) bought a dCS Rossini in the meantime (no Swiss importer either) and is very happy with it. He got rid of his other DACs (Berkeley etc.) but kept the Weiss for his holiday chalet. I've since heard several Lampi DACs which he would not take into consideration as they use tubes. Of those I have a soft spot for the Golden Gate and the Golden Atlantic, but only the passively filtered chipless DSD board, not nearly as convinced by either of the PCM boards. The DSD512 equipped Golden Atlantic is probably one of the best deals in terms of QPR right now, make sure to include it in your comparisons if you're price-conscious (I'm "both", so to speak - I get to listen to a lot of stuff I can't afford, it's fun).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
 

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