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Digital Sound Quality

G

Gabe

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Joined
Mar 7, 2018
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Hi,

I'm new here, and finding this forum rather intriguing and informative!

My intended purchase and home set-up is to have a Chord Dave, with USB cable connected to a PC for music source.

From what I've read, devices such as microRendu, iFI USB3.0, Intona etc being beneficial for a high quality DAC is a myth. Would a device like MUTEC MC3 + USB also not make a difference?

On a similar note, would music servers such as by Aurender and Lumin not make a difference compared to say my computer PC?

There seems to be so much reviews and feedbacks that indicate they all make improvement or change to the sound, and would much appreciate insight in this.
 
Gabe said:
Hi,

I'm new here, and finding this forum rather intriguing and informative!

My intended purchase and home set-up is to have a Chord Dave, with USB cable connected to a PC for music source.

From what I've read, devices such as microRendu, iFI USB3.0, Intona etc being beneficial for a high quality DAC is a myth. Would a device like MUTEC MC3 + USB also not make a difference?

On a similar note, would music servers such as by Aurender and Lumin not make a difference compared to say my computer PC?

There seems to be so much reviews and feedbacks that indicate they all make improvement or change to the sound, and would much appreciate insight in this.
Click to expand...

Are you considering Chord Dave DAC at about 10.000 USD/EUR?

You can do as well or better at much lower prices for a DAC.

Spend some time here and I promise you will save money!

One thing: Do you need analog input for turntable?

And do you consider more channels (multichannel in the future)?
 
svart-hvitt said:
You can do as well or better at much lower prices for a DAC.
Click to expand...
How many taps does your DAC reconstruction filter have? The Chord Dave is unsurpassed in taps. Measure that!! :)
 
svart-hvitt said:
Are you considering Chord Dave DAC at about 10.000 USD/EUR?

You can do as well or better at much lower prices for a DAC.

Spend some time here and I promise you will save money!

One thing: Do you need analog input for turntable?

And do you consider more channels (multichannel in the future)?
Click to expand...

I second that ! Welcome Gabe!
 
Will your DAC be directly connected to the power amp?

And welcome to the forum.
 
Is the Stereophile way of measuring a DAC's bitdepth different from ASR's? See below Chord Dave measuremt.

upload_2018-3-7_17-33-16.png
 
This one’s a classic among objective audiophiles:

https://www.stereophile.com/content...preamplifier-headphone-amplifier-measurements

«As with its predecessor, the DAC2 HGC, which Erick Lichte reviewed for Stereophile in February 2014, Benchmark's DAC3 HGC offers state-of-the-art measured performance. All I can say is "Wow!"—John Atkinson».

I have only heard the Dac2 against Weiss Mk2. Couldn’t hear any difference.

I think a superbly measuring dac in combination with tweaks before the dac (filters in software, DSP, maybe a super clock, resampler etc.» could be a way to go (in order to know where the sound «signature» comes from).
 
Gabe said:
Hi,

I'm new here, and finding this forum rather intriguing and informative!

My intended purchase and home set-up is to have a Chord Dave, with USB cable connected to a PC for music source.

From what I've read, devices such as microRendu, iFI USB3.0, Intona etc being beneficial for a high quality DAC is a myth. Would a device like MUTEC MC3 + USB also not make a difference?

On a similar note, would music servers such as by Aurender and Lumin not make a difference compared to say my computer PC?

There seems to be so much reviews and feedbacks that indicate they all make improvement or change to the sound, and would much appreciate insight in this.
Click to expand...
Personally I might ‘borrow’ the Chord and compare to a much cheaper but well designed dac, Benchmark or RME for example.
Intona does ‘work’ but I found it made no difference to a well designed async USB interface.
No difference between streamers and your PC as long as you are sending big perfect data to your dac.
Keith
 
Purité Audio said:
Personally I might ‘borrow’ the Chord and compare to a much cheaper but well designed dac, Benchmark or RME for example.
Intona does ‘work’ but I found it made no difference to a well designed async USB interface.
No difference between streamers and your PC as long as you are sending big perfect data to your dac.
Keith
Click to expand...

@Purité Audio , you wrote:

«No difference betweenstreamers and your PC as long as you aresending big perfect data to your dac.»

I am anxious to hear your impressions of the Lake People DAT RS 05!

Can such a device alter audible sound?

It does alter the bit stream, so I am awaiting reports!
 
I honestly wouldn't expect to be able to hear any difference whatsoever between 98% of DACs - maybe I might hear the musicality of Schiit devices at low levels.

But splitting the signal into frequency bands digitally and sending it to separate DACs, amplifiers and drivers..? Yes I probably would, compared to the alternative.

I find it intriguing that someone might consider spending $10,000 on a single DAC but wouldn't consider spending the money on, say, a pair of the D&D 8c or Kii Three. Or some Meridian DSP5200s or other super-impressive beasts. All the science would point to such an approach being better; so if a person indicates they *don't* trust science (by continuing to spend their money on a single DAC and, presumably, passive speakers) why are they interested in the science of measurements at all?
 
svart-hvitt said:
Are you considering Chord Dave DAC at about 10.000 USD/EUR?

You can do as well or better at much lower prices for a DAC.

Spend some time here and I promise you will save money!

One thing: Do you need analog input for turntable?

And do you consider more channels (multichannel in the future)?
Click to expand...

No need for analog input. Pretty much all digital and 2.0 channel. Multi-channels not in the foreseeable future, but if so, I would get a preamp with theater bypass.

I'm intending to get a 2nd hand which is priced roughly 6k.
 
Thank you all for the feedbacks.

To answer other questions for my all digital set-up, there seems to be endless discussion on whether an external preamp would makes a improvement to the sound.
My intention is to use the DAC in preamp mode and connect direct to Benchmark ahb2, then to Boenickes. I don't have room for large separates.

Definitely there's a lot of superlatives in the world of audiophile, and DACs are no exception! Say with a 1m taps and aiming for world-class low noise levels be, be made partially redundant due to bottlenecks in other parts of the system such as the amp?
 
Given the quality and feature set the DACs reviewed on ASR have, it makes little sense to spend more than $1000 USD on a consumer level DAC.
 
Well I think I might look at that recently released RME ADI Pro 2 DAC for $999. Heck purchase it and see what you think. Then borrow the Chord assuming you can or take the RME to a dealer to compare. See what you think your extra $9k buys you at that point. If the RME isn't up to snuff, you'll be able to resale it for probably $650 with ease. Meaning you are risking $350 to possibly save $9k. Doesn't sound like a bad risk to me. I rather think both are good enough you'll not hear a difference.
 
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