Chord Electronics Dave DAC Reference Digital to Analogue Converter

Possibly the best DAC in the world. Using proprietary technologies painstakingly developed by Robert Watts over the past twenty-years, DAVE is Chord Electronics most advanced FPGA DAC to date.

Handling the conversion of your music with absolute precision, and exceptionally low noise, yields an organic performance that simply cannot be matched.

DAVE, which is also a reference-level headphone amplifier and digital preamp, distils over twenty years of Chord Electronics’ research, development and advanced engineering into one device. At its heart lies the advanced Spartan 6 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with 1,000x the processing power of a traditional mass-produced chip DAC. DAVE’s FPGA is loaded with over a million lines of code to confront complex timing issues head-on, with speed and precision.

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. DAVE’s technology delivers music with unmatched reality and musicality, with an unrivalled timing response. The device’s lossless digital volume control outputs the signal direct to your power amplifier for the purest experience.

DAVE has a large LC display, showing input, sample frequency, volume and set-up configurations options, within our famous porthole design. On its fascia, DAVE also features a rotary encoder with a large stainless steel controller and ball buttons, enabling direct interactivity in addition to the supplied remote control.

This is How a DAC Should Sound

Not all DACs are created equal. Using proprietary technologies painstakingly developed by Robert Watts over the past twenty-years, DAVE is our most advanced FPGA DAC to date.

Handling the conversion of your music with absolute precision, and exceptionally low noise, yields an organic performance that simply cannot be matched