Chord DAVE measured by Cosmos ADC

[BlinkDL]

Hi guys. I measured my Chord DAVE using Cosmos ADC (grade A). Cosmos is set to 4.5Vrms in both XLR and RCA measurements.

Note DAVE has a HF filter which affects the FR and probably cause the rise of IMD after 18kHz. I will remeasure it later without HF filter.

DAVE has higher noise and crosstalk than D90SE, but comparable THD.

XLR (higher noise due to opamps):

RCA (better performance but higher 2nd HD):

XLR details:

RCA details:

 

[RickSanchez]

Welcome to ASR, and thanks for performing these measurements.

You may want to post a link to this thread over here (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...asurements-with-mscaler-by-goldensound.31741/), as I'm sure a number of folks on that thread will be interested to see your test results.

 

[BlinkDL]

Welcome to ASR, and thanks for performing these measurements.

You may want to post a link to this thread over here (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...asurements-with-mscaler-by-goldensound.31741/), as I'm sure a number of folks on that thread will be interested to see your test results.

Thank you reposted.

 

[BlinkDL]

Although I mainly use DAVE for my PSI A17, its headphone output is especially good for IEMs. I find Monarch MKii a great match (no EQ needed this is very rare).

Here is a low imp. IEM (Senn M2I = 18ohm, good for testing because of its low unit-to-unit variations) at -13dBFS (Cosmos set to 1.7Vrms). Very clean HDs.

Note some of the noises are from the Cosmos earphone adaptor board (I am in a RF-noisy room today). This is what I get from just the board + earphone (adaptor unplugged from DAC):

I tested the unloaded Cosmos before and it doesn't have these noises:

 

[JayGilb]

Thanks for the measurements.
I liked the format of the data tables and your graph colors. Quick and easy to read.

Welcome to ASR.

 

[Matias]

Welcome to ASR. Very nice!

 

[Gradius]

Something is wrong as you got better result using RCA than XLR.

Also, did you limited 40~15kHz (that's nothing) because the IMD from 18kHz ?

 

[restorer-john]

Something is wrong as you got better result using RCA than XLR.

XLR has another opamp/gain stage/leg (+ and -) so will always have more residual noise. Its only benefit is immunity to intererence (hum and noise) in the cable, not the device itself.

 

[deafenears]

Something is wrong as you got better result using RCA than XLR.

Aren't all Chord DACs SE by design?

 

[Gradius]

XLR has another opamp/gain stage/leg (+ and -) so will always have more residual noise. Its only benefit is immunity to intererence (hum and noise) in the cable, not the device itself.

Yes, I know about the cable stuff.

Aren't all Chord DACs SE by design?

That's correct. I'd forgot that.