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Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it. |
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Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it. |
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In Reply to: RE: I'm not the one divorced from reality. posted by 13th Duke of Wymbourne on June 12, 2024 at 13:41:30:
"The ASR DAC measurements are completely valid, they tell you very specific things about what a DAC does. It is ironic that DAVE does not measure so well as some low priced DACS that use the cheap DAC chips treated with disdain in Chord's video. Rob Watts does talk a lot about attributes, like noise floor modulation, that could be a big thing but cannot be measured. And he claims to be able hear an artifact that is -300dB (this is, of course, ludicrous). These things may be the most important aspects of a DAC but after all Chord's talk about the objective performance I'd expect them to get the obvious, measurable, things right and at least be at the top of the ASR SNR table."
I would proffer that the (ASR) measurements of the DAC do not tell one as much as it is inferred. For example, Chord maintains that jitter does not matter in their designs, due to the FPGA implementation. I think this subtlety is missed. Given the fact that the DAVE is considered among the very finest DACs in the world, the fact that ASR does not like the measurements tells me that something fundamental is being overlooked in the measurements. I will never forget the first time I heard a Chord Hugo 2 DAC. I was floored how much better it sounded compared to my Benchmark and RME DACs. I'm not knocking those DACs, they have excellent measured responses, and get great reviews. The Chord Hugo 2 just sounded way more like music. BTW, Rob Watts must have some method to measure noise floor modulation. That was a big tool in his filter designs. This goes back to my point about DAC measurements, some of the key factors with DAC performance are likely not being adequately captured.I get folks are cynical when engineers go on about their designs. Having said that, the information Rob Watts puts out is largely verifiable. It is complex, but most people can grasp the concepts behind the explanations. It made me understand why the Cord DACs sounded as good as they do.
"No doubt Ted Smith and Rob Watts are earnest and insightful but only the listener can determine if their products are worth the asking prices. One way to persuade the punters is to have a good back story and the whole 'FPGA' thing is part of that. I am pretty amazed there have been so many revisions of the direct-stream DAC firm ware, it kind of seems like they didn't get it right the first time, or the second time, or the third time - or is it Ted Smith's way to keep getting paid :). As an aside, Rob Watts is not an employee of Chord and lives off royalties from Chord products. Maybe Ted smith is the same. I suspect that PS Audio and Chord do not own those technologies but license them from the inventors. "
I wondered about the constant firmware with the Direct Stream DAC as well. I held off getting one until the firmware stopped updating and the price dropped to the point it was worth trying. Having been a Devialet owner since 2016, numerous firmware updates are not a big deal to me. It is definitely a great sounding DAC. I use it primarily as the processor for a high end headphone setup, which it really shines.
" Don't look back. Something may be gaining on you"
Satchel Paige
Edits: 06/12/24 06/12/24
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Follow Ups
- RE: I'm not the one divorced from reality. - Freo-1 16:51:43 06/12/24 (1)
- RE: I'm not the one divorced from reality. - 13th Duke of Wymbourne 23:24:29 06/12/24 (0)
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