Chord DAVE Review (DAC & HP Amp)

[voodooless]

Yes (to my ears) if you play it back on a dac with high pre and post ringing.

Which ones are those?

You know that any correctly recorded audio will have no such ringing? Only invalid samples (things like clipping, artificially created sounds) will result in ringing. If it’s audible is then another question.

 

[bennetng]

Whoever created your music had a standard DAC without such filters. How come they thought it sounded nice but you don't?

Because he lied.

 

[Nango]

Not to mention that it seems to be a very Chinese practice for some reason. Many of the Chinese brands use Serif fonts. I guess Chord knew what they are competing with

Yes, given they are not cheaper than sans serifs I never understood why chinese mfr predominantly use serifs on their devices.

 

[voodooless]

It usually appears on page two or three when some damn expensive product is tested and its performance is not in relation to the price. Or worse, underperforms in relation to price,or underperforms in general.

Also funny how that somehow is a justification… $14k underperforms and is broken.. oh, all is suddly well.. Wake up! If this one is broken, how do you know yours is not? Amir can’t be so unlucky that he always gets the broken ones…

 

[chesebert]

Which ones are those?

You know that any correctly recorded audio will have no such ringing? Only invalid samples (things like clipping, artificially created sounds) will result in ringing. If it’s audible is then another question.

The time domain impulse response of a dac completely defines the time domain characteristics of that dac. You use convolution to calculate the output with any given input and the dac’s impulse response

 

[voodooless]

The impulse response of a dac completely defines the time domain characteristics of that dac. You use convolution to calculate the output with any given input and the dac’s impulse response

So?

Audiophile Myth #260: The Detestable Digital Filter Ringing and Real Music...

A blog for audiophiles about more objective topics. Measurements of audio gear. Reasonable, realistic, no snakeoil assessment of sound, and equipment.

archimago.blogspot.com

 

[chesebert]

So?

Audiophile Myth #260: The Detestable Digital Filter Ringing and Real Music...

A blog for audiophiles about more objective topics. Measurements of audio gear. Reasonable, realistic, no snakeoil assessment of sound, and equipment.

archimago.blogspot.com

You do understand what an impulse response of a linear system means, right?

 

[the_brunx]

I love the generic power-cord in the photo.

 

[Fidji]

I wouldn’t know for sure unless I heard it. I always leave some wiggle room as audio is very subjective and personal. I was hoping you know what “digital” sounding means but I was wrong you have obvious never heard non “digital” sound reproduction in your life - go borrow a Linn turntable or some tape and get some listening experience

I believe you are aware, that LINN top of the range URIKA 2 phono pre digitizes the signal, right? How does this fit to your "digital evil" universe. And before you ask, yes, I do own KLIMAX spec LP12 and can compare how it sounds - its only use is to play records that are not available in digital format [basically my father's collection of 60s/early 70s LPs]
And, please sit down, it sounds even better, once you do AD/DA conversion in TRINNOV Optimizer for Room Correction. There are several reasons, why some vinyl records might sound "better" - most important one being different mastering with higher DR used compared to highly compressed digital editions. If I have a choice between LP and usually end of 80s CD [same master] CD is always miles ahead.

There is one thing very common among audiphiles "addiction to distortion" , manifesting in their affinity to tubes, vinyl etc.

 

[Lopsided]

Yes (to my ears) if you play it back on a dac with high pre and post ringing.

Chord DACs all uses linear filter with long pre and post ringing.

 

[Purité Audio]

Well that’s a bit disappointing Amit tests another broken unit / unknown provenance/ at least this wasn’t ‘cherry picked’ by the manufacturer!
Seriously though your work is invaluable every other forum is just a joke in comparison.
Keith

 

[Sokel]

... 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

14K with a PS without an R-core transformer and an array of at least 50.000uF caps in a high-ish-end DAC?
This world is coming to an end!

 

[Aperiodic]

... 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

For that kind of money, I expect a concubine.

Another 'The price is the product' piece. I mean, I don't think this would be an especially good value at $1400; forget $14K. I don't think any DAC/ amp is worth that. You can get a passable used car for the same $. Maybe the zero key on somebody's keyboard is sticking?

 

[EXIF68]

$14000.— for this device? This could only be a joke.

 

[ah-ra]

Really, really bad! I always thought Chord would be something special, but this... Actually this confirms the impression I had when listening to a reference setup at this year's High End fair in Munich. All the expensive Chord electronics paired with B&W reference speakers. All in all probably near 100k in equipment, but the sound... Nothing special about it.

 

[Robbo99999]

Do you guys know when this device was introduced into the market?
It would make quite a difference for a dac.
If it was say from 1997 that price at the time would have made sense for such performance... Kind of.
If it's from 2020 or after, quite nope...

One year more or less is so much time for dac technology.

2015

That's actually quite impressive then, I'd be surprised if there was anything matching at the time. Maybe we've been too harsh on it, even though I still think $14000 is ridiculous!

EDIT: although I just saw a comment that they're still selling this model - well in that case we haven't been too harsh.......but an impressive technical feat for 2015 at it's initial release.

 

[DSJR]

I wouldn’t know for sure unless I heard it. I always leave some wiggle room as audio is very subjective and personal. I was hoping you know what “digital” sounding means but I was wrong you have obvious never heard non “digital” sound reproduction in your life - go borrow a Linn turntable or some tape and get some listening experience

Been there, done that, and the Linn turntable failed miserably and nearly put me off vinyl for life it was so bad back then (tape was a 30IPS half inch 'Blue Nile' master without Dolby or similar - didn't really need it in all honesty...). Have you compared a nice analogue master recording with its digital copy and then the CD made from it? I have when I thought I had pretty fair hearing and subjectively, no difference. Lay subjectivists haven't done this, so what they *think* is a nice sound always rules, but that's only their preference, not what's actually going on... And don't you DARE to suggest the LP12 wasn't set up properly (you don't know my 'history' with this brand and turntable since 1976 - and I do admit the current top model is rather better - radikal can't cure the very slight wow though which makes the tunes more 'sexy')..



I wonder how the average dac performed back in 2015 (seven years ago, a long time in dac development at lower prices and things tested on ASR have improved hugely in the three years or so I've 'been' here...

 

[staticV3]

High pre and post ringings from predefined reconstruction filter on the IC sound like high frequency hash to me and I hear that as sounding “digital”.

You mean high pre and post ringing like the Dave for example?


Here's the okto Dac8 Stereo for comparison:


Much cleaner, isn't it? That's an ES9038Pro chip.

Sources: Dave, okto

 

[the_brunx]

Don’t know which Dave is more hilarious,
14000 for this performance in 2022?

 

[AudioSceptic]

By the way here are the measurements from Goldensound with M Scaler too.

Chord DAVE Measurements (With MScaler) - GoldenSound

Technical measurements and analysis of the Chord DAVE DAC. This is a high end DAC with some great and not so great aspects

goldensound.audio

I see that, despite the impressively steep filter, the DAVE still fails to reach full attenuation by 22.05 kHz; in fact, it's barely got started. I wonder if Amir could zoom in on his graph and see if this is the case with his example? We need to be flat to 20 kHz, and even that is arguable given most people's hearing, so why the need to be flat to just past 22.00 kHz? How is this not sheer insanity?