dCS Bartók vs Chord Dave — different philosophies, different outcomes

pnwsystems · 2026-06-11T17:37:40.959Z

Had both in my system for extended periods courtesy of a dealer who does proper home demos. Not a brief audition — the Bartók was here for two weeks, the Dave for ten days. The fundamental difference isn't just sonic, it's philosophical. dCS builds upsampling DACs with a ring DAC architecture and proprietary oversampling. Chord builds delta-sigma implementations with Rob Watts's FPGA-based WTA filter. Both are exceptional. Neither sounds like the other. Brief summary: the Dave is more vivid,…

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dCS Bartók vs Chord Dave — different philosophies, different outcomes | HiFi Registry