Posted elsewhere but might be of interest here also:
Alright a few pictures but mind your eyes on the bling casework!
Out of the box..
Rear view (gentleman's club special)..
Plugged in..
Switched on..
Close up..
Lit up for late night listening..
Still can't stop listening to music through it - always a good sign!
Background: Why I bought a DAC
Those who recall earlier posts will know that I had become disenchanted with CD replay. The poor unfortunate CD8X which is a very fine player found itself out of favour once the Michell Gyrodec was installed, set up and cartridge run in. It got so that I just couldn't face putting a CD on, in comparison to the fluid and dynamic Gyro, CD's just sounded dry flat and completely lacking any contrast.
So I asked the questions; how much would I need to spend on a CD spinner to get even close, and what about plugging a DAC into the CD8X? What I mostly heard in response was; a lot! and look at tube CDP's and DAC's.
Intro: Why I bought the Chord QBD76
I started looking into DACs and very quickly established that the older Chord 64 had a pretty good reputation and a sales record worldwide to match. Second hand values remain very string for a highly sought after component. At this time Matty had listened to the 76 and soiled his pants listening to it so I thought I'd do the only sane thing and choose to do the same.
I found somewhere reasonably close to home in Birmingham and had a brief audition with other Chord kit (pre/power) and Tannoy speakers. This presented somewhat of a dilemma: what I heard was breathtakingly good in its environment, but I'd rejected the chance a couple of months earlier to get a Chord 1200E power amp at a good price because I found the styling a bit 'gauche' for my tastes.
So I went away to think about it, talk to a couple of other people who's opinions and tastes I relate to and find credible and was convinced to let my ears do the talking. After looking about I bought the DAC from some-one I'd also bought other stuff from (Rick from Musicraft).
First impressions
You've seen the photos above. I think this gives a reasonable impression of the quality of the casework etc and yes it is a surprising thing of beauty even if I was not immediately drawn to it.
More importantly plugging it in (USB first) and playing some well known track through iTunes gave some very immediate and pleasing results. As I posted previously there was an obvious upping of the ante in terms of dynamics and detail, but what followed really put a broad smile on my face - superb pin point imaging and hang on, where's that bass punch come from?!
It didn't take long for me to relax and think that I'd made the right decision, or at least at this stage, hadn't boobed or blundered. So I pulled the USB plug and used the Mac to link via bluetooth. Now I wasn't expecting much from this but was pleasantly surprised to find that the expected drop off in quality and hardening of sound didn't happen. I logged onto Spotify and merrily spent the rest of the evening playing loads of tracks I hadn't got!
Collected thoughts after a few more days in..
Well put simply its a revelation. Its breathed new life into quite a decent sized CD collection that was gathering dust. I've spent hours trying to figure out how it does it but it just doesn't matter - it does.
There's clarity, and depth and detail. The soundstage is even and balanced whilst being exciting and vibrant. You get to hear everything and follow whichever musical detail you like. The contrast between highs and lows is magnificent and the definition of notes as they emerge and decay is an incredible joy. Its able to spin so many plates at the same time and show you so many things your music had all along so effortlessly. The detail and texture of vocals is very impressive - the insight into the studio effects used and applied are laid bare.
Does it reach the heights of the Gyrodec? I'm not sure - not quite. I need to listen more. But I do know it's close, real close, and that's a lot closer than spending double maybe triple on a CD player that might not scale the high bar set by the Chord.
Forget the bling, the price tag the aggregate cost of the chips and other bits and pieces and just listen to what it does to your music collection - that's where the real value lies.
Alright a few pictures but mind your eyes on the bling casework!
Out of the box..
Rear view (gentleman's club special)..
Plugged in..
Switched on..
Close up..
Lit up for late night listening..
Still can't stop listening to music through it - always a good sign!
Background: Why I bought a DAC
Those who recall earlier posts will know that I had become disenchanted with CD replay. The poor unfortunate CD8X which is a very fine player found itself out of favour once the Michell Gyrodec was installed, set up and cartridge run in. It got so that I just couldn't face putting a CD on, in comparison to the fluid and dynamic Gyro, CD's just sounded dry flat and completely lacking any contrast.
So I asked the questions; how much would I need to spend on a CD spinner to get even close, and what about plugging a DAC into the CD8X? What I mostly heard in response was; a lot! and look at tube CDP's and DAC's.
Intro: Why I bought the Chord QBD76
I started looking into DACs and very quickly established that the older Chord 64 had a pretty good reputation and a sales record worldwide to match. Second hand values remain very string for a highly sought after component. At this time Matty had listened to the 76 and soiled his pants listening to it so I thought I'd do the only sane thing and choose to do the same.
I found somewhere reasonably close to home in Birmingham and had a brief audition with other Chord kit (pre/power) and Tannoy speakers. This presented somewhat of a dilemma: what I heard was breathtakingly good in its environment, but I'd rejected the chance a couple of months earlier to get a Chord 1200E power amp at a good price because I found the styling a bit 'gauche' for my tastes.
So I went away to think about it, talk to a couple of other people who's opinions and tastes I relate to and find credible and was convinced to let my ears do the talking. After looking about I bought the DAC from some-one I'd also bought other stuff from (Rick from Musicraft).
First impressions
You've seen the photos above. I think this gives a reasonable impression of the quality of the casework etc and yes it is a surprising thing of beauty even if I was not immediately drawn to it.
More importantly plugging it in (USB first) and playing some well known track through iTunes gave some very immediate and pleasing results. As I posted previously there was an obvious upping of the ante in terms of dynamics and detail, but what followed really put a broad smile on my face - superb pin point imaging and hang on, where's that bass punch come from?!
It didn't take long for me to relax and think that I'd made the right decision, or at least at this stage, hadn't boobed or blundered. So I pulled the USB plug and used the Mac to link via bluetooth. Now I wasn't expecting much from this but was pleasantly surprised to find that the expected drop off in quality and hardening of sound didn't happen. I logged onto Spotify and merrily spent the rest of the evening playing loads of tracks I hadn't got!
Collected thoughts after a few more days in..
Well put simply its a revelation. Its breathed new life into quite a decent sized CD collection that was gathering dust. I've spent hours trying to figure out how it does it but it just doesn't matter - it does.
There's clarity, and depth and detail. The soundstage is even and balanced whilst being exciting and vibrant. You get to hear everything and follow whichever musical detail you like. The contrast between highs and lows is magnificent and the definition of notes as they emerge and decay is an incredible joy. Its able to spin so many plates at the same time and show you so many things your music had all along so effortlessly. The detail and texture of vocals is very impressive - the insight into the studio effects used and applied are laid bare.
Does it reach the heights of the Gyrodec? I'm not sure - not quite. I need to listen more. But I do know it's close, real close, and that's a lot closer than spending double maybe triple on a CD player that might not scale the high bar set by the Chord.
Forget the bling, the price tag the aggregate cost of the chips and other bits and pieces and just listen to what it does to your music collection - that's where the real value lies.
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