[miketlse]

Some more AK380, Hugo comparison.

AK380 is slightly brighter than the Hugo, and the treble is finer on the AK380. Hugo's treble can come off grainy on some vocal tracks. The AK380's stage seems to depend on the track, but Hugo just seems to open up the stage in general. Bass is definately tighter sounding on the AK380, but can come off unnatural sounding, but Hugo's bass sounds more natural.

Why don't you post Hugo specific information on the Hugo thread, instead of the Mojo thread?

 

[SilverEars]

Why don't you post Hugo specific information on the Hugo thread, instead of the Mojo thread?

My bad, it was actually a comparison to Mojo, not Hugo(as I don't currently own a Hugo). I've mixed them up. Sorry for the confusion guys.

Should have read as:

Some more AK380, Mojo comparison.

AK380 is slightly brighter than the Mojo, and the treble is finer on the AK380. Mojo's treble can come off grainy on some vocal tracks. The AK380's stage seems to depend on the track, but Mojo just seems to open up the stage in general. Bass is definately tighter sounding on the AK380, but can come off unnatural sounding, but Mojo's bass sounds more natural.

 

[karmazynowy]

Is this normal, that Mojo sometimes clicks and pops when using with Windows? It appears only when I use it with Tidal, Spotify, YT but problem don't exists on Foobar2000 with ASIO. Same on my PC and laptop, WIN10, last Chords drivers. I have Mojo from one of the frist batches, no QR code on it. Should i send it for repair/replace?

 

[miketlse]

Is this normal, that Mojo sometimes clicks and pops when using with Windows? It appears only when I use it with Tidal, Spotify, YT but problem don't exists on Foobar2000 with ASIO. Same on my PC and laptop, WIN10, last Chords drivers. I have Mojo from one of the frist batches, no QR code on it. Should i send it for repair/replace?

Your Mojo is ok, and it is working as designed.
The usual reasons for clicks and pops during tracks are:

• pauses in the music data stream from the phone/computer etc. Mojo plays the data which it receives (ie a blank) and the result is a click or pop. The pause in the music stream can be caused by the system priorities of the phone/computer (eg update screen set as a higher priority to send the music stream), and can often be cured by some trial and error with the system settings. Sometimes these pauses are caused by the music player app, so check your settings there as well. These pauses were reported to be a serious issue by people playing games on their pc, and using mojo for the audio (games usually place a high priority on screen updates).
• If your computer streams corrupt data to the Mojo, the Chord driver will request that the data is resent again. The default windows drivers do not request this resend, so check which drivers are being used by Tidal, Spotify, YT.

There are quite a few posts in this thread discussing issues with clicks/pops, and their cures, so you may find some useful information if you search the thread.

 

[karmazynowy]

So another question is - why only Mojo have this problems? I have tried at least 10 different full DACs, portable combos, daps (in DAC mode) in the last 3 years and Mojo is the only one which has this problem. Why is it so sensitive to this?

 

[474194]

So another question is - why only Mojo have this problems? I have tried at least 10 different full DACs, portable combos, daps (in DAC mode) in the last 3 years and Mojo is the only one which has this problem. Why is it so sensitive to this?

Mojo is using proprietary Chord drivers. Other DAC's maybe using Windows native drivers.

Have you tried uninstalling the Chord drivers in Device Manager, reboot, then install the new Chord drivers? Maybe it's using a combo of old and new Chord drivers so maybe uninstalling might help.

I don't use the Mojo on PC so not familiar, but shouldn't hurt to try.

Another thing you can try is if you have a spare hard drive to swap with current drive and install a fresh Windows and fresh Chord drivers. It's quite easy with the Windows Media Creation tool if you have a spare.

If after a fresh install and installing the latest drivers, the problem is still replicated then maybe it's time to send it in...

 

[Music Alchemist]

Could someone direct me to posts explaining the technical causes of the Mojo and Hugo sounding different despite both having no noise floor modulation and the same effective number of taps?

 

[x RELIC x]

Could someone direct me to posts explaining the technical causes of the Mojo and Hugo sounding different despite both having no noise floor modulation and the same effective number of taps?

Mojo has the same TAP number, but run at half speed for battery considerations. Mojo has a 4e Pulse Array DAC and Hugo2 has a 10e Pulse Array DAC. Hugo2 WTA filter goes to 256FS while Mojo's WTA filter goes to 16FS. Hugo2 has a more robust analogue stage that also has second order noise shaping that the Mojo does not have. The Hugo 2 has a second WTA filter which Mojo does not. It's not just TAPs.

 

[Music Alchemist]

Mojo has the same TAP number, but run at half speed for battery considerations. Mojo has a 4e Pulse Array DAC and Hugo2 has a 10e Pulse Array DAC. Hugo2 WTA filter goes to 256FS while Mojo's WTA filter goes to 16FS. Hugo2 has a more robust analogue stage that also has second order noise shaping that the Mojo does not have. The Hugo 2 has a second WTA filter which Mojo does not. It's not just TAPs.

...I said Hugo, not Hugo 2.

 

[x RELIC x]

...I said Hugo, not Hugo 2.

D'oh! Funny thing is Mojo has more TAPs than Hugo1, but as I said, run diffferently.

 

[Music Alchemist]

D'oh! Funny thing is Mojo has more TAPs than Hugo1, but as I said, run diffferently.

Yeah, that's why I used the phrase effective number of taps, since it has twice as many, but at half speed, making them (seemingly) the same in that respect. I know there are posts explaining the technical reasons they sound different, but they're difficult to track down.

 

[x RELIC x]

Yeah, that's why I used the phrase effective number of taps, since it has twice as many, but at half speed, making them (seemingly) the same in that respect. I know there are posts explaining the technical reasons they sound different, but they're difficult to track down.

Also, Rob has pointed out that Hugo sounds brighter partly because of noise floor modulation in the Hugo1. So no, both don't have the same noise floor modulation. Agreed, it's difficult to track down but you can always read all posts by Rob to get a picture of what he's done (not too crazy to read through if you're interested in the matter).

 

[Music Alchemist]

Also, Rob has pointed out that Hugo sounds brighter partly because of noise floor modulation in the Hugo1. So no, both don't have the same noise floor modulation. Agreed, it's difficult to track down but you can always read all posts by Rob to get a picture of what he's done (not too crazy to read through if you're interested in the matter).

Um...I'm just gonna share a relevant quote here:

The facts are facts - Hugo has the most advanced (in terms of complexity) production interpolation filter available. It also has zero measurable distortion and noise floor modulation for small signals. These two facts alone make Hugo remarkable - at any price point.

I did recall reading something in the past about the Hugo having some noise floor modulation. If anyone has links, I'm all ears.

I'm also interested in learning why the 2Qute (home system version of Hugo) has (at least to my ears) better resolution and dynamics than the Mojo.

 

[x RELIC x]

I did recall reading something in the past about the Hugo having some noise floor modulation. If anyone has links, I'm all ears.

From the Hugo 2 thread. Clearly stating the Hugo 1 has some noise floor modulation. Things improve, designers find better methods. Not saying this is the exact reason why Mojo is smoother (there are few, even including the capacitors used in the OP stage), but Rob did confirm that the Hugo1 has some noise floor modulation that he's since improved on.

Not so easy to answer - Hugo 2 is certainly more incisive than Hugo 1, with a lot more transparency; but it is also fundamentally more refined and smoother too - how these two differing qualities come out will depend upon your music - on some tracks you will notice it sounding much more refined and warm; on other tracks you will hear better speed, more power and impact - that initial crack as a stick hits a wood block is much easier to perceive for example.

Technically, the reasons for the improved warmth is down to lower noise floor modulation and overall lower distortion; the improvement in transparency, notably depth and detail resolution is down to the better noise shaping and internal truncation; and the ability to perceive sharp transients (crack as stick hits wood block) is down to improvements on the WTA, notably running at 256 FS. So in this case the timing uncertainty due to sampling has been reduced, and this allows one to perceive rapidly changing sounds.

Rob

Regarding the capacitors used in the Mojo.

Sure Mojo is more mid-centric, in that it has a softer or fuller bass; and this is down to the use of a single coupling capacitor (digital DC servos would be too expensive to implement for Mojo). Electrolytic capacitors add an unnatural bloom to the sound, which can sound superficially attractive. I have talked before about yin and yang with audio - the battle between refinement and on the other hand transparency. More refinement equates to a warmer presentation; more transparency gives a much brighter presentation. Unfortunately, people are extremely sensitive to this balance; and when you employ listening tests in product development it's crucial that very sensitive and accurate listening is used, as a superficial improvement may just be down to better balance (one distortion balancing another). So I have to consciously be extremely careful when using listening tests, because you can never be 100% sure; that's why a null listening test (when one can hear no difference) is extremely valuable.

It's not just TAPs, or noise floor modulation, or capacitors, or WTA filters. It's the culmination of the overall design that makes the differences. Mojo was said to be tuned smoother given it's intended portable audience. Hugo1 is brighter due to a variety of reasons.

 

[Deftone]

My mojo is working great with UAPP on my S8+ but I am unable to channel any other audio to it, say from bandcamp or youtube. I have tried "prevent usb audio routing" and I have also tried to select different options in "use usb device for" but none of it seems to work. Is anyone else getting Mojo to work with apps other than UAPP on S8/S8+?

I have never been able to get audio output from youtube on my phone to mojo or other dacs, i searched around and it seems no one else has been able to either.