Chord DACs

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Hi Foxman, those early threads were restored sometime back, I think Richard had to do some regrettable editing from those who appeared incensed that there was a newcomer in town that many felt sounded really good and enjoyable with Naim that didn’t cost the price of a new small car...

Hi Simon, yes so I see just had a look. And yes certain forums members who will remain nameless, analogmusic, whoops. Its ok I've forgiven you

 Thank you Richard for doing so.

analogmusic posted:

sad isn't it Foxman...

However I am really looking forward to recordings mastered on his upcoming  ADC - Analog to Digital convertor DAVINA - finally should bring us much closer to experiencing digital music really sounds like "studio masters".

It should put Chord firmly on the map for the next 20 years or so, as competitors try to figure out how Rob Watts did it. 

Yes it will be interesting to hear. Mastered on DAVINA, replayed on DAVE.

I too couldn't get on with Hugo 2 and went back to Hugo TT. Had a similar impression as Foxman, found it unforgiving and a little bright with my speakers. I can imagine on different speakers it might work well.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Foxman50 posted:

Nina posted:

Just playing Philharmonics by Agnes Obel and I've just had a "good grief!" moment

The sound was so real it was amazing.  I actually can't remember ever having this reaction to any piece of kit before, surely it can't be the Hugo  

Ah i remember my hugo "good grief" moment well. I was thinking this just the other day that no piece of equipment before or since provided such a wow moment.

its a shame those early Hugo threads have been deleted, would make interesting reading now.

Enjoy

Hi Foxman, those early threads were restored sometime back, I think Richard had to do some regrettable editing from those who appeared incensed that there was a newcomer in town that many felt sounded really good and enjoyable with Naim that didn’t cost the price of a new small car...

LOL Simon, but now with the benefit of hindsight, Chord and Rob Watts have some rather unique and useful ideas on D/A conversion. I remember the first day I got the Hugo, it was a real wow moment for me.

More like an oh no moment, how will i eat all that humble pie 

Halloween Man posted:

I too couldn't get on with Hugo 2 and went back to Hugo TT. Had a similar impression as Foxman, found it unforgiving and a little bright with my speakers. I can imagine on different speakers it might work well.

After many months waiting,next week I am picking up a Hugo 2 for a home demo.I had the original Hugo for a couple of years,so I know it well,I am hoping it works well with my Dynaudio special 40s,if not,I may just keep it for headphones at work,did you try it with headphones Halloween Man?I have also heard the mojo,and the Dave/blu 11 combo at my dealers home,quite remarkable!

Foxman50 posted:

More like an oh no moment, how will i eat all that humble pie 

I ate it long time ago when I bought the Hugo 1.

Now I am considering how to digest the financial pain of buying Blu2..... 

No quarter posted:

Halloween Man posted:

I too couldn't get on with Hugo 2 and went back to Hugo TT. Had a similar impression as Foxman, found it unforgiving and a little bright with my speakers. I can imagine on different speakers it might work well.

After many months waiting,next week I am picking up a Hugo 2 for a home demo.I had the original Hugo for a couple of years,so I know it well,I am hoping it works well with my Dynaudio special 40s,if not,I may just keep it for headphones at work,did you try it with headphones Halloween Man?I have also heard the mojo,and the Dave/blu 11 combo at my dealers home,quite remarkable!

so how was the blu2/Dave???

analogmusic posted:

No quarter posted:

Halloween Man posted:

I too couldn't get on with Hugo 2 and went back to Hugo TT. Had a similar impression as Foxman, found it unforgiving and a little bright with my speakers. I can imagine on different speakers it might work well.

After many months waiting,next week I am picking up a Hugo 2 for a home demo.I had the original Hugo for a couple of years,so I know it well,I am hoping it works well with my Dynaudio special 40s,if not,I may just keep it for headphones at work,did you try it with headphones Halloween Man?I have also heard the mojo,and the Dave/blu 11 combo at my dealers home,quite remarkable!

so how was the blu2/Dave???

The blu2/Dave is probably the best source I have ever heard,by a mile...real live music,no harshness or anything that resembles digital at all.I am lucky enough to hear the combo every time I visit my dealer,he usually has it playing.I have heard CDs played in the blu2 and a Simaudio streamer digital feed fed through it,in both cases,I was blown away.If I had the money,that is what my source would be. He uses Simaudio gear,and Focal Sopra 1 Speakers.I also heard the combo with MY special 40s,the day I picked them up,and I have heard the combo with Neat Iota Alphas,all sounded fantastic.

wow that's very impressive. did you hear Dave alone and then what Blu2 adds to the Dave?

Yes I had heard the Dave at his place several times before he got the blu2,but I did not have any control over what he played,how loud etc.,so it is not the same as a home demo.It is hard for me to give any real credible information about the difference with or without the blu2,these visits usually last less than an hour,and of course we are talking to each other as well.All I know is,every time I leave his place...I am jealous,and want my own Dave/blu2.

No quarter posted:

Halloween Man posted:

I too couldn't get on with Hugo 2 and went back to Hugo TT. Had a similar impression as Foxman, found it unforgiving and a little bright with my speakers. I can imagine on different speakers it might work well.

After many months waiting,next week I am picking up a Hugo 2 for a home demo.I had the original Hugo for a couple of years,so I know it well,I am hoping it works well with my Dynaudio special 40s,if not,I may just keep it for headphones at work,did you try it with headphones Halloween Man?I have also heard the mojo,and the Dave/blu 11 combo at my dealers home,quite remarkable!

I think the special 40 might be a good match for Hugo 2 as I've read they are very forgiving and musical speakers.

Yes, I used Hugo 2 through Audioquest Nighthawk headphones and actually preferred it to Hugo TT. Nighthawks are very warm and smooth sounding headphones and worked well with H2.

How r you finding he special 40s?

I'm a little confused with the description of Blu2 "adding to Dave" and of playing a streamer through Blu2.

My understading is that Blu2 is a CD player (and so has held absolutely no interest for me), so it is a source feeding Dave - so does that not mean it is simply a better CD player? Possibly a CD player that makes CDs sound better than whatever digital file rendering source the commentators have heard?

Regarding Simaudio streamer, I take it that 'fed through Blu2 sounds better than direct to Dave. How do you feed a streaming source through a CD player and what is that doing?

I would be very interested in knowing how Poly compares. (And I assume that in due course Chord will make a Dave-oriented sibling of Poly, though the question will be how much different it will sound from Poly.)

No, no, no you don't get to dismiss Blu2 that easily, no you don't

It is a upscaler that has a built in CD Player.

Hugo had 26,000 taps, Dave 168,000 taps, and Blu has a million taps.

It has USB and COAX inputs, and really transforms Dave into something else, that's what people who got the Blu 2 say.

I did nothing to dismiss it, simply asked because I know nothing about it other than it is Chord's top cD player, and whilst I have no interest whatsoever in CD players here are people suddenly saying it somehow adds to a DAC, and can be used with a streamer - which to me is counter intuitive if you don't use CDs.

Halloween man

i really like the special 40s,for the price,they are hard to beat.I have owned focus 160s,C1Mk 11s,and currently own excite 12s and XD 600s,A’s you can tell,I like Dynaudio.

IB,analog is right,the blu2 is an upscaler too,not just a CD player...any digital source you send to it is upscaled ,then the signal goes into the Dave in this case,for analog conversion.

I was just kidding... it is very expensive

It is a massive FPGA based processor, even much more complicated than the one in Dave, and actually / apparently transforms Dave into something else.... some people say the Dave is really in need of a blu2...... 

This approach has been used by companies like DCS, and also Naim (NDS / XPS to NDS/ PS555DR)

No quarter posted:

Halloween man

i really like the special 40s,for the price,they are hard to beat.I have owned focus 160s,C1Mk 11s,and currently own excite 12s and XD 600s,A’s you can tell,I like Dynaudio.

IB,analog is right,the blu2 is an upscaler too,not just a CD player...any digital source you send to it is upscaled ,then the signal goes into the Dave in this case,for analog conversion.

How does the special 40 compare to the XD600 (I think maybe that is based on focus 380 ?)

I do love Dynaudio myself.... 

analogmusic posted:

No quarter posted:

Halloween man

i really like the special 40s,for the price,they are hard to beat.I have owned focus 160s,C1Mk 11s,and currently own excite 12s and XD 600s,A’s you can tell,I like Dynaudio.

IB,analog is right,the blu2 is an upscaler too,not just a CD player...any digital source you send to it is upscaled ,then the signal goes into the Dave in this case,for analog conversion.

How does the special 40 compare to the XD600 (I think maybe that is based on focus 380 ?)

I do love Dynaudio myself.... 

The XD is more based on the focus 340;or excite 38 I think it is,anyway,the XDs have more bass for sure,they are rated down to 20HZ,it is hard to compare a floor stander to a standmount really,the 40s image better,more refined(better tweeter),and the midrange is toe die for in the 40s,The XDs play louder,and are better closer to walls,both great speakers,more a matter of pick your poison,or what suits your situation more.Some people do not want an all in one speaker,I like to have both active and passive.

Thanks nq, how far from back and side walls do you have the 40s?

analogmusic posted:

I was just kidding... it is very expensive

It is a massive FPGA based processor, even much more complicated than the one in Dave, and actually / apparently transforms Dave into something else.... some people say the Dave is really in need of a blu2...... 

This approach has been used by companies like DCS, and also Naim (NDS / XPS to NDS/ PS555DR)

OK, I've gone and looked up th Blu2 and I think I understand.

so we can expect Poly's big brother to be sort of Poly grafted in place of the Blu2's CD drive. Interesting, but sadly a lottery requiremen! So my interest remains in whether Poly itself is any good as a renderer -  I am wondering about whether, if it truly is good, Poly could be used with Dave (see the Portable Audio, or lack of ? thread).

Innocent Bystander posted:

analogmusic posted:

I was just kidding... it is very expensive

It is a massive FPGA based processor, even much more complicated than the one in Dave, and actually / apparently transforms Dave into something else.... some people say the Dave is really in need of a blu2...... 

This approach has been used by companies like DCS, and also Naim (NDS / XPS to NDS/ PS555DR)

OK, I've gone and looked up th Blu2 and I think I understand.

so we can expect Poly's big brother to be sort of Poly grafted in place of the Blu2's CD drive. Interesting, but sadly a lottery requiremen! So my interest remains in whether Poly itself is any good as a renderer -  I am wondering about whether, if it truly is good, Poly could be used with Dave (see the Portable Audio, or lack of ? thread).

I'm pretty sure I read on the huge Poly thread on head-fi that the Poly is locked to the Mojo. But of course there's nothing stopping Chord coming up with a similar, or possibly even fancier, product for the Dave/Hugo. Possibly with the M Scaler upsampling magic from the Blu2, but minus the cd transport. They have a lot of software to get right with the Poly .. I suspect there will teething troubles.

Halloween Man posted:

Thanks nq, how far from back and side walls do you have the 40s?

48 inches from the front wall to the tweeter,and 32 inches from the side wall to the tweeter.The speakers are 88 inches apart,and the room is 15 1/2 feet wide and 17 feet deep.

The blu2 is also supposed to work/connect  with the Hugo 2,another reason I want the H2...could be a stepping stone to Dave/blu2.

likesmusic posted:

Innocent Bystander posted:

analogmusic posted:

I was just kidding... it is very expensive

It is a massive FPGA based processor, even much more complicated than the one in Dave, and actually / apparently transforms Dave into something else.... some people say the Dave is really in need of a blu2...... 

This approach has been used by companies like DCS, and also Naim (NDS / XPS to NDS/ PS555DR)

OK, I've gone and looked up th Blu2 and I think I understand.

so we can expect Poly's big brother to be sort of Poly grafted in place of the Blu2's CD drive. Interesting, but sadly a lottery requiremen! So my interest remains in whether Poly itself is any good as a renderer -  I am wondering about whether, if it truly is good, Poly could be used with Dave (see the Portable Audio, or lack of ? thread).

I'm pretty sure I read on the huge Poly thread on head-fi that the Poly is locked to the Mojo. But of course there's nothing stopping Chord coming up with a similar, or possibly even fancier, product for the Dave/Hugo. Possibly with the M Scaler upsampling magic from the Blu2, but minus the cd transport. They have a lot of software to get right with the Poly .. I suspect there will teething troubles.

A few months ago I wondered whether it is possible to play Poly through Dave, so I asked Chord, and indeed the response was no, it was dedicated to Mojo. However all it would need is a cable from its micro-USB output, and, if used for more than just the occasional few hours, some arrangement for more convenient recharging than recharging plugging into Mojo and the latter's charger, so not beyond possibility. (The reply was from Chord's marketing people, and of course they may have plans for a non-portable version with a bigger profit margin, now i think probably linked with the retechnology of Blu2.

My interest in Poly would be a definite if its sound quality is as good or better than my present streaming source (Audirvana on Mac Mini), especially if its library handling is better than Audiv: My portable music playing is so infrequent as to not justify the cost of Poly, however, if it's sound quality and usability make it a realistic prospect for using as the source at home, it would have the added bonus that if I got myself a Mojo I could just grab Poly and  go when I want to be mobile, giving idebtical control travelling as when atbhome. But the big unknown at present is its sound quality - expectation and reality are not always the same...

At present the highest capacity micro-SD card of which I am aware is 400GB, so if I wanted all my music collection I'd need maybe 3 cards, perhaps splitting by genre - a bit of a hassle at home, though not really when travelling, however I imagine in due course they'll reach 1GB, when all my music would fit, and even if my collection ever exceeds it I'm sure I could find a split that minimises any inconvenience.

incidentally, for anyone interested, as of yesterday there is now a Mojo/poly thread which may be the better place for such discusions.

OK, found he relevant statement from John Franks on head-fi:

”No Poly's USB port specifically looks for a Mojo USB and interrogates it to determine its on or off state so Poly only works with a Mojo. However we have a larger unit designed to go with Hugo2 that will be launched early next year.”

So Poly + DAVE = no no. But the Hugo variant, which is to be called the 2Go, might work with the Dave, then again... if they can put the same innards in an absurdly over engineered case to match the DAVE and take more money off us DAVE owners they may well do!