I can understand the desire for a one-box solution, but I'd still rather pick exactly the DAC and exactly the amp I want. I feel like that would be tougher and more likely compromised in an all-in-one solution, but, hey, maybe there's something out there that would prove me wrong.I'd still like to see you try other multi-bit DACs, oversampled and non-oversampled, to see what you end up preferring. I think the NOS1704 you got is nice sounding for the price, but there is still much to be gained in the multi-bit sphere for you. It's a long, expensive road if you keep up your curiosity about what else might be out there...
Here's some fodder to get the conversation going:Hugo and Dave don't use any kind of DAC chip, the analogue conversion is discrete using pulse array. The key benefit of pulse array - something I have not seen any other DAC technology achieve at all - is an analogue type distortion characteristic. By this I mean, as the signal gets smaller, the distortion gets smaller too. Indeed, I have posted before about Hugo's small signal performance - once you get to below -20 dBFS distortion disappears - no enharmonic, no harmonic distortion, and no noise floor modulation as the signal gets smaller. With Dave, it has even more remarkable performance - a noise floor that is measured at -180dB and is completely unchanged from 2.5v RMS output to no signal at all.The most impressive statistic to me is that Rob stated (in a video interview) that he was able to continue to lower DAVE's digital section S/N until he achieved an amazing -350dB, and he continued to hear improvements in depth of the reproduced signal until he reached that point. Even though the analog section does not meet that spec, he was still able to hear the improvement in the digital section by realizing that amazing spec.http://cdn.head-fi.org/d/d6/900x900px-LL-d661dbf6_Dave2.5vagainstnosignal.png
Quoting this for posterity. What in the hell. All respect to his psychedelics dealer.
"At its heart lies a new (and in electronics terms, huge) LX75 version of the Spartan 6 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The FPGA's extraordinary capability enables a number of key sonic benefits including significantly improved timing and the best noise-shaper performance of any known DAC" ….1 x Xilinx Spartan 6 LX75 FPGA - on Digi-Key: $125.93 for the DAVE;The main difference between the Hugo and the Dave is the Chip they are using. Don't they want to sell many of their DACs??The hell the D/A Chips in the Yggy are 4 times as much already.. ...
FPGA's are like blank integrated chips. You load a program into them to simulate a real integrated chip. This gives flexibility, but is usually much slow than a real IC. I guess the programming is what they are changing the big bucks for as the Xilinx Spartan would make a really bad paper weight without it. Programming worthy of CHORD prices? I'm gonna skip that one.
I am listening to the old MSB Analog: old firmware and the old USB input. At home of course.Haha, what is this I am hearing. It's not very resolving and it has a nut size - in your head - stage, compared to what I am used to hear. It's romantic/smooth /warm sounding, with a muddy background. The transient edges are softer/more rounded. The Theta V A with a good interface probably wipes the floor with it.You squad were right about the old one. The latest Analog sounds like a completely different DAC in a higher tier of SQ performance.
