Chord DAVE DAC Review (Video)

[Goodfellas27]

 

[Jimbob54]

Dude is KILLING it!

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Dude is KILLING it!

The blank stare in her eyes when he talks about the (pseudo) science - priceless

 

[JSmith]

The only part of that that was barely interesting was Rob referred to Chord DAC's as his products. If he's not part of marketing, why is he out and about doing these videos?

Generally though, I want my 10 mins of life back after that monotonous marketing infomercial.

I'm not waiting with baited breath for the M-Scaler video... which supposedly will 'zhuzh' up the sound quality further.


JSmith

 

[HarmonicTHD]

The only part of that that was barely interesting was Rob referred to Chord DAC's as his products. If he's not part of marketing, why is he out and about doing these videos?

Generally though, I want my 10 mins of life back after that monotonous marketing infomercial.

I'm not waiting with baited breath for the M-Scaler video... which supposedly will 'zhuzh' up the sound quality further.


JSmith

I scroll quickly through these kind of vids. First it is mostly unbearable and secondly as you said I value my time. ;-)

 

[PeteL]

The only part of that that was barely interesting was Rob referred to Chord DAC's as his products. If he's not part of marketing, why is he out and about doing these videos?


JSmith

That's quite common. Chord is not Sony, small companies don't necessarily have a marketing department, If they do they will manage social network interactions, maybe advertisement (if any) but it's an engineering based company, the main guy will have to wear many hats. He designs these products and is the spoke person for them. Now that doesn't mean he is good at it. It's totally OK to criticize his marketing methods but at least more generally speaking the person who develop the tech should be more apt to talk about his tech than any marketing guy. Why do you think John Wang is the one speaking on behalf of Topping on this Forum? it's not because of his marketing talent.

 

[JSmith]

That's quite common.

I know mate, the comment was in reference to posts earlier in one of the many Chord review threads claiming he was only Chord's designer and not a marketing shill when posting on the Chord forums. It seems that idea is well out the window...


JSmith

 

[HarmonicTHD]

I know mate, the comment was in reference to posts earlier in one of the many Chord review threads claiming he was only Chord's designer and not a marketing shill when posting on the Chord forums. It seems that idea is well out the window...


JSmith

Wasn’t that out the window when he made the infamous -300dB claim back then?

 

[VQR]

Why do they look like soulless mannequins?

Also why in this staged screencap would they have the DAVE crooked? It's like they're treating it like a newborn but don't know if they wanna keep the kid or not.

 

[TotallyTangerine]

'It's transparent, but presents that in a way which is smoooooooth and refined'

Gold

 

[JSmith]

Also why in this staged screencap would they have the DAVE crooked?

Yeah I'm quite surprised, especially after the host went through the "Training by Rob Watts™", that the DAC was not on their proprietary stand... which you know, does make it easier to read the screen;

JSmith

 

[Crabsticks]

Follow up video review of CHORD DAVE stereo DAC:

Nothing new if you have read the text review. But you get to have my emotional reactions thrown in.

Halfway through this and starting to feel content that I have the Qutest... Jeez, I love Amir's effortless brutality. I'm having a break as I need to prepare myself for the second half..

 

[BigEarsBill]

I wonder how many people dumping on this DAC have actually heard it. I haven't read every reply to this post, but I've lost count of how many were simply giddy that Amir had trashed it - and were giddy because they thought it overpriced to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, the marketplace is stuffed with DACs that cost ungodly amounts for what ought to be a straight-forward digital-to-audio conversion. Chord's angle is the use of a programmable FPGA chip to engage in massive amounts of oversampling.

I've owned several Mojos, the Mojo2 and the Qutest, all of which feature increasing tap rates. As a DAC/amp, the Mojo's claim to fame is its size and power (for the size) - along with 26,368 taps. It's a DAC/amp you can drop in your pocket and get a clean run from all but the most power-demanding headphones. I own the Susvara and the Mojo handles it well - not as well as a Ferrum Oor and Wandla but certainly as well as a Topping D90/A90 combo.

I like the Mojo2 better. Beside the higher tap count (40,960), the four-button setup lets you apply filters at frequencies, not unlike an equalizer. Chord claims these filters don't produce the same phase issues as a conventional equalizer. Whether that's true or just snake oil, I've never worn a headphone that didn't sound "better" with a judicious adjustment. Show me an old-school Audeze that couldn't use a treble shelf. Show me a Grado that couldn't benefit from a little kick at 50 Hz. I have the Stax SR-009 and the SR-007a. Those who prefer the SR-007 will tell you it has a richness missing from the SR-009. But throw in a little bass shelf and the SR-009 sounds pretty mean to me.

I got the Qutest, with its 49,152 taps, so I could hear for myself whether tap count mattered. I also got it so I could hook it up to an M Scaler if the promise of upsampling was true - and not just happy hifi snake oil. Unlike the Hugo TT2 - let alone the Dave - this was something in my price range. Compared to today's buffet of modestly-priced-but-decently-sounding DACs, it wasn't a night and day thing at all. I still have a soft spot for the D90 - and I loved the bang-for-the-buck of most amps like the THX and the Topping A90 and A90D (though I never could get the A90D to play the Susvara as loudly as I wanted it to go). I had the HiFiMan EF400, which is an integrated DAC/amp and it was able to power the Susvara but only because it was using my MacBook Pro as a preamp.

But the Qutest, with its upsampling, didn't disappoint. I didn't suddenly hear better bass (either in volume or detail) or crispier, more transparent treble. I almost got rid of it because I didn't hear an obvious performance difference compelling the price. But, after letting it run for awhile, I did start hearing things I hadn't heard or noticed before. I'm talking about little bits of staging, a little echo, awareness of an instrument I didn't realize was in the track, buried down in the mix.

Upsampling isn't going to add resolution. It can't. You can't get more out of a recording than is there to begin with. Shannon-Nyquist is still good science. If upsampling enhances playback, it's got to be in the timing. The comparison I would draw would be to flatscreens with better blacks. These displays don't have more colors and they certainly don't have more resolution, but the deeper the black, the better the laying. The image does look better.

I don't have five grand to drop on an M Scaler, so I did what I could within my price range: I purchased EQPlayer for just under $300. This software has more knobs than the cockpit of a 747. I'm just learning how to play with it, but in its filters I've found effects similar to what I'm getting off the Qutest. There is a perceptible difference in timing and staging, though it's not like popping on the HD800, with its exaggerated spacial grandeur. On the HD800, some of that is a function of the shells and off-center drivers. But speed of attack and rate of decay automatically produce an enhanced sense of space, where you're proverbially dancing between the rain drops.

If you want to avoid all the DSP involved in upsampling, your best bet is an amp with a very precise clock. That clock will enable you to best handle transients. My concern with any resort to DSP - including HQPlayer and the massive amount of upsampling and taps in Chord products - is that, if you're an audiophile, what you want is fidelity, itself.

The problem with DSP, at least as I see it, is that you want what's there, not what you choose to turn it into. We're about to fall off a cliff where you may be able to turn anything into what you want it to be. That was part of the hand-wringing over EQ. I love how people will eschew EQ but pad roll, cable roll, tube roll, chip roll and/or use DSP filters to play with the sound to change it to their liking. DSP is just the latest attempt to engage in some sort of sonic alchemy.

As for the Dave, what I'm not seeing is much discussion about how good it sounds, whether its combination of a DAC/amp is any better, regardless of whether it's worth $14k. Clearly, Chord is offering something you don't see from other DAC/amp manufacturers, in a product that promises up to 164,000 taps. The real question is whether you can hear a difference.

Amir has done a fine job of spotting flaws in this $14k product, flaws I don't believe Rob Watts has challenged any of this data. Though I'd like to see the data replicated or disputed (Amir cannot be the only person on the planet who makes these measurements), it all still comes down to this: How does the Dave sound?

If the extreme degree of upsampling makes a difference in the sound, it may be a rich guy's indulgence, though I'd rather see the tech focused on purity of the signal path and timing. I have no use for collective whining about Chord's architecture and aesthetic. I've never seen so many blue balls about Chord's use of blue balls. Having owned three of its products, I've never found it all that difficult to turn the product on, select one of the feature options and simply let the box do its thing. The only thing that matters to me is the sound.

That said, I'm still wondering if these jagged lines that Amir has spotted are noticeable with the ears. Can you hear any of this distortion? If you can, that would be an obvious reason NOT to buy the Dave. But if you can't, what are we talking about? If I understand it correctly, upsampling and downsampling produces issues, which are either below the sound floor or simply masked or moved to a spot beyond normal human hearing. As much as I love my dog, I'm not going to buy a DAC/amp with his hearing in mind.

So, at the risk of getting reamed here, I ask, "Has anybody here heard this thing? If so, do you actually hear the issues Amir has posted about?" I'm not interested in whether you care for Chord's obsession with little balls of any color.

 

[BigEarsBill]

Yeah I'm quite surprised, especially after the host went through the "Training by Rob Watts™", that the DAC was not on their proprietary stand... which you know, does make it easier to read the screen;

JSmith

It's definitely a rich guy's toy, but the question that remains is whether it sounds any better for $14k. If it does, I'll be the first to rob a chain of liquor stores. If not, I'll put my money into better things, which is why all the hue and cry over the display, the screws and the buttons mean less than nothing to me.

 

[fpitas]

Yeah I'm quite surprised, especially after the host went through the "Training by Rob Watts™", that the DAC was not on their proprietary stand... which you know, does make it easier to read the screen;

JSmith

I must be too old for this. To me that looks like a pile of toy junk.

 

[Egoist]

Don't have a clue about Chord Dave but the Mojo 2 is in a completely different league than Topping DX3 Pro+, although the latter measures better. Why, I don't know, but the Chord Mojo 2 sounds much more resolving and natural (which in my perception is a paradigm) than the Topping DAC.

 

[Purité Audio]

Don't have a clue about Chord Dave but the Mojo 2 is in a completely different league than Topping DX3 Pro+, although the latter measures better. Why, I don't know, but the Chord Mojo 2 sounds much more resolving and natural (which in my perception is a paradigm) than the Topping DAC.
[/QUOTE
All those taps.
Keith

 

[amirm]

Don't have a clue about Chord Dave but the Mojo 2 is in a completely different league than Topping DX3 Pro+, although the latter measures better. Why, I don't know, but the Chord Mojo 2 sounds much more resolving and natural (which in my perception is a paradigm) than the Topping DAC.

Ask us: we know. Do that same test again, this time matching levels and blind. Repeat a dozen times and see how often you guess which is which. Keep logs (have a loved one do that and keep track) and then we can talk. Until then, your eyes and brain are deceiving you no different than how that happens in a magic trick.

 

[BigEarsBill]

Don't have a clue about Chord Dave but the Mojo 2 is in a completely different league than Topping DX3 Pro+, although the latter measures better. Why, I do not know.

I really like the Mojo2. Its frequency filters let you set bass or treble shelves that do a nice job of compensating for weak spots in various headphones. Old-school Audezes have great bass and lush mids, but there's a roll-off that always drove me nuts. HiFiMan kicked their butts with the Susvara and the HE1000, which is why the LCD-5 focuses so much on reclaiming that lost treble. But with a treble shelf, you get the sparkle the old-school Audezes were kissing off - and you get it for a much lower price than Audeze's flagships.

I used the same frequency filters with bass-light headphones. While the Grados won't go lower than 50Hz (There's only so much you can accomplish with mylar drivers, open backs and spongey foam pads), if you build a bass shelf form 50-100Hz, those cans sound wayyy better and you don't have to crank them up so much to get kick-drum-level bass (and the treble spikes don't drill through your head).

I never bought an HD800s because I knew it was just an HD800 with a cork up its butt and other slight mods to thicken the bass. I just applied a bass shelf and the HD800 was kickass. It's not planar fast but that toilet-cushion driver is faster than a conventional mylar driver, and with no cone to break up. Some of the HD800's problem is in the bare metal of the cups (aggravating its treble spikes), but with a judicious bass shelf, the recaptured warmth makes it a much better headphone for rock and jazz.

It has 2,000 more taps than the original Mojo, putting it closer to the Qutest, in terms of upsampling. I really like the sound, especially for a pocket DAC/amp.

 

[Egoist]

Ask us: we know. Do that same test again, this time matching levels and blind. Repeat a dozen times and see how often you guess which is which. Keep logs (have a loved one do that and keep track) and then we can talk. Until then, your eyes and brain are deceiving you no different than how that happens in a magic trick.

I do own both DACs. If it's only a question of a magic trick I'm ok with that - in the end what's important is to enjoy the music, and that I guarantee you that I do (especially with the Chord Mojo 2). BTW I have read many good subjective impressions from you in reviews from products that didn't measure that well (especially in headphones) - maybe you should start doing those reviews blindfolded (I understand it would be hard not to notice the difference in the headphones even blindfolded )