[Heartsmart]

After owning mojo for a year the Chord team have my respect. I will have to be without my mojo for a while and after the first day I already miss it. Mojo is without question the best investment I made in audio the last four years.

I'm confident that Chord have made the right decisions when creating Poly. It's a lot of money for many people including me. But I think Chord put in a great amount of work to make it happen.

I will save up for it because I think it will suit my needs. I seldom go anywhere without my phone. And I will not need cable to mojo anymore.

I'm really curious about what advantages we will have when mojo will get the signal direct from Poly. I personally believe that the signal can be negatively affected through cables and devices.

It's a exiting time to be in this hobby.

I wish you all the best!

 

[hifuguy]

So I use my Mojo everywhere: for on-the-road, at home on my speaker-based system and at home on my headphone-based systems. I was saving my pennies to get a MicroRendu and a super-cap-based power supply for maxing-out sound quality with Roon when at home. So now, along come Polly... so let's see. One one hand, Polly is way cheaper than a MicroRendu/power supply combo, plus it doesn't need a good USB cable. Polly is wireless, which is not  a requirement, but its kind of cool. With Polly, I can even walk around and still stay connected to Roon. On-the-road, there is the SD card's music plus the iPhone libraries and I actually have my phone with me just about always. A capable LCD control surface was never realistically in the cards given size and cost realities. So, pretty cool overall... I too wish it was just a bit cheaper, but it is impressive and it is a Chord/Rob Watts design. 
 
In terms of counterpoints/unknowns... just how good will the sound quality of Polly really be, compared to a MicroRendu/power supply? How good will the SD card sound compared to an iPhone with a CCK or from something like a HIFIBerry Pro, driven optically? With Polly, there's a lot of RF running around, which Rob has always talked about as being challenging (he likes the Toslink connection for its electrical isolation). Yet, it is Rob himself who also designed Polly... so if anyone can meet the challenge it would be him. I'm hoping he tells us all the gory details of how he addressed these concerns and how things compare sound-quality-wise really soon. In the meantime, Very few have heard Polly much less had the opportunity to critically compare the SQ of it to a MicroRendu with a good power supply. Lastly, I for one would love it if Rob or John could verify that Polly will appear as a full-fledged Roon Network device, and not just an Airplay device limited to 44/48khz. Only with the answers to these questions can the cost of the Polly be fairly evaluated. As for me, it all boils down to SQ, especially when used with Roon. The jury is still out... standing by for now.

 

[Dithyrambes]

I posted similar comment a few pages back. Yes, 100% completely agree.

that doesn't solve the non galvanized usb port...have to see if the sq is the same from usb input or sd card

 

[headwhacker]

   
 
Unit cost difference for a full TI SoC is $5.... with a 3x multiple you're talking about a $15 increase in retail price. And this comparing a 2.4GHz/5GHz 802.11 + integrated bluetooth transceiver with a simple rinky-dink 2.4GHz 802.11 transceiver chip... If I spent some time finding an apples-to-apples comparison, I'm sure I could narrow the price gap even more. 
 
The 2.4GHz spectrum is way too cluttered... and many home wireless routers do not have multiple radios to support bridged 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks (I bet a few do though).... 5GHz would have been a better solution.
 
I was really hoping your answer was going to be related to performance... That's disappointing. 

 
Yeah I avoid the 2.4Ghz channel whenever I can. I always get drop outs using this channel. Lets not forget Bluetooth also uses 2.4Ghz as well. 

 

[rwelles]

Like many, I experienced extreme sticker shock last night. The feature set is pretty broad, but the Poly is still a pretty penny.

By this morning, I had moved from shock to skeptical.

Now that a full day has passed, I've decided that, yes it might be worth but we need to "taste the proof of that pudding" as another member observed.

What surprised me even more than the price is the sheer amount of vehemence and distain that members have heaped upon Chord.

Yes, I too am disappointed by the price, but that is no reason to scorn this company. In the end, if this product is profitable for Chord, I'll be happy for them. If it doesn't add to the bottom line for Chord, I'm also confident they will learn from it and apply their improved understanding to make more outstanding devices.

John and Rob deserve better treatment in this forum than they have received thus far. Just my own opinion, of course...

I'm anxiously awaiting Jude's video and comments from users.

 

[Amalz]

FOR REAL!!!! £499
OVERPRICED

 

[headwhacker]

No your not correct in that assumption. The chipset for 5GHz costs about three times as much so you'd like us to make Poly even more expensive then I guess. Everyone has 2.4 GHz and will have for years to come so we made the right choice.

Everyone has 5Ghz as well (both N and AC). 2.4Ghz is always prone to interference, That means clicks and stutters on a streaming audio. It gets worse when you are streaming hi-res files starting with 24/96 and above.
 
You also have to consider the quality of the routers many people have. Even the best and more expensive routers are not immune, it's just how 2.4Ghz is right now. Even Apple devices experience stutters on a 2.4Ghz channel.
 
To be honest I like what you are doing with Polly. However, I am skeptical that streaming will be smooth considering your choice of the transceiver and at the price you are charging I'm sure the difference between a 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz chipset is pennies.

 

[Angular Mo]

Chord is not a software company.

As a software project-manager, I am relieved that Chord did not go down this road. It is very costly to build a player application with a good user-interface and to maintain it which means fixing bugs and being competitive with software phone users have become accustomed to.

I understand why they decided to play only content in an SD card, the performance would not be up to the standards Chord sets for itself. As it is, their hardware is performing a lot of processes for that last bit (pun intended) of PRaT or whatever you want to call their SQ.

For my experience, the CCK to micro USB cable is not the limiting constraint of portable usability, which for me is commuting by train. The limiting constraint is the form factor of the MoJo itself.

I suspect that for what they want to deliver the boards are as small as they know how to make them, so they stack them inside the device.... otherwise it would be just way too long.

Reality is setting in, and I have reached acceptance.

 

[Stillhart]

I would think connecting your phone to the Poly via wifi will use more battery life on your phone than just using it as a transport. The battery usage of my phone is pretty neglible when using it as a transport with the Mojo.

 
There are multiples ways to connect your phone to the Poly, including BT, which uses much less power than wifi.  And you're not constantly streaming data back and forth unless you're using your phone itself as a source (either local content on the phone or streaming content via Tidal, etc).  If you're using the Poly to play from the SD card or a DLNA server, the phone connects only to send the commands.  It's the equivalent of using your phone to stream Netflix via Chromecast, which has a negligible hit on battery life for me.
 

  I think that Poly is a good idea that has bad design choices.
 
1- SD Cards will soon be obsolete. Most people use Spotify and Apple Music. Audiophiles use Tidal and similar services which provide lossless and even high res (MQA) quality. I can say that Tidal CD quality is far better than the flac files which you get by ripping CDs in your computer. Tidal uses professional equipment and masters to create their library, not 500 USD computers. Thus, SD Card is pointless and will be obsolete in a couple of years.
 
2- Instead of the useless SD Card feature, by putting some work into it, this add-on could include a screen and a flash disk which would convert Mojo to a stand alone DAP.  It could use a specialized Android version.
 
I would pay 500 pounds then. I won't pay it just for a bit of convenience. You still have to use your phone to control music.
 
No offence... Just my thoughts. I'm sure there are many people who use SD cards and not Tidal etc.

 
What you're describing is literally a completely different product.  "I'm going to make my own amusement park.  With hookers!  And booze!  You know what, forget the amusement park!"  -B.B.Rodriguez
 
If the product isn't right for you, that's fine.  But their design choices aren't "bad" simply because they don't cater to your needs.
 
SD Cards are nowhere near obsolete, they're used in every DAP on the market and sizes are still being increased.  Tidal CD quality is exactly the same as ripped CD quality if you're using proper software.  And streaming on the go from a DAP only works if you have wifi with internet access.  Streaming on the go from your phone doesn't require that and playing from an SD card doesn't require that.
 
My point is simply that there are a lot of good reasons for their design choices if you look at it objectively.

 

[JACONE]

Unfortunately I can't get excited about Poly at this price point. 
 
Like [color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588)]Manny Pacquiao[/color], I'm out! 

 

[justrest]

 £499 really big disappointment for me. 

 

[TheTrace]

It's a cool idea and I respect the reason behind the pricing, but I simply just can't afford that. The mojo was something I got when I completely cleared my credit card last year, biggest purchase I've ever made (not saying much being that I'm in college still).

Love the mojo though.

 

[Tumyum]

  Why announce a product and not the price?  I know they already know what the MSRP will be so just announce the damn price.  Hell we've been waiting forever for this thing.

 
$600, same as the Mojo when it first came out. I was at CES today and confirmed by the staff.

 

[Tumyum]

  Unfortunately I can't get excited about Poly at this price point. 
 
Like [color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588)]Manny Pacquiao[/color], I'm out! 

I am exciting Poly helped wireless between my phone. It could also do some more stuff which is a bonus.... Best part is that I could put the Poly and Mojo in my pocket and forget about it. Getting annoy with phone + Mojo and always a damn micro usb cable in between. 

 

[Tumyum]

   
Yeah I avoid the 2.4Ghz channel whenever I can. I always get drop outs using this channel. Lets not forget Bluetooth also uses 2.4Ghz as well. 

I'm quite opposite. I enjoyed 2.4 more than 5.0. I paid fast gaming internet speed but with my house setup or whatever reason, 2.4 is best for me.