CHORD DAVE On A 2CH Rig Anyone?

[paul79]

This DAC is getting some unbelievable praise with headphone users... Those guys IME tend to highly praise every new thing that comes out though. So.... I was wondering, if you people that have one of the DAVE's in a 2ch speaker rig, could share your findings...? System for context, comparisons, all welcome and appreciated I would prefer that this stayed about 2ch speaker audio.

There have been some massive out of the ordinary claims regarding the DAVE, such as it recreates depth better than any source, and that it is actually immune to source jitter, so long as the stream is bit perfect. These are some huge claims, and would be absolutely groundbreaking if indeed true.

Thanks very much
Paul

 

[DaveC]

This DAC is getting some unbelievable praise with headphone users... Those guys IME tend to highly praise every new thing that comes out though. So.... I was wondering, if you people that have one of the DAVE's in a 2ch speaker rig, could share your findings...? System for context, comparisons, all welcome and appreciated I would prefer that this stayed about 2ch speaker audio.

Thanks very much
Paul

Can't say about the DAC but the name is good.

 

[paul79]

LOL! Hey Dave! How you been man? You staying busy? Everyone I talk to says they are S..L..O..W..........

 

[DaveC]

LOL! Hey Dave! How you been man? You staying busy? Everyone I talk to says they are S..L..O..W..........

Things are good but 2014 was better, a lot of folks with really good products have been very slow in 2015. This follows the general economic trends... people are very careful when the markets aren't doing well. Oh well, gives me more time to work on my speaker. In 2014 I was busy for a few moths from holiday orders... this year I'm managing to keep up, which isn't what I wanted. I wanted to have to hire help. I hope you're maintaining your normal massive backlog of work.

 

[wisnon]

This DAC is getting some unbelievable praise with headphone users... Those guys IME tend to highly praise every new thing that comes out though. So.... I was wondering, if you people that have one of the DAVE's in a 2ch speaker rig, could share your findings...? System for context, comparisons, all welcome and appreciated I would prefer that this stayed about 2ch speaker audio.

There have been some massive out of the ordinary claims regarding the DAVE, such as it recreates depth better than any source, and that it is actually immune to source jitter, so long as the stream is bit perfect. These are some huge claims, and would be absolutely groundbreaking if indeed true.

Thanks very much
Paul

I heard it at the Warsaw show and wrote a bit about it for PTA. http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2015/11/13/warsaw-2015-dac-ology/

 

[paul79]

Tested a few peoples patience with a herniated disc injury... But doing well now. That was the worse injury I ever had. The disc crushed my sciatic, and I was hammered! Felt like my leg was on fire for about 3 months, several trips to the chiro (doctor recommended to try this before surgery). That worked for the most part, then minor surgery to trim the disc a bit.

Thanks Wisnon. I'll check that out!

 

[wisnon]

Wow Paul, so sorry to hear that. Ouch. Glad to see 2016 i already an improvement.

 

[paul79]

Thanks! Re-injury is my only worry here lately. I don't lift 30lbs anymore without a brace. And for crying out loud people...... Save your money on those mega buck cables and get Zenwave! Hardly anybody uses the quality of materials that Dave does, at multiples of the price. The very definition of good metal in your systems.

 

[MadFloyd]

Thanks! Re-injury is my only worry here lately. I don't lift 30lbs anymore without a brace. And for crying out loud people...... Save your money on those mega buck cables and get Zenwave! Hardly anybody uses the quality of materials that Dave does, at multiples of the price. The very definition of good metal in your systems.

Didn't realize that Dave was building cables. Zenwave, huh? Anyone try them? Can't argue with the prices!

 

[paul79]

I have, and they are stellar. The D4 are truly outstanding, and his power cables give an absolutely refined presentation. They just exude quality. I have not heard the speaker cables..... YET!

 

[paul79]

The big claim with the DAVE is the realistic displays of depth portrayal...... I will say though, that the Totaldac Twelve, my current reference, does the depth of stage thing better than anything I have heard. A big classical score is a BIG CLASSICAL SCORE. Stuff coming from over 100ft away at times. It really is intoxicating to experience.

 

[DaveC]

Tested a few peoples patience with a herniated disc injury... But doing well now. That was the worse injury I ever had. The disc crushed my sciatic, and I was hammered! Felt like my leg was on fire for about 3 months, several trips to the chiro (doctor recommended to try this before surgery). That worked for the most part, then minor surgery to trim the disc a bit.

Sorry to hear, that does sound painful! I'm glad you were able to carry on, injuries when you're self-employed are scary! Thanks for the plug on cables, the D4s are being reviewed by Mono & Stereo, probably in the beginning of February, and Andre Marc who has a subforum here on WBF... he has the "full loom". I gotta say, marketing in this industry isn't easy, there are a lot of manufacturers... despite the fact the D4 beats most cables at any price it's still not easy.

paul79 restores vintage gear, he's just to modest to put it in his sig...

http://manymoonsaudio.com/

 

[paul79]

Thanks to you! I didn't know if I could do that here without some sort of permission, and most, if not all of my business has been successful through word of mouth. Just not too many of us doing what I do helps quite a bit also.

 

[johndoe21ro]

Any DAVE owners around?

 

[JohnR]

I had a DAVE that already played a few hundred hours driving my Plinius power amp directly via RCA side by side to my MSB Analog DAC with Powerbase. Using the very same Analysis Plus cables (power cable and RCA) and a Wireworld Platinum 7 USB cable the MSB sounded much better to my ears and two other listeners. The MSB sounded more real to us rendering a realistic three dimensional soundstage. We expected the DAVE to have a strength with soundstages but to our ears the MSB created a wider and deeper soundstage that was more focused regarding voices and instruments. The MSB delivered faster transients, more details and a tonality that comes closer to real voices and instruments to our ears. To me this once again proved that only ladder/R2R DACs sound like the real thing. There must be something right about this kind of DACs that FPGA or Delta Sigma DACs can not do. Please take into consideration that this is my finding based on my ears in my audio system. Others might not agree and that is totally fine with me.

 

[Billy Shears]

I had a DAVE that already played a few hundred hours driving my Plinius power amp directly via RCA side by side to my MSB Analog DAC with Powerbase. Using the very same Analysis Plus cables (power cable and RCA) and a Wireworld Platinum 7 USB cable the MSB sounded much better to my ears and two other listeners. The MSB sounded more real to us rendering a realistic three dimensional soundstage. We expected the DAVE to have a strength with soundstages but to our ears the MSB created a wider and deeper soundstage that was more focused regarding voices and instruments. The MSB delivered faster transients, more details and a tonality that comes closer to real voices and instruments to our ears. To me this once again proved that only ladder/R2R DACs sound like the real thing. There must be something right about this kind of DACs that FPGA or Delta Sigma DACs can not do. Please take into consideration that this is my finding based on my ears in my audio system. Others might not agree and that is totally fine with me.

Did you bother to try using it as a Dac into a preamp and comparing it to the MSB?

 

[caesar]

Heard this unit at a show. It has the most gorgeous, creamiest midrange.

People talk about depth with this unit, but I could nor properly judge in a hotel room, show setting.

One thing it did particularly well was projecting "beams of energy" from the image in all directions, helping create that illusion of realism. People talk of vinyl and tubes doing this, but here is a digital unit doing it also.

 

[johndoe21ro]

What about the digital volume? Anyone using it directly with a power amp?

 

[Legolas]

I heard the DAVE at Can-Jam and spoke to Rob Watts at the same time. It is a nice DAC, and does something different. The soundstage is great on headphones, I heard it with the LCD-4s straight out of the DAVE, and it was 'just' loud enough. Not heard it on 2 channel though. I am still in my 'safe' zone of R-2R,so won't be buying the DAVE, but for HPs that are a bit more efficient like the Focal Utopia it is a great hi-end set up for sure, nice and simple, no pre-amp or power amp like I need for my Stax 009s. I would say try and get a demo, the DAVE is £8K but I would say it is good value for the performance on offer.

_

 

[ricjor1]

My Dave replaced the Jeff Rowland Aeris DAC. Prior to the Aeris I had the Bricasti M1 and PS Audio Directstream. I love my Dave, but just like my aforementioned DACs, I prefer it with the preamp in the loop. It was only a couple of weeks old when I tried it direct, but both my wife and I hated it. The most significant differences in my system has been the dynamics and very black background where images to come out of nowhere.