Chord Chordette Peach DAC
In due time Chordette Gem gave to people with little means the possibilities of Chord DACs and also its technology of Bluetooth use. Peach is essentially the same Gem but with added coaxial and optical inputs. There is the inscription "Gem Mk 2" on the circuit board inside and it is enclosed into the same small case - a smaller version of the legendary DAC64 but in this case in red.
Bluetooth input is interesting by the fact that it uses "advanced audio distribution profile" (A2DP) of the Bluetooth standard for stream sound transmission of higher quality than usually the wireless system allows this. It is not the question here about lossless compression, of course, but if you use it with APT-X codec, the sound will be quite good. The meaning of this solution is not only computers can stream music wirelessly on Hi-Fi system but also mobile phones.
Inside Peach an incredibly tiny shielded cable connects the slot for Bluetooth antenna with a tiny subnode, equipped with the branded scheme of Chord receiver. From here the signal goes to the main circuit board, where there are also the usual chips of digital input and DAC. The last mentioned is a novelty, which not only converts the signal into analog, but also includes the chains of linear amplification that eliminates the need for separate amplifiers for output connectors.
The body from aluminum is good and the overall look of the device is very attractive. You can see from the first glance why there are various connectors on the back panel (and you won't miss up "analog" with "digit" because in the latter case BNC connector is used), but it's not very obvious what input is currently selected, because the rotary switch is not labeled. Pay your attention that sampling frequency on the USB input is limited to 48 kHz.
At connection through a simple S/PDIF everyone liked this DAC but not without criticism. Looking through the notes of the listeners we drew attention that the main problem was the lack of transparency, accuracy and focus. For example, one listener found the track of Led Zeppelin energetic, lively and completely corresponding to the tasks of music, and the other one on the contrary needed more energy and concentration. The playback of our recording of Otis Redding has caused comments that the vocals sounded clean and realistic, but the instruments were unusually suppressed and restrained.
It should be noted that at sighted listening we found out that a bit wayward DAC with rich character which approved very well after acclimatization. Indeed it is not the most explicit (especially in complex, multi-level recordings), but it is definitely good for rhythm and tempo and also in rock music. We tried the simple Bluetooth and APT-X Bluetooth. We loved the last mentioned very much and the first one was middling with the most of tracks.
