Chord Electronics DAVE DAC

[Gazzip]

Well, I have had 'DAVE" on home demo this weekend and I have to say I find it truthfully awful. Listening fatigue is an understatement. This is the most ascorbic sounding piece of equipment I have had in my system since the... erm... QBD76. We can safely say that I am not a Chord man.

It is so extremely revealing but without any of the finesse and musicality that the reviews I have read suggest that it has. Are these experts with their golden ears listening to the same DAC as me?! I need to lie down for a while with cucumber slices on my ears.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Well, I have had 'DAVE" on home demo this weekend and I have to say I find it truthfully awful. Listening fatigue is an understatement. This is the most ascorbic sounding piece of equipment I have had in my system since the... erm... QBD76. We can safely say that I am not a Chord man.

It is so extremely revealing but without any of the finesse and musicality that the reviews I have read suggest that it has. Are these experts with their golden ears listening to the same DAC as me?! I need to lie down for a while with cucumber slices on my ears.

What are you comparing it to?
Is that also using the innous?

 

[Gazzip]

Well, I have had 'DAVE" on home demo this weekend and I have to say I find it truthfully awful. Listening fatigue is an understatement. This is the most ascorbic sounding piece of equipment I have had in my system since the... erm... QBD76. We can safely say that I am not a Chord man.

It is so extremely revealing but without any of the finesse and musicality that the reviews I have read suggest that it has. Are these experts with their golden ears listening to the same DAC as me?! I need to lie down for a while with cucumber slices on my ears.

What are you comparing it to? Is that also using the innous?

Compared to an Esoteric D07X which is surprisingly smoother. Unexpected from an Esoteric! Yes, it is using the Innuos. The DAVE is an amazing retriever of information, but its presentation is just so bloody bright!

 

[CnoEvil]

I haven't heard that particular DAC, but every Chord DAC or amp that I have heard, had that effect on me as well.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Well, I have had 'DAVE" on home demo this weekend and I have to say I find it truthfully awful. Listening fatigue is an understatement. This is the most ascorbic sounding piece of equipment I have had in my system since the... erm... QBD76. We can safely say that I am not a Chord man.

It is so extremely revealing but without any of the finesse and musicality that the reviews I have read suggest that it has. Are these experts with their golden ears listening to the same DAC as me?! I need to lie down for a while with cucumber slices on my ears.

What are you comparing it to? Is that also using the innous?

Compared to an Esoteric D07X which is surprisingly smoother. Unexpected from an Esoteric! Yes, it is using the Innuos. The DAVE is an amazing retriever of information, but its presentation is just so bloody bright!

Is it a very clear but unsmooth presentation? Like very ragged on the edge or lacking any body or base?

In theory detail should not fatigue the ears but distortion will.

Would like to hear

 

[Gazzip]

Well, I have had 'DAVE" on home demo this weekend and I have to say I find it truthfully awful. Listening fatigue is an understatement. This is the most ascorbic sounding piece of equipment I have had in my system since the... erm... QBD76. We can safely say that I am not a Chord man.

It is so extremely revealing but without any of the finesse and musicality that the reviews I have read suggest that it has. Are these experts with their golden ears listening to the same DAC as me?! I need to lie down for a while with cucumber slices on my ears.

What are you comparing it to? Is that also using the innous?

Compared to an Esoteric D07X which is surprisingly smoother. Unexpected from an Esoteric! Yes, it is using the Innuos. The DAVE is an amazing retriever of information, but its presentation is just so bloody bright!

Is it a very clear but unsmooth presentation? Like very ragged on the edge or lacking any body or base?

Would like to hear

Yes, very clear but also very edgy and on occasion splashy. It sounds as if they have filtered out some mid range to accentuate vocalist breathing, lip smacks etc. The lower frequencies are all there so it gives the impression of being very dynamic, but there is no love in it at all. Like being cuddled by a very beautiful corpse I would imagine.

 

[Gazzip]

I really wanted it to be amazing. Pretty gutted actually.

 

[Andrewjvt]

I really wanted it to be amazing. Pretty gutted actually.

Id like to a bake off with this sort of thing some day.

Id also like to bake off my laptop jriver into dac v innous sort of thing.

 

[Infiniteloop]

I really wanted it to be amazing. Pretty gutted actually.

Do you think a warm-sounding Amp might help? I use a Chord Qute with my S8 and the sound is nothing like you describe. I can (and do) listen for hours on end with no fatigue.

 

[MajorFubar]

I really wanted it to be amazing. Pretty gutted actually.

Do you think a warm-sounding Amp might help? I use a Chord Qute with my S8 and the sound is nothing like you describe. I can (and do) listen for hours on end with no fatigue.

It might do but you shouldn't need to compensate a fundamentally flawed product by deliberately mating it with another fundamentally flawed product and hoping their flaws cancel out each other. It's a recipe for disappointment should you ever need to use either one of them with something else. Same goes for people who try to tame bright amps with bass heavy speakers. Change one thing and your whole kit needs replaced.

 

[Dom]

No love!

 

[Andrewjvt]

I really wanted it to be amazing. Pretty gutted actually.

Do you think a warm-sounding Amp might help? I use a Chord Qute with my S8 and the sound is nothing like you describe. I can (and do) listen for hours on end with no fatigue.

It might do but you shouldn't need to compensate a fundamentally flawed product by deliberately mating it with another fundamentally flawed product and hoping their flaws cancel out each other. It's a recipe for disappointment should you ever need to use either one of them with something else. Same goes for people who try to tame bright amps with bass heavy speakers.  Change one thing and your whole kit needs replaced.

That was exactly my thoughts reading that also.

Dacs should be neutral anyway

 

[Barbapapa]

Like being cuddled by a very beautiful corpse I would imagine.

Brilliant! *ROFL*

I for one am glad for your review/opinion, which is in line with what I've read elsewhere and has fortunately taken away my interest in the Chord line of DACs. This one-liner vividly captures the essence of what you're saying.

 

[Infiniteloop]

I really wanted it to be amazing. Pretty gutted actually.

Do you think a warm-sounding Amp might help? I use a Chord Qute with my S8 and the sound is nothing like you describe. I can (and do) listen for hours on end with no fatigue.

It might do but you shouldn't need to compensate a fundamentally flawed product by deliberately mating it with another fundamentally flawed product and hoping their flaws cancel out each other. It's a recipe for disappointment should you ever need to use either one of them with something else. Same goes for people who try to tame bright amps with bass heavy speakers. Change one thing and your whole kit needs replaced.

I don't really see why you think Valve Amps are fundamentally flawed. Yes they don't measure as well as some SS Amps, but this is about sound quality and few SS Amps come close to a good valve Amp in the all important midrange. Most speakers measure far less well than valves, so wouldn't you call those fundamentally flawed too?

I've said before that I couldn't care less how something measures. How it sounds is far more important.

Take a collection of flat measuring components and the end result is likely to be disappointing.

In my experience it's about synergy.

 

[CnoEvil]

It might do but you shouldn't need to compensate a fundamentally flawed product by deliberately mating it with another fundamentally flawed product and hoping their flaws cancel out each other. It's a recipe for disappointment should you ever need to use either one of them with something else. Same goes for people who try to tame bright amps with bass heavy speakers. Change one thing and your whole kit needs replaced.

IMO. There are those who chase that most elusive of quality - "Neutrality"....and those that only worry about what comes out of the speakers (and whether they enjoy it).

Both views are valid. One is inclined to come from a "Science Brain"; the other from an "Art Brain". I'm very much the latter, believing that emotional enjoyment from the end result, is the whole point.

Any system can leave you disappointed with the addition of the wrong piece of kit....the secret is picking the right componant, by using your ears before shelling out cash.

 

[ellisdj]

Did you try it with another source other than the Innuos?

I am surpised by your thoughts my short listen I thought would have easily highlighted brightness or flaw in the dac but I felt the opposite happened, it made a big impression on me of how good it was

 

[Native_bon]

I really wanted it to be amazing. Pretty gutted actually.

Do you think a warm-sounding Amp might help? I use a Chord Qute with my S8 and the sound is nothing like you describe. I can (and do) listen for hours on end with no fatigue.

Same here, I'm getting total opposite. I think after 3 weeks my 2qute is sounding a bit too warm for my system with some music, but really excels with jazz and world music.

Hope to be upgrading to the Arcam 850 soon. Can't wait.

 

[Gazzip]

Did you try it with another source other than the Innuos?

I am surpised by your thoughts my short listen I thought would have easily highlighted brightness or flaw in the dac but I felt the opposite happened, it made a big impression on me of how good it was

The DAVE is really, really good at retreiving information of that there is no doubt. I was definitely hearing stuff that I hadn't heard before and I surmise that this is because the FPGA conversion and the DAVE's subsequent filtering is class leading. However, it has (I assume) been voiced to fall in to line with other Chord equipment, and it is here to my ears that the DAVE's ultra-revealing nature becomes excrutiating. Where had all the upper mid-range gone?!

As I said in my OP I have now firmly concluded that I am not a Chord man. I owned the QBD76 for a year or so, only selling it on in the end because it fatigued me, not because it wasn't very good because it was/is. Fatigue is why I am so bitterly dissapointed with the DAVE. EVERY review I read, and I have read them all, suggested that the DAVE was a departure from Chord's stock sound. It is not in anyway a departure I can confirm wholeheartedly, it is Chord to the core, or one of its many cores. Perhaps my anger should be vented at those reviewers not the product...

I do live a tiny bit on the dark side of neutral having flirted with Audio Research for pre-amplification and source on more than one ocassion. This has however always been in combination with SS for power amplification to add back some LF control, hence the reason I say a tiny bit on the dark side. Perhaps I have to learn to live with a slight loss of clarity in order to feed my desire for a little warmth. A cuddle from an attractive, yet big boned lady is perhaps what I crave.

 

[manicm]

Not negating anyone's experiences here, but having a component at DAVE's level, one had better have amplification, speakers and *source* to match. Any weakness in any such component will be thrown up ruthlessly I would imagine.

 

[Gazzip]

Not negating anyone's experiences here, but having a component at DAVE's level, one had better have amplification, speakers and *source* to match. Any weakness in any such component will be thrown up ruthlessly I would imagine.

I konw what you are saying but define the DAVE's level if you dare...

FWIW the rest of my digital setup consists of PMC FACT 12's, an ASR Emitter 2 amplifier, Innuous Zennith server and an Esoteric CD transport. I consider my system to be batting in the same league as DAVE, but others may disagree.

 

[ellisdj]

Not negating anyone's experiences here, but having a component at DAVE's level, one had better have amplification, speakers and *source* to match. Any weakness in any such component will be thrown up ruthlessly I would imagine.

That is what I was thinking as a reason for brightness, maybe the upchain sources are not up to that level - but I only heard it off an oppo 105 I think - sounded ace but it was very limited content

 

[MajorFubar]

I don't really see why you think Valve Amps are fundamentally flawed. Yes they don't measure as well as some SS Amps, but this is about sound quality and few SS Amps come close to a good valve Amp in the all important midrange. Most speakers measure far less well than valves, so wouldn't you call those fundamentally flawed too?

I've said before that I couldn't care less how something measures. How it sounds is far more important.

Take a collection of flat measuring components and the end result is likely to be disappointing.

In my experience it's about synergy.

Sorry you think I have some kind of anti-valve agenda, you’re reading far more into what I wrote than what is actually there.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hope to be upgrading to the Arcam 850 soon. Can't wait.

Hi Native_bon

A fantastic amp and with Dirac room correction providing the icing on the cake.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[manicm]

Not negating anyone's experiences here, but having a component at DAVE's level, one had better have amplification, speakers and *source* to match. Any weakness in any such component will be thrown up ruthlessly I would imagine.

I konw what you are saying but define the DAVE's level if you dare...

FWIW the rest of my digital setup consists of PMC FACT 12's, an ASR Emitter 2 amplifier, Innuous Zennith server and an Esoteric CD transport. I consider my system to be batting in the same league as DAVE, but others may disagree.

yikes, that's some pretty serious kit you have there.

 

[Native_bon]

Hope to be upgrading to the Arcam 850 soon. Can't wait.

Hi Native_bon

A fantastic amp and with Dirac room correction providing the icing on the cake.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

Yes of course, I demo'd once at Oranges & lemons in London. Instruments sounded so real with Dirac. Will be going to do one more demo before taking the plunge.