[Ciggavelli]

I agree. Though companies like Schiit have created a good process shipping and returning products for upgrades— in fact the process to upgrade my Yggdrasil was swift and seamless. And Chord has an advantage because their DACs and M Scalers are very small and light. I can’t think of reason Chord wouldn’t do this in this day and age.

I think Chord may be stuck in the past at the moment. One of the quotes from a recent post highlighted this for me. Rob was again suggesting that linear power supplies would not lead to sound quality improvements for the DAVE. This is mildly controversial, but I know they do. I know Rob doesn't necessarily represent Chord, but this kind of aversion to new developments seems like a trend with the brand. As much as I hate to say it, the ASR takedown of the DAVE was a big blow to the brand. I've noticed that public opinion of the DAVE took a big nosedive after that ASR report. It made many people jump ship, rightly or not. At meets, it's almost embarrassing to say you use a DAVE still. Chord needs to fix that. Hopefully the new m-scaler and the new Ultima DAC will lead to big sound quality improvements. Right now, I've never seen Chord look so bad from a PR standpoint. They went from the top, to mid-fi in a matter of years.

 

[iDesign]

As much as I hate to say it, the ASR takedown of the DAVE was a big blow to the brand. I've noticed that public opinion of the DAVE took a big nosedive after that ASR report. It made many people jump ship, rightly or not. At meets, it's almost embarrassing to say you use a DAVE still. Chord needs to fix that.

Your posts are always right on the money. I said and predicted exactly that in 2022:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-dave.766517/page-1538#post-17240509

 

[Ciggavelli]

Your posts are always right on the money. I said and predicted exactly that in 2022:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-dave.766517/page-1538#post-17240509

Yeah, I feel like my modded mDAVE is a lost cause. I use it because it is still good, but I feel like I can't get enough money for in on a re-sell to make it worth while. When I calculate the cost of an uber-dac, I don't even factor in the sale of my modded mDAVE. It'll be regulated to a bedroom rig once I decide to buy a new dac. I still hold out hope for the new m-scaler, but who knows when it will be released, and does it even make sense to spend $10K on another DAVE modification? Probably not, sunk costs and the like. I don't really know that DCS is the answer, as many people have went. Maybe Playback Designs, or maybe a Chi-fi solution, who knows... All I know is that DAVE is long in the tooth and an update in needed

 

[iDesign]

Yeah, I feel like my modded mDAVE is a lost cause. I use it because it is still good, but I feel like I can't get enough money for in on a re-sell to make it worth while. When I calculate the cost of an uber-dac, I don't even factor in the sale of my modded mDAVE. It'll be regulated to a bedroom rig once I decide to buy a new dac. I still hold out hope for the new m-scaler, but who knows when it will be released, and does it even make sense to spend $10K on another DAVE modification? Probably not, sunk costs and the like. I don't really know that DCS is the answer, as many people have went. Maybe Playback Designs, or maybe a Chi-fi solution, who knows... All I know is that DAVE is long in the tooth and an update in needed

I couldn’t have said it better. And I’m not sure an expensive Ultima DAC or Choral M Scaler is the right step for Chord. A firmware update for the nine year old DAVE seems like a prerequisite for selling the Choral M Scaler. In the end, I hope Rob Watts is reading these posts and takes our interest and constructive feedback into consideration.

 

[Ciggavelli]

I couldn’t have said it better. And I’m not sure an expensive Ultima DAC or Choral M Scaler is the right step for Chord. A firmware update for the nine year old DAVE seems like a prerequisite for selling the Choral M Scaler. In the end, I hope Rob Watts is reading these posts and takes our interest and constructive feedback into consideration.

Egos are hard to judge.

We'll see though. I hope so, but....we'll see

 

[griff500]

Not having user-upgradeable firmware is a bit out of touch but I’ve never felt the Dave has a problem that needs to be fixed or features that should be added?

What exactly needs to be fixed or added with a firmware upgrade?

I have to say that I’ve never felt the Dave needed it.

Regarding ASR and being embarrassed to have a Dave - that sounds a bit daft to me. The Dave sounds as good as it always has. ASR has a big audience primarily because it makes people feel better about having relatively cheap DACs by telling them that they are just as good as the expensive stuff that us idiots get conned into spending money on… Most people think spending a few hundred on a DAC is crazy so it’s nice for them when they think that the more expensive stuff is a con for gullible people.

 

[alxw0w]

ASR has a big audience primarily because it makes people feel better about having relatively cheap DACs by telling them that they are just as good as the expensive stuff

You can make an argument the other way.
Forum x is making people feel better about having more expensive stuff as clearly better than cheaper dacs so they can feel better

ps. not that I defend one or the other side. Just my two cents.

 

[griff500]

You can make an argument the other way.
Forum x is making people feel better about having more expensive stuff as clearly better than cheaper dacs so they can feel better

ps. not that I defend one or the other side. Just my two cents.

Well you can say the words of course. There’s a different mentality between those sides that’s not worth getting into in this topic though.

 

[alxw0w]

Well you can say the words of course. There’s a different mentality between those sides that’s not worth getting into in this topic though.

Mentality is the same.
"I have the best" - that's our human nature.

 

[griff500]

Mentality is the same.
"I have the best" - that's our human nature.

I disagree. I’ve not seen anyone in this group deride others for buying cheaper stuff, either through chosen or enforced budget.

 

[alxw0w]

I disagree. I’ve not seen anyone in this group deride others for buying cheaper stuff, either through chosen or enforced budget.

Maybe not in this topic. But on the others... I have to disagree.
Anyway I'm stopping here as I don't want to make more offtopic posts.

 

[The Jester]

I’m sure if Rob was designing the Dave today it would use a much larger FPGA chip than was available at the time so all of his design theories could be fully implemented, I don’t think the Dave was software limited in a way that could be somehow “improved” with a code update, more limited by available hardware at the time.

 

[Rob Watts]

@Rob Watts what is the reason for this Rob? Did you provide updated code to Chord for the newer DAVEs?

The update was because some Dave's with the M scaler (about 1%) would drop out occasionally so I needed to improve the SPDIF rx for error tolerance. It was done nearly 5 years ago, and there hasn't been one since. It had no difference at all to sound quality.

I’m sure if Rob was designing the Dave today it would use a much larger FPGA chip than was available at the time so all of his design theories could be fully implemented, I don’t think the Dave was software limited in a way that could be somehow “improved” with a code update, more limited by available hardware at the time.

Exactly - every time I have introduced a product update with a new model it always had a major change in design and it needed major hardware changes. I am not interested in incremental improvements just to sell a bit more - life is too short, and I have too much to do...

 

[The Jester]

A bit like “ Moores Law” in computing …
“When’s the best time to buy a new PC ? “
Next year …

 

[xmitHIFI]

Hi @Rob Watts question to mscaler connected to dave. I have connected a lumin u2 with mscaler and when changing from lower to higher sampling rate there is a pop during the start of a song. I do have a bnc connection between lumin and mscaler. On the USB connection there is the slave (ergo mscaler) which is the master. Over digital BNC there should be a wordclock, which cant be connected. How can i avoid these kind of problems? Any proposal..