Chord Dave

Ricred, did you give the volume control stage sufficient time to break in like 50 plus hours or just perform a quick AB comparison?  I would expect the Dave to sound very competitive direct.
I would love to hear the Dave as I,m still in love with my original Hugo.

Actually In my audition of the M-scaler with my Dave I was undecided. The m-scaler presentation to my ears was a little too smooth and lost a little of the dynamics. But that was in my present system with tube amp and preamp which I had gone to from solid state because of the lack of smoothness. Perhaps with solid state or transistor system I would have preferred the inclusion of the m-scaler.
   I would recommend getting the Dave and going from there. It is an amazing Dac to my ears.  The resolution is amazing without being overwhelming now in my setup.

Statements such as "after owning the Dave for a couple of weeks all I can say is WOW!”, or "it's the most significant change that I've done to my system’ and "The Chord Dave is just outstanding in my "system “ are very impressive posts above.  

The Chord DAVE is 13.2" Wide by 2.8" High  by 6.1" Deep and weighting 15.4 pound,  The Bricasti M1 SE DAC is 17” x 12“ x 2.5” and weighs 12 pounds and the Debussy DAC is 17.6” x 15.5”x 2.6” and weighs 19.4 pounds.

How is it possible for the Chord DAVE DAC to be so small and yet provide such amazing sound quality?   I know the Chord DAVE DAC uses a new version of the advanced Spartan 6 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).  Has there many many software upgrades to the FPGA?

Is the Chord Ensemble Stand for the DAVE DAC required or can it just sit on 4 Stillpoints Ultra minis?   The Chord stand cost $1,895 and I need to know if it really required.

Based on the above, I plan to audition the Chord DAVE DAC.  Does any one have any additional comments on the Chord DAVE DAC?   Thanks…..