DAC contest: Border Patrol Sei or Chord Qutest?


I had a thread about CD transports hijacked by a member who insisted that I had to ditch the Border Patrol before doing anything else in my system. No idea how he landed on the Chord, but he did.

So, here you are... a place to stomp some more on the Border Patrol and praise the Chord... lol.

swvaaudiofan

I will ad here that I installed a wall in an open floor plan to create a dedicated listening area. Then I lined that wall with acoustic foam. Hearing an improvement, I hung acoustic foam on the other side using the stout curtain rod installed there. It's dark and dead in there now - just like it should be.

Uh, so, “dark and dead” is your idea of a good-sounding room?  To each his own I guess.  Still no info on what improvements or sound characteristics are being sought so I got nuthin’. Peace out. 

@soix "Still no info on what improvements or sound characteristics are being sought so I got nuthin’. Peace out. ".

 

Yep, agree. When basic questions don’t get answered and responses include other solutions instead, agree - time to bail out.

 

 

I used to own a Chord Qutest. Now I own a Chord DAVE and M-Scaler. I own other DACs too. Two years ago at AXPONA, one of my favorite rooms was the Border Patrol room. The Border Patrol DAC just has a natural engaging sound to it. Very easy to listen to. I love Chord products for all their attributes, particularly around detail retrieval. But the Chord DACs are very different from the Border Patrol. Subsequent, to the AXPONA above, I purchase a used Border Patrol SE-i DAC. I like this DAC very much and it is a keeper in my collection. I think it’s attractiveness may at least in part be related to it being different than a lot of DACs on the market. 

In the past three years I’ve had at least a dozen. All the way from the blue sound all the way to the dCS Bartók. I’ve heard them all. The one that makes the most sense is called the OCTO eight stereo. It’s about 1500 bucks sounds just like the dCS Bartók. I spent several hours going back-and-forth between the two and could not tell the difference 

This is my original post called What's Up. And I'm the asshole? Go look at Jjss49's response. Not only will I stop following this crap, I'm leaving Audiogon completely. The jerk and his supporters can pretend it was me, but some of you are smart enough to figure out where this all went South.

Audio system source change suggestions? I’m considering options from a Border Patrol Sei SPDIF DAC back to the CD transport. Currently have Audio Sensibility’s Statement SE Coaxial 1.5m cable and the NuPrime CDT-9 with LPS power supply. On the other end of the system, it is all Odyssey Audio (Candela preamp, Khartago modified to Kismet level monoblock amps, and Kismet floor standing speakers).

How far up the food chain might I have to go with a CD transport and SPDIF cable to take the sound to the next level – improved imaging, soundstage, and tonal balance?

 

seems like this guy @swvaaudiofan takes time from kicking the dog and beating the wife to come here and spew...  sorry for the tit for tat, but since he called me out i will reply

he wanted advice on how he could swap out his nuprime cd transport and rca spdif cable to ’bring his sound to the next level’ ... got indignant and pissy when i suggested his border patrol dac was what he was hearing through his system, so i suggested maybe a more detailed, open, transparent dac like a qutest or gustard r26 might be ’next level’ for him -- but he took umbrage at that thought

well, to make him happy ... here we go... this will part the seas and stir the heavens ... 😁