Chord just released a new upscaler: Quartet

[Human Bass]

For only 40kusd you can have even more taps to pair with your dac.

Quartet

The Chord Electronics Quartet is a reference-class digital upscaler. It represents the most significant advancement in digital audio technology in Chord Electronics’ history. The Quarter addresses a fundamental flaw inherent in standard digital playback: the subtle but critical mistiming of...

chordelectronics.co.uk

And this really got me thinking: Chord is greedy AF.

The Dave(flagship dac) is 11 years old, so it is quite outdated for what is possible to do nowdays, not only in the dac/fpga side, but also especially in the headphone amp that is very outdated for current standards.

Chord could easily make a Dave 2 with current advanced FPGA and a better headphone amp , charge 5k more compared to the original and call it a day. But no, that would make things too simple. Instead of upgrade an old dac, let's just charge a fortune for an upscaler.

The Dave being old tech means they have recouped all the R&D costs long ago, while still marketing as the end game. But if you want your end game to be the endest gamest just give Chord 40k for ultimate tap-ocalypse

 

[Human Bass]

Btw, if you go to Dave page, they are still saying "latest gen FPGA". Yeah, latest gen on a 11yo product

 

[RexrothPigeon]

Btw, if you go to Dave page, they are still saying "latest gen FPGA". Yeah, latest gen on a 11yo product

Vintage snake oil

 

[Vandemann]

There's a sucker born every minute.

 

[Matt_Holland]

Looking forward to digital engineering experts to explain what’s going here.

 

[gvl]

Looking forward to digital engineering experts to explain what’s going here.

Someone wants your 40k usd.

 

[Joe Smith]

Nuts.

 

[Matt_Holland]

Someone wants your 40k usd.

Digital experts. Not marketing ones But yeah, you’re comment is 100% on point.

 

[voodooless]

Is that $ 1 per tap?

Edit: nope, it’s a dollar per 100 stereo taps. Almost sounds like a good deal

 

[JSmith]

11yo product

I'm told they age like wine... as in get better with age.


JSmith

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Looking forward to digital engineering experts to explain what’s going here.

I'm an EE, but well aware that ASR has people who are very specific digital experts. It's hard to see from the blurb the exact benefit. It has a massive number of taps, which in theory should allow high-precision filtering. But I'm not sure what audible "problem" they are fixing by this. They claim it helps timing...

 

[voodooless]

Oh dear.. even the standby power is 20W! Normal power draw is 120W!

And these filters are about 2.6 seconds long! So if you start your song, you’ll have to wait 2.6 seconds before you get anything out.

 

[kemmler3D]

It has an ADC so your analog sources can benefit from upscaling. Presumably rather than just going straight to the amp. Great for people who bleach their hair and then dye it back to the original color with the most expensive products available.

Also:

"Crucially, all filtering is executed directly within the hardware architecture. By avoiding the software-industry shortcut of FFT convolution, which converts audio to frequency data and back, introducing further timing errors, the Quartet preserves pure signal integrity, delivering unmatched transient fidelity."

Similar to how my car crucially converts gasoline directly into motion, unlike other cars that use it to heat steam to push a turbine. It's crucial to do it that way.

I am personally convinced that Rob Watts only builds these things as a way to mock his customers. Maybe he was bullied by an audiophile in high school.

 

[Matt_Holland]

It has an ADC so your analog sources can benefit from upscaling. Presumably rather than just going straight to the amp. Great for people who bleach their hair and then dye it back to the original color with the most expensive products available.

This bit really blew my mind. Considering this product is aimed at someone who hates digital but wants the ultimate digital conversion so that their OCDs are subdued, I find this claim of theirs paradoxical.

 

[Chanur]

The true believers there are really pretty crazy. The things they do to get "perfect sound" from their 10k Dave's and 5k M-Scaler.

 

[ivayvr]

Are they for real or this is some weird British humour??!
Subtle but critical mistiming??!?!
Luckily, the design is the usual Chord, to die for (of?)!
And it brings significant sonic improvements. The legs are non resonant!

 

[bargainguy]

If reading British audiophile mags for the last 30 years has taught me anything, the Brits have this acronym - PRAT - pace, rhythm and timing - that they prattle (sorry) on about.

My take on PRAT is these listeners emphasize or value time domain accuracy over say, frequency response. Kind of like what MQA was designed for if memory serves. It all seems reasonable on the surface.

Problem is, I've never seen PRAT objectified in any way. Can you measure PRAT? Is there a PRAT scale? Do the Brits have the lock on PRAT, or are others bellying up to the PRAT bar?

 

[Matt_Holland]

PRAT was invented by Naim/Linn folks to excuse poor frequency response and high distortion.

 

[DVinylfan]

Someone should start a thread on how Chord is a prominent disgrace in the hifi snake oil industry.
I was a customer. Their Mojo seemed like a great product.
Since, that they've seen fit to charge the earth for products with extravagant performance claims and very poor measurements.
Chord. For me it's a no.

 

[ivayvr]

PRAT was invented by Naim/Linn folks to excuse poor frequency response and high distortion.

I believe that PRAT was introduced to remove the possibility of objective comparison with the equipment with decent measurement.
You could never beat that mysterious part that you couldn't measure and that was missing from Far Eastern and other equipment.