Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

I use to own the Chord Dac that retailed for 6,000.00. I wasn't crazy about it. The modded Modright Oppo I had at the time was better.

Yep. It is double the price now, so it must be better! ;)

All crap aside, the DAVE has many fans already, and I am very curious what this advanced FPGA approach to DAC’s has to offer.

All of the Chord DAC’s I have heard are pretty good, but they sacrifice in room presence for soundstage accuracy. They are nice, laid back (everything goes on behind the speakers), and polite for the most part. They also don’t have the best slam, dynamics, and clarity. A sonic fingerprint they all seem to have.

From what I have read about the DAVE, this is all taken care of with it, so interesting indeed.

paul79,

Yes, the shortcoming you are stating were there and yes, there are taken care of. It sounds nothing like the QBD76 sounded.

jwm,


I like what Dan Wright does and his modified Oppo is very good. However, when you compare Oppo as a stand alone unit vs using it as a transport for another DAC, the second scenario always has big disadvantage due to the crappy SPDIF output of Oppo. If you look inside the unit, the coaxial output is directly coming out of the board. I have spoken to lots of digital engineers and even though they claim that their DACs are immune to transport output quality, they all eventually admit that it is not entirely true. 

I am familiar with one single product that is completely immune to the source, and that is the Empirical Audio Synchro Mesh. I have put countless digital sources in front of this product, and they all sound equally good using the Synchro Mesh after each and every one of them.

I am not saying it is the absolute best digital source I have heard, but it gets pretty damn close using anything you want in front of it. That is a stunning achievement in my book.

Hi all. 

Sorry for the long lag. I'm enjoying a day inside with the family thanks to almost 20" of snow.... Stay inside and stay safe everyone. 

Wednesday I had the opportunity to hear a Lumin T1, and compare it to my neighbors Aurender N10. It showed enormous potential, but lacked complexity and depth compared to the N10. I want to hear the comparably priced Lumin U1 as I think it may compare favorably with the N10. I'm intrigued. Hopefully the Lumin dealer I'm working with can get a hold of an S1 or U1 (just an S1 without the built in DAC) to audition. 

A friend also brought over a home made fan'less Chinese PC running Windows 10 and for $600- it sounded pretty darn good. I thought it lacked midrange bloom and depth but excelled at accuracy and detail. I would imagine a better power supply would go a long way to helping it out. 

I reached out to Neal of Music Vault and spoke with him at length. His new linear power supply is in the final phase of creation and once ready, I will acquire one to audition. I'll keep everyone updated as that gets closer. 

I acquired a license for Roon. I'm going to compare that to JRiver to hear which sounds better. Curious to hear that. 

To those in the Northeast, stay warm.