Chord DAVE DAC


Any owners who want to tell me more about it? I recently received an inheritance worth about 13k. I can shell out another 2 grand to get my end-game DAC with headphones. Or...maybe the wife and kids want their bathrooms renovated 

Please tell me how it sounds. I don't have a dealer close-by to audition. I just want "end-game" performance so I won't have to worry. I listen to mostly .flac and .wav files with some .mp3s (320 kbps) in the mix. Only because it was hard to get those albums so I downloaded mp3s and saved money.

 

- Jack

jackhifiguy

Showing 1 response by ucrazykid

Listen to all that you can. But what you like the kind of. It doesn’t have to be expensive to sound good. Consider Delta-Sigma, Resistor Ladder (R2R), and FPGA, based types of DACs. Remember that the actual chip, or way the 1’s and 0’s are changed to an analog wave for is actually not the hard part. It is the circuit design, clock, power supply, and analog output stage that really determines the sound quality of a DAC. I have owned a few DACs and right now my favorite is the Gustard x26 Pro. It beats my Topping D90, D10, and my modified MSB Gold III. Also remember that “end-game” in a still evolving area (digital audio conversion) is not an easy thing to identify. Much easier in an amplifier or pre amp as they have been around for 100 years. $13k is a lot of money. If you come to this group openly asking for suggestions, I’d suggest you have a lot more research and learning to be done on your end first.
One last thing. If the number of “taps” used by an upsampled seems important to you because of what Chord says, remember that a equivalent software package can do the same and more for $150 (FPPB-RT). You don’t need a $5000 box from Chord to do it (M-scaler).

 

edit: I would also add that if CD’s are too expensive for you to buy and you are downloading 320MP3 from torrent sites, then you should not be dropping $13000 on a DAC and should put the money to use elsewhere.  Don’t let if burn a hole in your pocket.