Chord DAVE Review (DAC & HP Amp)

[DonR]

I can answer this. My wife is an art major (ended up going to med school, go figure). She tells me the DAVE just looks off, and agrees with you. It seems to be trying to copy the sleek look of Apple products with the aluminum look, but the angles aren't smooth enough and it's too bulky looking. The buttons are clunky, Apple would never have used those. The main problem, though, is the screen: it's the focal point of the device, but the glass is cheap looking, it's at an odd angle and it looks like it's from a 1970s scifi movie (according to her). That for her was the main giveaway that it was not designed by an artist.

For comparison, she thinks Bang & Olufsen products are very stylish and modern looking. (Why can't we get those?).

Thanks for that. Maybe I have some hidden talents after all! I like anything designed by Dieter Rams of Braun from the 50's and 60's. I think that was the inspiration for Johnny Ive of Apple. B&O is pretty as well but the electronics were a mixed bag. Some real spaghetti wiring in the early digital stuff.

 

[Angsty]

It seems to be trying to copy the sleek look of Apple products with the aluminum look, but the angles aren't smooth enough and it's too bulky looking. The buttons are clunky, Apple would never have used those.

Not Apple, but Google.

Chord Chordette Carry HiFi System Google Special Edition Chord Chordette Carry HiFi System Google Special Edition

High Performance Audio Listings & Portal

www.audiog.com

 

[DonR]

Not Apple, but Google.

View attachment 221359

Chord Chordette Carry HiFi System Google Special Edition Chord Chordette Carry HiFi System Google Special Edition

High Performance Audio Listings & Portal

www.audiog.com

Looks like something designed for a kindergarten which fits in with the Chord Fisher-Price aesthetic.

 

[AudioSceptic]

The DAVE is part of a series of components intended to be mounted within a custom stand. Again, statement pieces.

View attachment 221358

Where does the M-Scaler fit?

 

[Angsty]

Where does the M-Scaler fit?

The M-scaler was orginally targeted to partner with the Hugo TT, not the DAVE. It was supposed at the time that the DAVE, at $14,000, was sufficient by itself.

 

[Angsty]

Looks like something designed for a kindergarten which fits in with the Chord Fisher-Price aesthetic.

This stack was commissioned by Google for use by a group of their audio test engineers. After a while, the units ended up in the used market.

 

[AudioSceptic]

The M-scaler was orginally targeted to partner with the Hugo TT, not the DAVE. It was supposed at the time that the DAVE, at $14,000, was sufficient by itself.

Thanks. That makes sense.

 

[Awsmone]

Thanks. That makes sense.

The chord blu CD player mk2 is the original upscaler circuit , and goes with the Dave , not the m scaler which came later as a stand alone upscaler , hence the reason they don’t mechanically work together , the m scaler is about half the price of the blu 2, and why people not playing cds started combining the 2 despite the dichotomy in industrial design between the 2 items

 

[Awsmone]

Send it to me for measurements!!!

To be honest as a lover of art, the Mona Lisa was one of the most disappointing pictures I have ever seen, small, dark, just an enigmatic smile that’s it , and some puffy hands, give me a Vermeer of that any day to look at , actually as a painter Leonardo is very overhyped , his drawings are way better

 

[DonR]

To be honest as a lover of art, the Mona Lisa was one of the most disappointing pictures I have ever seen, small, dark, just an enigmatic smile that’s it , and some puffy hands, give me a Vermeer of that any day to look at , actually as a painter Leonardo is very overhyped , his drawings are way better

I agree with that assessment. It was remarkable in its time, I guess, but is rather disappointing in person. I like Dali for small paintings and Monet for large ones. Rembrandt and van Dyke for portraits.

 

[rollmottle]

Depends on your friend group. Some people spend millions on art that is only seen by people entering their homes. Can’t have a $500K artwork in the same room with a Topping audio stack, can we?

you can if you chuck your Topping into the LB200 so your rich friends won't judge you for having cheap audio gear

LB200 Light Box

Removable rear panel provides access to a large storage compartment where you can place unsightly components to declutter and beautify your home audio system.

shop.mcintoshlabs.com

 

[Angsty]

I gathered a few pics of the Chord DAVE. It seems a avionics machinist and a motorcycle mechanic got together and made the case with whatever fasteners that where available.

The founder of Chord, John Franks, did indeed start in the avionics industry and brought that design aesthetic to Chord.

Chord is a small business. When the Illustrated History of High End Audio v2 was published in 2015, it had 15 employees and had been in business since 1989. They probably still have fewer than 50 employees today, per Zoominfo.

 

[AudioX3]

Lets be real. Anyone selling or buying a exorbitantly priced anything is doing so for snobbery. And I guess that is what they achieve. Congratulations. (Your kind loaner aside or at least recovering).

 

[tomchris]

O M G, the horror! Why not add some shower curtain rings, a faucet, a bike horn and a toilet handle, while you are at it?

 

[Angsty]

Lets be real. Anyone selling or buying a exorbitantly priced anything is doing so for snobbery. And I guess that is what they achieve. Congratulations. (Your kind loaner aside or at least recovering).

We can respectfully disagree on that point. I am not a big Chord fan, but I can believe that there are people willing to pay top dollar for the best in their hobby, and they don’t have to be snobs. Most of us own far more in audio equipment than the average person, likely putting us in top 2% of audio equipment purchasers. Even $500 for a DAC is “exorbitant” when most audio devices have DACs built in.

 

[Somafunk]

Lets be real. Anyone selling or buying a exorbitantly priced anything is doing so for snobbery.

Not necessarily, I’ve spent an absolute fortune on custom bike frames and components that do not offer any justifiable financial outlay vs performance advantages over components that are 1/10th of their cost, the exorbitantly priced may be lighter, perhaps have more strength, exquisite machining or are simply better in use and give pleasure every time you suffer in the last few miles of a race or have to drag yourself out of bed at 6am on a pitch black winters morning to get in the off season training miles.

Some things just make you happy every time you use them and are worth the extra “pleasure” tax

 

[Angsty]

What I have a problem with is less of the $14,000 price (which is ridiculous) than that for the princely sum, you *still* don’t get the best in the industry. For $14k, you could get an annual subscription to the best Topping DAC for a dozen years!

 

[Jimster480]

The DAVE is part of a series of components intended to be mounted within a custom stand. Again, statement pieces.

View attachment 221358

Wow that's a horribly ugly stand. Of course they would have to make their own ugly stand to go along with their ugly products. My DX7 looks more serious than this honestly. Especially as there are no connectors on the front and the design is just all over the place.

This stack was commissioned by Google for use by a group of their audio test engineers. After a while, the units ended up in the used market.

It makes sense that Google is backwards enough that they actually were using these garbage Electronics for their audio engineers. I'm sure they got some nice budget inside of Google to buy these overpriced products just so that they could have this EP competition inside of the company.

What I have a problem with is less of the $14,000 price (which is ridiculous) than that for the princely sum, you *still* don’t get the best in the industry. For $14k, you could get an annual subscription to the best Topping DAC for a dozen years!

It seems more than 10 years. Because right now the D90 is only like $600. So 10 years would only be $6,000. You would need to buy the D90 and the A90 revisions for at least 10 years in order to reach $12,000. On the final year you can buy every other product in their lineup so that you can hopefully reach your 14k budget.

Or I look at it as you could buy the D90 and A90 discreet Plus most of the expensive major headphones. You could afford a Dan Clark stealth as well as a final headphone and a focal Utopia at a very minimum. I reckon you would still have around 2K left over so add whatever other Hi-Fi item you might want as your final expenditure.

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

Lets be real. Anyone selling or buying a exorbitantly priced anything is doing so for snobbery. And I guess that is what they achieve. Congratulations. (Your kind loaner aside or at least recovering).

I don't agree. Until I discovered ASR, I honestly believed that a £20,000 hifi item would "sound" superior, to a far cheaper equivalent.

 

[JSmith]

Well re. measurements, he always states he gets very different results on his own APx555 measurements

Apparently the APx555 is the bottleneck here;

...even the APx 555 is not fully up to the task.

JSmith