Link to my review and measurement index thread where one can also find a full review overview, more information about myself as well as my general-ish audio and review manifesto: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/956208/

---

I only give full stars. My ranking/scoring system does not necessarily follow the norm and is about as follows:


5 stars: The product is very good and received the "highly recommended" award from me.

4 stars: The product is very good and received the "recommended" award from me.

3 stars: The product is good/very good, but not outstanding/special enough to get any of my two awards. ["Thumbs Up"]

2 stars: The product is only about average or even somewhat below that and somewhat flawed/flawed in some areas. [neither "Thumbs Up" nor "Thumbs Down"]

1 star: The product is bad/severely flawed to outright bad. ["Thumbs Down"]

---

Chord Electronics Mojo


Source:

Personal unit.


Miscellaneous:

Very small.
High build quality.
I'm not fully sure whether the “balls” are made of glass or plastic.
All of the labels and logos are finely engraved (and not laser-etched, so they shouldn't fade over time).

Unique and unusual design, but I like it.
The four small grooves are actually there to help stacking the device using thick, round rubber bands.

Decent amount of inputs (micro USB, full-sized optical input (something that is only rarely found on portable devices – I really like the fact that the Chord Electronics Mojo has got one), mini coaxial input). Separate USB charging and data sockets.

Poor battery life (probably around 6 hours in real-world listening scenarios) and fast battery drain when it is turned off.
USB oscillators chirp and whine with many (but not all) chargers while charging.

The quirky balls rotate but don't actually do anything. They're basically just "caps" on top of actual buttons, so one has to press them in in order to actually change the volume and operate the device etc.

The brightness of the illuminated balls can be reduced adjusted in two steps by pressing both volume buttons. Holding all three buttons during the boot process jumps straight to 3 V output voltage ("Line Out Mode"). Thereafter, that value can still be altered, though.

User interface (volume status display, sample rate display) is not easy to get used to and not intuitive at all as it consists of nothing but colours.




Sound:

The Mojo is a DAC that uses upsampling.
No traditional DAC chip but instead an FPGA-based solution running the designer's code is used inside.

The two 3.5 mm headphone outputs output the same signal in parallel (and therefore act just like a normal stereo y-splitter adapter).

Volume Control:

No intuitive volume indicators; volume indicated by the colour of the two volume adjustment balls.

The lowest possible volume setting could and should be lower in order to listen quietly with very/extremely sensitive in-ears (that’s quite a disappointment for me), but should be fine-ish for many people.

Rather big step size in the very low adjustment range. Gets better (smaller steps) the higher the volume setting is (1 dB if I recall correctly).

As the volume is adjusted digitally, channel matching is thankfully excellent.

The last setting is thankfully saved.

Hiss Performance:

Using very sensitive, near-extremely sensitive in-ears such as my Shure SE846 or Ostry KC06A and Pai Audio MR3, there is a mild to moderate amount of audible hiss; in this regard, the Mojo is about comparable to the Cowon Plenue D or Plenue J, hisses a slight bit more than the FiiO Q5 with AM1 module, hisses clearly more than my iBasso DX90 or the DX200 and DX220 as well as the Apple USB-C to Headphone Jack Adapter, and is a good bit away from being ideally hiss-free as my RME ADI-2 DAC’s IEMs output (and even its PHONES output) is.

While the Mojo is ultimately still on the better side in terms of hiss performance with very sensitive in-ears and not “horrible”, it is ultimately not quiet enough for extremely sensitive in-ears, and I would have expected it to perform better.

Frequency Response (no Load):


FR unloaded

The response characteristic is similar to that of a slow roll-off filter.

Output Impedance (various Loads):


FR loaded – Ultimate Ears Triple.Fi 10


FR loaded – various IEMs


FR loaded – various full-sized Headphones


FR loaded – into external Amplifier’s Line Input (Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII)

The frequency response deviation one can see is not what one would typically see from devices with a consistent output impedance over the entire frequency response. The reason behind that is that the Mojo’s output impedance is very close to ideal 0 Ohms over most parts of its frequency spectrum, but climbs towards slightly below 2 Ohms, as measured and confirmed by several other sources, towards 20 kHz, which is why lower impedance loads will cause a drop in the high to very high frequencies that can already become audible, depending on the in-ears or headphones that were used, whereas the output frequency response changes towards an ideally flat line the higher the connected load’s impedance is. This, to me, is definitely another aspect about the Chord Mojo that is somewhat disappointing.

Subjective Listening Impressions:

While the vast majority of (properly designed) devices (with low output impedance and good-enough hiss performance), with properly matched volume in a direct (sighted) side-by-side comparison sound identical enough to me in real-world listening scenarios, with sometimes only very minor, difficult to point out reproducible differences with in-ears and usually no audible difference with full-sized headphones, the Mojo is a little different in this regard.

Using it directly with in-ears (but not those that would make it obvious right away due to their sensitivity and low impedance), it sounds just a touch “smoother”/”softer” in terms of cymbal attack. Clearly just a small nuance and rather negligibly small in an everyday scenario and even during critical non-comparative listening, but nonetheless reproducible.
However, what’s noticeable to me as well, is that the soundstage also appears to be a little “smaller” than usual (this is however only something I am hearing with rather low impedance in-ears and none of my full-sized headphones that on the other hand still appear just a touch "softer" in the upper highs’ cymbal attack, which is also something that carries over when using the Mojo as a pure DAC connected to a separate amplifier, which is a characteristic that happens only very rarely). It's neither "better" nor "worse", but just a slight bit "different" sounding and probably nothing that one would reproducibly notice without properly done and exhausting direct comparisons, but nonetheless with a bit of its own “sound character” while sounding audibly very transparent even with critical in-ears (most well-enough modern devices do).




Conclusion:

While clearly not a bad device, the Chord Electronics Mojo is a good bit shy of being close to objectively perfect when used with very sensitive, low impedance in-ears due to its still reasonable but not ideal hiss performance and its output impedance rise towards the higher frequencies that can already lead to audible tonality changes depending on the connected load (as well as its rather bad battery life and high battery drain).
While not fully ideal for my personal requirements that are stricter than most other peoples’, its volume control with a fair number of steps and 1 dB per step attenuation once a certain threshold is passed is something that is good about it, along with its build quality and reasonable amount of digital inputs. Ultimately though, it is a device that is definitely better suited to be used with higher impedance, lower sensitivity loads.


Photos:

There are enough pictures of the mojo from every possible angle, even internals, on the internet. There is nothing amusing about my particular about my unit, aside some scratches here and there, so I won't provide any photos.

Background
I have a nice enough desktop system for all my critical and detailed listening, so my portable (transportable) system is mainly for travel and office use. Currently my mobile DAC/Amp is an XDuoo XD-05 with Burson V5i opamp. My travel IEMs are a pair of Final Audio F7200, and Sony XBA-4, and my office can is a pair of Fostex TH-X00 with E-MU ebony cups and ZMF cowhides, and sometimes a pair of STAX SR-001Mk2. I don't require my portable setup to be the most detailed, only for it to be engaging and not out of control.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the XD-05, I just want something more refined and controlled.

The Mojo
The Mojo has received a lot of attention in almost all headphone and audio sites, the overwhelming number of them are very positive. Users also consider it to be anything from "best in price bracket", "drives HD800 well", to "desktop DAC killer". All these bold claims had lead me to be interested in not only this wonder device, but also it's bigger brother Hugo.

My interest in this device reached it's peak when I had to chance to try out a Hugo2 with my F7200. It was some of the most beautiful sound I have ever heard coming out of the F7200, but that's a discussion for another time. Anyway, I was thinking if the Mojo was anywhere as good as the Hugo2 I would be happy for it to be an upgrade to my XD-05.

Cut along a few weeks, I found myself in a (different) shop with both the Hugo(1) and the Mojo. Did some quick tests, after failing to hear any drastic difference between the two, I walked out with a Mojo in hand.

Sound
Here comes the most important part, the sound. After a couple of quiet listening sessions here is what I come away with. The Mojo is able to produce detailed sound, and sadly not too much else.The imaging and separation seems below average. Whilst it certainly drives my HD800 better than other portable DAC/Amps and even some desktop DAC/amps I have tried, it is still a far cry to say it drives them well. Adequately, would be a much more realistic description, not to suggest that it is an easy feat .

Somehow, the Mojo manages to make everything sound intimidate, regardless of track. Separation, although better than entry level options such as Fiio E17K and E07, it is no better if not worse worse than cheaper options such as the XD-05 and Oppo HA-2.

With most of the negative points out of the way, time for positives The DAC is very clean, adding an amp afterwards usually degrades the signal. Signature leans towards the brighter side, with medium attack and impact. I.e. in bassy tracks, you can hear the bass but not feel them. Mids are liquid smooth, with hints of harshness on both ends. Overall, this is great for a portable device of this size, but maybe not at the given price.

Other Notes

• The Mojo retails in Australia for anywhere between $800 and $900
  
• The lights.....I was able to remember the light codes after around 3 uses.

• I find find that the device was turned itself on every time I was carrying it in my jacket pocket.
• I was charging the device, whilst it was off, and notice that it got dangerously hot (to the point where it was too hot to hold, and I would be very concern about the internal battery)

Summary

• The sound was nice, but not really as outstanding as the hype would let you believe. Especially given the high price.
  
• As a portable DAC, the power button is very easily pressed accidentally
  
• The device can get dangerously hot (read: NOT warm)
• I am going to sell it

There is always the first time they say. I would like to thank Levi aka Musicday for this opportunity and without further ado:
 
Chord Mojo arrived in small box, but true surprise came after unpacking. My first thought was “Wow it is really small” then second, after I picked it up: “uhu but that bugger is heavy”.
No, of course it is not but unit's weight cannot be anticipated by its looks.
Mojo is “wearing full metal jacket”  and coming straight out of box felt really cold, as it turned out that changed very quickly – but more about it after brief introduction of my ”testing rig”  and “methodology”.
 
PC > optical > Foobar > WASAPI (Event) > NuForce HDP > NVA AP20 >
- Hifiman HE-6
- Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO 250 ohm
- Superlux HD681 EVO (second gen. with velour pads)
Moto G (1^st Gen) > USB OTG > Fiio E7 (non K) >
- Audio-Technica ATH-CKX9IS
- Koss PortaPRO
 
Tracks used for testing are my trusted*:
The Head-Fi/HDtracks Open Your Ears –  96kHz/24bit version
HDtracks 2014 Sampler
and HDtracks 2015 Sampler
 
 
About Chord Mojo:
I’m not going to list the whole spec here. It is available from Chords’s web site and other places online. My subjective impressions and the DAC's major features include...
 
-          Mojo Plays all files from 32kHz to 768kHz up to 32bit
-          Native DSD up to quad 256
-          Li-Po battery lasts up to 10h
 
Setting things up:
Mojo + Moto G – everything just works, connect one with another using OTG USB cable and you ready to roll. Perfect couple. (btw for some reason Mojo as well as Fiio E7 are not detected by Moto G 3^rd Gen while NuForce HDP works well with both phones)
Mojo + PC
Also very simple just download driver, install, reboot, connect Mojo with usb or coaxial cable and job done. In Foobar you need to set output, preferably to “DSD: ASIO: Chord” – it will play all supported files or you can set it as “WASAPI (event): Chord” but that setting will not let you play DSD natively and you will be limited to PCM output mode.
 
 
Let’s begin with Mojo as a portable DAC/amp
My first source was Moto G with Poweramp player app. I Started with Audio-Technica ATH-CKX9IS my trusted go to portables. First track I played a jazz version of Pink Floyd “Money” by Sam Yahel, Mike Moreno, Ari Hoenig, Seamus Blake from “Open Your Ears” album and first surprise, I always thought that bass is a bit muffed on those headphones but with Mojo bass was clearer and more punchy and somehow more pleasing and less coloured – and it is not very bassy track. So quick swap to Fiio E7 and I was welcomed by familiar slightly muffed warmer bass. Couple of next tracks only confirmed that Mojo is in completely different league. It should be expected, after all Mojo is around 6 times more expensive than E7 when new plus has 5 years of technological advance, nevertheless the way Mojo transformed my humble  Audio-Technica came as a huge surprise.

Those days there is one app I use a lot  on the go: is Radio Paradise App – it allows you to listen to radio - streaming in AAC 320 – I took Mojo for a walk and spent a very pleasant hour – Mojo did an excellent job with all those lossy tracks. I also took with me Koss PortaPro unfortunately day was a bit windy and  PortaPros don’t offer much of a isolation I only listen to one or two tracks – so not much to report here.
I was really impressed with how my Audio-Technica changed plugged to Mojo that I really didn't want to go back home.

Next test – Mojo vs NuForce HDP
NuForce is a desktop DAC/amp and even if equipped with a third party battery is not really portable therefore I swapped the source and plugged both DACs to PC using USB. I also picked up Beyerdynamic DT 990. DT 990’s were my go to headphones for a long time even when I owed Stax SR-404 – A bit too far on a bright side but overall very good headphones. Couple of tracks into testing session and I liked them even more on Mojo. More spacious sound stage, a notch punchier but less harsh tremble. Bass on level with NuForce maybe a bit more precise. Two tracks stranded out both completely different but effect similar “Allegro from Symphony No. 6 in G minor” and “Fireopal (Acoustic Version)” Mojo just simply takes you there.
After DT990 time came for another cheapos – this time a bit of underdog Superlux HD681 EVO
Again Mojo transformed those headphones– it somewhat took all what’s good about them but didn't put any emphasis on their shortcomings. Superlux are fun sounding headphones even more fun with Mojo with addition of healthy dose of clarity. That pair really shine on all those bass filled tracks.
 
Last test took me the longest time and with a surprising outcome.
I left universe of dynamic and entered the plane of plenars. Where to me there is only one King and his name is Hifiman HE-6
Both Nuforce and Mojo has no chance to drive those monsters so I could only compare their DAC sections.
Both DACs were plugged via USB and connected  to my Amp of choice NVA AP20**. 
I listened to all test tracks front to back, swapping DACs and something started to occur to me. Mojo with transparent amp and very precise, fast and reviling HE-6’s was just too much, There was too much micro details, everything sounded just a notch too sharp for my liking – yes sound stage was wider and deeper and you could pinpoint everything in that space but things started to be too separated, instruments didn’t blend in as intended, things become a bit dry, voices lost a touch of realism.
I added many more tracks to compression – from Infected Mushroom – “The Messenger 2012” and Iron Maiden – “The Number Of The Beast” to Dave Matthews – “Stay Or Leave” and Dead Can Dance – “The Host Of Seraphim”. From Red Book to Hi-Res and vinyl rips, all  with same outcome.
 
Another thing to mention is that Mojo and HE-6s were truly ruthless with bad recordings – no fun to listen to at all – I found that I started to lose the joy of listening to music – instead I started to focus too much on distractions.
 
Above description sound much worst that the reality – all of it took me 3 days to put into words – Mojo has a really exceptional DAC section It just doesn't work well with HE-6s unless you like details in your face and sound stage neatly separated with scalpel.
 
Short conclusion:
Let’s kick off with “giant killer” statement – Simple answer is: I don’t know! Never owned any giant DAC or a headphone amp. All of my gear is rather small.
 
I believe that Mojo is a very good at what it is intended to be used as – a portable DAC/amp – works very well with small and big dynamic headphones, also helps cheaper headphones punch above their weight. Even though is clearly made to shine with Hi-Res or Ultra Hi-Res – does really good job with lossy recordings.
A bit pricy but it is Chord after all. 
 
What's good:
- Small size and really well made product with very good finish.
- Does everything as advertise and does it flawlessly.
- Sound quality! 
 

Noted Flaws:
- It is scary how warm/hot Mojo becomes when in use during charging – test unit arrived completely drained and I almost dropped it when I picked it up after initial 15 minutes of use while charging it.
It should be mentioned that Chord recommend charging with Mojo switched off. For safety Mojo has inbuilt thermal cut-out (sic!)
- From manual “for line level mode (3V) press both volume buttons together when switching on the unit”. Mojo will not remember that setting after power down but will remember other settings like volume level. In my book it just renders Mojo useless in stationary rig. Chord clearly don’t want to cannibalise its Hugo and Hugo TT – I don’t see any other reason for 2 headphone outputs instead of replacing one with dedicated line out.
- Volume control – there is something very unnatural and awkward about those two volume balls.
I understand that some people actually do like it but I am not one of them
 
Disclaimer:
I am strong believer in A/B testing therefore all comparison was made with gear at hand –  no references or comparing  to any other gear I have owned or listened to for longer periods. I know it is non - standard practice but I also know how biased (flawed) memory can be – especially mine.
 
*- I am using those tracks for couple of reason: firstly “Samplers” are very good quality and allow to test across many types of music plus can be download for free. “Open Your Ears” is very reasonably priced and was put together as a testing album. I know them quite well and used often to compare gear. There is also one more thing – I don’t particularly like any of those songs so there is no emotional attachment – which I found helps a lot if I want to stay as objective as possible.  
**- I listened to a number of amps with HE-6s, dedicated as well as vintage and new speaker amps and even though some were better in one way or the other, overall NVA always came on top. (with Dillan’s “dill3000” monster amp coming close but there is a huge price difference)

As an DIY’er / Modder and someone who builds high quality amps, the only thing I am lacking is a good quality desktop DAC. When the opportunity arose to test the Mojo I was keen to hear it with my system. No it’s not a desktop DAC but with a good quality DAC it still can make a difference to my current set-up. At present the DAC that I’m using is my Centrence Hifi-M8, which sounds really good on my system but I wanted to see how much of an improvement I could get with the Mojo.
 
 
Testing scenarios
I have tested the Mojo in a variety of ways. My first listen to it was directly with the iPhone 6 Plus, and used the camera kit for the iPhone 6 Plus and the software VOX and Onkyo HF Player for the original tests. In addition to this, I tried it with a direct connection to my Mac with USB with Amarra, and the Mac from its optical out. Finally, I tried optical from my media player to watch a film. As a portable device you have to use it in a portable set up. Connecting via the iPhone 6 Plus is a perfect way of doing it because you are able to listen to music in a high quality manner and with ease of use. It’s exactly what the Mojo is made for. As I quite often use my headphones for watching films it was important to me to test the realistic sound quality of a film via my media player (Med8er 1000 x3d) via optical.
 
Headphones used:
I used the Mojo with my Beyerdynamic DT 1350’s, Sennheiser HD 800, and did a brief test with my Hifiman HE-6’s.  The HE-6’s connected was unpractical because it requires much more power than the Mojo could deliver. This was to be expected, but I thought I’d give it a try.
 
Sound quality
 

1. connected to iPhone 6 Plus (Beyerdynamic DT 1350)
    

For my first comparison I plugged the Mojo in my iPhone 6 Plus via VOX player and listened to the HD Tracks version of the Thriller album, the track PYT in particular. I was instantly amazed by the clarity, transparency, natural sound and bass detail coming from my DT 1350 headphones.  After listening to the Mojo,  I immediately powered my Hifi-M8 and did a quick comparison with the same track and setup.   Even though the DT 1350 is only my portable headphone for my traveling, I was definitely able to hear differences between the Mojo and Centrence Hifi-M8 with my first testing track.
 
The Hifi-M8 is known for driving a large range of headphones, from IEM’s to full size demanding headphones. Since the DT 1350’s are pretty easy to drive the test would not be for power but for clarity and DAC quality. Upon going back and forth between both the Mojo and the Hifi-M8, I definitely noticed a big improvement with the Mojo in terms of DAC quality. I heard the graininess of the Hifi-M8 DAC wise. It seemed a lot more natural sounding with the Mojo, and the bass quality and detail was quite  a bit better.
 
After discovering the quality in the bass difference I wanted to do another test track which I use for bass quality comparisons. One such track is Wesley’s theory by Kendrick Lamar, which is on the ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ album.  This completely confirmed the difference in quality.
 

1. connected to Mac via USB with Amarra (HD 800’s)
    

After being so impressed with the combination with my DT-1350’s I wanted to test it with a more demanding headphone. My next choice was my HD 800’s, this time connecting the Mojo to my Mac using Amarra. One of the first tracks I decided to listen to was Gregory Porter ‘No love dying’ from his Liquid Spirit album (HD Tracks. The detail was really good and I heard the refinement of the DAC quality, but one of my first impressions was that it didn’t drive the HD 800s as good as a desktop rig. Compared to my two chassis desktop amp which I built myself there is a big difference in power authority and dynamics. After that I knew it would not drive my HE-6s (well I did know before but I thought I’d give it a shot. As to be expected the Mojo did not do a good job with my HE-6’s.
 
 

1. connected to Mac via USB - First Watt F6 Power Amp (HE-6)
    

The next test was to connect my Mojo directly to my amplifier, which could drive my Hifiman HE-6 headphones. The first amp I tested it with was my latest build (First Watt F6). I played a Chesky Records recording - Alexis Cole’s “Ain’t we got fun” from the Kiss In The Dark album. The next track was Chet Baker’s  ‘Travelling light’ from his Bakers Holiday album (HD Tracks). For both tracks it felt like I was in a smoky jazz club with the singer singing directly at me and the band was surrounding me.  I just closed my eyes and sunk into the music. The voice clarity was amazing.  The instruments, voice separation was really natural sounding with air between each notes. The vocals stood out with great staging.  This was an amazing combination. The dynamics, clarity, and transparency were all top notch. As the First Watt F6 is power amp there was no volume control or pre-amp in between so I was able to listen to the Mojo in its most pure fashion.  The volume switches on the Mojo are a nice feature, as you are able to adjust and control in either small increments or hold the button for a smooth volume transition. The coloured light indication is also a handy feature.  
 
 

 
 
 

1. connected to pre-amp in line out mode (HD 800)

 
I was interested to test the Mojo on a  different amp in line out mode using my own built passive pre amp (tortugo audio passive pre amp) The headphone amp itself is a DIY built based from a Nelson Pass Design.  I used my HD 800 and the DSD track “Oblivion” from trumpet player Andre Heuvelman’s album “After Silence” (DSD/352).  Boy did this sound great. Every detail from the subtle button flicking and breathing to the naturalness of the music.  Also the imaging and soundstage surrounded me in every way.  The album was originally mixed using the HD 800 so I definitely wanted to give this set up a try. I have never heard this particular album sound that good. Obviously my desktop amp helped with this as I feel the Mojo does not drive the HD 800’s to its full potential.
 

 

 

 
 

1. connected to my Media player - Med8er 1000 x3d
    

My final test was to watch a film.  The Mojo showed great functionality and I found it very handy. If you want to listen to a film intimately whether it’s on the move with your phone / laptop or at home chilling.  I tested it on a few worthwhile scenes of World War Z.  The Mojo gave a natural feel to the voices and sounded impactful and dynamic when called for on action sequences. When using it with the HD 800 I decided to connect the Mojo to my desktop amp which gave overall better quality with all the movie sub bass I needed. Listening to the Mojo at loud levels the HD 800 could sound a bit harsh so that’s why I needed a different amp. For less picky headphones I feel it would be a great solution.

 

1. Comparison Chord Mojo Vs Centrence Hifi-M8
    

How does the two portable amps comparison fare? My Hifi-M8 is more powerful and could drive a larger range of different type of headphones, even the HE-6’s  to a par standard, but it can’t fully drive the HE-6s as it requires more power. That said, it does a much better job than the Mojo.
With the HD 800’s I feel the Hifi-M8 powers the HD 800 better but lacks the refinement in the DAC quality.
 
The Mojo has the win when it comes to the sound quality of its amp / DAC,  ease of use, functions, digital inputs, build quality and size. The Hifi-M8 has its own nice functions like the impedance switches, tone adjusting switches, variety of headphone outputs. Another great feature is the native connection to Apple devices without having to use the Apple Camera Connection Kit. You can also charge your Hifi-M8 and Apple device at the same time.  The Camera Connection Kit  has its benefits when playing HD music and DSDs but that wouldn’t help if you are  using an old iPod, also you’re not able to charge.
 
Having the Apple device version of the Hifi-M8, I am not able to connect optical so this would prohibit me from connecting my media player or anything with a optical port.
 
The Mojo is easy to use - it would automatically detect your digital source without the need to press a button. It also allows you to know exactly what sample rate you’re using via the visible coloured lights.
 
Conclusion
Is the Mojo a desktop killer DAC? I would say no, but it definitely has a top DAC in it and as a portable system you get great value for the price.  The simplicity and functionality is great. A user could just plug it in and have great quality music on the go, no matter what source they use with it.

Disclaimer : I received Chord Mojo for review purpose from www.headphonezone.in . I would like to thank Raghav Somani and rest of headphonezone.in team for this opportunity. I used it for a week and its already been handed over to next person in que for review purpose. I am not affiliated to either Chord Electronics or headphonezone.in and will try to present my thoughts on mojo in unbiased way as possible.
 
I have broken this review in sub headings of what I wanted to discuss about mojo. I will mostly be discussing about sound quality after introduction and build. Feel free to jump to headings as you please.
 
Introduction
 
Chord mojo is portable battery powered dac/amp that you can use to power your hps. It has excellent connectivity options, all in digital domain 3.5 mm coaxial, optical and usb. Another port is provided for charging mojo. If you happen to own laptop, mobile or a dap with digital out, chances are you can, with right cable and software use it to feed mojo. Accessories that come with mojo are a bit sparse and all you get is usb cable which you most likely already have in desired length. I used fiio x5 classic out of coaxial port to feed mojo and it was mostly flawless experience. It was not a plug and play affair with my android phone like some other portable dacs. I mostly need a software but since I dont plan to use my phone as source, I dont plan to buy software any time soon.
 
I used Sennheiser HD700, AKG K550, Sony XBA A1 for review purpose. It is a mix of hps with different sensitivities and give good idea of mojo's driving prowess. I compared it X5-E12, X5-Ican, X5-Project solstice during review period to see how it stacks up with other portable and desktop systems. I also used it as dac in my system.
 

 
Build
 
Mojo is build out of single block of Aluminum and has a rubbery coating on its entire surface. Its stylish looking hardware with plastic orbs for controlling all its functions. It has 3 orbs for power and volume up and down and is very easy to use. Input selection is automatic with usb taking priority. Its rather on smaller side as you can see in pic, even smaller than fiio x5. Overall it looks tiny and cute but has a robust build. Its orbs rotate in their sockets and I like playing around with it when listening to music.
 
Frequency Response
 
Subjectively to my ears, mojo sounds neutral with warm tilt. Warmth is easily noticeable with my hps. Mids and treble have very smooth transition and I cant pin point where one starts and other ends. Bass impact is good with right hps. Both mid bass and little bit of sub bass is present and it does not tilt too heavily in one direction. Overall sound is smooth from top to bottom with treble showing some wetness and easy to listen to even on sennheiser hd700. Overall frequency response sounds very linear with no peaks or dips noticeable.
 
Dynamics 
 
Dynamics on mojo are top notch. Some of the best I heard. Using hd700 which is also having very good dynamics, I dont think it masks any dynamic shift that mojo is able to unearth. Mojo sticks to the tune of instrument being played with great dynamic clarity and lets you hear all push pull effects between instruments happening onstage. With hd700 having a good depth, it gives you a clear view of entire stage in one glance, such interactions between instruments are very easy to hear. In this sense its a great match.
 
Transient response
 
Mojo has very effortless transient response and sounds very clean. hd700 also has it as a strong point and detail pop out of blackness in stage very smoothly and effortless manner. Instruments fade out again cleanly without disturbing black background at all leaving no trace of noise. This makes the detail pop and more obviously noticeable.
 
Timber
 
Timber on mojo is rich and separates colours of instruments very well. Tone of different instrument is varied and vibrant. I think it has one of best timber I have heard in solid state dacs/amps. My tube amp, project solstice is only piece of equipment that betters it in terms of variation of tone and richness if sound. When I first heard it, X5 sounded poitively dull and lifeless in comparison cause of more traditional solid state sound. After I got used used to mojo's timber it was more even comparison on subjective level. It is very similar to my tube amp in that aspect.
 
Detail 
 
Detail retrieval on mojo is very good with excellent dynamics, both macro and micro, small details in timber and sound of instruments. I think compared to X5, mojo takes listener one step closer to mic feed. However there are no new instruments I could detect. Same no of music strands were present on both. With mojo you get a added sense of clarity and detail on instruments themselves. Tonally both X5 and mojo are neutral with warm tilt. When I compare x5 to its sabre based elder brother fiio x7, I could hear new instruments. Example On a hindi movie song, d se dance from Humpty Sharma ki... its a very busy song with a smattering of tiny little detail, I could hear murmuring in background on both x5 and mojo. On x7 I could clearly hear what they were saying. Overall I think some tiny details get lost on mojo due to warmth compared to focus on clarity on x7. While x7 looses on dynamics and clean transient response.
 
Soundstage
 
Soundstage on mojo is on intimate side. I think my portable rig fiio x5-E12 offers similar size with slightly more width while mojo offers more depth. I was initially disappointed with E12 soundstage but I think its par for the course and this much should be expected from portable gear with full size hps like hd700. All desktop amps I tried had bigger soundstages.
 
Driving power
 
Mojo offers good driving power for variety of cans. I tried following hps to see what it can do
 
Sony XBA A1: Its an entry level hybrid iem in $100 range. Mojo drove it very well with no background noise and excellent detail as iem was able to bring out. I must admit I am not much sensitive to background noise and use and love a tube amp with full sized cans. Overall with average iems and sensitivity of listener mojo should pair well with iems.
 
AKG K550: This is a very easy to drive hp with 32 ohm impedance and 114 db sensitivity. Mojo drove it very well with even frequency response and good detail retrieval. On subjective level, I like pairing warm and very relaxed sounding amps with k550. Otherwise it sounds overly busy and confused. Mojo has warmth but is not particularly relaxed sounding. Thus I prefer Fiio X5-E12 combo for k550 which imo is relaxed and sublime pairing.
 
Sennheiser HD700: This I think is tipping point for mojo where it starts loosing control over drivers a bit. For testing I was listening to Eric Clapton Complete and Fleetwood Mac Best of, my 2 favourite compilations. Eric Clapton sounded sublime with mojo hd700 with detailed guitar solos and overall great music. Upon starting Fleetwood Mac, as you may know, their music has prominent basslines. Both Fleetwood and Mac are bass players with bass guitar and drum. On songs like "Go your own way", bass was a little behind midrange. Not as prominent or grippy. I thought this was character of mojo and switched to Akg k550. Here I found a perfectly balanced sound with prominent bassline and with more detail to boot. I found this to be odd as on all system I tried, hd700 offers more detail. So I concluded mojo has some difficulty in driving hd700 with changing frequency response and slight lack of detail. I think this is odd cause on volume I go till orange colour on orbs for hd700 which is in lower one third of volume range. Also I thought dynamics were excellent.
 
Comparisons
 
In my opinion mojo is a little exotic sounding gear with unique qualities like very clean transient response and excellent dynamic clarity. I compared it with my portable rig X5-E12 as well as ifi ican and project solstice all fed by fiio x5. In all comparisons I found mojo to have same set of strengths and weaknesses. Mojo offers a better holistic presentation with excellent push and pull between instruments and sticks to tune of instrument played best. Best use hps that offer comfortable view over soundstage at a glance instead of very wide stages that let you focus on individual instruments. It also was dynamically very transparent.
In comparison, E12, Ican and solstice take you little in the stage with focus on individual instruments being played. Consequently they offer much relaxed presentation where each note is more spaced and played little more dynamically. All three offer slight better grip over harder to drive cans like hd700 while mojo offers slightly more detail.
 
Conclusion
 
As a portable dac amp at $600, I think mojo is great. It has unique qualities you wont find easily in regular dacs and you can also add an amp to tailor it further to suit your needs or taste. It comes with complete set of connections and can be used in any system. Overall I am very pleased with mojo and urge you to give it a try.

Introduction 
 
First of all I would like to thanks Chord to have lend me the Mojo for a few weeks, and especialy their Belgium's interlocutor Bertrand  
I'm not an experimented audiophile, so my review will be brief.
I'll not describe the Mojo once again, since all the reviewers before me have done very well (thanks to all of them). 
I will just notice once again that the bundle is very poor: Just a short USB cable. No Iphone cable nor mini jack, to resume : pitiful.
 
The aim 
 
The Mojo is a very versatil small DAC/Amp to use on the go. Due to all his connectivity you can use it with a laptop, a smartphone, or even a DAP.
His small size allows you to easily put it in your pocket with your smartphone. 
I try some Dac/amp with my Iphone, finally I think the Mojo is one of the most convenient (as the Oppo HA-2 who which is a good one too). 
With the Mojo you have a powerfull tool for listening streaming music through a smartphone.
 
The sound
 
The Dac part is very accurate, very natural, without any coloration.
Another positive point is the soundwise, greatly open for a mobile joy like the Mojo  
I was just disappointed with the bass, it is not as punchy as ohter Dac/amp. 
It sounds like if there were no subbass.
 
USB Charge 
 
First time I used the Mojo on my laptop through USB port, I was suprised that it turns off  
Actually, there are two micro USB ports : An input one and a charging one.
So if you want to charge the Mojo while listening music you have to plug a second USB cable in the charging port.
The Mojo user manual doesn't recommend to charge while listening because the Mojo may warm a bit.
That's why I found the Mojo less convenient than other models.
 
Conclusion
 
Despite some small inconveniences, the Mojo is a very small and powerfull Dac/amp with an accurate and natural sound. 
To use with a smartphone for streaming HI-Rez it is currently one of the best.

The Chord Mojo has arrived. It was an unexpected arrival for me because I thought nothing this size would come from Chord.
At various meets up and down the country I've  listened to the Hugo and Hugo TT half heartedly; I wasn’t prepared to spend £1400 on a portable device. I remained skeptical that my Ibasso DX100 sounded any better through the Hugo than it did through the headphone out. As we all know , in a show setting with the levels of ambient noise and listening to a device lots of people are queuing to hear is not the ideal way to figure out subtle differences, and my Sennheiser HD800s are more than a little open.
 
 
So hence I was delighted to hear that something special was on the way to me that was half the size of the Hugo and retailed at £399 , but with much of the quality. With thanks to Levi who considered me for the review team, here’s what I thought.

 
 
 
Sound quality
 
 
This is the most important criteria for me as a reviewer. I do not know what people have out there as existing systems. I do not know what people can afford. If the one factor what does it sound like cannot be arrived at really quickly, there is a danger that people may turn to Facebook updates in frustration and/or boredom! I cannot take such a risk! Therefore let me whet your appetites and hopefully you can dig further into my adventures with the Mojo.
The Mojo delivers on sound quality. It has a classy sound signature that, as a Dac/Amp, outclasses anything I currently own. 
I tried as many combinations as I could within the time I spent with the Mojo. There is a responsibility to you, the reader, not to make snap decisions based on 1 nights’ quick listen when expectation bias and flavour of the month fever can twist things. I spent many (happy) hours with the Mojo and pitted them time and again against the competition , be it a headphone out on my phone to plugging in my Cambridge Audio DacMagic +, a desktop Dac/Amp which boasts incredibly low jitter and lots of power etc. etc.
 
 
 

 
Here is a list of phones used:
 
IEMs
 
 
Sennheiser IE800 Universal and Snugs Custom Shelled
Flare R2Pro Titanium Universal and Snugs Custom Shelled
Klipsch X11i Universal
Westone UM2 ACS Custom Shelled
RHA M750 Universal
Sony XBA4ip Universal
Monster Inspiration Universal
ACS Encore Studio Customs
 
 
 

 
 
 
Over Ears
 
Sennheiser HD800 Modded
HiFiMan HE-6
Mr Speakers Aloha Dogs
Pendulimic Stance S1
 
Sources
 
 
Samsung Galaxy Note II
Ibasso DX100 DAP
Colorfly C3 DAP
Ibasso D14 Bushmaster Portable Dac/Amp
Cambridge Audio DacMagic + Desktop Dac/Amp
Macbook Pro Retina
 
 
 
 
 
 
The testing
 
 
The differences in sound quality vary according to quality of recording and quality of headphones. 
 
When we talk about the HD800 we talk about the top level of sound quality and a potential issue with Amp mismatching. There is a possibility some headfier’s will be shaking their heads in disbelief at stuff of this size being tried. The Mojo makes easy work of powering up the HD800 to ear splitting volume.The HD800 was able to showcase some of the Mojo’s magic- tighter faster bass, cleaner presentation, micro effects in splendid isolation. Tonally I was hearing a sound which I would describe as lifting a curtain away from the music. The HD800 is a fitting way to compare the sources -  if a little unfair when we consider the headphone out of the Colorfly C3 and Note II which inevitably fall short of the power necessary. 
 
First up was my new shiny Ibasso D14 Bushmaster. It is a Dac/amp with a right angled OTG cable for Android phones. The D14 retains much of the sparkly Ibasso signature sound with not quite the level of refinement of the DX100. After 30 minutes of switching, in disbelief I realised that I had made the decision to sell the D14 after one month of ownership. The Mojo was that much better. I heard the differences in tonal quality accuracy rhythm straight away : I refused to accept this was not a placebo effect. After constant switching even using my cheapest phones I was utterly smitten with the Chord. The only hope for me was that the DX100 would reveal how good it could perform and outperform the Mojo.  As for the Ibasso D14, I sold it within 24 hours of listening to the Mojo. It has gone. The Mojo too, being a review model, has gone on to my good friend and fellow reviewer @dill3000.
 
The DX100 is a wonderful DAP I have had for 2 years now and this has had a huge amount of use from me , so much so it has been back to Ibasso twice this year, once for battery and WiFi replacement and the second time I managed to blow the Dac chip. The stock sound of the DX100 is warm , bassy with lots of detail.I have listened to DAP after DAP, the Astell and Kern AK300 and Tera Player are the only ones thus far I feel improve on the DX100s sound. This is not to criticise anyone else’s DAPs I certainly have not listened to them all, and I like a warm sound too. 
The DX100 has 128 Gb of storage, 6.3 mm and 3 mm headphone sockets, line out, composite out, optical out. It is very big for a DAP and very powerful. I love it. The DX100 gave me the opportunity to compare from the headphone out and volume matching to the Mojo using the optical out connection. I could then tell what the DX100 could do on it’s own and then as a transport for the Mojo. I was floored by  the results! 
Redbooks tried included Adele’s new release Hello. Lots of soaring vocals and a relatively uncomplicated recording for Adele. 
Listened and switching between both units every 30 seconds every minute then the whole track. I got to know that track quite well…. I was convinced after exhaustive backwards and forwards that my first impressions were the correct ones. The Mojo as a Dac/Amp could beat the DX100. And it was an enjoyable engaging refined performance. 
A 3 way match was also set up between the Mojo , the DX100 and the DacMagic + desktop amp. Again , the most convenient connection for fast switching and volume matching was optical using the DX100 as the player. 
 
 
Anyone a Muse fan? 

 
I listened to the Drones album as a 24 96 Flac. Plenty of bass, piano, screeching guitars, despair of course too. Could the Mojo take on the DacMagic + as a Desktop solution when the Mojo is merely the size of a large pebble? The DM + outperforms the DX100 and because it can be battery run using a Power Gorilla Battery Pack tends to go everywhere with me. Therefore, for much of my serious listening DX100 into the DM + then line out to my Fidelity Audio HPA200 SE Head Amp is the way to go. 
The DM+ could not match the Mojo for sound reproduction in mine and 2 other guinea pigs’ opinions. More musical, more going on, more texture to the voices and the guitars, more echo, these were the sorts of comments being traded back and forth in favour of the Mojo.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Value for Money
 
The Mojo is not a cheap device as a portable but by gum it’s cheap for Chord!The Mojo is priced at a premium for a portable device. I was surprised to find that there were no cables offered excepting a tiny micro usb cable. Bearing in mind I bought a 1m cable for £2 on Monday in a large department store that works just fine. An OTG cable cost me £3. When a set of IEMs costing £30 comes with a decent set of accessories why does the Mojo only come with such a short charging cable? 
 
 
Build Quality
 
I have an optical cable, it is quite a thick stiff lead and it falls out of the Mojo at will. As I use optical connections most of the time, this proved to be a problem, and necessitated some swapping around of tv leads. Therefore I must point out that the SPDIF of the Mojo is a weakness to the otherwise solidness of the product. The thinner the cable the better for the Mojo. So huge audiophile cables are out I’m afraid.
When charging  the Mojo and listening at the same time the unit gets hot; great in the Winter! As a Class A , the Mojo is quite warm anyway , I have yet to put it in my pocket and take it out for a stroll to see how hot it would get in my pocket as I did not have the suitable OTG lead or CCK lead or optical lead. But be warned, stuff this good tends to run warm. 
The lights are shiny and beautiful and there is a dimming function for their use at night and to extend battery life. I find them very pretty to look at and they serve the purpose of showing the bitrate of the file. The lights are a cornerstone of the Chord look but the inability to switch them off completely may cause some privacy issues when taken to bed at night for some peaceful pre sleep Beethoven.
 
 
A couple of headphones I used in slightly more detail:
 
Pendulimic Stance S1
 
 
A great sounding wireless headphone which was one of the hits at CanJam. The wired option gave me a chance to have a listen to the HDTracks Rhythm of the Saints by Paul Simon . The differences in bass tightness and overall clarity  were much harder to pick out than with the HD800 but they were nevertheless there. I would be hesitant to shell out the money for the Mojo if this was your headphone of choice.
This was the first set of headphones I tried with the Mojo, believe me the Mojo grew on me from here.
 
 

 
 
 
 
Mr Speakers Alpha Dogs
 
As 2 headphones could be run from the Mojo simultaneously, the Alpha Dogs were used to evaluate  by my girlfriend at the same time as the Stance S1s. My girlfriend does not like her music as loud as me so the lower sensitivity of the Dogs gave us an opportunity to both listen to the same track at the same time at roughly the same volume.
The Alpha Dogs are a great closed headphone , they are reference like in their signature and show up micro details, including tape hiss. The phones are ultra revealing, they need lots of amping too. The Mojo’s handle the Dog’s needs comfortably and these sound a joy through the headphone port, with the HD800s in as well , the Mojo does get a little hot.
 
 
 
 
 
Sennheiser IE800
 
 

My favourite IEM with the sweetest of mid and top end reproduction and lots of bass. These shone with the Mojo’s. They stepped up a gear and were the first phones that made me see the beautiful extra clarity and accuracy that the Mojo was bringing. I listened backwards and forwards between the DX100 DacMagic + and Mojo for 25 minutes, got fed up with missing out in the Mojo, and as time is precious, relaxed and listened to track after track for hours. 
 
Flare R2 Pro Titanium 
 

A fantastic IEM with a slightly warmer signature than the IE800s. They  lack very little in any area that I can hear apart from a slightly rolled off treble. I listened to Birdy through my Note II OTG’d to the Mojo and then the headphone out and to me the difference was startling. If you like a bass with real punch you would be well advised to give these a listen. I have now had these customised into full shells as shown above. Much more comfortable, just awaiting the Mojo to get back to their best.
 
 
 
HiFiMan HE-6
 
Bought from the States thanks to @midnightwalker. I have had these headphones for a week. I have unwrapped them simply to check they produced sound from both drivers, and to see whether the Mojos could drive them. Believe it or not, yes they do go loud well before top volume is reached. The results are what one would come to expect from an HE-6 which is significantly underpowered, thus it sounded harsh and sibilant and closed in. It was an interesting experiment anyway. The HiFiMan's are awaiting something very special indeed to be built for me. 
 
 
 
Conclusions
 
I once had an absolutely wonderful DAC, the M2Tech Young from Italy, it cost me a fortune! It sounded as it should having a rich refined ultra detailed signature I have not heard since. During this review I was given the opportunity to remember what that sound was like. So thank you to @It was a great device musicday and Chord for giving me that opportunity. But the Mojo goes further. Because it offers that sound, for much less money, and adds portability and Android compatibility and an 8-10 hour battery. And let's not forget the exquisite styling. The Mojo is a work of art in it's minimalism , yet it has these huge light buttons that just cry out to be touched!
 
If it looks like a Lamborghini and it drives like a Lamborghini.... it's a Lamborghini!


Now we are one

1 year down the line.... and we're still together
The Mojo is still with me .The above model I reviewed, sadly , it had to send it back to Chord . I did get to listen to it later on in the Tour because it went to @dill3000 at a time when he happened to be building a huge amp for me. I applied to Chord to buy the Mojo from the Tour but they wouldn't let me keep it
I had an Ibasso Bushmaster at the time , and had bought that directly from China and waited all that time for the DAC/Amp to be imported. It was a great device. I had only owned it for a week but before my stage in the Mojo Tour was over , I had sold it to pay for the Chord. There then came an agonising wait whilst Chord desperately tried to get the sufficient numbers out there to meet demand. All in all I did well , I think I was only without a Mojo for a month.
The Mojo still goes with me everywhere. It adds life and sparkle to everything from my $32.75 **** UEs to my Bass Heavy AKG K1000 Phones . The AKGs are perhaps the least sensitive headphones ever made ; the Mojo is plugged into my @dill3000 created First Watt F6 Power Amp to give them the power they need. The Mojo supplies plenty enough voltage to make a pretty stunning preamp although it looks a little strange juxtaposed to a giant 50 WPC super amp!



I have had lots of problems in my search for a cheap replacement for my phone, specifically chosen to be used as a longer lasting OTG device than my Samsung Galaxy Note II. I tried the Cubot H1 . This had a battery life (5300 mAh), not kidding , of 2 days... But the OTG was hopeless on it for interference , even in Airplane Mode. My next was a 6300 mAh Leagoo Shark1 with exactly the same problem. Android phone no.3 , the Median Life E5005 5" smartphone seemed like a bargain. £79.99 from Aldi with Android 6.0 and 4G as standard. The OTG was again dreadful.


I have now settled for the Motorola Moto G4. This has some interference compared to the Note II when in cellular mode , but in airplane mode is whisper quiet. It has a full day's battery life supports Android 6.0 , has a Fast Charge facility , 4G as standard and takes a Micro SD card. All for £159.99.


What does the Chord Mojo bring to the party after all this time? When others are bringing Prosecco, Chord brings Champagne.



Some come with a box of Celebrations and are welcomed, Chord offers up hotelchocolat...


The Mojo is an example of when something is simply right. It brings out detail and depth in my music. This in turn creates a clarity and poIish that I find in only the best audio equipment.
I don't use the Mojo for my running. It doesn't take to being jogged about like that. The buttons will sometimes switch on and off at random when they are in a bag . If I'm not careful , one of these my ears will be blown clean off when the Mojo switches back on at full volume! I can tell you I have a shock or 2 over the past year. Not every usb plug will charge the Mojo properly and it takes a long time to charge compared to the newest Smartphone devices out there. It adds a lot of bulk to a phone or a DAP , especially when you see how thick my DX100 is anyway.


Let's face it ; no marriage is perfect. The most important thing is we're still in love.


Amendment Dec 2016 - I have directly compared the RHA DL Dacamp and iFi Micro iDSD BL Dacamp during this month. The Mojo is still the winner for me. The decisive winner. I have some links to some tracks I recorded to side by side compare the iFi and Mojo using a semi pro ART analogue to digital recorder. If you are interested in hearing the difference between the 2 please have a listen. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B41-5ITI_tfbaFVBYU9CWWhqdncThe results I hope you will hear for yourselves. This is not the best that either Dac can sound; there is analogue loss. But it will show you (hopefully) which sounds better to your ears. Surely that is better than any hot air blown in this review or any measurement I could try to baffle you with......

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B41-5ITI_tfbV09lVnllN2hrSGs
This is my latest venture - I wanted to find out for once and for all whether optical or USB is the way forward of listening to my music - what do you think?

[VIDEO]https://youtu.be/jt4b9cLY9vQ[/VIDEO]

I had the opportunity to spend almost three weeks with the Chord Mojo.  When it locked on to a signal with my FIIO X3 units (Gen I and Gen II) I experienced a smooth, glitch free audio experience.  Both through headphones and "line out usage" it was non fatiguing and quite musical.  It did not matter what musical material was utilized, Jazz, Classical, Rock....it all sounded great.  With the X3II, I streamed both FLAC and DSD files quite nicely.
 
With this unit, I quickly moved beyond the "analytical approach" of listening to various instruments to see how well they were defined.  And stopped worrying about the size of the image.  Instead, I was captivated by listening to music.
 
When locked on to music on the PC using WASAPI outputs (that and ASIO are the preferred settings in JRiver, my primary audio app), the sound was also very good. It worked equally well with FLAC and DSD files with JRiver.   With videos, for some files I had to drop down to direct sound or other windows drivers to maintain an uninterrupted audio stream.  For movies that really did not matter as much.  I think the issue is that some of my video conversions are fairly old and not particularly well done. I made some of the conversions when one had to worry about the sync between audio and video (yes I date mysellf).  I mainly listened to my dub of  "Let it Be" on an airplane flight.  That particular video was dubbed from my old Laserdisc.   I was happy to have the file in the first place.
 
With the iphone, I used the Apple branded Camera Connecting Kit.  This was reliable for FLAC and DSD files using the nPlayer app.  The signal was easily interrupted when playing Podcasts, both through the Apple podcast app and through nPlayer.  So I would caution potential buyers that if the primary target is the iphone that one should not necessarily expect a glitch free experience.
 
The unit seemed to sail through various IEM impedances with no worries.
 
I was happy to have tested this unit and would seriously consider purchasing one.  My only reservation is that the Oppo HA-2 seems to be designed specfically for iphone usage and for me that would be a potential competitive consideration.
 
DIsclosure:  When this review was written I was affiliated with JRiver.  I no longer am affiliated with JRiver,; but I still think JRiver is a good choice for connecting to external DAC units.
 
I was a JRiver user before I became affiliated with JRiver.    JRiver  happens to be a good piece of software for feeding DSD over USB on a PC.  SInce one of my targets was to test DSD on the unit from a PC, it made sense to use that product.  But it is fair to note the potential bias at that point in time.

It would of gotten a 5 star rating, if it wasn't so expensive.
 
So I got to listen to the MOJO yesterday through the JVC SZ1000.  Total different animal of an amp.  Nice clean subbass, while staying musical.  MOJO sounds like the good stereo equipment from the 70's and 80's with the JVC's plugged in. You can hear all the little details in your music.  I think it's worth 350,- , but not the current asking price.  Looks like a child's toy, but feels solid. 
Still amazes me how well the JVC responds to EQ and on different equipment.  I've been "remastering" some of older music and been using the JVC's for that.  When I listened to the MOJO, my old music sounded like they were remastered by me.  Stereo image is a tad wider, has a bit of BBE/sonic maximer effect going on.  Mojo for the win.
 
I used the MOJO as a dac only most of the time.  Didn't like the sound signature as much, which is a personal thing.  So I used line out mode and send the output through the FIIO's and Parasound equipment of mine and liked it way more.  The biggest difference in sound quality for me, is when playing my music from the Iphone through the MOJO.  Huge difference in sound quality.  Mojo for the win again.  
 
Subbass is really really really clean.  Sounds like a pair of 18" EV horn loaded subwoofers.  MOJO for the win yet again.  
 
Hearing all the little details in my music with the MOJO, reminds me of when I use my old Luxman C12 preamp.  The Luxman is a big dinosaur and the MOJO is the evolution of it.  So with the MOJO you get the T-Rex sound,  from a unit the size of a house lizard.  Mojo for the WIN!
 
 
 

 

 

 

Chord Mojo & Poly Review
So I admit that this is a little. Later than I had originally planned to have this review out, life getting in the way and all that, but finally here it is, my review of the Chord Mojo & Poly.



I purchased these myself as a pack that also includes a case (more on that later), I was hoping that gofigure (the poly configuration app) would be out by the time it came to publishing this review, but as I understand it’s still stuck in approval limbo, so I’ll have to update this review after it is released, though for the most part it doesn’t affect my opinion of the Mojo-Poly combo.

Chord Mojo

The Mojo comes packed in a fairly small box, the box has a picture of the Mojo on it as well as the usual specifications, overall while full gloss colour its nothing too over the top.



Inside the box you will find the Mojo held securely in place with some foam packaging and a very short USB cable……and that’s it, now I like minimalism as much as the next person but I do feel a manual could have been included, still I guess everyone has the internet and it’s hardly a difficult product to use.




Design

Onto the Mojo itself, its design, like 90% of dac/amps is a rectangle, though in this case it is a rounded rectangle and the volume and power controls are significantly different from anything else not made by chord, but more on that in a sec.



So on the top of the device you get three buttons, the leftmost button is the power switch and shows the source quality being played via a colour coding, next you have the volume up in the middle and volume down on the right, again using a spectrum of colours to show what the volume currently is. Adjustment of the volume is very easy, the increments are quite small so you can fine tune it for sensitive IEM’s, you can also hold both buttons in on power up to set the device to line out volume.



On one end of the device you have two 3.5mm headphone jacks, not sure why they decided to put two in but I guess you can share with a friend if your phones have similar sensitivity/impedance. On the other end there is a USB in, USB charging port, optical in, and coaxial in. Under the USB charging port there is a LED which shows the battery status, again using a colour code. The Mojo also has four rubber feet that keeps it in place on your desk.

Sound

The first thing that stood out compared to other DACs/AMPs/DAPs when listening to the Mojo was the superior separation and its presentation of micro-detail. The sound produced is incredibly articulate, its very easy to pick out the individual instruments and vocals in a track, the definition and detail is simply amazing.

In addition to the detail I was stuck by the crispness presented, the sound of cymbals is near perfect, they sit above the music, completely un-muffled and clear. This is potentially the Mojo’s strongest trait. Now I’ve harped on about detail so I should clarify, I wouldn’t describe the sound as analytical, the amplification section has a slightly warm feel to it, making the Mojo sound alive, not at all sterile.

While the Mojo is incredibly detailed, it thankfully isn’t too harsh on lower-quality sources. So stuff like Youtube still sounds quite good with the Mojo bringing out the best in it without ripping it to shreds. That said, there is a limit where bad is bad.



My predominate listening to the Mojo has been with the Chord Poly as a source and my Campfire Audio Jupiter’s, which have a fairly laid-back sound, but offer incredible detail. I have also done a bit of listening with my Sennheiser HD650’s and more recently Campfire Audio Cascade’s (impressions with these will have to wait for later).



I was not initially impressed with the pairing of the Mojo and the HD650’s but on further listing I’ve found the articulate crispness starting to come through. I can also hear much greater separation than I normally hear with Modi 2 – Vali 2 stack. The micro detail I heard on my Jupiters is there, but not nearly as obvious, the 650’s are simply not as resolving.

The soundstage on the Modi/Vali feels, if not better, more realistic than the Mojo, but the Mojos is preferable to the Opus #1′ so it might just be the Vali’s tube injecting a little more life into the music. I did however find the bass on the Mojo to be tighter and cleaner than either of the other two.

On the whole I really can’t fault the Mojo, there might be some features I’d like it to have and it could probably be slightly cheaper, but it’s really at the pinnacle of truly portable audio, I give it a 9/10.

Chord Poly

Just like its partner in crime the Poly comes in a reasonably sized gloss box. Inside the box you will find Poly packed in the same sort of foam as Mojo, however unlike Mojo Poly comes with an instruction manual (and rightly so, as its certainly less straightforward) as well as a configuration pin, a slightly longer yet thinner USB cable and, a Roon voucher for a two-month free trial.






The Poly has the same rounded aluminium shape as the Mojo, but has no buttons save for a configuration pin hole and also has a plastic corner to allow for greater wireless reception.



On one end Poly has two male USB connectors and a couple of plastic pins to connect it to the Mojo, on the other end you get a USB charging port (this also charges the Mojo while its connected to Poly), a micro SD card slot, the small configuration pin hole, and a light-pipe and LED that shows the batter status of the Poly and Mojo (the Poly’s LED also shows its connection status, flashing if there’s no wireless connection).



The Poly feels fairly solidly attached to the Mojo, but it doesn’t take much force to connect or disconnect, so if your planning to use them together on the move then you will probably need a case (which my pack came with, but more on that later). To use Poly all you need to do is power on your Mojo and the Poly will automatically power on shortly afterwards.

To set up the Poly you use a pin to push the configuration button on the end and then connect to its network, doing so opens up a web page where you can enter network details that Poly will then automatically connect to in the future. In this set up screen there are also some other options including setting your Poly to Roon mode. In future all of this will be replaced by the Gofigure App, the greatest benefit to this being the ability to easily swap between normal and Roon mode as well as being able to add networks on the fly, which currently is inconvenient to say the least.

Now to actually use the Poly you need a smartphone (or computer, but I think that defeats the purpose a little) and for Poly and your control device to be on the same network (I haven’t filled with it too much but there is also the possibility to stream to the Poly via Bluetooth as I understand it). Now there are a few options when it comes to playing music usingt he Poly, you can use it as a Roon endpoint, you can stream music from your device to it (I use an iPhone and as such stream to it via airplay, it currently does not have chrome cast support but hopefully will in the future), or you can access music on the internal SD card and either play this music on another device (the Poly acts as a DLNA server) or set Poly as the output and play directly through the Mojo. This last method is why I bought this combo as I thought this was a great idea, the ability to store and play music on a portable dac/amp but control it from my phone really appealed to me.

On usability I find for the most part its very reliable, I control Poly using Glider (there a few apps available that will control Poly, but this was the best one I found) which is fairly seamless and easy, but occasionally I simply run into an odd bug somewhere (Poly, Glider, the network? no real way to know) but even then it only means your playing of music takes 30 seconds longer than one would like, not massive in the scheme of things but slightly annoying.

I find the Mojo-Poly combo manages its 9ish hours of battery life quite comfortably, the bigger issue being the drain of power on my phone from being in hotspot mode (I should add, if your willing to sacrifice the ability to use the net, you can connect to the poly’s network instead which is probably a little kinder on your phones battery)




A further point on usability, a case to hold them really is essential to use them on the move. The one that was included as part of the combo is very nice, it’s made of a rubberised plastic of some sort, nice and solid and but nice to touch, and is lined with a kind of fabric to keep Mojo & Poly pristine. Chord also makes a leather one which looks really nice but has a price tag to match.

Conclusion

The Poly is an interesting device, it has more features than I’ll ever use and this is probably my main criticism. I feel a more focused and potentially cheaper device might have been a better choice, and I can’t help but worry about the reliance on 3rd party apps. That said it is a really impressive device and for me personally it does exactly what I want, its a bit useless to score it on its own so I give the Mojo-Poly combo 8.5/10.

 


iPhone 5S → Mojo → VE Zen 2.0
 
 
INTRODUCTION
I've been very lucky to hear a lot of great sounding gear this year. Pictured above are a couple of my favorites, the Chord Mojo and the VE Zen 2.0 earbuds. Yes, I'm leading off with the punch line this time. Mojo is one of my 2015 top picks. Why? Quite simply, it has the right combination of small size, durable build, easy connectivity to my iPhone or DAPs, good battery life, and very natural sound. To put this in context, I've heard many portable sources recently ranging from DAC/Amps like the Calyx PaT, Cayin C5DAC, Cozoy Astrapi & Aegis, Creative Sound Blaster E5, and Shanling H3 to DAPs like the Aune M2, Cayin N5 & N6, FiiO X3, X3ii, X5, X5ii & X7, iBasso DX90, Shanling M3 & M2, and Soundaware Esther. I haven't heard all of them together, but I hope this listing gives you some appreciation for the wide variety of portable sources I've put through their paces this year. I was also very lucky to have the Aune M2 and Soundaware Esther Analog DAPs in house along with the new Empire Ears IEM lineup and HiFiMan Edition X headphones, so I got to test out Mojo with some very nice gear.
 
So, Chord. Of course I'd previously heard of them. Who around here hasn't? Their Hugo is famous around Head-Fi for having top notch sound and a unique aesthetic design. However, it's price prevented a lot of people (myself included) from giving it a listen. And given it's largish size, it's more of a transportable solution than a truly portable one. And that design. I wasn't so sure of it, to be honest. But the Hugo mystique was certainly intriguing. I often found myself wishing I could give one a test drive but unfortunately didn't have access to one. So when the Mojo was announced and one of my Head-Fi buddies @x RELIC x came out as a beta tester with many glowing words, it caught my attention and I was lucky enough to get a chance to test one out as part of a small US mini tour. Mojo obviously caught a lot of other people's attention, as well. The Mojo thread started by @Mython is one of, if not the, fastest growing threads on Head-Fi. No doubt about it, Mojo has certainly made waves in this community!
 
 
Before we start, here's a bit of information about Chord from their website:
 
Chord Electronics Ltd is a world-leading manufacturer of high-end audio products. Since 1989, under the leadership of proprietor John Franks, Chord Electronics has been pushing the boundaries of innovation, creating some of the planet's finest hi-fi, home cinema and professional audio equipment. A technology-driven leader, Chord Electronics' philosophy of ongoing evolution and refinement continues to deliver landmark audio products with extraordinary performance and unrivalled design features. 

Born from the highly demanding world of aircraft avionics, Chord Electronics maintains a commitment to exemplary engineering, cutting-edge technology and exceptional build quality. Ingeniously designed for high performance over the long term, Chord products are renowned internationally for their advanced technology which is amongst the best in the world. Since 1996, Chord's collaboration with Robert Watts, a digital design genius with 30 years' DAC technology development experience, has produced a number of advanced digital products that are, quite simply, without equal. 

Chord's achievements have been recognised in the media, too, with magazines and websites from around the world awarding Chord products the highest accolades. Chord's passion for sound quality and exemplary engineering continue to produce audio equipment with exceptional insight into recorded music. Sparkling clarity, unrivalled transparency and huge reserves of high-quality power are trademarks that have become synonymous with the brand. Chord is trusted and admired internationally, and its global customer base includes: the BBC; EMI's Abbey Road Studios (London); Sony Music Studios (New York) and Skywalker Sound to name but a few. 

Why not discover for yourself what Chord Electronics can do for your favourite music? Our web pages can help you learn more about our product ranges and find retailers of exceptional ability, who will take time to help you find the product that's right for the way you listen. Welcome to Chord.
 
USEFUL LINKS

1. LINK to Chord's Mojo page.
2. LINK to the Mojo mega-thread.
3. LINK to the Mojo solutions thread.
4. LINK to the Head-Fi Mojo FAQ.
5. LINK to @x RELIC x's encyclopedic review complete with an interview with Chord's Rob Watts. If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and go read it!

 
 
DISCLAIMER
I was provided with the Mojo as a review loaner. There is no financial incentive from Chord for writing this review. I am in no way affiliated with Chord, and this is my honest opinion of the Mojo. I would like to thank Aune for sponsoring the tour and specifically @AuneAudio for allowing me to participate!
 
 
ABOUT ME
I'm a 43 year old father who loves music.  From electronic (Autechre, Boards of Canada) to modern/minimalist composition (John Cage, Philip Glass) to alternative rock (Flaming Lips, Radiohead) to jazz (John Coltrane and Miles Davis) to metal (Behemoth, King Diamond) to classic rock (Eagles, Rush), I listen to a wide variety of genres and artists. 
 
My portable music journey started with the venerable Sony Cassette Walkman and then progressed to portable CD players, minidisc recorders (still have my Sharp DR7), and finally on to DAPs like the Rio Karma, iRiver IHP-1xx, iPod 5.5, iPhones, and the newer crop of DAPs from Fiio and iBasso. 
 
As mentioned in the introduction, I was lucky to have some very nice earbuds, headphones, and IEM to test out Mojo with. For earbuds, I used the VE Zen 2.0. For Headphones, I used my HiFiMan HE400 and the HiFiMan Edition X I had in for testing. For IEM, I used the Empire Ears lineup. Yes, Zeus got his Mojo on!  
 
As with a lot of people my age, I've got some hearing issues.  I've got mild tinnitus and suffer from allergies, which often affect hearing in my right ear.  I'll admit it, I'm not blessed with a pair of golden ears.  That said, I've been listening to portable gear for a long time and feel confident in assessing audio gear. I just wanted to be transparent up front. 
 
 
SPECIFICATIONS 
Output Power @ 1kHz: 720mW @ 8Ω, 35mW @ 600Ω
Output Impedance: 0.075Ω
Dynamic Range: 125dB
THD @ 3v - 0.00017%
Battery Life: 10 hours
Price: $599
 
 
PACKAGING & ACCESSORIES
As usual, I'll go over this in pictorial fashion with a few brief comments.
 
Front & Back of Box

 
It's super hard to see in the picture, but the Mojo logo is printed in a reflective white on white on the box's lid. Operating instructions are on the bottom of the box.
 
Sides


Sample rate guide (ROYGBIV, yo!), more instructions, and technical specs.
 
Mojo + Accessory

 
You get the Mojo plus a charging cable. That's it, folks. I've seen this listed as a con for some of the reviews, and I just don't agree. Mojo has so many ways to connect that it would seriously be going above and beyond to provide all the different cables one might need. Luckily, cables aren't really that hard to find. A storage pouch of some sort would be nice to slip Mojo inside when not in use to prevent scratches, though. Really Chord, no storage pouch?
 
 
BUILD & ERGONOMICS
As usual, I'll go over the build and ergonomics in pictorial fashion below, pointing out what I like and what I think could be improved. 
 
Top + Bottom

 
Top: Here we can see the main features of Mojo's physical user interface, the three balls. When I first saw pictures of the Mojo with these three balls all lit up, I just didn't get it. I thought it looked just plain goofy, to be honest. However, people I trust said it looked better in person, so I did my best to reserve judgement. Luckily, once I pulled Mojo from the box I was very pleased with what I felt and saw. The aluminum case has a nice powdery soft finish. It's got some heft to it. This doesn't feel like a device that's going to get hurt if it bounces around a bit. Scratched? Sure. Dented? Maybe if you threw it. Seems pretty bulletproof to me. The balls are a very hard translucent plastic, which seems pretty durable although I've read reports of them getting scratched. I didn't notice any scratches on the Mojo I had in for testing even though I was the third reviewer. I'd say that pretty good, since Mojo doesn't come with a case of any sort and I mainly kept it in my man bag bouncing around with my other gear when not in use.
 
Bottom: Built-in silicon bumpers, manufacturing information and serial number, lots of tiny screws.
 
 
Left & Right Sides

 
Just a better view of the volume and power balls. When I saw pictures of Mojo, I didn't realize they would spin. Yup, they spin freely in their settings. It's a bit odd coming from traditional buttons, but you get used to it pretty quickly. Once powered up, the balls all light up. They're pretty bright at first, but you can dim them to a more reasonable level for low light environments. And since we're talking about the balls, this is probably as good a place as any to discuss volume adjustment. 
 
Volume Adjustment: I like Mojo's ability to fine-tune the volume for anything you throw at it from sensitive IEM to hard to drive headphones to full-on line out. Just hold down the buttons and you cycle through the color spectrum from double red for the lowest volume setting to double white for the highest setting. And yes, for you fellow science nerds out there, the volume and resolution indicators really are ROYGBIV. As a scientist, I can appreciate that. I've seen that some reviewers feel the volume change is somewhat slow, and it is if you're going from lower settings to higher settings when rapidly switching between IEM and headphones. However, I don't really see this being an issue in real world usage. If you're switching between different gear, you'll change the volume once, start jamming, and then fine tune a bit for individual songs. Easy peasy!   
 
 
Inputs & Outputs


Left: Mojo has two 3.5mm headphone jacks. I'm not sure how likely it is that two people listening at the same time with different cans are going to need the same volume setting, but it is handy for stacking to have both left and right jacks to choose from.
 
Right: From left to right, you've got COAX IN, USB IN, Charging Port + Battery Indicator LED, and OPTICAL IN.
 
NOTE: Unlike some devices, you can charge Mojo while jamming to your favorite tunes!
 
So now you've had your tour of Mojo. You've seen it all. It's really all pretty straight forward. It really is just as easy as turning it on, plugging it in, pressing play, and finding the right volume level. Easy peasy!
 
 
BATTERY LIFE

Depending on usage, you're going to get 8-10 hours of battery life out of the Mojo. Not too shabby. Given that you can charge while listening, I can see using this during a commute, plugging in at work, using on your commute home, at the gym, etc. and never really have to worry about running out of juice during normal usage. On long flights, you might need an external battery brick, though. 
 
EDIT: I totally forgot to mention the battery indicator LED the first time around, but I was just reminded of it in the main Mojo thread so I thought I'd come back and comment on it. It's also based on the color spectrum, with full charge being blue and then the color changing from green to yellow to red to flashing red when you really, really need to find a charger quick. Nice consistency in using the same basic ROYGBIV color coding across the various functions and so deliciously nerdy!
 
 
SOUND

During my time with Mojo, I basically used it in two main set ups. The first was paired with my iPhone 5S via CCK, and the second was with my FiiO X5 via COAX with FiiO L17 IC. I also plugged in to my MacBook Pro briefly to make sure it worked properly. Being a Mac, it just worked. No drivers needed. No fuss. Same with the other connections, really. Mojo sounded like Mojo to me across all sources. As mentioned in the introduction, I was also playing with the Aune M2 and Soundaware Esther Analog DAPs when I had Mojo and these will be my main sources of reference. They're all very good sources, so it was a pleasure to be able to switch back and forth between them. So what did I find?
 
Mojo has a very natural sound that fit between the more neutral sound of the Aune M2 and the quite full, warm sound of the Esther Analog. In a lot of respects, Mojo and Esther Analog were on par with each other. Both have what I would describe as natural, unexaggerated sound signatures that allow for a high level of detail retrieval without resorting to brightness or an ultra-wide, unrealistic sound field. Where they differed was in the level of fullness and warmth, with Mojo being just a bit on the full, warm side and Esther Analog being quite full, warm. Both have a very realistic placement of sounds in 3D space. I listen to a lot of extreme music, and one thing I really appreciated about both was the ability to handle all of that extreme music without breaking a sweat and making it all very listenable. That doesn't always happen. The Aune M2 on the other hand was more energetic, with more exaggerated lows and highs and a wider sound field than either Mojo or Esther Analog. To my ears, this gave the impression of the M2 having a more dynamic sound but at the expense of sounding less natural.  
 
Here's a quick summary I put together as I was listening to the three, with greater quantity (not quality) on the left:
Warmth: Esther Analog >> Mojo > M2
Fullness: Esther Analog >> Mojo > M2
Dynamics: M2 > Mojo ≃ Esther Analog
Soundstage: M2 > Mojo ≃ Esther Analog
3D: Mojo ≃ Esther Analog > M2
Bass: M2 > Mojo ≃ Esther Analog
Mids: Esther Analog > Mojo > M2
Treble: M2 > Mojo ≃ Esther Analog
 
I found myself being repeatedly drawn to Mojo for its natural, realistic sound. It's a full, mature sound that still left space between sounds. While it didn't have the largest sound field, it sounded very convincing. It is very balanced across the spectrum. Nothing really stands out. What you feed it is what you get. Compared with the Aune M2, you get a more refined sound. Compared with Esther Analog, you get a more neutral (though still very natural) sound. Because of this high level of refinement and lack of exaggeration across the spectrum, I found Mojo to pair very well with all the gear I tested it with. None of my gear was exceptionally hard to drive, though. My earbuds and IEM were kept in the lower range, while I needed to push up to the higher range for my HE400. From what I've read, one reviewer found Mojo lacking with very demanding cans. I can't confirm or deny this. Just be forewarned. 
 
Happy Cans! (VE Zen 2.0, HiFiMan HE400, Empire Ears Hermes)

 
 
SUMMARY

When I first hooked Mojo up to my iPhone and took a listen, I knew it was something special. As I listened to it in comparison with other gear I had on hand, I confirmed this. When I went out for a walk with the Empire Ears Hermes pictured above and Mojo's battery ran out leaving me to plug directly into my iPhone, I can assure you I was not a happy camper. I couldn't wait to get back home and get the Mojo charged up. Midway through my time with Mojo, I started wondering if I should just abandon DAPs altogether and go for iPhone + Mojo. As mentioned in the introduction, I've heard a lot of DAPs this year. I've got a bit of an obsession with them, so for that thought to cross my mind was a bit surprising to me. So, why wouldn't I do this? Well, for starters I have an obsession with DAPs. I also have a large, eclectic music collection and like to have it at hand in FLAC format if possible. I just can't fit it all on my iPhone. So why not just use Tidal, you say? Smartphone + Tidal + Mojo has got to be a killer combination, right? Well, that would be a great solution if a lot of the music I listen to wasn't too obscure for Tidal to carry. So I find myself in the position where I probably need a DAP with two mSD slots as a transport for when I want all of my music with me. I guess that's not so bad, right? Either strapped to my iPhone or a DAP, I think I see a Mojo in my future...
 
If you're looking for one of the best sounding devices your can carry around in the palm of your hand, put Mojo on your shortlist. The hype is very real!
 
 
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you've got any questions. 
 
And finally, a big thanks to Chord for making a mini-tour happen and to the tour organizer. I'm glad I could participate and experience this fantastic little device for myself!

Introduction

I'm not really the guy to go to if you want a detailed comparison of the Schiit Yggdrasil versus something from TotalDAC or MSB, or if you want to know how I think the SR-009 stacks up against the HE-1000 or AB-1266, or if I think a coat hanger is the ultimate cable. I have far more pedestrian budgets and tastes. My experience with high-end audio is limited to a handful of portable sources, a few headphones, and a couple of misadventures with ASUS sound cards before I learned enough to realize they were ripoffs. I started out looking for a way to get ahead in games and my interest in audio equipment for other purposes, like music, just slowly evolved out of that. For headphones, I started with a Steelseries 7H USB headset, then moved up to an Audio Technica ATH-AD700, then some Chinese production run K702s, and now I use grill-modded HiFiMan HE-560s. For sources, I started with a lowly ASUS Xonar U3, then upgraded to a Republic of Gamers series Xonar Phoebus, then a FiiO X5, and now, at long last, I have acquired arguably my first "serious" source in the Chord Mojo. I have, at least, heard a number of other headphones, including T90s and T70Ps, and a Grado SR80, probably an SR80i. I have also seen the (former) top of the portable audio mountain when I listened to an Astell & Kern AK240. So I've made my share of mistakes, learned from them, done a lot of reading and looked at a lot of comparisons. Most of my audio source files are 44.1 or 48 KHz FLACs or 320 KBPS MP3s, although I've tried sample DSDs before and found very small improvements with them. My preferred music player is, of course, Foobar2000. I hope that is sufficient for this review.


Build Quality

So, to me, the most striking thing about the Chord Mojo is it's built like it could survive a confrontation with a tank. Like all other Chord products I know of, its case is machined from a solid block of aircraft-grade aluminum, so I feel like I could bash someone's skull in with it, wipe the blood off, then listen to Beethoven while flicking a used smoke onto the corpse. It's about twice as heavy as it looks, and the frame is so no-******** it won't even retain your fingerprints, which makes it harder to trace back to you after the deed is done. Only issue is the weird-looking balls are frosted glass, which kinda means you can't use that side to do it without risking damage to the device, although shattering the glass would at least cut up the victim some, so props for that. Still, they look really cool in the dark, kinda like Splinter Cell goggles, staring at you out of the blackness. (Then again, when it warms up with use, it probably shows up on thermal imaging, so that's a bit of a drag.)

9/10, great stealth action murder weapon, slightly handicapped by pretty glowballs.


Ease of Use

The Mojo's color-coded control setup takes some getting used to, and the fact that you have to either leave it plugged into a power source or constantly recharge it every few hours at all times in a stationary rig because it won't recharge over the data input cable is very annoying. However, it's driverless anywhere outside of Windows and supports both USB OTG and S/PDIF over coaxial or optical, giving you a wide range of options. It also auto-adjusts to different file formats and changes colors to indicate which sample rate the file it's playing is, although I'm finding this particular feature is a little picky about when it wants to work on Windows 8, at least with Foobar2000. You need to configure FB2K properly. But okay, fine, I won't hold that against Chord, it's an issue with Foobar. Don't take this the wrong way: The device works fine, it just needs jiggering to reach peak performance, and it still sounds great without optimization, and is pretty plug-and-play aside from these quibbles, which are nothing people who want the advanced features aren't familiar with anyway. Also: If you need to keep this thing seated on your desk, it has some small rubber feet to stop it from sliding around, unlike some other portable DAC/amps.

8/10, serves as a good backup for an AK-47 if you've lost your Glock.


Performance

Sound quality? Well...it sounds better than my FiiO X5 Gen I, I guess? Captain Obvious to the rescue. I don't really have anything around the same price range to compare it to, but I have K702s and grill-modded HE-560s on hand to test it out. It drives the HE-560s nicely, which the X5 didn't really do all that well, and there's a bit more detail. I won't dazzle people here with starry eyes and flowing praises of the Mojo's audio quality, likening it to a level of audio nirvana as though the universe itself opened up to reveal its inner workings to me: It's an incremental improvement over a device which costs about a third as much these days and works on its own. But the improvements ARE still nice. It's surprisingly inoffensive for being as detailed as it is, and the sound is more "fluid." For instance, when the recording has sounds that move around the head, they don't "jump" from point to point, but rather "flow" there, which is very nice. There's more rumble and impact at the low end, too. Definitely doesn't strike me as a bass-light/clinical source like some say the Hugo is. The sound is "thicker" than the X5 in a pleasing way, which is probably why people say these things sound somewhat tubey. Again: Not enough experience to elaborate on that. Even the K702s, often criticized for being overly analytical and a bit piercing, sound inoffensive and pleasant on these without losing any detail. (I am still trying to figure out how it sounds during the process of skull-crushing. Will have to get back to you on that later.) I ran it through "The Passing" in L4D2 with my K702s to test its soundstage width and imaging and found it to be comparable to the X5 it replaced, but with a better sense of verticality, which is very important in a game like L4D2.

Also of note here is the amplifier, which is insanely powerful for a portable device. It drives the HE-560s to my normal (Admittedly somewhat low) listening levels at its "orange" gain setting, with volume/amplification being, in order: Red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, darker blue, blue, violet, pink-purple, salmon pink, all at about two steps each, and then a bunch of extra multicolored one-step gain settings above it for absolute max volume. At that setting, I don't need to have the HE-560s on my head to hear them clearly. They're LOUD at about a foot away. HE-560s. Planar magnetics. Not even one of the most efficient planars, either. I'm actually afraid that gain setting will destroy the headphones if used. That's nuts. Maybe there are better amps out there but anyone telling you the Mojo's amp is "weak" in general is completely bonkers, so use the Mojo for one of its obvious intended purposes and give 'em some more bonks on the head to make a clean break of things.

9/10, lives up to its reputation as long as you have realistic expectations and a body bag or two.


Value

I've heard the vaunted $2,500 AK240 before and came away with about the same general impression of it being an incremental improvement over a much cheaper player, except I would never spend over two grand extra to get that additional layer of detail. These sound clearer and more well-rounded for considerably less, and some reviews I've seen rate this thing as better-sounding than even the $3,500 AK380, so when put into that context, the Mojo is definitely a bargain. (Some other people seem to prefer the AK380, though, so the differences between them obviously aren't huge, but...the differences between them aren't huge. It's just one is $600 and the other is the price of a used car.) I would rate what I remember of the AK240 as around a 5-15% improvement in clarity, and the Mojo around a 10-20% improvement in clarity and a 20-30% improvement in "fluidity" and richness. So I wouldn't really say the incremental improvement in detail from the X5 is so much a knock on the Mojo as it is a feather in FiiO's cap: They make good ****. I wouldn't be surprised if the upcoming dual-AK4490-based Q5 delivers a lot of the performance of the Mojo or AK380 at a considerably lower price point, just because if anyone can do it, FiiO can. That being said, the FiiO X5 feels like a toy compared to this thing, and it's NOT a toy, it's pretty sturdy. Chord clearly has an edge in manufacturing quality and likely long-term durability which is worth factoring into the price as well. On top of that, the FPGA chip in this DAC/amp can have its functionality altered over time and already supports placebo-level sample rates in both PCM and DSD formats, so it's got long legs if you don't suffer from upgraditus. (Arguably, if you have it, purchasing this thing can CURE it, so contact an audiophile medical specialist near you for more details.) All in all, I don't regret getting the Mojo. I don't see myself replacing it for the foreseeable future, either for a stationary OR portable setup. It does everything very well and it doesn't require you to bankrupt half of a Third World country to afford it, either, although you could probably use it to defend yourself in one. Combined with a cheap data carrier such as the FiiO X5 or X5 Gen II via coax, the Mojo offers at the very least Astell & Kern flagship performance and storage capacity at a sub-megabuck price point.

10/10, would bludgeon Astell & Kern DAPs to death from the shadows again.


Verdict

The key to understanding the meaning of life it ain't, but most people would be hard-pressed to justify getting anything more expensive as a portable DAC/amp. With the recent trend towards cheaper, more convenient portable audio sources, I expect that something which rivals the Mojo at a lower price isn't too far off, but I'm pretty sure the Mojo will stay relevant quite a bit longer, especially since muggers who want it will get it...right in the face.

9/10, a versatile DAC/amp/weapon which has some annoying quirks but offers noticeable gains over anything cheaper and embarrasses a lot of more expensive portable audio sources.

Introduction

 

Alright, I don't expect you to actually slog through the whole video. However, if you did get through the first five minutes or so, then I'm fairly confident that you have a pretty good idea of what a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is. But to recap, an FPGA is a collection of controllable logic blocks (CLBs) that are all interconnected via a high-speed bus. In it themselves, these logic blocks don't do much. But when strung together, they can be used to perform all kinds of interesting computational work. So let's say you want to program your FPGA to emulate a general purpose microprocessor like the Intel-based one you are using right now to read this review. You're in luck, you can! Or perhaps you want it to perform the same functionality as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), say like Bitcoin mining so you can make millions of dollars by the time you actually finish reading this review? No problem. Or maybe you just want to write your own Digital Signal Processor (DSP), like an ESS SABRE, and use it in your own custom DAC? You guessed it, you can do that too. And that's the beauty behind using an FPGA - it's like being given your own computational Lego set that you can piece together to create whatever kind of application your heart desires.



But the intrinsic flexibility of FPGAs over DSPs also has its downsides. First, DSPs have historically been a more power conscious choice over FPGAs since their silicon can be better optimized for their specific computational workload. Second, FPGAs are simply more complex devices than DSPs. For example, let's say you are looking to create your own custom DAC. Then the simplest route would be to pick some off-the-shelf DSP, slap it into your circuit, and feed Pig Destroyer through it. Done. With an FPGA however, you would have to go about writing all the custom code to program all of those CLBs yourself. That is no easy feat since an FPGA is typically programmed in some kind of hardware description language instead of a high-level language like C or Java. And once your code complete, you then have to suffer through this elaborate testing cycle which includes timing analysis, model simulation, and various other verification methodologies just to verify that your code actually works. So if time-to-market is critical, an FPGA based product is probably a non-starter from the get go. Finally, FPGAs almost always have higher per-unit costs because they have more transistors, and thus a bigger footprint than your comparable DSP. Remember, an FPGA vendor doesn't know how a potential customer will use their chip, which means they typically stuff in it a lot more functionality (read: more CLBs and I/O pins) than one might need for a certain application. DSPs on the other hand, again, know exactly how they are going to be used, and can leverage that fact accordingly.

So why the heck am I telling you any of this in the first place? Because I feel that in order for you to better appreciate a product by UK based Chord Electronics, you need to first understand a little about FPGAs. As you can see, designing products around an FPGA requires a lot more expertise outside of traditional analog circuit design, which is why most of the products we are all familiar with contain off-the-shelve third-party DSPs to handle D-to-A duties. But can an FPGA based product sound just as good, or even better than a traditional dedicated DSP based design? Read on and find out.

Striking The Right Chord

My first experience with Chord was with their now discontinued DAC64 product. Now don't hold me to the fire since it was a long time ago, but I do vaguely remember that the DAC64 had two major issues. First, it had a problem with buffering whereby there was a noticeable delay between the moment you pressed play and the metal hitting your ears. And two, and most importantly, the DAC64 was expensive (~3k), or at least seem so at the time. But despite all that, I still walked away extremely impressed since the unit looked and sounded gorgeous.



Since then, Chord has come out with a number of equally sumptuous offerings. Probably their most well known product is the Hugo, an integrated headphone amp/DAC now based around Xilinx's top of the line 45nm Spartan-6 chipset that has built a reputation for delivering reference level sound in a somewhat portable package. But again, like all FPGA based designs, it comes at a price. The standard Hugo is $2,195 list while its bigger desktop variant, the TT, tips the scale at around the $4k mark. Not outlandish for this kind of performance by any means, but certainly not priced for your budget conscious audiophile either. Chord of course understood this, and decided to set out and design a product that would target a more younger demographic that wants great sound but on the go. It had to be truly portable as well as play nice with all manner of smart phone. And most importantly, had to have an attractive price point. So what did Chord come up with? Meet the Mojo ($599).

Meet The Mojo

First off, the Mojo is indeed a true portable device. No, it's not dongle tiny, but at about the size of a pack of Altoids, it easily fits in the palm of your hand. But despite its relatively small stature, it features a myriad array of I/O ports, including optical TOSlink (24-bit/192kHz) and 3.5mm coaxial inputs as well as not one, but two 3.5mm single-ended headphone outputs. And those outputs offer plenty of power too, featuring 35mW at 600 ohms and 720mW at 8 ohms with an overall output impedance of 75 mOhms. In English, I was able to comfortably juice my HiFiMAN HE-1Ks as well as my Audeze LCD-3s with ease. Chord's lead designer, Rob Watts, explained to me that he went to great lengths to preserve the small signal accuracy by using dither and noise shaping so sound quality does not vary with volume setting. Analog purists will balk, but with a product like this where IEMs and other portable headphones are going to be its chief customer, perfect volume tracking is key, and the Mojo delivers in spades.



Like its bigger sibling, Mojo's user interface is based on a spectral polychromatic approach, i.e. status and modes are indicated through color (You mean colour. -Dave). And as you can see, each color of the rainbow indicates a different sampling rate. Same goes for volume too, which cycles through various color schemes to indicate level. If you press both volume buttons together while the unit is on, then you will cycle through a couple of different brightness settings. Hold down both buttons while simultaneously pushing the power button and that will tell the Mojo to produce a 3V line-level output. Cute.

In terms of how effective the ROY G. BIV approach to user interface is, well let's just say I didn't think it was even half as bad as John Grandberg of Part-Time Audiophile made it out to be. No offense to John, but yes, it's very quirky, and yes, I could definitely live without all the blinky lights since it makes the unit come off a bit childish. However, after using the Mojo everyday at work, I just got used to it. I mean at the end of the day, one button turned the volume up while the other turned it down. Really, that's about it. In terms of its sampling rate indicator, who cares? Audirvana proudly displays the rate every time I hit play. Seriously, after about one, maybe two minutes, you'll get the hang of it easily. More of an issue for me was the fact that though the Mojo features digital volume control, you can't control it from the keyboard. That does suck. Granted, it is by no means the end of the world, but I do think hands free operation is ideal for a device like the Mojo.



The Mojo has two mini-USB inputs, one labeled for charge and the other for digital input. Yes, you can use the Mojo while it's charging (obviously, you need two USB cables then), but the manual points out that you are going to wait for eternity to see the charge light turn off while shooting metal through it. In general though, you get 10 hours of headbanging for 4 hours of charge. That proved more than sufficient for my daily usage. And as the color scheme shows above, the Mojo supports ever sampling rate known to man, including 768kHz DXD as well as DSD64, DSD128, and DSD512 over DoP. Basically, this little black box covers all your bases and then some. There is even some talk about a future add-on module that will plug into these ports and offer Bluetooth, WiFi, and even a SD card reader to boot. Now that would be killer.

Tap Out

A lot of Chord's secret sauce revolves around something they call the "Watts Transient Aligned" (WTA) filter. The main thrust behind the development of this custom filter is that our brains, not ears, are really responsible for our hearing, i.e. we hear with our minds. And it turns out that according to Watts, our ears are capable of detecting a 4us timing difference between incoming sounds while the CD format, due to its limited sampling rate (44.1kHz), can only retain down to 22us of timing difference between samples. And this effects how our brain processes the sound our ears collect. Worse still, the typical interpolation filter that is at the heart of every modern DAC can not reconstruct these timing differences accurately due to their limiting processing power and thus, limited number of filter coefficients they can implement. But because Watts harnesses the processing power of a full blown FPGA, he can implement an order of magnitude more taps than a convention FIR filter, which in turn results in a more accurate D-to-A conversion with respect to transients. And so the story goes.



To accomplish all of this magic, the Mojo uses the 28nm Artix-7 chip, Xilinx's most power efficient and lowest cost FPGA to date. Speaking of power efficiency, though the Mojo gets warm during playback, I was always able to pick up my unit after several hours of usage with ease. Even more impressive is the fact that though the Artix-7 has significantly less processing power than the Spartan-6 found in the Hugo, Watts was still able to implement his WTA filter code with very little change. In fact, the code base between the Hugo and Mojo is relatively the same, with some minor changes to the Mojo to accommodate 768kHz sampling rates. The bottom line is that for almost half the price of the Hugo, the Mojo offers the same state-of-the-art design. Nice.

Time To Get My Mojo On!

Most of my listening sessions were conducted with my Jerry Harvey Audio Roxanne CIEM through my Macbook Pro since that is my daily, on the go setup. Let me get this off my chest right now: the minute I swapped out my Geek Out v1 for the Mojo, my jaw dropped. I could not believe how much better the Mojo sounded over the Geek Out. And I do mean everything sounded better: bass extension, soundstage, imaging, you name it. It completely took me by surprise. It was one of those moments in this great hobby of ours that you rarely have, but always live for. In fact, it sounded so great out of the box, I found myself instantly going back to records that I knew by heart just to confirm what I was hearing was indeed real. So without further ado, here are my listening notes.




I'm a huge Rammstein fan. YUGE! On November 12, 2010, after 10 years of not setting foot on US soil, Rammstein played to a sold out audience of over 18k people at Madison Square Garden in New York City. I was there. It was incredible. I'm still trying to find myself on the Blu-ray they just released of the show! In addition to this live concert set, these crazy Germans also released the mother of all vinyl boxsets that contains their complete discography remastered for black 180g vinyl. My wife bought me this boxset for my Christmas present (she's clearly a keeper) and I have been enjoying it ever since.

Like so may other US fans, I became a fan of the band when I first heard "Du Hast" on the radio off of 1997's Sehnsucht. Their magnum opus however is probably that record's follow up, 2001's Mutter, which of course I could hum in my sleep at this point. Listening to a needle drop of it on the Mojo was really something magical. Not only are the dedicated vinyl masters an order of magnitude better than their crushed CD counterparts, but sound absolutely glorious on the Mojo. John Darko over on DAR calls the Mojo's sound piquant. I could not agree more, though on this side of the globe I would of said alive. Everything sounds and feels sonically more alive through the Mojo. Listening to "Ich Will," it was impossible not to ride the cymbals with my head, as their reverb sounded airy and real. No muddiness, no sense of awkward treble decay - they just sounded natural. Same is true for the low-end as well, as bass extension is equally ungodly. I really believe that this might be the first time that all of my Roxanne's 12 drivers were actually being put through the ringer! Call me impressed.

As another test, I threw my Roxanne's into iFi Audio's iDSD for a little ABX comparo (I tried my darnest to level match as best I could). With the Roxanne's at least, I preferred the Mojo almost every time. They both seem to be able to eek out all the little sonic nuances these vinyl masters have to offer, but the Mojo's airy, spacious presentation just put it over the top.




Staying with our wax motif, I decided to bring out an oldie but goodie, and one that I've used in the past as review source material, a needle drop of Bolt Thrower's 2005 epic Those Once Loyal. It is still my favorite BT record to date and one that continues to get heavy rotation. But for this listening session I decided to switch ears and plug in my HE-1K instead for some more Mojo/iDSD ABX fun. Detail retrieval was still top notch through both, with tracks like "The Killchain" and "Anti-Tank (Dead Armor)" roaring out the gate in piquant fashion. What I found most fascinating however, is that though the iDSD seemed to eek out more mid-bass thump, it was clearly at the sacrifice of clarity. For example, on the track "Entrenched," the immediate groove filled buzz of Ward and Thompson's guitars sounded ostensibly clearer through the Mojo. Same was true with bass, as Jo's presence seemed more integrated into the whole on every track. Don't get me wrong, the iDSD was no slouch either, and with its robust power supply, easily kept up. But through the Mojo, the music sounded bigger, bolder, and again, just more alive.




As my in-depth review of Dystopia revealed, I think this is the best record Sgt. Mustaine's Lonely Hearts Club Band have released since Youth. Regardless, one of the unfortunate aspects of Megadeth's latest offering is that its production is quite poor, with the whole album pushed to near inches of its sonic life. I am still hoping for a FDR version to be released like the last two, but so far, no dice. Ergo, the album is excellent fodder for the Mojo to gauge how it handles overly compressed material.

Truth be told, I was a bit fearful that Mojo's infatuation with accuracy and wide soundstage might actually prove to be to its detriment when confronted with low DR material. Let's just say my worries were put to rest rather quickly, as the Mojo sounded remarkably civil despite the fact that the recording I was pumping through it was not. Sure, while listening to "Post-American World" or "Conquer or Die," I cringed at the muddiness of the guitars and the complete lifelessness of the drums. But that was clearly not the Mojo's fault, and in fact, I thought it worked its magic as as much as it could, pulling out Ellefson's bass out of production oblivion as well as giving Adler a little bit more oophm where say the Geek Out would simply sound competent. The Mojo time and time again offered big sound regardless of the source material's production value.

Conclusion

If you arrived here via Googling and want to dispense with all the above rhetoric, then let me briefly summarize: The Mojo costs $599 and I think its worth every single penny. Sure, its user interface is a bit quirky and even at $599, it's not exactly cheap. But I am confident that with the right pair of cans, you are literally knocking on reference level sound's door with this little black box. Chord folks describe the Mojo as "a real giant slayer," (Slaayyyerr! -Dave) and I can not find any fault in that statement. I honestly think you would have to spend triple to even four times the price to really outshine the Mojo in the sound department, and it is by far the best portable solution I have ever had the pleasure to listen to.

Downsides? Well, there is no balanced output, but for IEMs and other highly efficient cans that is literally a no big deal. The USB cable they give you is ridiculously small. I know, rough. Oh, and if you are in fact legally color blind, then you might have some trouble with its spectral polychromatic based interface. Actually, come to think of it, after using the Mojo every single day for weeks, probably its biggest downside is this: if you are an audiophile who was lent a Mojo from Chord direct to review, then you eventually have to send it back. Now that is a real bummer. Trust me. I have no qualms whatsoever of awarding Chord's Mojo with our highest accolade, the Medal Ov Honor award. This little black box earned it and then some.

This review was originally featured on Metal-Fi.

Introduction 
 
This is my first  review but also my first post on head-fi. 
 
A friend proposed to me to evaluate the new Chord Mojo through an evaluation tour organized by Chord. I accepted happily as I was very curious about its sound signature compared to its big brother Hugo I tested some time ago. While I really liked the Chord Hugo, I considered it too bulky and expansive as an alternative DAC and amp for my Astell and Kern AK240 and decided not to buy it.
 
Build quality and operating features
 
I was surprised to see how small Mojo is. It’s a bit on the heavy side with a metal enclosure rather than use of plastic but seems built to last. Volume setting is easy through large buttons which indicate volume levels with colors ranking from red to blue. 
 
I won't go into further details as they have already been provided by previous reviewers better than I could do. I will just say that I like the original design of Mojo and I think it is well thought and built for portable use, it doesn't take long to understand how it works.
 
Sound Quality 
 
Soundwise, Mojo has been compared to the Macbook Pro analog output using Audirvana player and to the AK240 using its own DAC/AMP. Mojo was connected to the MBPro through USB. I mainly used by beloved Earsonics Velvet IEM for most of the listenings as I wanted to assess Mojo for portable use.
 
The differences with MBPro analog output were striking, the latest giving a flat and boring sound in comparison with the Mojo. On Alan Parson Project/The Very Best of AP Project/Prime Time track, cymbals sounded far more detailed and realistic with Mojo opposite to the plastic and artificial rendering with MBPro output. Voices were more natural with Mojo, airier with a better soundstage and instrument separation, bass was also faster and more impactful. On Miles Davies/Kind of Blue/So What track, The piano was flat and light sounding with a lack of harmonics, sounding again plastic with MBPro output, the same was true for the trumpet and cymbals. Notes were thicker, fuller with Mojo and instruments sounded far more real with it. On Cassandra Wilson/Another Country track, Instruments were sparkly and lush with Mojo, Cassandra’s voice was more realistic with Mojo. There was a better distinction in space between voice and instruments.
 
So the Chord Mojo sounded way better that MBPro output but what about the comparison with the AK240 ? On previous Cassandra Wilson/Another Country track, AK240 performed better that the MBPro output but was still behind Mojo with less depth and a warmth. On Pink Floyd/The Wall/Another Brick in the Wall 2 track, there was less impact with AK240, children voices were more detailed with Mojo, the overall representation was fuller, more convincing and pleasing with Mojo. On Dead Can Dance/Anastasis/Anabasis track, there was a better instrument separation with Mojo as well as a more laid back and warmer representation, a more 3D soundstage. Bass impact was equivalent between AK240 and Mojo. AK240 sounded a bit sterile compared to Mojo. On Gary Karr/Adagio d’Albinoni/Albinoni-Giazotto: Adagio in G minor, there was again more depth with Mojo, thicker notes and more details on bow strokes on the double bass strings.
 
Conclusion
 
So my experience with Mojo was very good, it reminds me the strengths of Hugo with a detailed, impacted, warm and holographic sound. It’s small enough to be used as a portable solution with an iphone or a low end DAP used as source. I’m seriously considering replacing my AK240 with a Mojo combined with an iPhone with sufficient storage to be able to use Qobuz streaming.
 
I would like to thank Chord for allowing me to assess the Mojo. I’m convinced this little gem will have a great success thanks to an adequate price with regards to its performances.

PRODUCT INFO:
Following their success with the Hugo DAC, Chord Electronics released a much more portable solution, targeted at mobile users, called the Mojo. MoJo stands for Mobile Joy. It retails for $599.

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INTRODUCTION:
Just within a few months, after I bought a set of Sennheiser IE80 and a Fiio X3ii, I wanted to upgrade to a High-End setup. I demoed and bought the 64-Audio A-10. When I demoed the A-10, I felt the A-10 was not performing to the best of its capabilities. Twister6 who owns a 64 Audio U-12 (Universal form of the A-12 which is just a darker version of A-10), brought to my attention, that the X3ii was an average source for these IEMs and, I would benefit from a better source. I did not want to spend more than $800. I started looking around and, there were close to 10 options, but I kept coming back to, these 3 options: Chord Mojo, Onkyo DP-X1 and Fiio X7. 
 
MY LISTENING SETUP AND USE-CASE:
99% of my listening is done indoors, at my desk at the office or home. To shuttle my gear between the office and home, I prefer a very portable setup. I only own and use IEMs for portability and ease of use factors. Similarly, I prefer a portable source gear. Fiio X3ii for music I own and iPhone 6 for streaming works good enough
 
WHY I CHOSE CHORD MOJO OVER OTHER DAPs:
Although a dedicated DAP would have proved to be more practical based on my above requirement, I did not want to deal with issues regarding UI, when I already owned 2 devices (iPhone 6 and Fiio X3ii) with excellent UI. If I was buying the Mojo, the trade off would be to carry an additional device and the corresponding cables. I weighed the options and decided to get the Mojo.
 

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SOUND:
IEMs: 64-Audio A-10  |  MUSIC GENRE: Multiple and Varying  |  FILE FORMAT: 16/44 FLACs and 320 kbps MP3 (16/44)  |  FILE SOURCE: Macbook, Windows 7 PC
 
In short, I would describe Mojo's sound as highly resolving yet smooth, with great clarity, musicality, natural tonality and a 3-D presentation. The sound quality of Mojo as a whole, is truly impeccable.
 
This review is based on Mojo being paired with my 64-Audio A-10 Custom IEM. Mojo and A-10 go hand in hand in exposing each other's strengths. Mojo arrived a few days after my A-10 was delivered. During those couple of days, I was using my A-10 with Fiio X3ii and iPhone 6. I was a little underwhelmed with the performance and, was a little anxious on, what kind/level of improvements, Mojo would bring to the A-10. To my delight, the improvement was significant.
 
The first thing I noticed was the un-real (or should I say very realistic) imaging, instrument separation and layering. This is one of the strengths of the A-10. And Mojo makes sure it provides every ounce of juice, A-10 requires to display those strengths. This combo sounds so good, in this aspect that sometimes, I just lose concentration on the musical aspect of the track and, start observing the instruments. I am able to point in the direction, where an instrument is played. I was not able to do the same on the Fiio X3ii. The sound-stage width seems to be the same between Mojo, X3ii and iPhone 6. I was not too impressed with A10's soundstage depth initially. But the depth in the music presentation that Mojo renders, offers a sense of increase in sound-stage depth. The transparency and timbre were improved as well. It is amazing how Mojo can be very resolving and, yet manages to sound very smooth. The dynamics is also very good and a step-up over the Fiio X3ii and iPhone 6. 
 
To my ears, the tuning seems to be neutral, as it does not enhance any particular frequency. People in the ADEL IEMs thread were talking about hearing textured bass. When I demoed the A10, I certainly did not hear this texture, nor did I hear it, when my A10 first arrived. Then comes Mojo and I can hear this texture. It adds a lot of natural tonality to the mids, that the instruments and vocals sound very natural. It maintains a good treble quantity on the A10 and,, does not have the tendency to make the sound bright to give an impression of more sparkle. It basically shows what is in the track and presents it in a natural way. 
 
 
 

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POWER & HISS:
Given that I only own IEMs and do not own any hard-to-drive headphones, I do not need too much power and am not able to test it either. As far as hiss goes, I can hear a very slight background hiss on my A-10. But it is not bad given the fact that the A-10's impedance is 18 Ohm and has a sensitivity of 117 dB. Now the problem arises when I start thinking about IEMs that have a lower impedance rating and higher sensitivity.
 
BIT-PERFECT SIGNAL:
Ok, this is a very critical aspect. For Mojo to perform its very best, it needs to be fed a bit-perfect signal. These days, manufacturers of consumer electronics, seem to be keen on up-sampling the digital signal. Up-sampling refers to taking the original signal and increasing the bit depth and frequency. Bit-perfect refers to feeding the original signal as it were without modifying it.
 
So if you are planning on using your Mojo, with your PC or Mac or Smartphone or iOS devices, please make sure you check the Mojo thread on Head-Fi, to research how you can get bit-perfect signal out of your device. This is where DAPs have a certain advantage (except the DAPs running full version Android and do Digital Out through USB). DAPs like Fiio X3ii/X5ii, iBasso DX80, AK models can act as a reliable transport to carry your music with you in a potable package, at the same time, not having to worry about up-sampling as these devices do bit-perfect.
 
COMPARISONS:
FiiO X3ii & iPHONE 6: Fiio X3ii and iPhone are pretty much on the same plateau, when it comes to Sound Quality. Mojo when fed bit-perfect and used with a High-End IEM, displays clear improvement in all areas. Especially the technical capabilities and presentation. The imaging, instruments, tonality, transparency and timbre are on a level above. The soundstage width seems to be the same on all 3 devices, while there is an improvement in the depth on Mojo. The whole presentation itself seems more 3-Dimensional on the Mojo, while it sounds a bit flat on the iPhone and X3ii. Mojo presents sound in a natural analogous way, while X3ii and iPhone sound more digital.
 
 

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CONCLUSION:
Mojo is truly an amazing device that can bring the best out of your IEMs and headphones (as long as they are not too difficult to drive). You can get better results out of it if you could invest in better set of IEMs/Headphones. But the most critical factor is the bit-perfect signal for the Mojo to perform to the best of its capabilities. It is small, portable, easy to use and does exactly what it is meant to do.
 
The device is Built Like a Tank, Crafted Like a Jewel & Performs Like a Marvel. I set out on getting an End-Game-For-Now setup. And that is exactly, what I have got with the Chord Mojo and the 64-Audio A-10 combo.
 
 

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I WOULD LIKE TO THANK:
- @twister6 who encouraged me to purchase a good source for my IEM and few other members who pointed me in the direction of Mojo and answered my questions that helped me in the purchase.
 
- Members on Mojo thread, especially @Mython and @x RELIC x , whose helpful posts helped me a great deal in getting the maximum performance out of my Mojo.

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The Majestic One - Chord Mojo DAC/AMP



Chord Mojo is an interesting little DAC/AMP, as it relies on a rather different DAC technology than most, relying on a FPGA, or Full Programmable Gate Array, rather than a normal DAC, paired with a pretty clean power stage, to deliver what Chord calls "the world's most advanced portable DAC/ Headphone Amplifier". We'll be putting to test and see whether Chord's statement holds true in today's review of Mojo.




Introduction

Chord is a large company from UK, who is known for having created and designed some of the world's best DAC/AMPs, like the original Hugo, which left me quite impressed at the beginning of my audiophile journey, as well as the Hugo 2 they created now, and countless others. Chord is known for good warranty and customer support, as well as interesting sales going now and then. Locally, Chord is known to be a true workhorse, and people are using their products as reference, but more about that in the "Portable Usage" part of this review.

It should be noted that I have absolutely no affiliation with Chord, I am not receiving any incentive for this review or to sweeten things out. This review is not sponsored nor has been paid for by Chord or anyone else. I'd like to thank Chord for providing the sample for the review. The sample was provided along with Chord's request for an honest and unbiased review. This review reflects my personal experience with Chord Mojo. Every opinion expressed is mine and I stand by it, the purpose of this review is to help those interested in Chord Mojo find their next music companion.



About me

https://www.audiophile-heaven.com/p/about.html



Packaging

As I poited in my Youtube Video, Chord Mojo has one of the most basic packages out there, the stuff you get in the box being a really short USB cable. That's all.

For a 500 USD DAC/AMP, this is lower than competition offers, but, most people may be interested in upgraded cables either way.



What to look in when purchasing a high-end DAC/AMP

https://www.audiophile-heaven.com/p/what-to-lookl.html



Technical Specifications

Inputs:
1x Micro USB 768kHz/32-bit Capable Input
1x 3.5mm Jack Coaxial 768kHz/32-bit Capable Input
1x Optical TOSLINK 192kHz/24-bit Capable Input
1x 1amp Micro USB Charging Port Input

Output:
2x 3.5mm Headphone Jacks

Technical Specs:
Output Power @ 1kHz – 600Ω 35mW
Output Power @ 1kHz – 8Ω 720mW
Output Impedance: 75mOhms
Dynamic Range: 125dB
THD @ 3v: 0.00017%
Weight: 180g (0.4lbs)

Dimensions: 82mm (l) x 60mm (w) x 22mm (h)



Build Quality/Aesthetics/UI/Firmware

The build quality of Chord Mojo is as solid as it gets, quite literally, this is one fully metallic device that looks like it will survive a 100 Meter drop, if you ever wanted to treat it to one. The aesthetics are on the cool and avant-garde side of things, with colored marble buttons. If you've ever had Chord Hugo before, you may think that the buttons of Mojo rotate, and they do, but to use the buttons, you need to press them.



There are two color strength options for the buttons, and the buttons colors indicate what level you are in with Mojo. The operation is quite basic actually, despite how difficult it may seem at first to operate Mojo.

To open it up, press the power button for a few seconds. The volume buttons are marked with Plus and Minus, and the colors go from a variety of rainbow colors, depending on the volume and level you are in. To make the buttons dimmer, just press both the volume buttons at once.



To charge Mojo use the charging port, and to use it as a USB DAC, use the USB data port. Mojo also has Optical and Coax inputs, if you wish to use those, I actually have found myself using Optical most of times because it was more convenient to me, but the USB data port works just as well for using Mojo as a DAC/AMP.

Mojo connects to pretty much any smartphone, as long as it is Android and more recent, at least it did with all that I threw at it. For windows, you need a USB DAC Driver.



Other things to keep in mind are that Mojo gets quite hot while it is charging, it can't use the same port for data and charging, so you will need two cables, if you'll have it stationed at your computer as a desktop DAC/AMP, it is backed by a one-year warranty from Chord, but if using it as a desktop DAC/AMP you may be churning its battery and its battery life quite fast, and it may not live very long.

Mojo has two headphone ports, both in a 3.5mm single ended mode, and both work very well, are created equal and can be used at the same time, in case you wanted to share your sweet music with a loved person.

Mojo has tiny rubber feed, but those may not be enough for strapping it to a smartphone, in case you wanted to take it with you, and a rubber band separator is recommended.

The battery life of Mojo is decent to very good, and in normal usage I haven't managed to run out of battery in a normal day of usage, as it lasts for around 8 hours in my typical usage, which is in purple-ish mode in both balls, which is the maximum volume I can use with Mojo and any headphone, without running into distortions. This color, as far as it is explained in most sources, represents a voltage of 2 Volts, anything above simply enters clipping. Charging time is about 4 hours, which is considerably longer than most competitors, which have implemented Type-C USB interfaces and quick charging by now.

Understanding the technology and why Chord decided to not use an industry-standard DAC, and instead developed their own is not necessary to use Mojo, or enjoy it as a DAC/AMP, and I think, would give more expectations bias than necessary to listen to it. I personally did not read the technical papers on why and how it was designed, because I wanted to provide feedback on its actual sound and performance more than about its theoretical design.



The driving power of Mojo is very good, and besides QLS QA361, DX200 and X7mkii/Q5 is one of the very few DAC/AMPs that can drive HIFIMAN Sundara to pretty much their full potential. Very few DAC/AMPs are capable of giving Sundy the dynamics, punchy, impact and detail it should have, and Mojo is one of those. Furthermore, Mojo can also drive IEMs without any hiss, and Chord has provided a good price / performance ratio for its actual driving abilities.

Studying the circuits inside reveals that Chord used a very nice overall electronic scheme for Mojo, and it should provide a clean sound, along with good performance, no cheap electronics, and pretty well-thought design.

Overall, it is a flawless DAC/AMP, without driver issues, no hiss, good noise isolation, but it charges a bit slow, and relies on microUSB, both things which may be a touch inconvenient. The battery life is long, the operation is hassle-free, and quite frankly, it is well built as well.



Sound Quality

The most interesting part about such a raved product is talking about its sound, because the design and operation have been talked about in-depth, but the sound is the most interesting aspect, and the reason you'd want to invest almost 500 USD in Mojo.



The overall sound and tonality of Mojo is quite interesting, as it is a warmer, more fun tuned than Hugo is, and Mojo feels like a more commercial version of Chord's main house sound. The detail levels are insane, and the treble is quite smooth in textures, but not overly cut out nor absent, or too smooth. The overall tonality is very natural, and musical notes have both good thickness and weight, although in all fairness, it may be a touch too smooth and too thick to be called dead neutral. Mojo feels like it has the details of an analytical DAC/AMP, without being analytical by itself, but rather being musical. It is interesting to try and describe it, but you have to imagine that a typical analytical sound extrudes details out of music, with a strong emphasis on textures and micro-detail, while Mojo has those details, but has more emphasis on a natural, thicker more smooth and musical sound, although it doesn't lose extension at either end.

The bass is quite deep, and actually quick, despite my description of it being natural, the bass doesn't feel slow or sticky at all. In fact, this is one of the things I love the most about Mojo, that it has the speed to be quick, but also the power to deliver a healthy punch, so for EDM and Metal music, it can keep up even with aggressive music, while with Jazz the bass stays in a more natural speed. There's another thing about its bass that kind of differs from the typical DAC/AMP experience, the bass of Mojo just flows, it doesn't feel overly quick or snappy, with lightning fast decay, which is why it can stay slower for a Jazz experience, but also speed up for metal, it responds naturally to the music that is being played. For classical music, the bass provides both the authority, and the depth required, but also the texture in the bass needed for a more typical analogue experience.

The midrange of Mojo is extremely natural and musical, it feels full and lush, without feeling too thick or boomy, simply, it feels natural. The tonality feels pretty spot-on, and with guitar solos, you can hear that juicy tone you want from a guitar, and the same can be said about male voices, which can sound deep and authoritative. Performance on stringed instruments is also very good, with nice amounts of detail and clarity, the midrange can feel snappy and quick, but once again, the decay of each musical note is on the natural side of things, rather than being set on fast, so you don't feel like music is rushing on your, but you don't feel like things are being too slow. There is a hint of vocal forwardness and the soundstage isn't expanded unnaturally, but Mojo doesn't feel congested, and the instrument separation is quite good, and in line with other 500 USD DAC/AMPs.

If the bass and the midrange of Mojo are very natural, the treble is slightly too smooth to be called perfectly natural, instead, treble-lovers may not find what they are looking in Mojo. The articulation and detail in the treble are quite excellent, but Mojo doesn't have any hint of sibilance, and no grain either, so the texture in the treble may feel a touch too smooth. The treble has one of those experiences where you can't say you were unhappy, though, because it has all the detail you'd like, and it is one of those fatigue-free trebles that you would want to listen for longer.



I said in my video review that the dynamics weren't quite that impressive on Mojo, but after more listening to it, I notice now that I grew a bit too used to the dynamics of a 2000 USD system, and this is why I felt a bit underwhelmed by Mojo, now that I had more time to analyse it, it is in line with other similarly priced DAC/AMPs in terms of dynamics, like iFi xDSD and such. In fact, Mojo's dynamics aren't the highlight simply because it sounds natural, it doesn't lack dynamics, rather, it doesn't place a strong emphasis on them either, it simply strives to be as natural as possible, with a touch of smoothness and warmth, that enables a really long listening session, after which you can feel about zero fatigue.



Potable Usage

The portable usage of Mojo is more or less average, because although it has a good battery life, it has a long charging time, and it isn't the most easy to stack with a smartphone. Something like iFi xDSD can use a short, simple OTG cable that's easy to find in most shops, while for Mojo, you either need to look for a special Type-C to microUSB, or microUSB to microUSB short cable, to connect it to a smartphone.

Furthermore, Mojo's shape isn't the most friendly for stacking, it is short, and quite thick, which means that with most smartphones, it will cover about half of the smartphone, although this leaves enough space for the headphone cable.



Now, the funny thing about Mojo is that a lot of people have been using it as a Desktop DAC/AMP. In fact, Mojo is the most widely used DAC/AMP for headphones, and even as a standalone DAC in music production, throughout Romania. Most music producers found that its versatility in driving both IEMs and Headphones, having a perfect phase, and the kind of smooth detail it has, being able to both reveal all details, and provide a clean sound at the same time, but without inducing fatigue, are all perfect abilities for a DAC in their setup. Indeed, I have seen a Mojo DAC/AMP on the table of almost all sound engineers / live mixing engineers / and music workers in general in Romania, and around the world, it looks like this is quite a nice reference DAC/AMP that they use for their process, and well, if they consider it both fit and perfectly fit for music production, it should also be nice for music listening as well.

The thing is, most people seem to have taken it out of its intended usage scenario, and instead of using Mojo portably, as it was intended, it is widely used for desktop DAC/AMP setups. Even I have used almost half-half on-the-go and on desktop, simply because it has the power, depth, clarity and detail to make a nice desktop unit, but the physical thickness and overall shape, combined with the microUSB port makes it a bit less likely to be used as a portable unit.



As far as its driving power goes, Mojo can safely drive HIFIMAN Sundara, which is pretty much the hardest to drive portable I'd use while on-the-go. It struggles a bit with HIFIMAN Arya and HE6SE, but then again, those are not what you'd normally take while on-the-go. Mojo can drive Kennerton Thror really well, as well as Audeze LCD-MX4, and it pairs beautifully with Beyerdynamic Amiron, but with IEMs it shines just as bright, being able to give an excellent sound to Beyerdynamic Xelento, Dita Fidelity, Fealy and Dita Truth, Campfire Atlas, and many more.

What came to me as a surprise is that it was able to handle also CrossZone CZ-1, which is fairly hard to drive well.

This eans that Mojo isn't afraid of either hard-to-drive headphones with low or with high impedance, and this indicates that both its voltage is very clean and clear, and so is its current, both headphones that need a good voltage and which have a high impedance sound good, and the same can be said about IEMs and headphones with really low impedance that hunger for large amounts of current.

All in all, the portable usage of Mojo is mixed with the desktop usage, but it is a very versatile and capable DAC/AMP, and the fact that it can be used equally well in both modes, and that it can drive pretty much all of the normal headphone under 1000 USD, and even headphones and IEMs that are true flagships or Summit-Fi makes Mojo a truly versatile product.



Comparisons

Chord Mojo has to stand well against three main competitors to be worth its asking price, and being a portable product, all of those are portable DAC/AMPs. The 3 products it has to stand well against are iFi xDSD (400 USD), FiiO Q5 + AM05 (450 USD), and iFi iDSD Micro Black Label (500 USD). There are other interesting DAC/AMPs out there, but almost all questions and inquiries about Mojo were about comparisons with those three, and so I'll be focusing on those.



ChordMojo vs FiiO Q5 (AM05) - Things start to get funny as soon as you start comparing Mojo to other devices, because, besides the sonic quality, how practical a device is, comes into play. Q5 + AM05 from FiiO is pretty much the versatility master of DAC/AMPs, it is pretty much the most versatile one, it has both the power and the abilities to be named as such, it has Line Out, Bluetooth, multiple AMP modules, and it has the shape that makes it perfect to stack to a smartphone. Furthermore, Q5 also comes with all the cables required to connect it to pretty much anything, making it a better package as well. Where things start to get interesting is at the sound level, because Mojo has a different sound, Q5 with AM05, which is the best configuration for Q5 will be wider, considerably more neutral, and have similar note decay to Mojo, but at the detail and micro detail level, Mojo reveals more details and micro details than Q5. Mojo is also more dynamic and deeper, but I'd say that Q5 is a touch more crisp in the treble, where Q5 is smoother and more fatigue-free.

Chord Mojo vs iFi xDSD - iFi xDSD may take a few trophies home for its design and aesthetic, but when it comes to the package, it is also pretty nice, with all the cables and accessories necessary to use it included in the package. The battery life between xDSD and Mojo is quite similar if we're being honest, and so is the overall usage scenario, but xDSD has some tweaks, like the X-Bass and the 3D Soundstage tweaks that you can simply flick on or off with a button. When it comes to the overall sound, Mojo feels more detailed, more smooth, has a way smoother treble, but still with a natural amount of energy, xDSD feels a touch wider, while Mojo feels deeper and more layered, Mojo feels like it can expose certain details better, while xDSD feels like it has a slightly more versatile approach. The driving power is better on Mojo, and it can drive quite a few more headphones, louder, with better control, and can drive Sundara, for example, to its full potential, better than xDSD, although both Mojo and xDSD are pretty much dead silent with IEMs and low impedance headphones. It is probable, though, that users who invest so much in xDSD won't use the Bluetooth function on xDSD quite that much, so at the end of the day, the two features that xDSD has, and are quite important, are the 3D soundstage, and the X-Bass enhancements, and this is because sometimes just turning those on will make the EQ process of a headphone simpler. On the other hand, although for Treble, you may feel like Mojo is a touch smooth, for bass, its overall performance is smoother and yet more detailed, has more authority and is more powerful than xDSD, simply put, Mojo naturally drives headphones better (when talking about hard to drive headphones especially). Both xDSD and Mojo can be used as a full time desktop DAC, but only Mojo has 2 Headphone outputs. xDSD has a Balanced outputs, although the sound is very similar to its single ended output if you use it (they have a unique approach to balanced outputs). xDSD can decode MQA, while Mojo can't, but on this note, within my rather large collection of music, I have about zero albums available in MQA (including my Tidal library), so when deciding between the two, you should check whether you actually have any albums in MQA in your collection. At the end of the day, if you're looking for a more portable versatile device, that charges faster and which is a touch more versatile, then xDSD is a nice choice, but Mojo does overtake it in terms of overall technical detail, smoothness, and depth, and also in terms of driving power and control.

Chord Mojo vs iFi iDSD BL Micro - iDSD BL Micro is actually the one device on this list that's actually less portable than Mojo, and by a rather good margin, because it is both heavier, and it is also larger physically, although, it does have more raw driving power than Mojo. The sound of iDSD BL is different from Mojo, iDSD BL has a very different approach to music, with less emphasis on dynamics, more emphasis on depth, and with a considerably less forward and a much much more laid back presentation. This makes Mojo stand out as more dynamic, more punchy and more forward, with more detail, and judging by the fact that most people describe Mojo as slightly laid back, you should get an idea of where each of them stands. In terms of micro-details, both have good micro-details, but with the very laid back character of iDSD Micro BL, you feel like those micro-details are farther away from you, while Mojo brings them closer, and makes them slightly more articulate. The driving power of iDSD BL is considerably stronger than Mojo, but by the point you need that driving power, you're most probably standing at a desk rather than using either of them portably. Overall, iDSD Micro BL is an excellent device for audio portability, features a true line out, 3.5mm Aux input, it features one of the best DACs seen in a portable, can charge a smartphone, and can also take Coax signal input, making it really easy to recommend as a portable DAC/AMP. Mojo, on the other hand, kind of completes it, with a more forward sound, also taking in Coax input, but optical as well, having two Headphone Outputs, Optical Inputs, and also having a really nice battery life, the two DAC/AMPs, at the end of the day, feeling a bit more complementary, you're most probably in need of one or the other, but it is good to take into account that Mojo is quite a bit more convenient to take portably, while iDSD Micro BL not exactly.



Pairing

The pairing of Mojo is pretty much flawless with any Headphone and IEM unless they are exceptionally hard to drive or picky, and as such picking just 3 to write about in this review has been quite challenging, but I have selected Dita Fidelity, for its excellent resolution and clarity, for its analytical sound that will surely reveal Mojo's characteristics well, HIFIMAN Sundara, which I consider a true workhorse for portability, I actually use this quite often while on-the-go, and consider that Mojo and Sundara make a great pair (now that I had more time to listen to them), and also Audeze LCD-MX4, which is a true flagship that's beautiful to pair with pretty much anything for their enjoyable sound, and to spend more time with them. Sennheiser HD660S pairs just as nicely with Mojo, and so does Campfire Atlas and many others, but the ones above are my choices for today's review, as offering more pairings would make this a really long read.



Chord Mojo + HIFIMAN Sundara - Sundara makes an interesting pairing with Mojo because Mojo has all the power needed to drive Sundara, but above that, Mojo adds an amazing layer of micro-details and clarity, but also a nice depth to Sundara. The dynamics are as amazing as you'd expect from a well-driven Sundara, making this pairing really easy to recommend, especially to those who wanted a Sundara that has a more full and smooth sound, rather than their usual neutral-ish presentation.

Chord Mojo + Dita Fidelity - Dita fidelity is another example of headphone that makes a great pair with Mojo, and this is because Fidelity is one analytical IEM, and Mojo compliments their nature quite well if you wanted them to have a fuller, deeper and more smooth sound. Of course, you lose a bit of edge and sparkle when pairing Fidelity with Mojo rather than with a very neutral DAC/AMP, but you gain quite a bit in smoothness and in overall enjoyment for long hours of listening, as otherwise an analytical sound can get a bit fatiguing after a while.

Chord Mojo + Audeze LCD-MX4 - LCD-MX4 is one of the best flagship studio monitoring / mastering headphones out there, created and designed by Audeze and made to be a statement in how good a Planar can be for monitoring, mixing and mastering. Mojo has all the power needed to drive LCD-MX4 quite well, and also pairs well with them in terms of sound, giving them a deep and precise sound, and enhancing their already smooth signature to allow you to work for many hours in a row to get that perfect mix / master you've been looking for. The details of this pairing are quite great, and so are the dynamics.



Value and Conclusion

Chord Mojo has been one interesting DAC/AMP to review and you can understand both its price tag, and the reason why it is so widely used, just a bit better now. The fact that it stood the test of time so well, having been released quite a while ago, without dropping in price much, and still being not only considered, but also bought by many, shows that it provides a fair performance for its price.



The package is very basic, and I can't say I'm quite satisfied, there are 100 USD DAC/AMPs that come with more, but to be fair, besides some rubber bands, and a silicone band separator, which isn't even absolutely necessary, there's very little that you could desire for more with Mojo. It is probably a good idea to purchase high quality cables for Mojo anyways, and an OEM probably wouldn't have been quite as good as a good aftermarket cable, but still, Mojo will not win any competition for its package.

The build quality is extremely solid, Mojo has a nice touch finish, it doesn't get scratched easily, and even after taking it out during rain, snow, storm, and sandstorm, it has zero scratches and works as new. Pretty great job from the guys at Chord. The software is also pretty much rock stable, and although it charges a bit slow, it provides good battery life, and its operation is hassle-free.



The colored balls of Mojo are fun to use, and I don't mind a bit of color in my DAC/AMPs, and if you walk a lot late at night, they make a good flashlight, although I'm not sure they were designed as such. The volume and driving power is enough for pretty much all your typical and even for most hard to drive and special headphones, bar the 2-3 in this world that you wouldn't take outside anyways (this is keeping in mind Mojo is Chord's Portable DAC/AMP).

Chord Mojo sounds pretty majestic, with a natural sound through and through, a great depth and weight to its music, a slightly forward yet smooth and extremely detailed midrange, and a fatigue-free treble that still bears all the detail and clarity it should have, but has zero fatigue. The soundstage is natural in size, and the dynamics are quite amazing for its price point, making Mojo a really nice overall DAC/AMP.



At the end of the day, if you're looking for a well-built, portable DAC/AMP that you can also use for your desktop setup, which has two headphone outputs, which has USB, Optical and Coaxial input, which has a good amount of driving power and is extremely versatile, with a really natural, yet incredibly detailed sound, you should check out Chord Mojo, as it may become your next music companion, as it did even with a ton of music industry workers and other music lovers.



Full Playlist used for this review

While we listened to considerably more songs than those named in this playlist, those are excellent for identifying certain aspects of the sound, like PRaT, Texturization, Detail, Resolution, Dynamics, Impact, and overall tonality. We recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you're searching for new most, most of them being rather catchy.

Tidal Playlist

https://tidal.com/playlist/64555551-ec3c-4279-ae44-248fdfcf6c4b

Song List

ats - Gamma Ray Burst: Second Date
Eskimo Callboy - Frances
Incubus - Summer Romance
Electric Six - Dager! High Voltage
Kishida Cult - High School Of The Dead
Dimmu Borgir - Dimmu Borgir
Breaking Benjamin - I Will Not Bow
Thousand Foot Krutch - The Flame In All Of Us
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.
Infected Mushroom - Song Pong
Attack Attack - Kissed A Girl
Doctor P - Bulletproof
Maximum The Hormone - Rock n Roll Chainsaw
Rob Zombie - Werewolf, Baby!
Escape The Fate - Gorgeous Nightmare
SOAD - Chop Suey
Ken Ashcorp - Absolute Territory
Machinae Supremacy - Need For Steve
Ozzy Osbourne - I Don't Wanna Stop
Crow'sclaw - Loudness War
Eminem - Rap God
Stromae - Humain À L'eau
Sonata Arctica - My Selene
Justin Timberlake - Sexy Back
Metallica - Fuel
Veil Of Maya - Unbreakable
Masa Works - Golden Japang
REOL - Luvoratorrrrry
Dope - Addiction
Korn - Word Up!
Papa Roach - ... To be Loved
Fever The Ghost - Source
Fall Out Boy - Immortals
Green Day - Know The Enemy
Mindless Self Indulgence - London Bridge
A static Lullaby - Toxic
Royal Republic - Addictive
Astronautalis - The River, The Woods
We Came As Romans - My Love
Skillet - What I Believe
Man With A Mission - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Yasuda Rei - Mirror
Mojo Juju - Must Be Desire
Falling Up - Falling In Love
Manafest - Retro Love
Rodrigo Y Grabriela - Paris
Zomboy - Lights Out
Muse - Resistance
T.A.T.U & Rammstein - Mosaku
Grey Daze - Anything, Anything
Katy Perry - Who Am I Living For
Maroon 5 - Lucky Strike
Machinae Supremacy - Killer Instinct
Pendulum - Propane Nightmares
Sirenia - Lithium And A Lover
Saving Abel - Addicted
Hollywood Undead - Levitate
The Offspring - Special Delivery
Escape The Fate - Smooth
Samsara Blues Experiment - One With The Universe
Dope - Rebel Yell
Crazy Town - Butterfly
Silverstein - My Heroine

I hope my review is helpful to you!

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Contact me!











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Intro >
 

For all head-fi users and visitors, it'd be a surprise for me if they haven't come across the Mojo ever, in the last six months or so. The amount of threads and discussion on this one device has been huge.
For the uninitiated though, the Mojo is a portable DAC/amp by Chord Electronics that takes digital audio input from your smartphone, computer or DAP (Digital Audio Player) and outputs a superior quality audio signal to two 3.5mm headphone jacks. The digital inputs are USB and Coaxial, and there's a line level output option set by jointly holding down both volume buttons when powering on the device. The technical specifications are available on many a website, including Chord's own, and I shall avoid describing them again here.  

 

But do read through all the research and development involved in the custom DAC implementation based on FPGA programming done by its creators, as it’s a very interesting and informative discussion in itself. 
 
Yours truly was provided with the Mojo by my good friend @raghavsomani of Headphone Zone (India) for a couple of weeks; I duly picked it up from their office in Mumbai, and spent the two weeks of my holiday at my hometown in Kerala in blissful happiness.

 
So big thanks to them for giving me the opportunity to listen to this wonderful piece of gear in exchange for my honest opinion and thoughts.
 

 

Build/ Size >

 

This is a diminutive little device, all 'aircraft grade' aluminum, and is truly bulletproof, in my humble opinion. Not that I've tested it, but I certainly feel so, and invite you to take out that shotgun, and fire one into the Mojo. Okay, please don't. It still might survive unscathed though.
 

 
 
Above: The Mojo hooked to my FiiO X3 1st gen using the L16 interconnect via coaxial. Listening done mainly with Fidelio X2.
  

 

Moving on, it fits very comfortably when held in one hand, and is a welcome departure from the usual rectangular brick shape for dacs that has become now commonplace, barring the Sony PHA series, and maybe a couple others. The 'Made in England' label is an added reassurance of the build quality. 

 

The most striking feature, apart from the glowing orbs of course, is that it has all subtly rounded corners, and the matte finish adds to a surface that is very touch friendly in my opinion. I wish Chord included some sort of a case in the box, but there are a few available for purchase separately. 

 

As far as looks go, it's a no-holds-barred approach that Chord have adapted, sticking to their tradition, and I personally find it attractive. YMMV though. 

 

 
Sound >

 

Now for the all important aspect, that outweighs all other features as far as I'm concerned. Put simply, it sounds, wait for it, just brilliant.  

 

What makes it brilliant for me are a combination of many different aspects of the sound that when compared to other devices in its class, it just edges ahead in my opinion.  

 

The Mojo has a slightly warm sound signature, meaning that the mid range frequencies and sounds get that slight preference, if one may call it that, ahead of the lower and treble frequencies. But this isn't to say the bass or treble regions are recessed by any means. On the contrary, the bass and treble sounds have class leading extension and definition, to my ears. And for me the winning feature in favor of the Mojo is, in one word, natural.  

 

My continual quest for the best sound possible at the best price has begun to define itself more clearly after using the Mojo. I've realised that rather than looking for the most detailed, most resolving, and most 'fun' sounding devices or combinations, my ideal target sound is making me look for the most 'natural' and 'realistic' sounding device or setup. This is my goal. But this statement has an inherent and fundamental problem; what exactly is the natural sound of an instrument? How 'real' can one get in terms of an instrument or voice? The word 'timbre' is used to describe the tone of an instrument as heard, compared to when its played live in front (or side, depending on recording of course) of the listener. 

 

Earlier when I had the FiiO X7 for review I had thought that its timbre was the most realistic I had heard up till then. Added to this its slightly enhanced treble made acoustic guitars among others sound as natural as I'd heard. But there was that slight enhancement in the treble that still retained the X7's 'digital' roots, if one may call it that. 

 

Recently I purchased the iBasso D14 'Bushmaster' dac-amp, and have been running it through coaxial out of my FiiO X3 1st gen. I'm thoroughly satisfied with its sound; detailed, uncolored, fairly neutral IMO. But having the Mojo made me realize that the D14, in spite of being very detailed, clear, and uncolored, was still not as natural sounding. Though there was no flaw or lack of detail in the D14 that I could pick, it just wasn't that 'involving' as the Mojo. The D14 though, at its current price of 199$ US, is a brilliant performer by itself, and its no surprise that its preferred by many over the sound of the DX90 DAP. 
 

 
 
The iBasso D14 'Bushmaster' is no slouch

 

 
The Mojo, on the other hand, retails for a higher price of 600$ US, and is almost on par pricewise with the FiiO X7.  Comparing these two, I believe the Mojo has better matchability with a higher number of headphones and IEMs with varying sound signatures, whereas the X7 would suit listeners who prefer their sound to be slightly enhanced in the treble, or those looking to balance out overly warm headphones.  

 

But to my preferences,  the Mojo is the winner, because every little detail seems effortlessly retrieved,  instruments and vocals sound more 'real', and it has gotten me that bit closer to, what is to my ears, that ideal sound reproduction.  

 

 
Value/ Conclusion >

 

At its price, I feel that currently it is the best value for a portable source device in terms of sound quality alone. And to get an even better sense of realism than that offered by the Mojo, I would think one's wallet would have to start getting unreal, real soon. 
 

 
Thanks for reading, folks.
 
Cheers & happy listening.

 
Introduction:
I made some changes just before I was sent the Mojo for review that really made this review into a David vs. Goliath and old vs. new matchup.  The mojo is the latest technology, fits in the palm of your hand and runs off a battery.  My Zdac and Lyr 2 setup is big, hot, sucks power from the wall and relies on older technology.  The Zdac was released in early 2013 and the Lyr relies on tubes which have been around since the beginning of the 1900s.
 
I really enjoyed my short time with the Mojo and want to say thanks to Todd for putting this review tour together.    
 
Disclaimer:
I was sent a Mojo in exchange for my review by Todd The Vinyl Junkie (TTVJ).  I have no connection to TTVJ or Chord other than receiving the Mojo for review.  It went on to the next reviewer after my week with it. 
 
About ME / My Listening Style:
I am not a critical listener; I don’t find enjoyment in listening to music and trying to listen for every last detail.  When I listen to music I generally am sitting in a comfy chair, or in bed, and relaxing and enjoying the music.  I appreciate detail and accurate reproduction but tend to lean towards a warmer more laid back sound.  In the past I have had a pair of DT880s which while very technically competent were just to bright and aggressive, I much prefer something like my ZMFs or the HD650. 
 
 
 
 
Hardware & Specifications:
 
Packaging/accessories**:
Packaging is pretty simple, the Mojo comes in a two part box with a bit of foam to cushion in transport.  No frills.  The side of the inner box displays a road map of sorts to the color indications for the bit rate display.  The only accessory is a USB cable to hook the Mojo up to a source and/or power for charging. 
 
You do not get a power adapter, and you will need one.  Chord recommends 1A output form a 5v source to charge the Mojo.  Many USB ports will not provide the needed power to charge the Mojo (it will charge, but take forever).   I used a iPad charger that I had as a spare.   The iPad charger puts out 2.1 amps at 5v and charged the Mojo overnight.  I put the Mojo on the charger each night and in the morning it was charged and ready to go (as indicated by the charging light not being illuminated)
 
**This was a review sample, it had been passed to 5-6 other reviewers before I got it, so your results may vary.
Technical Specifications:
 
These are pulled from Chord’s site at: http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/mojo/
 
 
A few specifications I didn't find on Chords site:
 
Size:
For Americans: 3.23” W, 2.44”D, 0.85”H
For the Rest of the World: 82.8 W, 62D, 21.5H
 
The tiny feet on the bottom add a bit to the eight but its not much. There is also a picture below comparing it to my iPhone 6s.
 
Weight:
6.1 Ounces
 
Objective Measurements:
For a good summary of the objective measurements of the Mojo see the link below:
http://ohm-image.net/data/audio/rmaa-chord-mojo-24-bit
 
 
 
Using the Mojo:
I would recommend reading the manual while your mojo is charging for the first time.  There is some good info and its brief but provides some important details on use.  A lot of people are suggesting a 10 hour minimum first charge, not sure where it came from but seems to be going around, the manual is silent on it. 
 
 http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/mojo/manual/Mojo-User-Manual.pdf
 
Build
The Mojo’s chasis is two pieces of aluminum held together by 8 screws on the bottom.   It is a really solid piece and should last a long time. After going through the hands of a number of other reviewers and being shipped all over the country it looked like new to me, no scratches and finger prints wipe off with a t-shirt. The little orbs/balls are actually free floating in the holes and can spin around.  Not sure if anything can get behind them and cause an issue but as long as you keep your hands relatively clean I cannot see it being an issue.  All the jacks feel solid and don’t provide any wiggle or feel loose. 
 
Features
Most of the Mojo’s external features are pretty self-explanatory.  There are two headphone outs which is unique but everything else is pretty normal, except for those glowing orbs. 

 
 
Those little orbs tell you a few details during playback, and perform there functions as noted in the picture above. 
The power orb displays the sampling frequency being fed to the DAC by your player of choice using the colors below:

The volume buttons also display a range of colors depending on the volume settings in use.  There appears to be three stages of the volume indication.  From zero the Mojo runs through the color field above quickly and then starts back over at red and moves to light purple.   There is a final stage where only the + volume button will change colors.  I found with my headphones I was always in the second section of volume indication and typically was in the dark blue range with my ZMF’s.  With the M6 Pros I was in the second volume section but stayed below the yellow/green range.  When just wanting some background music I was in the first section in the light purple.
 
 
 
Use
I scrolled through the user’s manual before the Mojo was sent to me and got a basic understanding.  Hold the power button for two seconds to turn on and wait for the faint click and its ready to go.  The power ball cycles through the colors as it starts up. 
 
To use the Mojo as a DAC only and provide a 3V line out output you just click both volume buttons right after the Mojo powers on. 
 
I found coarse volume adjustments to take too long either by clicking the ball or holding it down.   However, I found fine adjustments to work nicely by giving the ball a few clicks.  I tend to flip the volume down if I need to talk to someone rather than pause a track so a quick dial is my preference, or a mute button.
 
Via USB on the Raspberry Pi it was plug and play.  RuneAudio recognized the Mojo and displayed Mojo in the list of output devices.  On all of my Windows PCs the drivers installed without issues (Windows 7 and Windows 10). 
 
Optical was plug and play also, once I remembered to enable my optical out.  24/96 content played with no issues and was reported correctly by the power balls color.  24/192 gave a subtle click/pop in my left ear each time I started the song.  I don’t have another optical source to test so this may be the fault of my motherboard.      
 
How does it sound?
I used the following gear, other than the Mojo, during this review:
 
 
 
 
Music is ripped from a CD in either ALAC or FLAC at 16/44.1 unless otherwise noted.  Player and setup is noted above in each source listing.  
 
I received the Mojo on Saturday and did some general listening over the weekend.  I spent a lot of time on the Mojo and found it worked nicely as a portable solution.  With one power cord (Pi power source) I can move my entire listening rig up to the bedroom or into a quiet room in the house.  The battery lasted through each session (up to 4 hours).  Initial impressions going back and forth with the Zdac/Lyr stack is the Mojo is a bit more controlled and the stack doesn’t have the same snap/control to the sound.  The tubes in the Lyr were brand new and only had ~10 or so hours run time.  They were left on over the weekend and by Monday things seemed a bit more evenly matched. 
 
Steeley Dan – Aja: I went back and forth a number of times on this one trying to hear differences.  I ‘think’ I could hear a very slight difference in the drum stick click Steve Gadd makes around the 5:00 mark.  After a number of times back and forth the Mojo has a more realistic click to me, that is splitting hairs though.  Overall the two systems are pretty evenly matched using this sample.  I had to look over and see which device I was plugged into twice during this stint so that tells you how close the two setups are.
 
Steely Dan – Deacon Blues: Concentrating on the saxophone after around the 4:00 mark my preference is the Zdac/Lyr stack, I think the stack is just a bit smoother and more pleasant to listen to.
 
Beastie Boys – Slow Ride: Listened to the first ~25 seconds of this song over and over again on both setups.  I call this one a draw.  The Mojo is really impressing me here as I turn both setups a bit so see how bass is handled.  There is a heavy bass line after the initial percussion intro.  The Mojo holds its own even as I push the volume.
 
Dire Straits – Money For Nothing: This is a quieter track overall when it comes to recording level and I like to listen to it pretty loud.   The Mojo struggled on this one; it was pushed into the light purple/white volume levels and couldn’t produce the bass the Lyr was at this volume level.  The Lyr is just really hitting its stride and sounds fantastic, switching to the Mojo and the bass suffers and overall things are sounding a bit harsh.  The Lyr is capable of putting over 5 times the wattage into the ZMFs as the Mojo, I was surprised it took this long for me to run into a test where the Mojo ran out of power compared to the Lyr, really says something about the Mojo.  
 
Eagles - Hotel California (Hotel California): The Mojo is lacking in bass during the intro.  The Lyr is big and full on the bass line but the Mojo is losing the bass behind the rest of the song as the volume goes up.
 
Fleetwood Mac - The Chain (Rumors): This is another song with a lower recording level.  The Mojo is getting pushed into the third volume stage if I want to turn this one up.   The Mojo and the ZMFs do not pair well as you push the Mojo, it becomes a bit shrill and the bass and mids really suffer. Turning it down the Mojo pulls ahead, I'm liking the Mids from the bass guitar better. Although very close I would say the Mojo is keeping everything separated a bit more.
 
Eagles - Hotel California (HD Tracks 24/96):  I call this one a draw.  I really pulled this track up to listen to what I assume is a brush on the snare drum at a few points in the song.  It's in the lower back of the left ear on both setups. Both setups were equal to my ears in placing it and separating it from the rest of the track.  That placement that is almost behind your ear is something I first noticed with the Zdac, when I had my Modi, it was there but didn't have the same placement and desperation.
 
Daft Punk - Get Lucky (256 AAC) I focused in on the claps in this song.  The have a good presentation in both width and sound on both setups, I'm calling this on a draw.
 
After running into the power issue on the Mojo I remembered that you can set it to a DAC only mode and get a 3V line out.  I set this up to take the amp out of the equation and ran both the Zdac and Mojo through the Lyr.  
 
I spent a lot of time switching between the two while listening to Hotel California (Hell Freezes Over) and a few tracks from Rumors by Fleetwood Mac.  I would think the Mojo was pulling more detail and the Zdac had a bit of a veil but then I would switch back and hear the same from the Zdac.  I tried both longer listening sessions and rapid switches and came to the conclusion that any differences are so small that I would never be able to blindly say this is the Mojo and this is the Zdac.  That result really goes for the whole review I did, except when the Mojo runs out of power and the differences become very evident.
 
Conclusion:
 
I really enjoyed the Mojo, for its size and the fact that is runs off battery it really punches above its weight.  Being able to move my entire listening rig up to the bedroom by unplugging one cord and carrying it all in one had was pretty nice.  However, I think for power hungry cans or inefficient cans I would be sure to get a demo and compare it to a desktop setup.  During my listening tests, when combined with a track with a lower recording level the Mojo would struggle.
 
When I didn’t run into power issues the Mojo was wonderful sonically.  There is a lot of detail and a smoothness that I really enjoyed. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a portable setup.  I held its own against a power hungry desktop setup and only rarely ran out of power and started to struggle.  
 
 
 
Other Reviews:
http://www.head-fi.org/products/chord-mojo
 
 
Other Reviews from me:
http://www.head-fi.org/users/365069/reviews
 
Long Term Update (12/14/2016):
 
I sold my Mojo last night and figured I would post up in my review on why I sold it.  
 
The first really isn't the Mojos fault but something to think about when buying one.  I constantly ran out of battery and/or found it dead.  I would have it on and forget to turn it off and come back to find it dead.  Again, not the Mojos fault at all, however, from a dead state you have to wait for a small charge before the Mojo will fire up and let you listen.  I had it fire up a few times and then die until it had a better charge.  This is with a 2.1 amp Apple iPad charger too, so no lack of current.  This and over extended absences the Mojo will self drain and you end up with short listen times or it can be completely dead.  
 
Second was the static.  I beleive this is linked to the lack of galvanic isolation on the board (which was done to save battery life).  So when next to my iPhone 6s or next to a Raspberry Pi with Wifi, (both of which I use as a source) you could get static from the EMI.  Using longer cables and getting the Mojo away from the device can help.  I would also get the same result on Optical when charging, which I assume is for the same reason.   
 
I still think the Mojo is a great product, however, I didn't end up using it in a mobile application as much as I thought I would and that combined with the annoyances above let me to move on.  I think Im going to stick with a all in one product for the ease of moving around my house, however, it will be powered by mains and not a battery. 

I was lucky enough to be elected by CHORD as captain for the Belgium review tour.  What a responsibility   
 
Intro:
 
As the happy owner of a HUGO that is my goto AND my Desktop DAC since 2 years, I will also try to compare the Mojo with it’s bigger brother.
 
I have always be impressed by HUGO’s precision and clarity, but also I found it sometime a little too analytic and not enough engaging (don’t shoot…this is my personal opinion, other may differ).  However, today I still have to find a desktop DAC in the Hugo price category that is worth to be bought to replace my HUGO.  Only the purchase of a DACs in the + 6000 € and above can be justified IMO to replace HUGO in my desktop setup.  This is why I am now waiting for the DAVE and also testing the TotalDAC D1-Dual.
 
We will see how the MOJO’s sound signature ’s compare …
 
For the testing, I have used the following arsenal of headphones:
 

1. JH Roxane customs IEM
2. Fostex TH900
3. Ultrasone ED5
4. HifiMan HE1000
5. Astell & Kern TP5
6. OPPO P3
7. Piano Forte VIII

 

1. And I also connected it to my desktop tube amp Eddie Curent EC445.

 
 
As for sources, I tested it with my AK100 (optical in) and my Auralic ARIES (USB in)
 
 
We will see which Headphones the Mojo can drive correctly and which one he can’t (being able to bring the Headphone’s sound to a high volume (SPL) do not means that the amplifier drive the headphone to it’s full potential.  The headphone need power AND also authority and Control to have some weight (relatively speaking) and some blood and guts to it’s sound).
 
Packaging and design: 
 
The Mojo comes in a very small and tight package, with inside a very short and nice Micro-USB cable that will be used for charging as well as for connection to a Computer.  There is no manual but a starting guide is printed under the box and a sample frequency color list is printed on the side of the box.  So…. Don’t throw away the box 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
The MOJO is much smaller than the HUGO (82x60x22mm). 
 
It is a perfect fit with most small DAP like my AK100 (same footprint) and even to built a resonably compact 3 pieces "electrostatic" brick with a SHURE 1500.
 
  
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Also, the UI has been improved, correcting some very irritating design aspects of the HUGO:

1. The microUSB plugs are NOT recessed like in the HUGO, so there will not be any cable fitting problems like it happened to me with my HUGO
2. The tiny-tiny recessed on/off switch has been changed for a big push-button
3. The volume wheel (that I still have not get used to after 2 years)  is now replaced by the 2 other up or down push buttons. Of course, those buttons change color to show indication of sampling rate and volume.  This is Hugo in heritage…

 
The only usability loss is the abandon of the ¼ headphone Jack that I have always used with my HUGO to drive my full size headphones.  Here « only » two 3,5 mm jacks.  But I guess the target of the MOJO is more portables headphones than with the HUGO.
 
 
Usage:
 
Being made of Aluminum, the Mojo is very rugged and heavy in the hand. Build quality is topnotch and reassuring.
 
I have measured 10 hours battery operations (using the Roxane IEM) and 5 hours charging.  So, battery last very long, but also needs a long charging time…
 
OUTPUTs : Like it’s big brother, there is no dedicated « line out » but the headphone jack can be used for this purpose since it is very clean (in fact there is no real headphone amp in the path. The headphone are directly using the signal from the DAC) and it can be set to a determined line-level output (3 volts) by de pressing the two volume buttons at power on.
 
INPUTs: There are 3 inputs: MicroUSB, coax S/PDIF and Optical Toshlink PLUS there is a separate Micro-usb port for charging. There is no Line-in (analog), only digital-in, so the MOJO cannot be used as an amplifier only.  It must be used as a DAC or DAC/AMP.
No cables are supplied besides the tiny micro USB cable.
 
As opposed to the HUGO, the input selection is automatic. There is no switch for this, which is very convenient.
 
The MOJO has no built-in storage, no screen interface, so it needs a DAP or another digital source to be used.
 
The Best Optical cable (IMO) comes from canada. It transmit 24/192 without any loss.
You can order the exact lengh and angle needed for your DAP/AMP combinaison.  This one is for my HUGO :
 

 
 
 
Sound:
 
The MOJO being released 2 years after the HUGO, Rob Watts has been able to fine-tune its sound signature through some minor alteration to the filters and to the programing code of the FPGA Chip. This may be the reason why I find it's sound a little bit smoother than the HUGO, which is a very good thing to me.  The Mojo offer a little bit more of the warmth that sometime lacks my HUGO while keeping its super high precision and focus.
 
On the other side, MOJO is weaker than the HUGO, which is really not a problem with portable headphones, but do not allow to drive my HE1000 or Ultrasone ED5 to their full potential (weaker not in term of SPL, but in term of impact and  “weight”)
 
Very good synergy has been found with my JH Audio Roxane, TH900 and OPPO PM-3. And also with the Piano Forte FP VIII which may be the best synergy...
 
  
 
 
 
And surprisingly, MOJO drives the HE1000 to a very high sound volume. Even if it lack some authority & soundstage, the sound is still acceptable;
 

 
If more power is needed : A very exotic set-up that provide some very good sound...but not the ultimate portability :  MOJO + Analog Square paper TUR-06 or TU-05  
 

 
 
 
 
 
With my tests tracks (pink Floyd: shine on your crazy diamond, Saint Preux: concerto pour une voix, Kelly Hogan: Dusty Groove, plus some Classical piano solo…), instruments positioning and separation are clean and focused.  Piano solos are wonderful and impactful, and I have rarely found pink Floyd so engaging. No needs for « special substance » here …  
 
Soundstage may not be at the level of desktop DACs, but this is not a problem to me, and can be compensated by the amplifier or the headphone.  The lack of the crossover feature, that is available with the HUGO, is also not a problem for me since ….I never used it with my HUGO.
 
I am sorry, I will not break down the bass, mids and treble as most reviewers do, I prefer to describe my experience as having been very engaging and never fatiguing despite the high amount of details provided. In some aspects the MOJO bring the warmth that the HUGO was lacking and that lead me to try some tube rolling on my Eddie current desktop tube amp. 
 
I thought that it was my Eddie current that was some how too sterile and analytical, but when connecting the MOJO to it instead of the HUGO, I realize that it was more the HUGO to blame than the tube Amp. On the other side, HUGO is more detailed and impactful.
 
 

 
 
As for portable use, which is the primary target of the Mojo, I find it really convenient, and easier to use than the HUGO, not only due to it’s diminutive size but also because some of the design flaw (recessed plugs, tiny switches, volume wheel…) have been corrected, while sound quality has been preserved.
 
All this do not mean that I do not appreciate my HUGO that has brought me hundreds hours of very happy listening, but the MOJO’s sound signature is may be a little more to my taste.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

DISCLAIMER
This is my first ever written review, and frankly I have no prior experience of writing a review for any kind of item unless you count that “Delivered on time. Item came in one piece. Good service” kind of sentences that you see all over each Amazon item. So I figured, what the heck, I might as well try to have fun with it while I’m doing it. All forms of comments or criticisms are welcomed as long as they are presented in a civilized manner. So yes you can slam me for possibly making the review longer than it should, or for it to be lacking content, or even just hating on that grammatical error that I do once in a while/pop up every sentence. But please, play nice.
 
Finally, I would like to thank Maurice (moedawg140) who gave me the encouragement to actually publish a review for once, Trev (Takeanidea) who vouched for me to be considered for this Mojo review tour and of course Levi (Musicday) for actually loaning his personal unit for me to review. Thanks guys.
 
*My first review and I already made a major mistake. Lesson learnt. Next time take pictures early on in the review especially if the unit is a loaner. I apologize for the lack of pictures and if you felt that the review was a word fest.
 
INTRODUCTION
When I first heard of Chord Electronics a few years ago, I was like “Whaaaaat? Don’t they make cables? So they finally found themselves venturing into DAC/Amps eh?” so you will probably understand how embarrassed I felt when I found out they were two different companies and Chord Electronics has already been in the scene before I was even born. Well, shame on me for being not well informed but they certainly have produced several outstanding products through the years; the first I know of was the Chord Hugo a few years back.
 
Now the Chord Hugo was infamous within my friendship circle of audio enthusiast back home, first for the size which honestly I still found rather quirky. It’s designed to be a portable DAC/amp but I found it just too bulky for me to be bringing it around unless I were lug it around stored inside my bag. So, portable it is not, but it is in fact transportable. Also it sold for a cool £1400, which at the time was the cost of my whole desktop and portable rig combined with change to spare. Yet, it has a sound that rivals even some desktop rigs, with enough juice to power up some of them power hungrier headphones, and basically pushed most if not all other portable rigs to the side in the race for supremacy. I don’t personally own one but I still remember that insanely detailed sound with an expansive soundstage that I could definite do with in my life. That amount of resolution and its way of handling the dynamics was simply unforgettable for a device designed to be portable, until you are reminded about the price tag which forces you to forget it.
 
In steps the new Chord Mojo. The Mojo, or Mobile Joy through some clever word play by the people working for Chord, is the brand new toy released to the market this year. I would say that it’s the first product that Chord actually designed to target not only the mid-level audiophile but also the general consumer who has some spare cash lying around for some neat new gear as the Mojo was designed not only to be used when paired with a digital audio player (DAP), our personal computer but also our smartphone. For £399 or $599, it promises to have Hugo-like sound with a much smaller price tag. Let’s see if it actually delivers.
 
SPEFICIATION
This is a place where I show my skills in copy-pasting. Here you go. Picture credits to Mython whom I took it from in the first page of the Mojo thread.
 
 
 
 
PHYSICAL DESIGN AND ACCESSORIES
How big is the Mojo? Its big brother, the Hugo was roughly the size of a mini tablet, slightly bigger than your average TOTL smartphone but not as big as say the iPad. The Mojo however probably resembles more like a fresh unopened deck of poker cards. But don’t let that size fool you as the Mojo actually packs some weight. Not saying it’s heavy but it’s rather a weight that makes it feel solid, helped by the fact the case is machined from a single solid block of aluminium.
 
It comes in the most unassuming of colours – black but stealth-looking it is not. Why? Firstly, there’s the Mojo name that was laser etched onto the case, making itself known to everyone what it is. Also, it comes with these 3 ‘balls’ that act as the power button and both volume up/down buttons. The power button illuminates different colours based on the sample rate of the input file, with red being the standard 44.1kHz and white being the new ‘everyone must have’ DSD. The volume buttons will also illuminate different colours based on loudness, with red being the softest while white is the loudest.
 
Some has criticized the device due to having the ‘balls’ but I have no issues whatsoever with the balls as the buttons. It’s designed well, feels great and makes you feel that each volume step while not significantly actually has a difference. And I’m glad they made it so that it’s actually buttons that feels tactile rather than a scroll wheel which at first I thought it was like when I first saw them on the Hugo. However I found something that I would change – the lights. I wished that the lights of the buttons could be switched off when in use but by this time I would think it is a Chord signature. The rubber feet below are a welcomed addition as I like that Chord has taken its own measures to help with scratch prevention.
 
The box it comes with is the most low profile product box from a major company I’ve seen so far. Small white box, with Chord Mojo being detailed on the box and can be seen when viewed at an angle. I do like the fact that they still have the technical specifications and general instructions written on the small box, along with the guide for the sample rate illumination. It comes packed with a short USB to Micro-USB cable and the Mojo. Nothing else. Not even a physical copy of the manual for the unit. Do take note that this is not my own unit so it might differ from yours.
 
Now I for one don’t really care if they supply a physical copy of the manual or not. Yes it’s nice to be able to just flip through the pages when you open the box but if Chord thinks it is more accessible in their product page then I have no complaints. It’s a pretty green initiative anyways. As for the cables remember this is Chord Electronics, not Chord Company. THEY DON’T MAKE CABLES. So expecting them to prepare every type of cable for every possible termination is just foolish. I do think that a micro-USB OTG cable should be provided so that it is just plug and play with your android smartphones if you have the right software installed. Yes I understand most audiophiles would just throw away the supplied cables for those fancy custom cables but this is also for those general consumers. As for the Apple cables, well you have to find a CCK cable anyways so finding an extra cable is part of the job. Sorry Apple fans.
 
USABILITY
Using the Mojo on my Windows laptop was fairly straight forward. Plug it in with the supplied cable then download the driver from Chord’s website, install it and you’re good to go. Foobar is my preferred media player of choice on my laptop and I love that once I finish installing the driver the asio driver is automatically set up although I did install Foobar’s asio drivers beforehand. I do face a problem that I’m not sure if anyone else faced which is that every time I try to SELECT a song from my playlist it’ll kind of skip the first 0.5 or less second of the song, though it does not happen when one song skips to the next in the playlist. Annoying at first but I didn’t really care as much as I usually just let my playlist go anyways.
 
In terms of raw power this little device does not lack any. Although I do not have any particularly hard to drive headphones in my arsenal, the hardest probably being my HE-400S, I don’t think it will not be able to power up any of the headphones you’re going to use it with especially on the go based on the specification given unless you use with them super power hungry ones like the Hifiman HE-6 and maybe the HD800/HD800s. I don’t think that will be the case as I’ve seen products with lower power that drives the HD800 although how well it drives it is another story. Just for the case for the people who actually run into the problem with driving their headphones, well then I would recommend a separate more powerful amp. Or a better recommendation would be to actually use your designed for desktop headphones to be use at your desktop.
 
I do wish that they actually considered a gain switch for this, even a simple two step gain. Using my most sensitive equipment readily available – my JH Audio Roxanne Universals, I found that some hiss could be heard when there’s no music playing. It is completely unnoticeable when in use but as again a stickler for detail I can’t help but want complete dead silence (at least to my ears) when I plug in my headphones. Having the ability to toggle it would probably help with that and still have enough power to juice up my other headphones.
 
Let me be clear: this unit gets warm. So no it doesn’t get blazing hot to touch, it gets WARM. I found it to be warmer when it’s charging compared to when it is in use, which is perfectly fine for me as I don’t expect myself to be holding onto the unit while using it let alone charge it. Even if I do have to use it like a handheld I find it still bearable, definitely not like the much hotter LH Labs Geek Out (V1) although both to the knowledge use an aluminium casing. The GO V1 is also tolerable but using the Mojo have me wondering why it dissipates more heat when its much smaller and for my case much lower in power output having used the GO100.
 
The battery on this unit was touted to be 10 hours and I believe this is true. I’ve been able to get about 8-10 hours roughly on any of my headphones at continuous use. Not sure if higher power headphones would affect this as all of my headphones used about the same battery power. Note that if you do use it with a DAP or a mobile phone it may lead to a larger strain than usual on the battery of the connecting device.
 
TEST GEAR
To give you all a basis for comparison, I’m listing the gear I’ve used during the process of the review with the unit. I’ll also include a few songs that I listened to although I think I listen to more than what will be stated.
 
Gear

1. Sennheiser HD25 1-II (Custom Cans Uber Mod)
2. Hifiman HE-400s
3. JH Audio Roxanne Universals
4. LH Labs Geek Out V2 Infinity
5.  

Music

1. Coldplay – Ink
2. Norah Jones – Don’t Know Why
3. Adele – Hello
4. Fall Out Boy – Dance Dance
5. Ed Sheeran – I See Fire
6. AC/DC – Back in Black
7. Hans Zimmer – Mombasa

 
My music preference is fairly wide although as you can probably tell my tendency is to lean towards modern side of things. Simply said I listen to all genres except heavy metal which is simply not my cup of tea.
 
Due to the limited time I have with the unit I felt that I would be rushing the comparison if it were to be made with my desktop rig or my Calyx M player. However I do regret that I wasn’t able to make a comparison with my iBasso DX90 player. I actually ordered a coaxial cable from fellow head-fier derGabe but I guess the cable just hasn’t arrived at the time of writing.
 
SOUND IMPRESSION
General Sound
Again, I stress that this is not my own unit. However, I believe that the unit has already gone through at least 150-200 hours of runtime based roughly on how many guys had their hands on it for at least a week to play around so it should be fully burned in by now, although by what method whether it’s regular music files or pink noise files I have no idea.
 
My first impression on the Mojo was that it was SMOOTH. The sound was so smoothly presented that it made me feel that every song playing was played so effortlessly. It is clear to me however that although it was one of the smoothest sound signatures of a DAC/Amp that I could remember for equipment at that price range this little device did not lack any dynamism. It is dynamic enough that I can sense people toe-tapping listening to this yet I wouldn’t say its aggressive enough to be forward sounding. If I were to paint a picture it would be that I’m sitting in between the middle of the concert hall. It’s not so much in your face punchy sounding stuff that you’ll get from the front row seats but you’ll still be able to enjoy the music and the hall’s acoustic.
 
Does the comparison to a concert hall’s acoustic suggest that the device has a wide soundstage? Absolutely. It is one of the widest soundstage I’ve heard from a DAC/Amp at this price range. I did not have a Hugo on hand for a comparison but the Hugo I would say have a wider soundstage. Yet to be able to get maybe 2/3 of that soundstage (how do you actually put a value on this sort of thing really) on the Mojo is simply astounding. It is also as detailed if not more detailed than most of the stuff you can get at this price range. Again it is not as detailed as the Hugo but to be able to hear those strums and slides on the guitar strings so clearly from a device (relatively) so small is amazing.
 
The sound signature would in general be of the neutral sounding amp, but I would say it leans towards the warmer side of things, definitely more warm sounding than the Hugo.  If the Hugo was this analytical, cold general with a keen eye for detail then the Mojo would be that warm, more engaging captain that sees most of the battlefield. This sort of sound also tend to mean that the Mojo would be the less fatiguing of the two but I do not recall either to be fatiguing at all.
 
What amazed me about the Mojo was actually simply how natural it sounded. Everything about the music whether its pace or timing just felt right to my ears. The bass was not bloated (thank CHORD for that) and it has enough extension and impact that I think suits a lot of my songs.  It also never sounds harsh to me on the treble, and the midrange is just right. Definitely not recessed although saying it was emphasised would also be wrong. Hence, it has this sense of balance that made it just sound natural.
 
If I had to choose one headphone of the three I tried to be the pair for the Mojo I think it would be the HD25. It was slightly too powerful for my Roxannes which although still sounds great made me feel that there was lack of finesse or control over the sound. A small little detail but that’s what makes it not a GREAT but only a GOOD pairing for me. The HD25 however, being the headphone that leans towards aggression the most among the three (I listen to my Roxannes only at the lowest bass knob setting) had this yin-yang thing going between it and the Mojo. Its somewhat like an aggressively spiced dish served in a restaurant being paired with a smooth tasting wine. The HE-400s, being the smoothest sounding one, was a good pairing too, but it was much like smooth on smooth. I guess what I would like to say is that the Mojo pairs well with most if not all headphones, even if all 100 of your headphones have contrasting signatures.
 
MOJO VS GEEK OUT V2 INFINITY
It is important to point out the fact that the model I own is the Infinity version, not the standard version of the V2. So for those who overwhelmingly preferred the Mojo over the V2 put your pitch forks away. I would have also preferred to compare the V2+ and the Mojo which share similar target markets in my eyes but alas that will not be the case this time. I should also point out that I only use the single ended output of the V2.
 
As the V2 does not have its own internal battery, it is much smaller in size when compared to the Mojo. In terms of weight, the V2 is much lighter due to not only its smaller size but also the material which was used to build the case which was 3D-printed. The V2+ will have a similar construction in terms of the case (though they are redesigning it at the time of writing) so I would assume it would be much lighter than the Mojo. It is simply unfair to judge the unit’s separate weight as one is basically plastic while the other uses a solid block of aluminium. Heat dissipation of the units is where it gets interesting. I initially assumed that it would run much hotter than the V2 but to my surprise it was quite comparable. Yes it is still hotter but not much as I would have thought based on the fact that it’s case is aluminium, where those with the Geek Out V1 made of similar material would know that it lead to a case of “Please be careful of this hot slab” at the side of your computer.
Using my Roxannes, I would listen to my V2 at the lowest gain setting on the FRM filter. The V2 has a slightly quieter noise floor compared to the Mojo. The hiss is louder and more noticeable on the Mojo but not by much considering its much higher output power compared to 2/3 of gain settings of the V2. I did try out the V2 at its highest gain setting but still found it to be quieter.
 
Soundstage was close but if I had to name one winner it would probably be the V2. That might be due to the lower hiss I felt that gives this impression that the soundstage is more spread out and more airy. Both the V2 and the Mojo leans towards a neutral sound signature but I would say that the Mojo is warmer than the V2. Although the V2 uses a Sabre DAC chip, it doesn’t have the traditional Sabre harsh glare that most of us are not too fond of. The Geek family of products probably has the smoothest implementation of a Sabre DAC I have ever experienced. However, it doesn’t sound as smooth as the Mojo. The V2 is noticeably sharper in sound, and while it is in no way fatiguing to me it is apparent that the Mojo would be the easier one to listen to. The bass impact on the V2 hits harder than that on the Mojo.  That kind of make it sound like a contradiction as I said the Mojo was the warmer of the two but I felt that the sharper sound of the V2 made that the sound of the V2 to be more balanced. They’re both equally as dynamic and natural sounding.
 
If I were to be asked for a recommendation of the two to someone on the street, I would probably lean my recommendation towards the Mojo. Again I stress that I use the V2 Infinity and this is important as that made the price difference to be a relatively small $100. For an extra $100, you would receive a unit that has a considerably much better made casing, one that you can be using on the go with very comparable sound quality. Also, you would be able to escape from the infamous customer service of LH Labs as you can (as far as I know) only get the Infinity directly from them now. The edge that I will give to the V2 is that it works far better with my sensitive IEMs so that might have to play a part in your consideration. The lack of a need of a connecting cable may also work better for you if you spend more of your music listening time on your laptop which you move around a lot.
 
FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSION
So now that I have returned the review unit, will I be getting one for myself? No. But not for the reasons you may be thinking of.  I agree that it represents great value in the market, with good value being something that is actually getting easier to find now but great value being that higher echelon of products, but it still cost £399 or $599. It is probably the cheapest item Chord produced thus far to my knowledge but that is not the kind of money a regular person would spend easily when he goes into a shop. And as a student that doesn’t earn squat except for an odd part-time job here or there that kind of money is simply hard to fork out myself. I certainly do hope that I can get a personal Mojo in the near future though.
 
I do think the Mojo can still grow. If the same components and sound quality can be incorporated into a music player with a comparable price tag it will become a complete game changer and would sell like hot cakes (not that it doesn’t already). I personally wouldn’t even mind if it is some sort of add-on module for a micro SD reader that makes the Mojo akin an iPod Shuffle. No screen, a few buttons just for simple navigation for pure musical bliss. I’m pretty sure most of us would still slam Chord for not making a full-fledged DAP if they go through with this recommendation but the same people would probably already be in love with the Mojo already. Sometimes you just can’t please everyone.
 
If you have yet to own a pair of decent headphones (no your $5 convenient store earbuds do not count) then I think the wiser choice would be to use this money to invest in one. If you do own a pair my suggestion would be to get a music player next like the FiioX3/X5/X7 or the iBasso DX50/80/90 because I personally think a separate DAP is better compared to using your mobile phone as your source. You may want a solution that can be used both on the go and at desktop situations which allows you to conserve your mobile phone’s battery for other uses (don’t want to upset the boss/missus for missing their calls) and some also believe that this kind of DAPs serve as a better transport for external DAC/Amps. But if you have both of those and still found that upgraditis nerve tingling and are searching for a device of this price range then the Chord Mojo will be at the top of my recommendation list. It has enough power to drive most of the headphones that are commonly available with sound quality that could easily serve as your desktop rig as well. Now, seriously, a Chord DAP though?