Same goes for DAVE
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…LOVING HIS DAC.
Surely.
G
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And the Hugo son brings him some flowers
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Yes…the DAVE is a very strong performer with a few provisions.
- It must be used with a preamp…the variable output is not particularly stellar.
- It must be used in conjunction with a MSCALAR ( or better)
- It must be used with a linear PS…the Sean Jacobs one is an obvious choice, although it costs 2/3 of the DAVE. The indwelling SMPS is insufficient to demonstrate the high tech custom FPGA to its maximum.
Or maybe just removing the SMPS from the chassis would be about as good. Either way…it does not to be inside the main chassis.
And even after all these have been fulfilled…the DAVE still has that Chord sound…very strong supportive skeleton, but maybe lacking a little flesh on the bones.
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Oh yes you do.
Because you’ve been making the case how superior your silver shiny boxes are for a long time now, over and over again.
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Which ones?
thank you very much for your comments here, much appreciated.
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I haven’t seen any comments about the Super Lumina DIN/XLR
I use one between by 282/HCDR and my Nap 250DR, and the cable is well worth it.
When talking about the 552/500DR is it with the standard DIN/XLR or the SL one?
Been on this forum (and the old one) since 2009, seems the standard black DIN/XLR has been a limiting factor in the performance. Done the test many times myself, much prefer the performance with the SL cable
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That’s a really interesting post. I’ve a 300 DR with a 552 DR and visceral is trait I would give to my system - especially with vinyl. I wonder how much the source comes into play, though I’ve no doubt a 500 DR would be marvellous.
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As i said, i dont want to, so stop bringing it up so i dont feel i have to
for me Furutech worked well, but the degree of freedom is high and you will get lost. they have good customer support - Graeme Coley (coley@furutech.com), i would suggest drop him an email with your system and he will give you a recommendation. It is a starting point and then you need some fine tuning for your taste. when you get to that point drop me an email with what you don’t like. But, be aware, it will show all deficiencies of your system, as good power cables and distributor will supper expose every sound detail. it magnifies details, improves resolution and dynamics. It is a dangerous path to go, you will be able to clearly hear the sound signature of each interconnect you have, each power supply you have, it all becomes so transparent, as if you were a blind man, who got his sight back. Then you will see how good your 552 really is!!!.
Right now I have a Furutech UK plug on the end of a 4headed Graham’s Hydra into a matched Furutech UK socket on a dedicated radial made of 10mm Lapp cable, with an excellent fuse.
That works very well on my streamer, DAC/555DR and 52, but it took months to fully run from new.
There’s a thread going about Furutech on here if you want to share ideas about their gear.
about the chord sound, if you listen to a chord dac playing the news, the voices are clear and natural, almost as if one is listening to the direct mike feed.
I do hear differences from a Naim or Linn source, they all sound different, but on balance, for me at least Chord is the one that plays a snare drum the way I like the most.
Chord music.
For those of you who want to bring the 552 performance to the next level shunt the 4 RCA inputs with Furutech Clear Line RCA. There is a good reason the statement has not many outputs/inputs!!!
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I’m glad your reflections edify me to an extent, my partner already feels I’m dabbling in witchcraft, but I’ve come this far what’s the harm stealing some of her garden wire and adding to the cauldron. Let me clarify, as I read the thread discussing cables and I’m in a similar predicament! (I’ll also add a picture showing all my wires are way around the braun area and I’ve got great separation around the brain side - my neuroticism has taken me this far, so why not?)
As you can see in my pictures, I have a loop at the top of my brain stack I can loop wire round to raise those stiff burndys (burndies?) off the floor. Now I’ve tried using my daughter’a Duplo as you can see, but I’m irritated that it’s done not much.
So my idea is to loop around the frame and pull the burndys up, yet my system is behind a cage, so what do you reckon? Steal some garden wire and return the Duplo??
Looks like something Doc from Back to the Future might put together! 
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The only time I heard a 500 was at my dealer’s in the early 2000s. I don’t recall what I was auditioning, possibly a 102 (I changed from a 72 around that time, which turned out to be more of a sideways move than an upgrade). The power amp in their demo system was a 250, same as the one I had at home.
Anyway, I wasn’t thrilled with the sounds I was hearing. I recall that, on a familiar piece of orchestral music, climaxes were congested, and less clear than on my own system. My dealer said, “why don’t we try this new Naim power amp and see what it does,” and he switched in the 500. Maybe the sound got a little more smooth-textured, but there was no improvement to the problems I was hearing, which were clearly further upstream. If he had snuck the 500 in while I had gone to the bathroom, I might not have noticed that he had changed anything. That remains one of many experiences I’ve had that underpin my belief in source first.
20+ years later I have a 552DR. Although my upgraditis has largely abated - a 300DR has been a bigger improvement than I expected - given that second hand prices are falling, I may be tempted to revisit the 500 in a couple of years.
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Interesting observation, which I believe. I think the context is very important, I’m sure someone (William Wordsworth or Oscar Wilde - forget which one) made an analogy of the power amp making a window larger, the pre amp is how polished the window is, the source is the garden outside, the powerlines and interconnects are the soil type and the weather outside is the recording quality.
Jon
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