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Chord DAVE Review (DAC & HP Amp)

Rate this DAC & HP Amp

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 294 60.7%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 120 24.8%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 46 9.5%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 24 5.0%

  • Total voters
    484

Here2Learn

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I heard story how snobs tasted 2 bottles of the same wine.
They were told that 1 was worth 70 bucks and other 10. Majority preferred 70 bucks wine lol .
Reminds me of this...

The same applies to how people hear equipment when any form of prior knowledge, opinions, reviews, etc exist.
 

chesebert

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Imagine a computer market where some manufacturers made their own CPUs from discrete parts instead of buying in chips from Intel and the rest. There would, of course, be a niche market for very low power computers using valves (tubes) in single-ended configuration because, you know, the first few instructions per second are the most important.
There are countless fabless ic manufacturers. What’s your point?
 

don'ttrustauthority

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"Mind you, the impairments are there objectivity. Other than lack of amplification power, I doubt any of these issues are audible."

No.

The objective conclusion is that if the 'impairments' are not audible, they are not impairments. It is AUDio gear, not SPECio gear.

One day the government will control speed in cars through a hard limit enforced remotely. But you'll still pan cars that don't go over the limit.

Also the cheapest performant dac is only $129.
 

spooky

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Yeah, Okto’s impulse response looks a lot cleaner and I would surmise Okto sounds better than Dave as well.

Dave sounds “digital” to me and I am not a fan.
Is there anything in measurements that would be an indication of why it sounded digital to you?
 

Somafunk

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What's he carrying in his sporran then? A warmed up stone to keep his John Thomas warm on cold nights, as well as to surprise the ladies when he highland dances up to her bumper baby?

I can only speak from my own experiences, I only wore my kilt to weddings and carried weed and perhaps a little mdma in my sporran, every wedding I’ve been to had an open bar so no need for money at all.
 
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sarumbear

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Wow, this is a very important moment. This test marks the end of high end OR the end of objective testing. The only other possibility is that the unit was broken.
The broken excuse have arrived. This time it took 122 posts.
 

GXAlan

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I notice that electrolyte at right side close to headphone jack is swelling , it shows that it is dry capacitor because of heat !! is it the same unit that Amir measure it ?
View attachment 220175

This may explain everything. Chord made a good product in 2015 but the engineering controls for thermal management was poor leading to today’s performance level which is poor

Chord could make everything right but replacing this capacitor for all of their current customers. They cannot have sold too many of these 14k DACs and any local tech should be able to swap that out for something else.
 

Trell

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The broken excuse have arrived. This time it took 122 posts.

From a picture of the internals of one of them with a bulging cap and reported to run very hot: Are there any in common use that is not broken?
 

Here2Learn

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I can only speak from my own experiences, I only wore my kilt to weddings and carried weed and perhaps a little mdma in my sporran, every wedding I’ve been to has an open bar so no need for money at all.
I see. You are that "You thought he was with us, we thought he was with you? Who IS that Scotsman raving to the bride and grooms slow dance with glowsticks" famous gatecrasher, knocking up bridesmaids since Bells Whisky went out of fashion.
 

chesebert

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I notice that electrolyte at right side close to headphone jack is swelling , it shows that it is dry capacitor because of heat !! is it the same unit that Amir measure it ?
View attachment 220175
Person with this unit has already had the unit inspected by Chord and they have already replaced the cap and updated his firmware.
 

sarumbear

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From a picture of the internals of one of them with a bulging cap and reported to run very hot: Are there any in common use that is not broken?
Yes, the capacitor is reaching EOL. Do you know how that is defined?
 

Trell

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Yes, the capacitor is reaching EOL. Do you know how that is defined?
Is that a rhetorical question? Do you know?

The capacitor should obviously have been selected to have a very long life in its intended usage.
 

Marc v E

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Hard to rate this product. By measurements it lands in the excellent category, although I would reserve that for devices that are completely transparent, which this device is not. (Through the headphone out at least.)

It's more the price per performance that makes this a poor buy compared to so many cheaper competitors.

So I voted "fine" purely looking at the measurements.
It looks like many of us rate a product by price as most voted poor.
Still, a review like this will be received as poor by the designer and fans, so there's much to say for that approach
;). I think I'll just sit back with some popcorn and wait for the moment the message arrives.
:)

EDIT: And the internal build quality
:facepalm:. That is just embarassing. That lands it in the "Not terrible". A nicely fitting rating as it both has a message of being good by measurement and not so good in other respects.
 
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Trell

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Chord did the work free of charge - the unit was not under warranty
Including transportation? I seem to recall that the very kind member that shipped his to amirm for review paid $300 or so, if I remember correctly.
 

chesebert

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Including transportation? I seem to recall that the very kind member that shipped his to amirm for review paid $300 or so, if I remember correctly.
That I don’t know. Typically you pay to ship the unit and the manufacturer pays the return shipping.
 

GXAlan

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I also have to give credit to Chord for achieving this performance in 2015. That is when Star Wars Force Awakens arrived in theaters and the iPhone 6s was state of the art.

Definitely time for an upgrade for Chord and a price cut in 2022. Linn did a “renew” program where they transplanted the electronics of older stuff into a plain chassis.
 
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