Due to my Hugo going phut the other evening… I have been auditioning some possible replacements… and so the Chord DAVE came around today for an extended home demo…
After a couple of hours warm up. I know a bit bizarre in this heat wave, I felt wow it’s rather good isn’t it… it’s the dynamics and phenomenal bass drive and extension along with a subtle extra layer of tonal clarity that hits you when hooked up to my 552.
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Good enough that it’s likely to be staying!?
Now that will be telling… was not planning on that sort of splash out… we will have to see…
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Was it the dreaded battery on the Hugo? The DAVE is a great product…just not my sort of presentation, but i think you will appreciate its virtues more than me…different tastes, enjoy.
I didn’t think the battery… but what do I know. Andy and Alastair are checking it over… if it is the battery it’s trivial to repair apparently.
I know what you perhaps mean about presentation… the transients are very tight and sharp… coupled with the 552 and the ATCs it can be quite impacting if in the track…as opposed to the slightly softer more rounded presentation of the Hugo.
Andy is a bit if a whizz, fixed my ND555 button led lights rather than Naim. So you never know they may be able to sort it. But you get to a point…when do i jump, is it what makes music special for me?..
Not easy. Hope it works out ,keep us posted.
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Yep!
And people say even better with blu 2, though I haven’t tried.
He might have to trade in his 552 for a 252 to do that package…nobody waiting in the wings😎
Or try the Dave for pre-amp duties… 
Being a novice, when it comes to streaming has piqued my interest!
On the sidelines soaking up information!
Is this what you gents are talking about:
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Even Chord recommend connecting a DAC to a dedicated analogue preamp if you can.
I am not aware of any Chord recommendation, but it makes sense. Chord has pretty obvious commercial interests here… But regardsless of any Chord’s recommendation, it seems there are many happy Dave users without any preamp getting into the signal path, including one frequent poster in this parish, @Innocent_Bystander.
you were matching Hugo with a 552, an apparent mismatch in class…
Have you considered Qutest which is a Hugo2 stripped down?
Have you considered trying a 555dr for your NDX2 as the cost new is similar to a Dave
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Yes, quite poor in my opinion… again wrote about it on this forum… the hugo2 is quite a step back musically to my ears with a 552 or 252 compared to the original Hugo which is still class leading… especially if you like an insightful yet slightly warm and rounded presentation.
I will also be demoing the TT2. I have a feeling that could be interesting too, especially with my 552 and ATCs
No not at all, completely the opposite 
, you might be thinking of something else, The Hugo and 552 is a wonderful system match as I have and few others have stated several times on this forum. I have heard several private 500 series setups with Hugo… and they all sounded good.
Indeed there appear a few things that Hugo does musically better or possibly more suited to my ears than the DAVE in my system, but no doubting the speed, dynamics and tonal accuracy of DAVE. So not night and day… I will let it settle in to see how I adjust.
Hi Simon,
If you are trying out several of the current generation of Chord dacs, may I suggest that you try the M Scaler with them? I found it to be tremendously beneficial for both of the dacs that I tried: DAVE and Qutest. It made music sound more credible, natural and alive to me.
The M Scaler really makes a difference for some like myself, less so for others.
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I will, but after I have chosen the DAC. Alastair I know is a fan of them in terms of what they do…
so need to get the presentation right first, and then the M scaler builds on that. Apparently m scaler on TT2 is pretty close to DAVE (with no M Scaler) without quite so massively fast transients
Indeed, though I have never heard it through a Naim preamp.
I also look forward to hearing your impressions of the DAC/M Scaler combination.