HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Bake-offs rule especially when we are *allowed* to have them and *allowed* to attend them. The only problem is they have been caught up in forum politics and slurper fear that value products might kill a lot of their slurp and new cars, and forum owners who are scared to lose their little bit of power and influence (AoS and TAS).

Keep it up Savvy, we just need a Midland base and a Southern base for them as well, then others will be forced to join in or look stoooopid.

Note everyone and anyone is welcome to a HFS bake-off, no one is banned, even Marco, all are welcome. We don't need Biggy (Stoke Bake-off) or the born again bouncer (NEBO) standing at the door for fear i may turn up - do they realise how stupid they look.

Sounds like a great day guys. The Raspberry does sound interesting from someone who doesn't have a clue about streaming etc. This could be a sensible money startpoint. Never heard Chord products but the dacs get a good name for themselves and the Doc Dac defo is value for money and wasn't disgraced. I do wish I was closer to these days would love to attend.

Why would it be disgraced it is 40 Quid FFS. So how much is the Raspberry pie thing (excuses made about needing EXTRA linear psu) and the Chord new is now over £1000.

Am I going bonkers. There is hi-fi and there is music, the fruit Pie was certainly being described in hi-fi terms, I trust Savvy's ears and he judges thing musically so I respect that a £1000 DAC might well have been better than a £40 one, but £960 better ?

I have no axe to grind, I am not selling a DAC. I could rebuild this £40 thing into something to blow the bollocks off ANYTHING for £300 by paralleling boards and fitting a large simple NVA design PSU, but I have avoided it because for £40 this thing is already musically astonishing. I am now wishing I could have come with my own ears.

Just a note on the Pi.

The Allo Boss DAC board can also be improved with the additional Kali reclocker board which uses ultra-precise clocking tech to reduce jitter to absurdly low levels.
The same process has been applied in their Allo Digione board which has a digital output and soundwise trounces the already-excellent HifiBerry Digi+ Pro.

Pi's fitted with these boards and run with a system like Roon (subscription needed) or Volumio (free) can provide a digital source of extreme high quality and blow most expensive streamers clear away. Setup is a bit of fun and you have the pleasure of a 'home-made' piece of hifi.

My Linear PSU for the Pi is an inexpensive device from a Polish manufacturer called Tomanek (available direct via internet). Tomanek are mainly known as producers of quality transformers and this little box has also audibly improved the SQ of the Pi.

Nice to read the results of the Bake-off and I wish I could have been there with a couple of DAC's.
Keep up the good work!

AND that makes the total price ?

Not being in the UK I can't tell you exactly, but a Pi + Boss + Kali will probably cost around 200 pounds together. The Tomanek LPSU was about 80 pounds (inc P+P).

Streaming front ends of 'audiophile' quality from the big names start at around 1000-pounds.

This is not in comparison with your mega-mini-DAC here, Doc - from what has been said above that must be quite a package for the price. Impressive.

I've had the £40 combo running last night and back on again this morning. I'm in no rush to take it out.

Before I bought the Chord, I had a second hand auralic Vega (£3k new) dac on home trial. I easily prefer the music made with the doc dac and psu over the auralic, regardless of the price tags.

I have also owned and heard several other dacs - schiit, rega, ifi, Beresford- the £40 combo beats all of those for music.

Is the Chord £960 better? Of course not. The chord soaks up a large chunk of its price in marketing and dealer margins. As one of the guys at the bake-off said 'You could buy each of us a doc dac combo and go on holiday with the change.

It would seem that the Marketing Department of Nene Valley Audio ought to start considering launching a new product !!!!

I get irritated by patronising comments like "it wasn't disgraced". But that is just me, people still judge with their eyes and with their wallets. I did it before in the early 90's with another, UK this time, DAC bargain, reworking it and repowering it and recasing it and calling it the DACon, based on the little QED Digit DAC - WITH THEIR PERMISSION!!

It caused me lots of strife and I even had to sue Hi-fi Choice for accusing me of fraud in a review. I got about £30k out of them. I have obviously thought about doing the same with this one, but I have enough work, I may make one for me to see how much better I can make it. BUT the basic unit is sooooo good and suuuuch astonishing value I am not that motivated to do it.

EDIT - Anyway, Stu, when he finds time amoungst all the other projects, is going to do this, so leaving it as an open source DIY project seems a good idea.

Please note the Beresford used was not the current much improved SEG model. That does sound very 'analogue'. Was the Beresford tried with a linear PS? I also have an Oppo 205 at my disposal but haven't tried it in DAC only mode. Certainly extracts detail from some CDs that I haven't heard before (and so far only used in the 'office' budget system) but it does a lot more including SACD, BluRay and surround sound for not a lot more than the cost of the Chord.