While I was still trying to find words for what I just had heard the track “The Gates of Däfos” had started, still through the Hugo TT, and it sounded as dynamical as I seem to remember it from the LP. The sound stage is good but by no means spectacular. That changed, though, when I went back to the DAVE. The reverberations of every single drum beat were clearly audible and the metallic sounds in the track's second part had more color to it. The big bang after two minutes was much more impressive because the pause before was of a 'deeper' silence. There's no other way of saying it: The Dave simply is in a league of its own.

Never before have I heard my CDs or my digital music files in such good quality. This is true when judged by the usual hi-fi standards but more importantly, it is also true when judged by the music's emotional impact. Because the DAVE merges fantastic accomplishments in the various areas into an absolutely coherent overall performance it manages to bring out the touching emotional qualities of music. Depending on the track, music will be more relaxing, more engaging or more dramatic than before. The times that we would accuse digital music of lacking 'soul' are long gone by now, fortunately. And with the DAVE digital music now achieves a completely new level of intensity. And it does so without any flamboyancy, just by doing everything right.