Chord DAVE Review (DAC & HP Amp)

[Trell]

where was it?
OK, I saw it, by the headphone socket.
Beats me! Good job you get 5 year warranty.
If it was general heat, there are numerous other caps in there - perhaps it was a dodgy cap.
All that chunk of ALU does act as natural heatsink.

You'll need to directly connect the heat generating components to the chunk of ALU for it to work as a heat sink.

UK has a 5 years warranty by law for devices such as these, and I wish the rest of EU followed suit.

Edit: My claim of 5 years warranty in UK is probably wrong.

 

[Trell]

When you are not an engineering driven company but a marketing driven one, you purchase OEM design from "engineering" companies, and you put your logo on it. That's a marketing driven company, you certainly don't go trough the huge developing cost of designing your own Dac algorithm on a FPGA platform with in house custom multitap filters instead of going for a proven ready to produce chip solution. Chord is the very definition of an engineering driven company.

Fair enough. My comments about Chord marketing stands, though, and you never hear anything even remotely similar from companies like RME.

 

[Robbo99999]

I expect Chord to select capacitors that will have a very long expected life time of use in their products, especially for a $14000 one. If the design is incompetent it probably doesn't matter if it's "industrial or military grade" either.

When you put the price in the equation it’s difficult to argue. However, it’s difficult argue the value in so many ways to start with that having to replace the caps in 5-6yrs is neither here nor there for me.

We can see that the manufacturer quasi admits the issue by replacing them free of charge.

BTW, what do you expect a consumer audio device’s life time to be?

For something simple like a DAC, I'd expect lifetime to be as long as the device is relevant for. I'd expect DACS to be able to do 24hrs a day for 10yrs. I'd expect the platforms to change and therefore to make the device obsolete before it fails. This is a DAC/amp though, I don't know how long headphone amps would last.....I'd casually expect the same, but I might expect a lower life than a DAC. I don't really see consumer electronics as being failure prone, I see them as becoming obsolete before that time.

 

[sarumbear]

UK has a 5 years warranty by law for devices such as these, and I wish the rest of EU followed suit.

Where do you see that 5yr? I’m a 72yo Brit and never ever saw such a warranty for equipment. EU consumer law is 2yrs and so far the UK have not altered that law. 5yrs warranty is often given for parts.

 

[DonR]

Actually, a properly engineered and made SMPS is cleaner than linear, sometimes by much!
There are objective measurements of this (I can not remember where, though), but it is shown that an cheap SMPS came closest to a battery in measurements.

Regarding the item itself, it is waaay too expensive for me, can not afford.
So be it crap or fantastic, is not gonna bother me, perhaps it does Amir and/or Elon! but not me.

I think this is the thread you wanted: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...o-you-need-linear-power-supply-for-dacs.7021/

I agree but the purists, especially those buying a $14000 DAC, might disagree.

 

[JohnM-73]

Where do you see that 5yr? I’m a 72yo Brit and never ever saw such a warranty for equipment. EU consumer law is 2yrs and so far the UK have not altered that law. 5yrs warranty is often given for parts.

"Legal rights" for up to 6 years, whatever that means exactly :

Claim using a warranty or guarantee

How to claim using a warranty or guarantee, when to use your legal rights instead reading the small print.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk

 

[chesebert]

I think this is the thread you wanted: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...o-you-need-linear-power-supply-for-dacs.7021/

I agree but the purists, especially those buying a $14000 DAC, might disagree.

Many high end digital brands have already fully transitioned from LPS to SMPS in their top end dacs.

 

[sarumbear]

"Legal rights" for up to 6 years, whatever that means exactly :

Claim using a warranty or guarantee

How to claim using a warranty or guarantee, when to use your legal rights instead reading the small print.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk

That’s what I meant about parts warranty. You have legal rights for the device to be repairable within 6yrs (5yrs in Scotland). That means any part required to repair the device must be made available to purchase. It doesn’t mean the repair will be free either. It’s just that you can have it repaired.

 

[DonR]

Many high end digital brands have already fully transitioned from LPS to SMPS in their top end dacs.

And yet the myth continues in the communities with many after-market LPS "upgrades".

 

[Trell]

Where do you see that 5yr? I’m a 72yo Brit and never ever saw such a warranty for equipment. EU consumer law is 2yrs and so far the UK have not altered that law. 5yrs warranty is often given for parts.

I probably misunderstood then. I've edited my original post.

 

[Glint]

Le corde pour se pendre. French joke, impossible to translate.

I googled it and now google is telling me about the Samaritans :/

 

[Snoopy]

... for that sort of money one would expect a 100% SOTA DAC and surely a more luxurious look.

Here is under the hood;

View attachment 220047


JSmith

Looks a bit like something audiophonics could make for 500$

 

[Kevbaz]

Where do you see that 5yr? I’m a 72yo Brit and never ever saw such a warranty for equipment. EU consumer law is 2yrs and so far the UK have not altered that law. 5yrs warranty is often given for parts.

I’ve not seen 5 year warranty with Chord but in UK, but we can get a 5 year warranty on RME kit through UK distributor which is really cool

 

[Trell]

I googled it and now google is telling me about the Samaritans :/

une corde pour se pendre - English translation – Linguee

Many translated example sentences containing "une corde pour se pendre" – English-French dictionary and search engine for English translations.

www.linguee.com

 

[spacessound]

Does the display really have all those different colours at once? Amber, blue, white, black. One of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen.

 

[chesebert]

And yet the myth continues in the communities with many after-market LPS "upgrades".

Most people in this hobby lack any rudimentary electronics knowledge so you can’t really blame them for falling back on old practices and manufacturers’ marketing. You can build extremely high performing LPS and SMPS but for low power application SMPS is preferred.

 

[sarumbear]

I’ve not seen 5 year warranty with Chord but in UK, but we can get a 5 year warranty on RME kit through UK distributor which is really cool

Cool!

RME 5 Year Warranty

Synthax Audio UK is a professional audio distributor supplying the recording studio, live sound, broadcast audio, installation, education and scientific application markets. Representing a number of established pro audio manufacturers, we keep immediate stock of all key items from our brands...

www.synthax.co.uk

 

[chesebert]

Does the display really have all those different colours at once? Amber, blue, white, black. One of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen.

Yes. The whole thing looks ugly to me (worse in person) so it’s a design choice, obviously.

 

[GXAlan]

BTW, what do you expect a consumer audio device’s life time to be?

Performance degradation and lifespan are two different things.

I would want to avoid performance degradation in 5 years.
I would want lifespan to be 20 years if it is a $1000 or more. 40 years if $2000 or more. User serviceable parts don’t count. (Tubes, and cartridge needles can be replaced. If there is a capacitor that needs to be replaced every 5-10 years and there is a provision for users to do it trivially without soldering irons (none exist that I know of), that’s OK). Reforming is OK as long as spare parts are made available. Mechanical products get to cut those numbers in half.

There are McIntosh MC2105 and JBL SA600’s that continue to be operational today. Even the Lansalloy surrounds that are maintained continue to exist. Crown amplifiers and Adcom amplifiers from the 90s are still pretty good even today.
For reference, the 27 year old Denon DA-500 with zero service is still working, not last place in performance, and retailed for around $500 Us on 1995 or $1000 in 2022 dollars.

Denon DA-500 Vintage R2R DAC Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the vintage (?) Denon DA-500 DAC. It was kindly purchased by a member on the used market and drop shipped to me. Interest was to find historic products with something cool about them. In this case, it is the "alpha" processing in the DA-500 which...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Where do you see that 5yr? I’m a 72yo Brit and never ever saw such a warranty for equipment. EU consumer law is 2yrs and so far the UK have not altered that law. 5yrs warranty is often given for parts.

Anything longer than a year is offered voluntary by the seller or manufacturing .
On this item, Chord gives five years. on Hugo2 it is 3 years.