Chord Electronics Owners & Discussion Thread

[Guest AndrewC]

Opps, i'm misleading by your picture, i thought it was a blue Mii and Dave combo.. which make me puzzle that you having blue MII and not using it upscaling function.

 

;D... Chord's and dCS' matte-silver finishes are very similar.

[jeromelang]

Haha, someone flipping a lot of pratas today.

 

 

[Guest AndrewC]

Just received my 5 sets of Ferrite core sleeves from Digi-Key (3 different rated Wurths, and 2 from TDK)... Should be in interesting weekend  ;D

 

[InnocentBlood]

I'm currently using 4 each at the DAVE end and 1 each on the Blu 2 end, on my BNC cables. I can hear a difference. can't quite describe it coherently but it seems like some of the background "hiss" that I used to hear in my music seems to be gone now. not sure if I'm just imagining stuff though but I sure am looking fwd to read about your listening impressions :)

 

meanwhile I'm awaiting delivery of the Oyaide cables that you recommended. they should be here sometime in July.

 

[etnt]

I'm using about 15 fair rite per cable, they occupy end to end . The sound is duller

[Guest francishuang]

Try shifting the position of the ferrite

 

I'm using about 15 fair rite per cable, they occupy end to end . The sound is duller

[etnt]

end to end all occupied liao, nothing to shift

[Guest francishuang]

I think tats too much  :)

The sound will become dull

Is the ferrite clamping hard onto the cable, sound will become dull too

 

end to end all occupied liao, nothing to shift

[Guest AndrewC]

I'm currently using 4 each at the DAVE end and 1 each on the Blu 2 end, on my BNC cables. I can hear a difference. can't quite describe it coherently but it seems like some of the background "hiss" that I used to hear in my music seems to be gone now. not sure if I'm just imagining stuff though but I sure am looking fwd to read about your listening impressions :)

 

meanwhile I'm awaiting delivery of the Oyaide cables that you recommended. they should be here sometime in July.

 

Whats the rating on your Ferrite cores, specifically the Impedance rating at 100MHz?

 

I think you'll like the Oyaide BNCs... might even possibly remove the need for the Ferrite cores! Try it without them as well.  ;)

 

 

I'm using about 15 fair rite per cable, they occupy end to end . The sound is duller

 

Yikes, that sounds a bit much (pardon the pun) ;D

 

The need for these Ferrites obviously also depends significant[ly] on what's connected to DAVE and whether it's spewing crap over the BNC... Is it Blu2 that's connected you[r] DAVE?

 

[etnt]

Yikes, that sounds a bit much (pardon the pun) ;D

 

The need for these Ferrites obviously also depends  significant on what's connected to DAVE and whether it's spewing crap over the BNC... Is it Blu2 thats connected you DAVE?

 

Ya, blu2 to dave. Actually I was just adding till there's no more significant diff (that's about 8 or so) then thought, what the hell, just fill up the rest of the cable.

 

 

[Guest AndrewC]

Ya, blu2 to dave. Actually I was just adding till there's no more significant diff (that's about 8 or so) then thought, what the hell, just fill up the rest of the cable.

 

...but at what point did the "significant diff" turn from good difference to bad difference?  :P - Quite often with minute changes it's hard to tell good difference from bad difference except through prolonged listening (weeks) in one state, then changing it back.

[InnocentBlood]

Whats the rating on your Ferrite cores, specifically the Impedance rating at 100MHz?

 

I think you'll like the Oyaide BNCs... might even possibly remove the need for the Ferrite cores! Try it without them as well.  ;)

 

I bought the ones recommended by Rob Watts:

 

http://sg.element14.com/wurth-elektronik/74271633s/ferrite-core-split-8mm-100-ohm/dp/1635622

 

the Impedance rating at 100MHz is 100ohm, according to the spec sheet.

 

yeah I believe by the time I get my hands on the Oyaide, my ears would already be familiar with the current sound with the ferrite cores so hopefully the difference that the Oyaide makes would jump out at me.

 

[Guest AndrewC]

I bought the ones recommended by Rob Watts:

 

http://sg.element14.com/wurth-elektronik/74271633s/ferrite-core-split-8mm-100-ohm/dp/1635622

 

the Impedance rating at 100MHz is 100ohm, according to the spec sheet.

 

yeah I believe by the time I get my hands on the Oyaide, my ears would already be familiar with the current sound with the ferrite cores so hopefully the difference that the Oyaide makes would jump out at me.

 

Ahh, ok. The ones I've got are include double and triple that impedance... it should make for a starker effect if there's any ;D.

 

W.r.t the Oyaide, be careful of the cable size, you need minimum 8mm internal diameter ferrite core sleeves.

[Doggie Howser]

Hey a customer dropped in the other day with a Deltec Bigger Bit DAC and said it was made by Robert Watts. It used a TDA1541 chip and he's been looking for a replacement for that vintage system. He has a TEAC transport modified with a Deltran clock output.

 

He was asking if it was the same Rob Watts from Chord. Anyone know?

 

 

[Guest AndrewC]

Hey a customer dropped in the other day with a Deltec Bigger Bit DAC and said it was made by Robert Watts. It used a TDA1541 chip and he's been looking for a replacement for that vintage system. He has a TEAC transport modified with a Deltran clock output.

 

He was asking if it was the same Rob Watts from Chord. Anyone know?

 

https://zstereo.co.uk/2014/09/12/chord-hugo/ ;)

 

...Rob Watts has come a long way since he “foolishly decided to get involved with manufacturing hi-fi”. After leaving Cardiff university in 1984 he cofounded Deltec Precision Audio and made a name for himself as a gifted electronics engineer.

...

[Doggie Howser]

Cool :)

 

I found another one..

 

I wonder if this is the same Malaysian place I went to when studying in London :D

 

 

 

[Guest AndrewC]

Thanks for that! Very interesting read.

 

...

 

I wonder if this is the same Malaysian place I went to when studying in London :D

 

...

 

I'm sure it is... I believe it's no more though, think they lost the tenancy a while ago?

[InnocentBlood]

W.r.t the Oyaide, be careful of the cable size, you need minimum 8mm internal diameter ferrite core sleeves.

 

yes when I spoke to Ryan from X Audio, I did tell him that I intend to use these with the ferrite cores that I already have. he assured me that they would fit the cable. nevertheless when I go to collect the cable in July, I'll bring one of the ferrites along with me just to be sure.

[Guest AndrewC]

Not unexpected results from trying out Ferrite Core sleeves on the BNC inputs on DAVE...  ;)

 

I tested pairs of Ferrite cores with impedances ranging from 80-Ohms to 350-Ohms (@ 100Mhz), attaching one on each of the Dual 75-Ohm BNC cable between the Chord DAVE and dCS Network Bridge.

 

Starting off with the 350-Ohms Ferrite, the effect was extremely pronounced; significant top-end roll off, like listening through a crappy pair of speakers. It was useful though, to benchmark the exact sonic impact the ferrites had. The only "positive", of you can call it that, was reduced sibilance on poorly mastered low-res material, making it somewhat more palatable.

 

Long story short, I ultimately settled on a pair of Wurth 246-Ohm Ferrites, positioned right at the connector edge into DAVE; this one seems to perform the best - best combination of attenuating a slight "haze", yet providing no measureable roll-off at the top-end, while preseving full transparency and impulse response.

 

I also tried going back to a USB stream directly to DAVE from my Melco N1A (with a Corning Fibre-based USB cable, and with the dCS Network Bridge disconnected from DAVE), the noise floor seems to increase slightly! To be sure it was not Power Cable related, I swapped power cables between DAVE (Oyaide Tunaim GPX-R ) and the dCS (Cerious Liquid Ceremics); didn't make much of a difference.  The sonic results from removing dCS from the chain points to possible reasons why the combination seems to work so well - somehow the dCS Network Bridge makes DAVE sonically better for standard un-upsampled bitstream ;D

 

[gtl]

Been toying with getting a Dave and BluII. Improved redbook sounds extremely intriguing. Currently using an Ayre QX-5. I have compared the Dave to it and it was very close. But by all accounts the Blu would elevate things to a much higher level. Anyone compared the Dave and BluII to other DACs?

[jigster]

Anyone have issue of noise from Dave/BluII? There's a slight buzz coming from my speakers whenever I change the input to the Dave/BluII.

Tried putting some ferrite cores onto the bnc cables but the buzz is still there.

Changed to a diff bnc cable (from stock to Black Cat Digit 75s) but to no avail.

 

[Guest AndrewC]

Anyone have issue of noise from Dave/BluII? There's a slight buzz coming from my speakers whenever I change the input to the Dave/BluII.

...

 

Possibly ground-leak related - make sure the DAVE/BluII and your Pre-Amp/Amps are on a common ground. When you change your Pre-Amp input to DAVE/BluII, what happens if you disconnect the BNC cables between DAVE and BluII, does the buzz disappear?

[jigster]

Possibly ground-leak related - make sure the DAVE/BluII and your Pre-Amp/Amps are on a common ground. When you change your Pre-Amp input to DAVE/BluII, what happens if you disconnect the BNC cables between DAVE and BluII, does the buzz disappear?

 

Hey Andrew,

 

Thanks for the reply. Apologies for the lack of response.

Amp is down so haven’t tried your suggestion, gotta wait for it to return from repairs.

 

[InnocentBlood]

 

it looks like Chord will be unveiling a new product this weekend at London Can Jam. if you are a current DAVE owner, then you might want to look at this... skip to 4:15 ;)

 

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[Guest wusplay]

m scaler