chord dave the ear review

OK HH, I think we can let French Rooster off the hook now after his apology, can we go back to Dave ?

Other than saying you don't care much for Dave, I don't think you have anything more to say on this thread, am I right?

I haven’t read the review - no point as I have Dave already. I have to admit to being far from obsessed with it - am I failing in something? For me it just sits there, doing its magic, and the only time I ever mention it is when it fits a context on here, simply spreading the word so people who may not know about it can consider it. Ditto Hugo - which I tend to mention more often because it is rather closer to many people’s budgets.

Now the Tina Turner thread - THAT is an obsession!!!

analogmusic posted:

OK HH, I think we can let French Rooster off the hook now, can we go back to Dave ?

Other than saying you don't care much for Dave, I don't think you have anything more to say on this thread, am I right?

I have no view on Dave, having never heard it. It is of no interest. 

it is good you have not heard it, otherwise you might develop an interest in Dave.

In hi-fi ignorance is bliss.

Very true. Why would I want to mongrelise what sounds so good?

Mongrelise?

Cross-breeding with one considered inferior.  Making impure.  You  really have a need to knock the competition, don't you, doc?  What makes you think the Naim DAC is superior to the DAVE?  I've had both and have used a 555PS with the Naim unit.  Not bad, but in my opinion, not a DAVE.

DAVE looks "ugly", in fact all Chord DACs look ugly.

That's how you review a product?  That it looks ugly?  Tell me, I'm dying to know - if you have any artwork, did you make sure it matched the furniture first?

Or the colour of the carpet & drapes?

Do you really review & purchase audio gear solely based on how it looks?

docmark posted:

Do you really review & purchase audio gear solely based on how it looks?

Yes, indeed I do, it is one of my most high-priority considerations. SQ must also be top notch for the money as well, but of course what is ugly to me is beautiful to you, it's your choice and your money,.

So I assume that colour of the audio gear is important to you as well.  If for some reason black is no longer a popular colour with you or your friends, will you dump your Naim gear and buy, say, Accuphase?  I hear they have some pretty nice-looking gear in silver, possibly even in gold.

AND it's expensive, too!

That is a very funny statement! How do you know what I like? Based on what I said about the Chord DACs? Like I said, they look ugly and weir, I guess you like the Hummer? Dave is a Hummer if it were a truck.

Of course, I can't admit to knowing exactly what you like - but I have a pretty good idea.

Please translate for me - what is a 'weir'?  As for Hummers, no, not to my liking.

If you like the Hummer, then it is no surprise that you like weird-looking objects with green and yellow.

Anyway, back to the subject - It is a nice DAC, but I would not consider it because:

1) It's expensive

2) It looks bad

3) No streaming capability

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.  Fine by me.

docmark posted:

Please translate for me - what is a 'weir'?  As for Hummers, no, not to my liking.

It's a typo, but maybe I intentionally meant it - I once had a colleague, his name is Charles Weir, but he is so weird in his taste, and his sense of beauty.

Weird-looking with green and yellow?  Do you mean the colour screen?  It actually looks quite sharp with my unit, which is otherwise black.

Let's get back on topic.

Hungryhalibut posted:

Actually, it’s Dr. I don’t take myself seriously either, but I find ****ty responses tiresome. I just need to suck it up, I suppose. 

Dr who?

Frank Yang posted:

DAVE looks "ugly", in fact all Chord DACs look ugly.

I actually quite like the Mojo and the Hugo is ok, in my view. But it is true that the more they grow up, the uglier Chord devices get. It's a pity because I like a lot what Chord is doing from the technological point of view. But I expect electronic devices that are likely to be placed in a living room to look rather like Naim classic, certainly not like the DAVE. Chord obviously follows a different approach. I guess in the end this is good and those who like the Chord design get great sound quality as a bonus. I am happy to sacrifice a little bit of sound quality for a more appealing design. All these devices sound anyway so good ...

Dave looks unusual. On its stand, as you generally see it online or in dealers, I actually think it looks rather nice, vaguely reminiscent of some turntable designs, and certainly in a living room better than rather industrial looking ranked rows of identical black boxes. It certainly makes a statement visually as well as aurally, though of course whether any individual likes that is a matter of taste.

However, without its stand it is rather more nondescript and uninteresting, at least in black as I have it, though still benefits from being a bit unusual. I considered the beneficial visual effect of the stand to be too expensive to be justifiable, so I didn’t buy it (and it never occurred to me to compare at the dealer to see if I could hear any difference). As for its screen colour, it is selectable, but I have it set to its auto off setting, when it only lights up at the time of adjusting anything (e.g.  volume). But I can see how if you like the uniform box look it doesn’t fit (just as a turntable doesn't).

As for it not having a rendering front end to turn it into a streamer, whilst it can be used with any renderer it lends itself to connection to a store-renderer instead of to a NAS, when no additional box count but the benefit of not streaming one’s own stored files across a network with its added potential for problems and considerations of whether/what cables and switches sound best. Meanwhile if you have no analog sources you don’t actually need a preamp - though of course  some people like what a Naim preamp adds to the sound.