Chord Dave: Revisited in 2022 vs Wavedream Signature

I ran it with the optical, and liked the sound, and then I moved on to comparisons with the MScaler. There is only so much time in the day, and the BNC from the pi2aes could only be the same or worse than optical with Chord dacs and I dont have any music above 96KHz that would require the BNC so its not necessary for me.

Based on what Rob Watts has said, and that I have experienced. The issues with certain digital inputs, like using the Pi4 USB on the Dave or mscaler usb, or in this case the ultraRendu usb on the Qutest, come down to some sort of noise or grounding issue. The Chord DACs are incredible jitter resistant on the inputs and in the dac architecture itself. Rob says that optical is the reference, and in my comparisons it has been just as good as the USB when the usb isn't somehow busted like the cases outlined above, and was superior when it was.

The only reason I have kept the uR instead of switching to using the optical out of the pi2aes, is that there is some transitory weirdness when sample rates are switched immediately. If I make a playlist of songs at different rates they playback without issue, but if in the middle of a song, if I start playback of a different sample rate, it can sometimes, for a fraction of a second have some weirdness. Im not sure if this is an issue with the pi2aes or with the MScaler or with MPD, but its there, and the USB doesn't have that issue. plus it can do higher than 96KHz in the future if I get music at such a sample rate, and with the uR and the MScaler it sounds excellent.

 

Its true, need to start rolling cinderblocks stat!

 

Cinderblock speaker next?

 

Wait the vent is at the top? Are you supposed to knock out the center?

 

I can't quite see the center of the block from the photos, but there is a nice gif of the assembly on their website.

It looks like only the tweeter has a port. The mid/woofer looks sealed as there is not a port on the back panel, and you provide your own cinderblock.

Edit: Actually it looks like it is ported at the top. The back panel has a routed out section that looks to go from the top to the bottom of the speaker. (No need to cut a hole in the concrete).

http://danielballou.com/#cinder-speakers

 

Ok I see. Not entirely sure why you wouldn't do it rear ported

 

This is epic, maybe someday I will give these a try for the memes

 

Wait, what?! I thought that image was photoshopped... are these really a thing?! I have no words...


Back to the topic, @SoupRKnowva did you have Yggi (2 or lim) or Spring 3 to compare this DAC with? Makes me wonder where this one would fit.

If you ever try what @crenca suggested, curiosity or interest, please give an update.

 

Ive only ever heard Yggdrasil at the meet a month ago, so no comparisons to that. As for Holo stuff, you can say that I am NOS averse, I haven't liked the May, I had it in home borrowed from a fellow austinite, and it only lasted a few hours of listening after warming up before being taken out of my rig.

 

Dave is certainly pulling me back into the rabbit hole...

I'll need about another week or two to go back to the modest BF2 OG to get a clearer picture (appreciating @SoupRKnowva's method of trying something for 2 weeks then going back).

EDIT (to improve signal): initial impressions are pretty positive, and moreso after messing around with digital input. I've wanted DAVE ever since my DIY-T2 + SR-Omega / HE90 days, so it's interesting to be able to make a proper acquaintance 6 years later.

Will also calibrate with @loadexfa's impressions today.

 

Comparing against my SFD-2, the DAVE is cleaner sounding and a little more resolving. Better space between instruments too. I do find it tizzy at times, especially with the Atrium. Sometimes harsh in other ways.

The SFD is smoother and warmer, sounds muddy in comparison.

This is with Ambre and Stratus. 7308 Amperex in the SFD.

Thanks for bringing over your DAVE @3X0 !

 

Are you trying outboard upsampling to feed the Dave? haha Im happy you like my switch completely for two weeks method, it just takes a lot of stress out of the equation. Just listen to the new gear for a while, and then once you're familiar you can do some comparisons down the line.

As for inputs, definitely try the optical input and calibrate everything else against that. Other inputs can be more convenient, such as USB, but probably won't sound better.

 

Out of curiosity, did you try the May with external oversampling? I get the impression most people with Mays and Spring 3's use HQPlayer to oversample the music they're feeding it.

 

i did not. My current chain makes it impossible to use anything but asynchronous upsampling using sox, and I don’t have any interest in dealing with hqplayer


EDIT: I guess I could borrow it again and use the MScaler with it this time, but it would be limited to 192KHz input

 

That would be enough. With the loaner I only used Roon upsampling to 176/192 but it's enough to hear that it is it a different DAC when not in NOS mode.

Still it's not going to convince you to move on from the DAVE given your priorities...

 

I'm using HQPlayer over USB direct currently. Don't own a DDC, but my first step is to justify the $7000 hole in my pocket between DAVE and the BF2 with a skeptical mind. Honestly after the shootout at @loadexfa's (vis-a-vis SFD2 over AES with Atriums and modded LCD-4s) I realized I appreciated the DAVE's strengths more than I initially thought -- e.g. superb but unabrasive clarity, macrodynamics, separation to name a few things.

I am begrudgingly (only because $$$$) preparing for the real possibility of owning Dave for a long time, but I also want to get some ears-on vs. a WaveDream Signature at some point to firm up my preferences since my recent baseline of a BF2 may not be the best reference.

 

are you having trouble getting 768khz working over usb? I’ve heard other people say that. I would also try it without external oversampling, im sure you’ve done that though

 

FWIW, some Dave owners at AudiophileStyle preferred feeding Dave with this upsampler/“remaster” software vs. an M Scaler, then sold their M Scalers:

https://www.remastero.com/pggb.html

Sort of whiffs of audiophoolery to me, but a full license is cheaper than an M Scaler, I guess.

Idk, both HQPlayer and this kind of thing make my eyes cross with the number of settings available and possibilities to obsess over those differences - doesn’t appeal to me, I’m neurotic enough.

 

Well its an offline tool so will only work for music you own and then it needs a beefy computer if you want to upsample to anything above 8x and not to mention the size of the file and storage they eat. So its not just the license but all other cost you have to factor in plus your own time to make sure you convert and save these files. I tried it out but was not practical for me. I think one of the song was like 600Mb or there about.
However its easy to use as we have limited config to do unlike Hqplayer

 

No trouble getting 16x / 768KHz over USB for my DAVE via HQPlayer, not sure if date of manufacture or firmware revisions make a difference but I think my DAVE rolled off the line last year.

I was mostly interested in HQPlayer for the filter / dither settings and settled on sinc-M + NS9 after finding this random article on a "DAVE + HQPlayer" Google search (wanted a shortcut through the nervosa; still need to try LNS15 dither though). Haven't dug into other sampling rates besides the 8x HQP default yet, but I suspect* most of my preferences for HQPlayer come from filter + dither settings rather than sample rate changes.

*very real possibility I'm very wrong but will find out eventually

Also I was vastly more comfortable with ~$220 for HQPlayer vs. 10-15x as much for the MScaler, at least for now.