Chord Electronics ☆ Poly ☆ (wireless & microSD module for Mojo) ☆★►USEFUL INFO on 1st PAGE!!◄★☆

[alekc]

Well, looking at all those quite opposite opinions I guess need to think it over but thank you all for your feedback. Honestly speaking I can not imagine that company like Chord could release not once but at least twice so flawed streaming product. On the other hand I am quite happy with xDuoo as a transport so far so I do not have a strong urge to upgrade to poly, specially if it is not a flawless product.

 

[Yourmomm]

@alekc do it. Got a Poly recently- it is most excellent with everything I have thrown at it so far.

It is a truly amazing little thing!

Lucky for you. And I mean, "lucky". I doubt that your experience changes the perspective of the huge number of highly pissed off people in this forum, struggling with it, though, and nor should it. The OP asked a simple question: If he values his time, and emotional health, he would (unlike me) note the 48% one-star reviews on amazon (I've never actually seen such a poor review history for a product), and forget it.

Your positive experience matters little, to how many people have had such crappy experiences, with such a crappy product. Sure. He may be lucky, like you. But does he want to take this sort of a gamble with a >$1000 product, that even retailers are not willing to stand by?

48% one-star reviews. Just let that sink in for a bit....48%. Chord, if you're reading this, (and I'm sure you are), where is your shame?

 

[Yourmomm]

Oh, and some dude just PM'd me, here, letting me know he had exactly the same problems as me, with not only his poly, but also, its replacement under warranty, too. It gave me an idea. Can people please post their negative experiences (or pm me if preferred), so I can actually try to make the case at the small claims court that this is a poorly implemented product, not fit for purpose, and that replacements under warranty will not do anything to address the problems? This is the nub of my dispute, as they are trying to force a replacement on me, (which I dont want, I've wasted enough of my life and stress levels on this thing). It would be good to be able to demonstrate that retailers are forcing unwanted replacements on customers, rather than refunds, as I suspect they have been told to do by chord (my retailer has actually explicitly claimed this to me, but whether true or not, I have no idea).

I am particularly interested in any unresolved negative experiences anyone has had, involving unstable networking, stuttering, dropouts, and inability to connect to poly, and/or poly not appearing on their network, and stubbornly remaining invisible, despite fiddling for hours. Even more so, if you were then gaslighted by the retailer and/or chord, stating that these problems dont exist, and they are due to "user error", (I am a long-term roon user, so know my way around networked music streaming devices, thank-you, chord). I'll preserve your privacy if you pm, but I would encourage you to post publically, so everyone can see what a POS product this is.

 

[someyoungguy]

Oh, and some dude just PM'd me, here, letting me know he had exactly the same problems as me, with not only his poly, but also, its replacement under warranty, too. It gave me an idea. Can people please post their negative experiences (or pm me if preferred), so I can actually try to make the case at the small claims court that this is a poorly implemented product, not fit for purpose, and that replacements under warranty will not do anything to address the problems? This is the nub of my dispute, as they are trying to force a replacement on me, (which I dont want, I've wasted enough of my life and stress levels on this thing). It would be good to be able to demonstrate that retailers are forcing unwanted replacements on customers, rather than refunds, as I suspect they have been told to do by chord (my retailer has actually explicitly claimed this to me, but whether true or not, I have no idea).

I am particularly interested in any unresolved negative experiences anyone has had, involving unstable networking, stuttering, dropouts, and inability to connect to poly, and/or poly not appearing on their network, and stubbornly remaining invisible, despite fiddling for hours. Even more so, if you were then gaslighted by the retailer and/or chord, stating that these problems dont exist, and they are due to "user error", (I am a long-term roon user, so know my way around networked music streaming devices, thank-you, chord). I'll preserve your privacy if you pm, but I would encourage you to post publically, so everyone can see what a POS product this is.

Wow, I'd never seen those Amazon reviews before, brutal. I'm from New Zealand but recently moved to Shanghai, curious who the retailer you bought it from is? (although understand you might not want to mention them).

For what it's worth I'm a recent Poly purchaser (see a bit back in the thread) but am now looking to sell it. The only reason I haven't posted it for sale yet is I've been wondering about whether to sell Poly alone (and keep Mojo) or sell both as a combo. I used to have the Mojo a few years back, and used it as my sole source of music for about a year. I ended up back with the Mojo, and buying Poly with it, as after touring around some other portable players I wondered about revisiting the Mojo sound and finding out for myself how it sounded with Poly.

So, does Poly sound good - yip. But the problem is there's a lot of time spent not listening to how good it sounds and too much time spent getting it to connect/play to be able to fully enjoy the potential that it offers. In my case I've never had the extent of problems that @Yourmomm reports, but I'd often find myself spending about 10 minutes to get it up and running (though not always, sometimes just a few minutes). Even at times I've given up, unplugged the Poly and then used one of my DAPs as a source to feed Mojo instead. There's no single big problem for me, just multiple small issues that add up to detract from the experience of using it - Poly dropping connection or having stuttering playback over the network, GoFigure unexpectedly quitting or taking very long to connect, the lack of cover art in Rigelian due to the MPD version in Poly being too old, the need for third party music software to play off the microSD card. I tried using it just as a Bluetooth receiver once but couldn't get my iPhone to connect to it. In all, the multiple issues detracted/distracted from just being able to switch on a device and enjoy music. In comparison picking up a DAP, switching it on and hitting play was so much simpler, and faster than even the good times when Poly worked as intended.

I replied to someone in this thread via PM the other day and mentioned I would have hated to be one of the first adopters a few years back (without the GoFigure app even available!). Even now it is very buggy a few years after release. Like many others here I was a happy Mojo owner too, and I think they've probably been given quite a bit of slack given the good brand name they've built up with Mojo and Hugo1/2. Maybe because they're a British manufacturer too - even though I hate to say it - as I imagine if a Chinese company had come out with something with these issues they would receive some very vile reviews and slagging off.

So if you're happy with the xDuoo X10TII @alekc then I'd say just stick with it - the MojoPoly combo won't be that much smaller than X10/Mojo stack anyway. (Incidentally I used to have the X10TII as well). Interestingly some retailers here in China are selling a combo of the Mojo with a DAP (the Hiby R3 off the top of my head) and a 3D-printed stacking case for easily carrying the two around. It was much cheaper than the Mojo/Poly combo and I think probably would have been a better buy as the Poly just doesn't seem worth it for the price

 

[headmanPL]

Oh, and some dude just PM'd me, here, letting me know he had exactly the same problems as me, with not only his poly, but also, its replacement under warranty, too. It gave me an idea. Can people please post their negative experiences (or pm me if preferred), so I can actually try to make the case at the small claims court that this is a poorly implemented product, not fit for purpose, and that replacements under warranty will not do anything to address the problems? This is the nub of my dispute, as they are trying to force a replacement on me, (which I dont want, I've wasted enough of my life and stress levels on this thing). It would be good to be able to demonstrate that retailers are forcing unwanted replacements on customers, rather than refunds, as I suspect they have been told to do by chord (my retailer has actually explicitly claimed this to me, but whether true or not, I have no idea).

I am particularly interested in any unresolved negative experiences anyone has had, involving unstable networking, stuttering, dropouts, and inability to connect to poly, and/or poly not appearing on their network, and stubbornly remaining invisible, despite fiddling for hours. Even more so, if you were then gaslighted by the retailer and/or chord, stating that these problems dont exist, and they are due to "user error", (I am a long-term roon user, so know my way around networked music streaming devices, thank-you, chord). I'll preserve your privacy if you pm, but I would encourage you to post publically, so everyone can see what a POS product this is.

Not great that you have these problems. I didn't buy Poly from Amazon, so hadn't read the reviews. I was an early adopter, so I lived through the issues of firmware not being fully ready, and that ridiculous pin to change the settings.
For me though, Poly has ended up being amazing. So much that I hardly use my Linn DSM because of the convenience of Poly playing from my NAS, Internet, Android mobile etc.
It is sensitive to WLAN/network issues (almost as sensitive as my teenager and his gaming pc), but since I changed settings, positioning of my AP's to sort ping and connection speeds for his PC, Poly hasn't missed a beat.
It's kept me sane during the enforced WFH in lockdown, and is playing from 08:00-17:00 daily.
Clearly that doesn't mirror your experience, but with so many variables with tech like this, your experience doesn't mirror that of many other happy users.

 

[CNB3]

PLEASE help: Chord Mojo/Poly CONSTANT STATIC/HISS/HUM. Headphones plugged into Poly with nothing streaming = silence. BUT when streaming there's a very noticeable constant hiss/static. Driving me nuts. Cause isn't headphones (tested with 2 pairs), streaming service (occurs with both Spotify and Pandora) or source (occurs with both iphone and ipad). Software version 2.0.3.

At a loss here - any ideas what it is / how to fix?

 

[headmanPL]

PLEASE help: Chord Mojo/Poly CONSTANT STATIC/HISS/HUM. Headphones plugged into Poly with nothing streaming = silence. BUT when streaming there's a very noticeable constant hiss/static. Driving me nuts. Cause isn't headphones (tested with 2 pairs), streaming service (occurs with both Spotify and Pandora) or source (occurs with both iphone and ipad). Software version 2.0.3.

At a loss here - any ideas what it is / how to fix?

Have you tried Mojo on it's own, e.g fed via PC or a USB connected smartphone?
Is the hiss still present then?

 

[bobnewboy]

PLEASE help: Chord Mojo/Poly CONSTANT STATIC/HISS/HUM. Headphones plugged into Poly with nothing streaming = silence. BUT when streaming there's a very noticeable constant hiss/static. Driving me nuts. Cause isn't headphones (tested with 2 pairs), streaming service (occurs with both Spotify and Pandora) or source (occurs with both iphone and ipad). Software version 2.0.3.

At a loss here - any ideas what it is / how to fix?

Are any of the units on charge when you hear the extraneous noise? iPhone, iPad, or Mojo/Poly combo? I find that my older iPad produces a hiss with wired headphones plugged directly into the 3.5mm earphone socket (no Mojo/Poly), if it is on charge. I always listen to Mojo/Poly on battery only.

 

[Yourmomm]

Not great that you have these problems. I didn't buy Poly from Amazon, so hadn't read the reviews. I was an early adopter, so I lived through the issues of firmware not being fully ready, and that ridiculous pin to change the settings.
For me though, Poly has ended up being amazing. So much that I hardly use my Linn DSM because of the convenience of Poly playing from my NAS, Internet, Android mobile etc.
It is sensitive to WLAN/network issues (almost as sensitive as my teenager and his gaming pc), but since I changed settings, positioning of my AP's to sort ping and connection speeds for his PC, Poly hasn't missed a beat.
It's kept me sane during the enforced WFH in lockdown, and is playing from 08:00-17:00 daily.
Clearly that doesn't mirror your experience, but with so many variables with tech like this, your experience doesn't mirror that of many other happy users.

The british amazon reviews are the ones to read...not the us ones. Brutal doesnt begin to describe it!

What wifi settings did you change, which worked? I tried everything. Also, are you on apple or android? I heard that airplay resolves these sorts of networking problems, described above?

 

[Yourmomm]

Wow, I'd never seen those Amazon reviews before, brutal. I'm from New Zealand but recently moved to Shanghai, curious who the retailer you bought it from is? (although understand you might not want to mention them).

For what it's worth I'm a recent Poly purchaser (see a bit back in the thread) but am now looking to sell it. The only reason I haven't posted it for sale yet is I've been wondering about whether to sell Poly alone (and keep Mojo) or sell both as a combo. I used to have the Mojo a few years back, and used it as my sole source of music for about a year. I ended up back with the Mojo, and buying Poly with it, as after touring around some other portable players I wondered about revisiting the Mojo sound and finding out for myself how it sounded with Poly.

So, does Poly sound good - yip. But the problem is there's a lot of time spent not listening to how good it sounds and too much time spent getting it to connect/play to be able to fully enjoy the potential that it offers. In my case I've never had the extent of problems that @Yourmomm reports, but I'd often find myself spending about 10 minutes to get it up and running (though not always, sometimes just a few minutes). Even at times I've given up, unplugged the Poly and then used one of my DAPs as a source to feed Mojo instead. There's no single big problem for me, just multiple small issues that add up to detract from the experience of using it - Poly dropping connection or having stuttering playback over the network, GoFigure unexpectedly quitting or taking very long to connect, the lack of cover art in Rigelian due to the MPD version in Poly being too old, the need for third party music software to play off the microSD card. I tried using it just as a Bluetooth receiver once but couldn't get my iPhone to connect to it. In all, the multiple issues detracted/distracted from just being able to switch on a device and enjoy music. In comparison picking up a DAP, switching it on and hitting play was so much simpler, and faster than even the good times when Poly worked as intended.

I replied to someone in this thread via PM the other day and mentioned I would have hated to be one of the first adopters a few years back (without the GoFigure app even available!). Even now it is very buggy a few years after release. Like many others here I was a happy Mojo owner too, and I think they've probably been given quite a bit of slack given the good brand name they've built up with Mojo and Hugo1/2. Maybe because they're a British manufacturer too - even though I hate to say it - as I imagine if a Chinese company had come out with something with these issues they would receive some very vile reviews and slagging off.

So if you're happy with the xDuoo X10TII @alekc then I'd say just stick with it - the MojoPoly combo won't be that much smaller than X10/Mojo stack anyway. (Incidentally I used to have the X10TII as well). Interestingly some retailers here in China are selling a combo of the Mojo with a DAP (the Hiby R3 off the top of my head) and a 3D-printed stacking case for easily carrying the two around. It was much cheaper than the Mojo/Poly combo and I think probably would have been a better buy as the Poly just doesn't seem worth it for the price

Yep. That's about the size of it. Except 10mins to get it working again was the exception, rather than the rule, for me...should have left the comment above on this one instead. UK amazon has the most telling reviews, not the us one. I never knew that the overall ratings were the same on both sites, but that the written reviews you can see are different...

Yeah I had exactly the same dilemma about the mojopoly. The mojo is so good, but the poly is sooooo bad. I've determined to keep the mojo, come what may in the court case, but that poly is going, no matter what, and that I'm never buying anything from chord again. They should have been fixing the poly problems, not trying to develop a similar system for the hugo. And they should be providing refunds to everyone who is having these sorts of problems, and which they cant resolve...

The retailer is an auckland based computer shop, with a strong interest in headphones and audio, and from from which I had bought LOADS of stuff before, so their attitude was disappointing. They kept telling me that they had sent my poly to their chord rep, and that it was him/her, who was telling them that there was nothing wrong with it. But I doubt they actually did this. They wouldnt give me the rep's details, so I could speak with them, directly. I mean, I know there was something wrong, because not even the reset button worked anymore (probably broken from overuse), but the reason I didnt want a replacement was because of the obvious problems with the implementation of a brand new unit. I think, even when working 100%, it's still prone to network dropouts, stuttering, becoming invisible to the network for no good reason, (or at least, any reason which anyone, including anyone from chord, can fathom), etc etc. Its like the poly itself causes network interference and results in it being booted from the network.

I should ask, were you on android or iphone? I heard airplay gets rid of the networking problems. I was never able to try this. Fat lot of good if you're on android, like me....

 

[Skeith]

I have Hugo2go...
With my HD800S, I can easily hear SQ different between various DLNA apps and smartphone even if playing same music from internal 2go micro SD card...

So what the best app to control 2go/Poly that give the best SQ other than GoFigure ???

If you control 2go/Poly via dedicated DAP like AK and using AK Connect give you best SQ ???

 

[someyoungguy]

Yep. That's about the size of it. Except 10mins to get it working again was the exception, rather than the rule, for me...should have left the comment above on this one instead. UK amazon has the most telling reviews, not the us one. I never knew that the overall ratings were the same on both sites, but that the written reviews you can see are different...

Yeah I had exactly the same dilemma about the mojopoly. The mojo is so good, but the poly is sooooo bad. I've determined to keep the mojo, come what may in the court case, but that poly is going, no matter what, and that I'm never buying anything from chord again. They should have been fixing the poly problems, not trying to develop a similar system for the hugo. And they should be providing refunds to everyone who is having these sorts of problems, and which they cant resolve...

The retailer is an auckland based computer shop, with a strong interest in headphones and audio, and from from which I had bought LOADS of stuff before, so their attitude was disappointing. They kept telling me that they had sent my poly to their chord rep, and that it was him/her, who was telling them that there was nothing wrong with it. But I doubt they actually did this. They wouldnt give me the rep's details, so I could speak with them, directly. I mean, I know there was something wrong, because not even the reset button worked anymore (probably broken from overuse), but the reason I didnt want a replacement was because of the obvious problems with the implementation of a brand new unit. I think, even when working 100%, it's still prone to network dropouts, stuttering, becoming invisible to the network for no good reason, (or at least, any reason which anyone, including anyone from chord, can fathom), etc etc. Its like the poly itself causes network interference and results in it being booted from the network.

I should ask, were you on android or iphone? I heard airplay gets rid of the networking problems. I was never able to try this. Fat lot of good if you're on android, like me....

Ah right, I know which company you're talking about, I've bought audio gear from them too.

I've been using Poly with my iPhone (for microSD card playback) and network playback via Audirvana on a PC. I've actually never tried it with Airplay so can't say whether that is any better - but since Airplay is over the network, wouldn't that have network-related problems too? I'll try it later today and see if I can get it working. Incidentally, after posting that yesterday I decided to try the Poly again but still had similar problems. It had charge, turned on okay, I connected with GoFigure and all the settings were as intended, I could see it and select it as a network output in Audirvana, but still couldn't actually get anything to play. The track selected would show up in GoFigure, so Poly must have been recognizing the file being sent, but playback never initiated.

What wifi settings did you change, which worked?

It wasn't so much that one setting would work, it was that things would be set up as they were supposed to be and it still wouldn't work, leaving me wondering why - like in the example in the above paragraph. Or other times when playing back off microSD card, the connection between Poly and my iPhone/Rigelian would drop, so that playback could no longer be controlled via Rigelian. In those circumstances the Poly just keeps playing and a few times I've even had to just turn it off as I couldn't get Rigelian to reconnect, even though both my phone (through phone settings) and Poly (through GoFigure) were showing as connected to the network.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

The british amazon reviews are the ones to read...not the us ones. Brutal doesnt begin to describe it!

You mean it doesn't quite work like seen in this video? He seems to be loving it and connecting is the easiest thing in the world.

 

[Yourmomm]

You mean it doesn't quite work like seen in this video? He seems to be loving it and connecting is the easiest thing in the world.

Oh no doubt. I mean, I connected it easily enough a few times, once i got the hang of it. Probably about 80 or 90% of the time, once I was over the initial bump, (of 0% connections, for days on end). But then the reliability started to deteriorate. Connecting, or not, randomly, with no clues as to why sometimes it would be fine, and others, it would be impossible to connect, and or remain unstable, and with HOURS of fettling to sometimes get it working, sometimes not (around 50% of the time) . By the end, it was literally 0% connections for more than 3 months, and I had wasted cumulatively days of my life, trying to get the thing to work. You can see some of the temporary solutions i found, earlier up this monster thread, but even those temporary solutions stopped working.

 

[Scorpio1957]

Hi Guys,

This is me just now.

I find the video hilarious! I can only dream of having the same experience as him on a daily basis, this is me just now trying to connect with Poly in Hotspot Mode using Bluetooth shows connected to my I Phone trying to connect to Go Figure and I use Glider for music playback and control.

When I manage to connect it sounds fantastic, unfortunately within a 10 minute walk outside it dropped connection three times and stopped playing music and when I tried to connect the last time Poly didn't even show up in my Network, the same happens at home it still randomly stops playing music even though my I Phone and Mojo /Poly combination are right beside each other. This is not the £1,000 package pick up and play anywhere that is portrayed in that video. I feel I have wasted a £1,000 on a device that doesn't do what it says it is meant to do. This Poly is a week old.

My £100 Shangling Mo is more reliable to play music on the go!