Qutest, Hugo TT2, Mscaler

@MrUnderhill. Right now just the supplied wall wart plugged into Shunyata Denali. Sbooster is on my list.

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That plus the Ultra II makes a very nice difference.

With the TT2 I think you need to audition. A couple of friends both preferred the Qobuz (with upgraded PSU) to the TT2. That said, they both now own Daves! In fact one pulled out the SMPS from the Dave and powers it with a Sean Jacobs DC3.

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Read a few doing this on head fi too. Supposed to be quite the uplift i’d just be very nervous doing it on a new dave though :crazy_face:

Ooh, tempted …

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i know it is isn’t it…

read and see pics of ones using upgraded DC3 power supplies (had silver wiring and DC4 transformer) and others with the DC4 variant (one chap had 2 DC4s for his DAVE and MSCALER… which is mega £££…)

biggest benefits being reported seems to be with MSCALER though as others say it generates quite a bit of noise with all the secret sauce processing its doing in that little hidden sealed magic box you see through the MSCALER’s port hole)

You and me both!

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I am VERY happy with @anon23154165 's suggestion of the Krisdonia with the M-Scaler. I have tried one of my friend’s DC3’s, but you will probably get a more accurate feel for it’s capabilities with a Dave than the Qutest.

In my system adding the Wave spdif, Wave dual BNCs and DC3 all effected the same musical area, and I found that any one of the spdif/Dual BNCs gave the main benefit, hence me buying the spdif. The DC3 added a small increment, which with the Qutest is equaled by the Krisdonia - great VFM.

I am finding that listening for a couple of hours per day on my main system I need to recharge every 5 days or so.

M

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Yeah… the Krisdonia power bank works a treat with the MScaler… I’m getting about 5 days use from one charge at about 2hrs a day as well. It seems to take about 3-4hrs for a full recharge.

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I’d be wary of such so called ‘benefits’… having personally discussed this with the designer, Rob Watts, he was unable to detect any ground plane noise what so ever in the DAVE as designed with its highly optimised and matched PSU.
It might be that undertaking a PSU mod introduces noise or artefacts that those listeners ‘prefer’.

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Similar situation with the TT2 I believe. I couldn’t make out any difference between the supplied power supply and a power bank with the TT2. He designed it with 6 large capacitors and filters tuned for that power supply to remove any noise by all accounts.

From what Rob mentioned about power supplies, if you cannot hear a difference between the supplied matched power supply and a Battery/Power Bank then any difference you do hear from another power supply is noise added to the system… that likely creates false detail or/and artificially widens the soundstage.

The Mscaler benefits from a power bank, from what I understand, as it helps stop the noise generated by the MScaler, not the power supply, from flowing into the DAC.

Edit… I would add that I did find the Qutest responded well to a power bank

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I’d be wary simply because of what I would view of high risk and the high cost of the Dave, but some people have higher such thresholds than me!

Certainly responds well to the SBooster + Ultra II. :wink:

I can imagine! When I first used an Anker PowerCore with the Qutest, the silences became a lot darker and the highs sounded smoother.

I’d imagine the size of the Qutest probably limits the amount they can do with the power supply compared to the TT2 and Dave that are bigger and more complex with their designs.

All interesting stuff is no way i plan on modding my Dave mind Happy with a good power cable and mains filter as way to go

Think if get mscaler at some point would either go battery pack or DC3 and demo some wave cables as others posted :smile:

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Yes I found the Naim Powerline worked well with DAVE, but no mains filtering at all … keep that well away from my audio, but then I have TT earthed mains so have no imported noise on my mains earth.

I guess that is one thing that I noticed between the TT2 and DAVE and that was sense of quieter silences… hard to explain but real none the less… the performance of DAVE is quite something,

Indeed why compromise and damage an expensive, finely tuned and optimised product… with a bit of amateur Heath Robinson open heart surgery… perhaps it should then be called a DAVEnstein… perhaps some have more money than sense.

I started with naim powerline on dave and noticed nice difference ended up getting a pre loved super sarum mains cable and that improved things further (more open and natural sound with marginally more micro detail) and allowed me to put my powerline on my nap250 which after had settled down (bass a bit boomy to start with) was a really nice uplift especially with dave’s tight control on bass system really thumps along now with some low end bass

Unfortunately don’t have dedicated mains as option currently (frustrates hell out of me hopefully year or 2 when evicted kids from my listening room/their play room :sob: ) and definitely know mains quality average so use a airlink balanced transformer and makes a significant difference to SQ and naim kit likes it having done numerous a/b tests intend to try a niagara3000 at some point out of curiosity more than anything

In fairness the chap has some technical expertise. I have not heard his system, but if I can get over there post Covid I will report back.

It seems one can have a world of delineated details or foot tapping musical coherence, but not both.

Perhaps represented by these two records?

Hi jim, possibly, I haven’t listened to your suggested tracks yet. However I think system matching is key. I have found the Chord DAVE in the right setup (such as directly driving my Empyreans) one of those devices that is detailed, yet provides great music insight, and toe tapping musical coherence.
However this was not the case when coupled with my 552 /250 / ATCs… so I think I am concluding that components in isolation can only go so far… and it’s the overall system performance (including speakers and room) and balance that is crucial for that musical coherence on replay.

I think I was also picking up the TT2 wasnt for me… I felt that didn’t provide an overall outstanding result when directly driving my Empyreans, especially with mscalar. The Hugo Original felt more musical, and the DAVE was more musical as well as being insightfully detailed.

Having said all this I do have a gripe with the DAVE, the lead time has been nearly 3 months now and has just been delayed yet another week… I guess Chord are having troubles, I don’t believe there has an explosion of demand.