Chord Dave - new kid in town ;-)

SoundRebels

SoundRebels

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Sep 23, 2013
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Unfortunately we've got only short listening session during dealers meeting, but at first sight this DAC looks and sound much better than good ;-)

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More photos You can find in our coverage
 
Hi Marcin,

The link only goes to a full size pic of the Dave. Would like to read more. Is there another link?

thx
 
I've been anxiously awaiting the release of Chord's DAVE DAC with very high expectations for its performance. The technology it implements is far beyond any other DAC available and I expect its sound quality to set new standards, but of course only time will tell. It is scheduled to have its first public active demo at Audio Show East on September 4th and 5th. AudioStream has a good overview of Chord's introduction of the DAVE DAC from Munich.

Some of the technology highlights and claims include:

  • A brand new WTA (Watts Transient Aligned) filter with 164,000 taps
  • The WTA filtering is now up to 256 times the sample frequency
  • Further advanced filtering to 2048 times sampling frequency
  • This means Dave much more accurately retrieves the original continuous analogue signal
  • 166 separate DSP cores just for the WTA filtering alone
  • 20-element Pulse Array DAC and a unique second-order analogue noise-shaper
  • Delivers music with unmatched reality and musicality, with unrivaled timing response
  • -350dB actual noise floor of pure digital domain 48 bit signal - best performance of any known DAC

I can't wait to read the reports on Chord's DAVE DAC and its ultimate sonic performance as it moves into its planned production!
 
audio.bill said:
I've been anxiously awaiting the release of Chord's DAVE DAC with very high expectations for its performance. The technology it implements is far beyond any other DAC available and I expect its sound quality to set new standards, but of course only time will tell. It is scheduled to have its first public active demo at Audio Show East on September 4th and 5th. AudioStream has a good overview of Chord's introduction of the DAVE DAC from Munich.

Some of the technology highlights and claims include:

  • A brand new WTA (Watts Transient Aligned) filter with 164,000 taps
  • The WTA filtering is now up to 256 times the sample frequency
  • Further advanced filtering to 2048 times sampling frequency
  • This means Dave much more accurately retrieves the original continuous analogue signal
  • 166 separate DSP cores just for the WTA filtering alone
  • 20-element Pulse Array DAC and a unique second-order analogue noise-shaper
  • Delivers music with unmatched reality and musicality, with unrivaled timing response
  • -350dB actual noise floor of pure digital domain 48 bit signal - best performance of any known DAC

I can't wait to read the reports on Chord's DAVE DAC and its ultimate sonic performance as it moves into its planned production!
Click to expand...

I'm just glad that got away from those colored sample freq lights and have an actual readable readout. My red green color blindness can only take so much.
 
audio.bill said:
I've been anxiously awaiting the release of Chord's DAVE DAC with very high expectations for its performance. The technology it implements is far beyond any other DAC available and I expect its sound quality to set new standards, but of course only time will tell. It is scheduled to have its first public active demo at Audio Show East on September 4th and 5th. AudioStream has a good overview of Chord's introduction of the DAVE DAC from Munich.

Some of the technology highlights and claims include:

  • A brand new WTA (Watts Transient Aligned) filter with 164,000 taps
  • The WTA filtering is now up to 256 times the sample frequency
  • Further advanced filtering to 2048 times sampling frequency
  • This means Dave much more accurately retrieves the original continuous analogue signal
  • 166 separate DSP cores just for the WTA filtering alone
  • 20-element Pulse Array DAC and a unique second-order analogue noise-shaper
  • Delivers music with unmatched reality and musicality, with unrivaled timing response
  • -350dB actual noise floor of pure digital domain 48 bit signal - best performance of any known DAC

I can't wait to read the reports on Chord's DAVE DAC and its ultimate sonic performance as it moves into its planned production!
Click to expand...
The designers posts a lot at headfi.org forum…Rob Watts and is very responsive to good questions.

I own and like the Qute, but did not like the Hugo too much. I have heard that the 2Qute sounds better than the Hugo and expect this to be their top performer by a distance. …on PCM. The Chord DSD is not so great, as they internally convert to PCM in any case.
 
winson stated - "The Chord DSD is not so great, as they internally convert to PCM in any case."

Don't assume that if DSD performance on their previous DACs was lacking that it will be similar with DAVE. Rob Watts has explained that their previous models decimated the DSD digital signal during conversion and with its massively improved processing power DAVE does not. Regarding the price, £8000 is correct but I don't believe that the US price has been determined yet. It's often not just related to the currency conversion rate, but incorporates additional cost of importing and distributing the product line.
 
Bill, thanks for that update. Didnt realize he stopped decimation with the Dave design. Very good news that.

$12K was just my estimation based on UK pricing.
 
wisnon said:
I own and like the Qute, but did not like the Hugo too much. I have heard that the 2Qute sounds better than the Hugo and expect this to be their top performer by a distance. ….
Click to expand...

It's great to hear that finally two very affordable products are outstanding, with the cheaper one beating out the more expensive one. Do you mind contrasting the sound of the Qute to the Hugo? Do you know why so many people are going crazy over the Hugo?
 
I dont own the 2Qute (never heard it), I own the Qute EX. Baseed on reports from peple who owned or heard all 3, the 2Qute seems to be the best of the bunch, owning to the bigger FPGA, galvanic isolation and the ability to use a quality LPSU.

Hugo is battery only and that may be the weakpoint. Also being a smaller, less shielded chassis, it seems to be negatively impacted by RFI in cities. Some people note that it sounds way better at their lake house, for example. I only heard Hugo in NYC, so no chance for it to be a electromagneic free zone. I really did NOT like DSD on the Hugo.

The DAVE will be a totally different story altogether. Much higher specced , much more costly and the promise of no DSD decimation. Sounds very, very promising
 
I have the Hugo and really enjoy it, burn in took a long time !!, now together with the Audeze LCD-X it is a great combination, very musical, wide open soundstage, very tight in the low frequencies. (keep tapping my foot when listening to music, must be a good sign)

Thinking of auditing the DAVE for my home set up as soon as I can, I think this will be the DAC to beat for a while.
 
Chord have some very cool looking products in their current line-up. The Dave DAC has some interesting specifications. The milled aluminium chassis design and racking solution is very tidy. I will watch with interest. :thumbsup:
 
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