Yes, a preamp certainly does make a difference doesn’t it. I preferred the balanced outputs when driving the Chord Etude power amp directly, but my Nait50 only has unbalanced inputs … so using a phono to DIN Hiline.
I also find top shelf Fraim seems to sound preferable… but I think it’s more a case of full fat Fraim as opposed to top shelf… but it looks good on the top.
1 Like
I’ve just done exactly that, connected chord ultima pre 3 into my Ultima 6 amp and couldn’t agree more, the improvement is substantial
1 Like
Chord, and my dealer, both told me to stick with unbalanced RCA. Do you recall what difference you heard with balanced?
Just to my ears slightly less forward and relaxed… only subtle, but enough to warrant me to do it… but perhaps if you prefer the sound of mscaler on DAVE, the unbalanced from the DAVE might be preferable?
Yes it boils down apparently on whether you prefer the unbalanced to balanced converter in the Etude amp or DAVE, as the Etude is a natively balanced power amp design, and the DAVE natively unbalanced DAC design.
Thanks, I did think it a little odd that two products apparently designed to work together were different in this respect.
Hi Simon do you use the Dave with a naim preamp/amp combination - just interested how it pairs up…it was something I was considering years ago… By the way have you got better psu for the Dave…apprently it makes a huge difference.
Yes - used to use with a 552 NAC - I now use with a NAIT 50.
No I use the PSU built in DAVE - as it is specifically designed DAVE to match its performance being high frequency design. Changing the PSU will change the performance and it won’t be a DAVE anymore… and perhaps if you prefer a different character of DAC sound it might be better to get a different DAC, in my opinion
I had an interesting conversation once with Rob Watts on his choice of power supply design for DAVE.
I think one of the strength of that PSU is one reason why non boutique mains cables do tend to sound best and creates exceedingly low noise… and indeed I have heard that for myself. I am sure changing the PSU may allow boutique cables to sound good too - but at the expense of changing the DAVE character.
I appreciate DAVE as it is - it sounds sublime, punchy and with verve when present in the audio - I would be heart broken if I broke its magic.
4 Likes
Deleted, please remove.
Thanks Simon. I had similar experience with power cords on the actives and on my preamp, who are using LPS, using a Naim standard lead (1mm2) already thicken the lower register as compared to a lead in 0,75mm2. It was even thicker when using a bigger one in 1,5mm2. Less is more sometimes, it’s not that I wanted to safe on power cords. The Naim power lines seems only to work well in a Naim system, didn’t found a place where they were balanced on my non-Naim system.
Finding a good streamer and cables, that keeps the initial body of the music, without artificially bass boosting it, is the path that I followed. With some tweaks (some silver cables, decoupling feets…) it’s easy to fall on the bright side of things.
1 Like
Mano Ultra mk3 from Magna Hifi, spdif output over BNC.
Nice collection of boxes ! Did you try the Ethernet/Roon only input on the Tambaqui ? Here you should understand what I was meaning 
The Tambaqui is far better when using an external streamer, still not on Dave’s level at the end, from the tests we made with some friends.
Best streamer on my side so far, warmly recommend to try this Mano, especially with GentooPlayer and Diretta instead of Upnp. Hardware and software have their influences, even with a less better software then GentooPlayer, the Mano still sounded well, which was not the case for the Holo Red.
There is surely better but at which price ? Things evolve so fast, I don’t see myself buying a 5 figures computer made for streaming (Pink Faun, Grimm Mu1…), but that’s my IT point of view.
Thanks Bluesfan ! I’ve read a lot of your comments, tests and reviews in the past, I remember your post about comparing ND555 and Dave/Scaler. I could also compare them and agree with your findings.
Not a very logic choice to have made the Ultima 3 preamp natively balanced; I think I stumbled on this paradox while reading about this preamp.
I bought M Scaler after having listen to it on the Qutest, which was my dac at this time, I spend quite some years with that combo, the difference was very high on the Qutest, which fully justified the investment, even if it was 2,5 times the price of the dac. Apparently a new Scaler is planned, starting to save money !
Tambaqui is a very strange sounding dac on its Ethernet input. Adding a streamer is mandatory in my point of view, I would never buy this dac.
Thanks for feedback regarding this Chord demo, once I have more free time, I’ll borrow the Ultima 3 pre from the shop to try it myself. Apparently the latest Chord preamps are not cold and sterile, curious to listen to it. I could demo the Ultima Pre and the Ultima mono blocks, on Wilson Benesch Resolution speaker, but strangely the shop installed a Bricasti source on that system, instead of the Dave. It was a very deep sounding system, strange experience.
Cheers
1 Like
3 Likes
This does involve naughties - which ivalidates warranties - but by all accounts the results are transformative…I would only consider doing this when out of warranty.
I am with Simon on this, if you need to go to these lengths get a different DAC!
1 Like
If the correct voltage is fed there will be no damage to the DAC, and unless they have surveillance over your rack they are not going to know, and they don’t need to know. One could also argue that the blatantly cheap SMPS may represent more harm.
By all means tweak and tinker to your heart’s content. It is your device, you paid for it. Philosophical arguments about designer’s intentions are just that, the only thing that matters is how it sounds.
4 Likes
Well take your point…the shame is this dac is so good…that it can deliver more in spades…if you don’t want it thats fair…its your money your choice…can’t argue with that…
I have no issue adding an external ps to something like the TT2 but Dave’s ps is internal which means you have to majorly mod it to add a new ps. Personally I would not go that far, if I had one but each to their own
2 Likes
Fully understand…my self if I had one I would only do it out of warranty…by buying preloved…its only a simple case of unplugging psu…and pluggin in harness…I dont think there is a case mod required but I might be wrong…I would not want to do that…I think there is a way of getting cable out…