[Kamil21]

Does anyone know of a portable DAP that has two SD micro card slots that can be used to stack with the Chord Hugo as a transport for flac file library that has USB out? It seems that most of the players currently only have Toslink digital out and this gives inferior SQ as bit perfect input to the Chord Hugo. Ideally, a DAP that also has Wifi to stream TIDAL etc. This would be an ideal transportable setup. If the DAVE was transportable I would buy it now. The HUGO 2 to my ears sounded great at the NYC CAMJAM and more than enough power to drive the HEK V2 to loud levels with plenty of headroom. I thought this pairing was great but the DAVE is really amazing and should be for the cost.

I use an Apple iPod with Onkyo player from the App Store. With a USB adapter, it plugs straight into my Dave as a dedicated player. I would think that you can find an equivalent Android device like a cheap Sony phone that has SDcard slots. Some may have 2. All should be able to handle Tidal.

 

[PANURUS]

panurus

How do passlab amps (which) compare to chord amps. I have the former ones and was always wondering how the latter ones perform. What is the main difference?

Thanks

Michael

I will send you a private mail.

 

[Deftone]

Does anyone know of a portable DAP that has two SD micro card slots that can be used to stack with the Chord Hugo as a transport for flac file library that has USB out? It seems that most of the players currently only have Toslink digital out and this gives inferior SQ as bit perfect input to the Chord Hugo. Ideally, a DAP that also has Wifi to stream TIDAL etc. This would be an ideal transportable setup. If the DAVE was transportable I would buy it now. The HUGO 2 to my ears sounded great at the NYC CAMJAM and more than enough power to drive the HEK V2 to loud levels with plenty of headroom. I thought this pairing was great but the DAVE is really amazing and should be for the cost.

Fiio x5 version 3 is perfect for you

 

[EVOLVIST]

As to balanced or RCA - it depends on the power amp, but mostly RCA is best.

Rob 

Rob, why is RCA the best?

Let's say if I were running XLRs in preamp mode from the DAVE, straight to speakers, am I going to get a considerable degredation in sound by going the XLR route?

I'm not saying that I want to do this; I'm saying that what would make the XLR different for this, or any application?

 

[romaz]

Since I'm someone who is contemplating speakers for the first time how is the DAVE able to drive these? And would that go for the Super Alnico monitors or even the Super Alnico High Output monitors?

Plus, since these aren't active monitors, how do you hook up a sub? Some type of pigtailed RCA cables?

 

  Romaz seems to be busy at computeraudiophile just now 

 so maybe I can answer some questions about a high efficency-speaker setup with the Dave.
 
The Omega Compact Alnico Monitors can play pretty loud directly connected to the Dave´s RCA. Good enough for a small room. But with some music you should not press them too much. They can sound a little shouty then (especially with not enough burn in time). Much better even after connecting a subwoofer (I use a Klipsch 10´ subwoofer with a XLR-RCA adaptercable with good results).
 
This will be an incredible setup if you are in search after a very revealing, transparent sound with fantastic soundstage. And it has a really good value. But I am not sure if that kind of tonality will work for all.

 

   
Omega Compact Alnico Monitors are 95 db/w.
 
There are some much higher efficiency speakers like the  Klipsch LaScala II which are 105 db/w, the Teresonic Ingenium at 103 db/w, some Voxatic which also are at 105 db/w, or even..the mighty Tune Audio ANIMA at... 109 db/w.
 
I am considering them to use with my EC445 which also has a Speaker output rated at 3 watts.
 
 

 
Sorry for the delay in responding, I've had some distractions.
 
Speakers (and headphones) are a very personal thing, more personal than DACs, amps, cables, etc. and so I would never suggest one is better than another.  At audio shows, I find myself drawn to many things if the setup is good but all speaker designs have compromise and so it becomes a matter of personal circumstances (ie listening space, preferred genre, listening levels, budget) and priorities.
 
As YellowBlue has pointed out, single-driver full range speakers are not for everyone and so you will definitely want to try before you commit.  I do agree that it is difficult for a single driver to convincingly reproduce the entire audible frequency spectrum and with complex music, they can get tripped up.  If you are looking to reproduce a heavy metal concert at 120dB or Mahler's 8th to full scale, look elsewhere.  If you are into solo vocals or acoustical music, it's hard to do better but with any genre at reasonable listening levels, they can be a very satisfying choice.
 
Speakers with multiple drivers provide more even frequency response, can play louder and offer better range but the listening sweet spot can also be narrower in some designs.  My own experience is that single driver designs are less ideal in a far-field setup and they can be hit and miss in a mid-field setup but in my near-field setup, they really come into their own.
 
As far as advantages, as a single point source and without the drawbacks of a crossover, you have complete phase and time coherence and as a result, the speaker enclosures completely disappear leaving nothing but you and your music.  I don't believe there to be a speaker design that is more transparent than this type of design (even more than electrostatics) and if you wonder what this might sound like, just put on a pair of dynamic headphones like an HD800 or Focal Utopia because it's the same concept except without the depth suppression that comes with headphone listening.  If timbre, timing and inner detail are what you are after, I don't know if you can do better.
 
There are many examples of highly regarded single driver full range speakers to choose from including those brought up by bmichels and by and large, it is in the midrange where these speakers excel.  Driven by an Alnico magnet, I have not heard a driver with a more magical midrange.  Cost no object and given the choice, I would go with the Voxativ 9.87 Alnicos with dipole bass modules for $45k and call it a day but starting at just under $2k, the Omega Alnicos are extremely tough to beat.
 
Since full-range drivers are responsible for reproducing a wider frequency spectrum, out of necessity, they have to be faster and easier to drive and that would be the hallmark of any Omega speaker.  The drivers are so fast that even though they have a rear port and even when placed close to a back wall or against a bookshelf, there is no boom or bloat, just very tight, articulate and musical bass although granted, they don't extend very low which is why you need a subwoofer.  Because single-driver designs are generally always high-efficiency, you have a greater selection of musical amps to choose from.  When you need 1000 watts to drive something, you take what you can get (usually class D) but amplifiers at this level of power are seldom known for their musicality.  When all you need are a few watts, then you have many more high-quality options to choose from including SET, transistors and of course, it becomes possible to drive direct with DAVE.  If you subscribe to the "first watt" theory that suggests the most important watt is the first watt, then the prospect of having DAVE directly driving your speakers should be all the more salivating as there are no 2 watts that will be cleaner, truer and more chock full of musical detail. 
 
As far as pairing the DAVE with the Omega Alnicos, this one is a marriage made in heaven.  The Omega Alnicos have a natural warmth and bloom to them already as if they are always being driven by a tube amp and yet because of their speed, they are capable of revealing every bit of DAVE's delicacy and nuance.  Its 95dB sensitivity could be better but DAVE drives it to very satisfying levels in a near field setup and paired with a good fast subwoofer, I have at no time found myself wanting for more with respect to dynamics.  In fact, I have yet to hear anything at any show or dealership at any price that I have found to be more musically satisfying than what I have at home and I am prepared for the possibility that the improvement I am hearing with DAVE directly driving my Alnicos will be greater than what M-scaler by itself will bring.  This is why I have said for some time now that I believe Rob's digital amps will be very special and could possibly change the face of 2-channel more than the M-scaler.
 
Should you decide to venture in this direction, you will want to avoid the Omega Super Alnico High Output monitors as their impedance may be too low at 6 ohms.  Stick with Omega's 8-ohm designs.  Because they can be custom built, you could elect to have Louis Chochos (the owner) install female RCA connectors instead of speaker binding posts and that way, you could directly plug in your RCA interconnects although this would make it difficult to use them with Rob's digital amps when they come out.  Note that this can only work with RCAs as DAVE's XLRs have too high an output impedance.  You asked the question of why DAVE's RCAs sound better then XLRs -- it's because they have one less op-amp in the chain to degrade transparency.  As for having DAVE drive your subwoofer, you could drive them via RCA using a Y-adapter or drive them via DAVE's XLRs.  DAVE will have no trouble with the load.

 

[EVOLVIST]

@romaz Again a very thoughtful and illuminating post.
 
Just a couple of more question, as I think I'm about to take the leap. It's not much of a leap because I've spoken with Louis at Omega, and he says that if I do not like them I can simply return them. Moreover, if I do like them in my study, yet I want more "umph," I could move up to the Super Alnico XRS for my parlor, returning the Compact Alnicos and only paying the difference. How's that for customer service?!
 
So, the questions, and I know this is only a matter of personal opinions (but I trust yours, except when it comes to HFC

):
 
My study is rather small. The max I could get the monitors away from one another would be able 7ft on stands, the closest would be about 4ft on a table. My listening distance would be about 6 1/2 feet away between the two monitors. Does anything strike you as being off kilter with this setup? I know it doesn't leave much wiggle room.
 
Secondly, what sort of sub to you have?
 
As far as music, I listen to a lot of classic rock (Tom Petty, Beatles, Neil Young, David Bowie), small jazz groups (Dave Brubeck, Cannonball Adderley), R&B/Funk (Prince, Stevie Wonder) and classical. The heaviest rock would be older Metallica, or Porcupine Tree, so I wonder if these monitors could handle that. It doesn't have to be super loud, just articulate. In other words, even the metal I listen to is well-recorded.
 
Now, when I say "classical," I'm speaking of the actual classical period, e.g. Mozart, Hayden, et al, or older classical, going back to the baroque or renaissance. Even Mozart's symphonies are not so huge, but wind ensembles, chamber music, piano sonatas, probably fill up most of my classical love. None of this Romanic period stuff for me, thank you (although if one is rocking the Bach, there can be a ton going on in his organ music).
 
Anyway, the point is, I don't see that I'm asking a lot from monitors, but do you see it differently? *shrug* 

 

[tunes]

Does anyone know of a portable DAP that has two SD micro card slots that can be used to stack with the Chord Hugo as a transport for flac file library that has USB out? It seems that most of the players currently only have Toslink digital out and this gives inferior SQ as bit perfect input to the Chord Hugo. Ideally, a DAP that also has Wifi to stream TIDAL etc. This would be an ideal transportable setup. If the DAVE was transportable I would buy it now. The HUGO 2 to my ears sounded great at the NYC CAMJAM and more than enough power to drive the HEK V2 to loud levels with plenty of headroom. I thought this pairing was great but the DAVE is really amazing and should be for the cost.

Fiio x5 version 3 is perfect for you

It does not have line put with USB to the Chord only digital via Toslink. Correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding was that the SQ with DAVE or HIGO was better if input was USB not digital. Also will the Fio x5 have Wifi to stream TIDAL???

 

[x RELIC x]

It does not have line put with USB to the Chord only digital via Toslink. Correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding was that the SQ with DAVE or HIGO was better if input was USB not digital. Also will the Fio x5 have Wifi to stream TIDAL???

Pardon me for sounding a bit brash, but USB, coaxial, and optical connections are all digital. There is no line-out through USB. That's why they all need to be fed in to a Digital to Analogue Converter.

The USB connection is only better on the HugoTT/2Qute/DAVE because they have galvanic isolation and can use higher sampling rates than coaxial and optical. If using a portable source like the FiiO X5-3 to a Hugo2 then the noise from the portable source really isn't much of an issue. It can be a big issue from noisy computers (electrical noise pollution, not fan noise) but this is largely mitigated using a portable battery powered source like the FiiO X5-3. If you want to use the Hugo2 in a desktop setup then there are third party galvanic isolation devices that you can add to your chain if you have a noisy computer.

The X5-3 has WiFi and you can use Tidal with it. Also, according to the features on the FiiO website, you can output through the USB to an external DAC (perhaps in a future firmware update if not implemented yet - not 100% sure). You should go to the respective threads to find out more information about each device. There will be much more information for you to gather there with more people who are actually using the device (both of which are not actually released internationally yet):

FiiO X5-3 thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/828402/fiio-x5-3rd-gen-2x-akm-4490-balanced-out-dsd-dxd-dts-android-dual-card-slot

FiiO X5-3 webpage:

http://www.fiio.net/en/products/65

Hugo2 thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/831345/chord-electronics-hugo-2-the-official-thread

 

[jelt2359]

  Absolutely not when using USB, as the system clock is the source of all data timing - the USB is locked to the FPGA.
 
For asynchronous inputs (all of the others) the digital phase lock loop (DPLL) steps in, and together with a small buffer, re-locks and re-times the data to the FPGA clock. This is how incoming jitter is removed from an asynchronous source.
 
Rob 

Actually, no. The USB is also better because the system clock is the source of all data timing, and it is the only input on the Dave with this.

 

[tunes]

Thanks RELIC

Very helpful.

 

[romaz]

  @romaz Again a very thoughtful and illuminating post.
 
Just a couple of more question, as I think I'm about to take the leap. It's not much of a leap because I've spoken with Louis at Omega, and he says that if I do not like them I can simply return them. Moreover, if I do like them in my study, yet I want more "umph," I could move up to the Super Alnico XRS for my parlor, returning the Compact Alnicos and only paying the difference. How's that for customer service?!
 
So, the questions, and I know this is only a matter of personal opinions (but I trust yours, except when it comes to HFC

):
 
My study is rather small. The max I could get the monitors away from one another would be able 7ft on stands, the closest would be about 4ft on a table. My listening distance would be about 6 1/2 feet away between the two monitors. Does anything strike you as being off kilter with this setup? I know it doesn't leave much wiggle room.
 
Secondly, what sort of sub to you have?
 
As far as music, I listen to a lot of classic rock (Tom Petty, Beatles, Neil Young, David Bowie), small jazz groups (Dave Brubeck, Cannonball Adderley), R&B/Funk (Prince, Stevie Wonder) and classical. The heaviest rock would be older Metallica, or Porcupine Tree, so I wonder if these monitors could handle that. It doesn't have to be super loud, just articulate. In other words, even the metal I listen to is well-recorded.
 
Now, when I say "classical," I'm speaking of the actual classical period, e.g. Mozart, Hayden, et al, or older classical, going back to the baroque or renaissance. Even Mozart's symphonies are not so huge, but wind ensembles, chamber music, piano sonatas, probably fill up most of my classical love. None of this Romanic period stuff for me, thank you (although if one is rocking the Bach, there can be a ton going on in his organ music).
 
Anyway, the point is, I don't see that I'm asking a lot from monitors, but do you see it differently? *shrug* 

 
 
In a small study, either the CAM (Compact Alnico Monitors) or the Super Alnico Monitors would work well.  In a near field setup, ideally, the speakers and the listener should make an equilateral triangle with the drivers positioned at ear level and toed in just enough where you have a center-focused image.  If your listening distance is 6 1/2 feet, positioning your speakers 6 1/2 feet apart would be a good rule of thumb.  With near field listening, you still have to contend with room effects but much less so than with mid field or far field listening.
 
As for subwoofers, I tried many (Sunfire, Martin Logan, REL, SVS, B&W, PSB, Definitive Technology, JL Audio) and it turns out perfectly blending a subwoofer with these very fast Omegas isn't so easy.  Louis can build you a subwoofer to your specifications and I did buy one of these and it played fast and tight but it didn't go low enough or hit me in the chest powerfully enough to do my organ tracks justice.  It came down to between the REL G2 and the JL Audio Fathom F110V2 and I ultimately went with the JL Audio because I found its controls to allow it to blend just a bit better.  
 
As for your choice of music, I'm pretty sure you'll find the Omegas will handle them well but I can't stress enough the importance of a good fast subwoofer.  As you crank up the music, midrange and treble will keep up but the bass will not.
 
Here's another perspective from John Darko on the Omega Alnicos.  John didn't use a sub in his setup and Louis has since improved the design of his Alnico driver (higher sensitivity) but I think you'll get the idea.  John likes to rock out pretty hard.
 
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2010/09/omega-super-6-alnico-xrs-extended-room-speakers/
 
As you've already experienced, Louis is extremely easy to work with.  If you go for a custom build, you'll have the choice of speaker wire if you want to go that far.  If you ask for his very best, he will tell you it will be ZenWave Audio's SMSG wire (a proprietary blend of OCC silver and gold) that is extremely resolving but with wonderful body and a richer (more accurate) tone.  Should you go with the ZenWave wire, you can ask Dave (owner of ZenWave) to also build you the necessary RCA to speaker cable adapters to allow you to have DAVE drive your speakers directly.
 
As wonderful as these speakers are, ultimately, it is the pairing with DAVE that makes this whole thing utterly mesmerizing.

 

[Clive101]

Does anyone know of a portable DAP that has two SD micro card slots that can be used to stack with the Chord Hugo as a transport for flac file library that has USB out? It seems that most of the players currently only have Toslink digital out and this gives inferior SQ as bit perfect input to the Chord Hugo. Ideally, a DAP that also has Wifi to stream TIDAL etc. This would be an ideal transportable setup. If the DAVE was transportable I would buy it now. The HUGO 2 to my ears sounded great at the NYC CAMJAM and more than enough power to drive the HEK V2 to loud levels with plenty of headroom. I thought this pairing was great but the DAVE is really amazing and should be for the cost.

I have had two the Questyle QP1 and the Onkyo both have 2 micro sd cards.
 
Questyle is more of a dedicated music player and the Onkyo does a lot more Bluetooth wifi, but both high end and perhaps you do not need the Hugo, played them both into DAVE and Hugo TT.
 
http://www.uk.onkyo.com/en/products/dp-x1-130623.html
 
http://www.questyleaudio.com/product-qp1
 
Hope the info helps

 

[jlbrach]

the ak100 is a steal used with 2 card slots...i have bought one as low as 230 bucks recently and that for me is the perfect transport for portable listening

 

[Hubert H]

If you need a bigger sound it might be worth listening to the Wilson Benesch Geometry series although they will obviously need an amp. WB are similar to Chord in that they are engineering led and don't voice their products so they tend not to jump out and grab the ears, they just get on with the job of being transparent to the source.

I listened to quite a few speakers but where the WB's do it for me;

I can't hear the cabinet, the bass is fast and controlled and the soundstage is expansive.

The mid-range driver is directly connected to the amp with minimal crossover components for the other drivers.

Soft dome tweeters, I find that other types tend to etch or not to integrate as well.

The ACT One Evolutions seem to be a sweet spot of the range.

As for a sub, the WB Torus and amp is also well regarded.

 

[rgs9200m]

If you are looking for speakers, it would be best to spend a good deal of time reading the speaker forums on audiogon and audio asylum.
Don't short change the research and listening, since buying/selling speakers is a lot more difficult and expensive than headphones or other components.
On the plus side, there are a lot of great pre-owned deals available.
You kind of "marry" a speaker, since once you get one (especially a floorstander), you are kind of stuck with it, and you can't usually own a bunch of them and use what suits your taste (like headphones).
Speakers are not one-night-stands.
This may seem obvious, but a lot of people get struck by the gravity of a 200 pound monster (2 of them) sitting in their room that just doesn't sound right to them.
And then reality bites.