Chord standalone Hi Fi DACS

[QuestForThe13thNote]

I did some reviews between three chord dacs I’ve tested. Feel free to ask any comments.

1) 2qute, 2) Qutest 3) DAVE; 

1) The 2qute is very decent still and can be had from richer Sounds for £700 if they still have them in stock. Good considering they were £1k originally. It’s a very nice analogue sounding dynamic DAC which compared to the likes of DACs such as the Mytek Brooklyn or Benchmark DAC3 HGC has more of this quality than outright detail retrieval which with the Brooklyn has which I found a bit airy with treble in a slightly unpleasant way. You need a warm amp for the mytek. A recording of tubular bells with the 2qute playing from my Innuos Zenith was as if it was a totally different recording. Compared to the cyrus dac xp signature I’m used to, much more neutral and dynamic and real.

It looks good and the light glass window is a nice touch. 

2) I tried the Qutest last but it’s second in order of price at around £1200. It’s better than the 2qute in that it has more of a similar presentation to the DAVE in the sense it projects the image of the music to the fore more, with the 2qute keeping some salient parts of the music back and projecting the most dynamic parts most obviously. It’s filters are very good with the warm filters most obvious. Using the qutest it with a Bryston bp17 cubed and my pmc 25-23s and cyrus mono x200signatures with innuos zenith mark 2 is a lovely combo. 

What the Qutest does is just project the music in a way which is very detailed, transparent and dynamic and nothing is lost. It’s easy to think a device this basic looking could be a let down. This is easily a better DAC than likes of aforementioned Brooklyn or Mytek dacs, at nearly double the price, albeit these have pre stages too, easily outclassing cyrus ‘old school’ dacs Im so used too.

Ive heard some say that chord dacs are analytical in a bad way but I don’t think so as it’s going to depend on the rest of the amplification etc, and what you really want from your dac is this detail retrieval perhaps and let the source, amplification and speakers deal with it in a way that sounds natural to you. You maybe don’t want to leave the dac scrabling for detail only for speakers and amps needing to sort it out. 

I would say the Qutest is a good 30 percent improvement of the 2qute and about 70 percent the quality of the DAVE

3) The DAVE - main strengths are its ability to project everything in the music in a natural and balanced way and you hear everything the music has on offer. It’s a reference DAC with dynamics very impressive and everything sounds flat after you take this out of the system. Ive tried it in an all new Bryston system and with fact 8s too, with the innuos. It’s also a very good pre amp too. Here is my review http://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/chord-electronics-dave-dac-preamplifier-headphone-amplifier

On the downside it’s turn on routine is a faff, waiting 30seconds, no trigger outputs for other power amps (so you have to turn them on individually). If you don’t turn it on first and wait you can damage speakers. 

It’s hard to comprehend that this can be achieved as everything else sounds average without the Dave . A friend I know has the ps audio direct stream DAC which is nearly as good as the DAVE but easier to use and cheaper. I’m sure with dacs getting better and cheaper, the quality of the DAVE will be achievable in cheaper quality DACs in the future by some degree. You wonder why chord don’t make a mid price range dac to bridge the gap between the Qutest and DAVE because of such a price disparity and without need for a pre amp. This DAC makes a case of ensuring you keep your dacs separate to your pre and power amps or integrated or streamer, if you are serious about hi Fi, given what is probably going to be achievable at a much lower price in the future. I for one will be looking at this as the main area of progressing the sound of my hi Fi, once you hear what such a dac can do. 

https://imgur.com/gallery/SCnuG6Q

 

[Fourlegs]

It's nice to read your thoughts on the three Chord DACs and thanks for the write up.

The Chord line up of DACs and headphone amps is a moving feast. TRegarding your request for a mid range DAC to bridge the gap to the Dave, the new Hugo TT2 comes out in the autumn. This will have enough power so that it can be used direct to moderately sensitive speakers without any further amplification. It is the first sign of the new range of Chord digital amplifiers which are now being designed. The Hugo TT2 can also be used as a preamp direct into a power amp without the need for any additional preamp. This new DAC neatly bridges the gap and will come in just a bit under the Dave in absolute quality.

I have had the Dave for quite a while now. The turn on sequence is easily avoided by leaving Dave powered on 24/7 and that is what I do.

Having had extensive back to back listening with the Dave against the PS Audio DirectStream DAC running Red Cloud I am not quite in agreement with you about the PS Audio DAC. Even though it is good, for me it is not close to the Dave. I accept though that we all look for slightly different sounds for what we want out of a system.

The future according to the Chord product line is probably to use their new stand alone Hugo MScaler feeding directly into a yet to be announced digital power amp which can be controlled by volume instructions in the MScaler digital feed. This would bypass the need for a standalone DAC because that role would be carried out by the digital amp. There are no timescales or costs yet for the new digital amps (an integrated version will also be available) but it is going to be very interesting to see how the range expands.

At the moment I think the Dave DAC is the finest DAC available. With the added Chord MScaler it is taken even further beyond other digital convertors. IMO, of course.

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

Thanks for comments. 

Ive not been impressed with the Hugo TT when I’ve heard it with the TToby amp. It was too sharp and airy and edgy albeit I’d accept it would probably suit warmer speakers to mine. It’s probably let down as it’s pre amp is not that great. For me there is much in using a dedicated separates pre amp of great quality and lowest distortion, with a great separates DAC. Using a dac with a pre around this price in this size of box consistently doesn’t get you the same on sq as a separates pre and dac, with the same body and size and warmth of sound, whatever tech reasons? So Im dubious the TT2 will bridge the gap if anything like the original. Also assuming you have a good pre, why buy that again in the tt2 when you could look at a standalone dac from another manufacturer, for better pound per pound value. People just want the dac and best possible at price point with nothing extraneous to costs. 

As re the DAVE I do think it is better than the ps audio and probably best dac you can get, but the thing is it’s price and it’s not cheap. And that case is expensive. Also the ps Audio is around £3k cheaper too so it’s better value considering it’s performance(but not best performance). Another manufacturer could possibly take sales from chord by making a dac with a cheaper case and same fpga tech, without pre, for similar performance at a much lower price. I wouldn’t be surprised.