Chord DAVE, any lesser Chord DAC come close?

astelmaszek,
I sent you a PM. 

Uber;

I have Qutest here & running Roon.

I have never heard Dave, but plan too at AXPONA.

I bought it via Audio Advisors for a 30 day trial.   You should too 

I compared it to Playback Designs Merlot DSD dac at same time.

Roon allowed me to upsample, filter PCM, DSD convert.

It is quite the chameleon.
It can be super detailed & incisive & BIG soundstage 
It can be DSD, smooth, detailed & sensuous & great soundstage 
it has big bass !

The upsample and filter in roon allows the cameleon to show thru

In it’s natural state it is highly incisive and detailed PCM 
If tap number is a representative of detail , then DAVE is as good as it will get?
If it was PCM only, I would have sent it back for overload of incisive detail, my system is capable of lots of detail and soundstage ques.
but, 
Roon allows DSD and associated tayloring of sound.

anyway, I’d love to hear a Dave with Roon or M upsampler.

Dave can’t be that much better?   Or my famous last words ! $1880 is reasonable, $10 k is not ( I’m happy )

Playback Designs and Qutest in DSD was a good competition, Playback a tad better, but Qutest and roon allows a bit of sound tayloring that I like 

My thought is try it thru Audio Advisor.

jeffy

ps: Great vinyl is still better, more soundstage 

I had a 2Qute here, belongs to a buddy (who is sending it back) for a day or two last week. Comparing it to my Yggdrasil with updated analog out, and I was not a fan. Seemed sterile and sucked the fun right out of the music. It could be more accurate, I don't know, but nevertheless I wasn't a fan. Was playing RB from a Jay's transport via BNC.I tried a couple of filters but they didn't make it stand out, in my opinion.Other DACs I've had are a non-multibit Gungnir, and an Aqua La Voce S2, but those were years ago so comparisons are moot.  

I submit everyone has different preferences and individual components have to be taken in context with the "whole" system. I've owned several DACs and don't hear the leanness that some refer to with the Dave in my system. I don't think there is a night and day difference between the Dave and TT2 if your talking about audiophile things(soundstaging, detail, bass), but to my ears the Dave is far more "musical and convincing" in my system than any DAC that I've owned. I don't speak in absolutes, but that's my opinion. In another system I could in fact arrive at a different conclusion.

Hey guys,

curious if anyone has some experience with the sound of a few more components to help me figure out my "next step"...

I've got a Hegel HD30 DAC now being fed by an Aurender N100H. The sound is *very* affected by the USB cable and power-cord and isolation (still points) I use under the N100H. I also want a sound that is more holographic/3D. I was thinking to upgrade to an N10 which sounds better (based on almost all other reports), but then I heard an owner of the DAVE dac say that this particular dac is remarkably jitter-resistant... he had compared the sound using multiple USB cables and servers (including Aurender n10 and macbook etc) and could hear virtually no difference.

So now I'm wondering what's a better way to go:

* Keep Hegel HD30 DAC and upgrade to Aurender N10
* Keep Aurender N100H and upgrade to CHORD DAVE DAC

Naturally, I would love to audition all of these options in my own system but this may not be possible. Any advice is welcome!

-Dave