[jbarrentine]

Got my 2qute. It's wonderful.

 

[soundkist]

Got my 2qute. It's wonderful.

Congrats! It's an excellent DAC...

 

[jbarrentine]

You know, it's better than my mimby, but not BETTER. It does everything well, especially that incredible black background but it sounds remarkably like the mimby in many ways. The difference is appreciable but not "omg" in any sense. More than being struck by how incredible the 2qute is when I got it I was struck by how awesome the mimby must be. I imagine between mimby and the higher end Schiit stuff there's not a lot of performance wiggle room.

These opinions might change once I move up the headphone spectrum from hd600.

 

[crayons23]

You know, it's better than my mimby, but not BETTER. It does everything well, especially that incredible black background but it sounds remarkably like the mimby in many ways. The difference is appreciable but not "omg" in any sense. More than being struck by how incredible the 2qute is when I got it I was struck by how awesome the mimby must be. I imagine between mimby and the higher end Schiit stuff there's not a lot of performance wiggle room.

These opinions might change once I move up the headphone spectrum from hd600.

In my opinion, the 2qute is significantly better than mimby as well as bifrost mb. i would venture to guess that it's better or on par with any dac schiit makes. I would upgrade to the hd 800 S and then get the best amp you can afford as well. you are on the right track!

 

[soundkist]

Re-configuring my home listening setup, and somewhat confused... I want to free my 2qute from my computer, and connect it to my integrated amp via a short RCA interconnect. Want to use coax/bnc connection for long run to 2qute because it says it accepts up to 384kHz, but can't for the life of me find a device(simple USB decoder preferred) that outputs 384kHz via coax/bnc. I'm guessing 192kHz is actually the max?? What then is the point of the 2qute's claimed capability in that regard??

 

[Music Alchemist]

Re-configuring my home listening setup, and somewhat confused... I want to free my 2qute from my computer, and connect it to my integrated amp via a short RCA interconnect. Want to use coax/bnc connection for long run to 2qute because it says it accepts up to 384kHz, but can't for the life of me find a device(simple USB decoder preferred) that outputs 384kHz via coax/bnc. I'm guessing 192kHz is actually the max?? What then is the point of the 2qute's claimed capability in that regard??

The point is to support devices that can do that, whether now or in the future. But conversely, there's no point playing files higher than lossless 16-bit / 44.1 kHz (the PCM Red Book standard) because there's no audible benefit. (This is different from the advanced upsampling and other digital processing Chord DACs do.) Reference links below.

https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/24bit-vs-16bit-the-myth-exploded.415361/

 

[soundkist]

The point is to support devices that can do that, whether now or in the future. But conversely, there's no point playing files higher than lossless 16-bit / 44.1 kHz (the PCM Red Book standard) because there's no audible benefit. (This is different from the advanced upsampling and other digital processing Chord DACs do.) Reference links below.

https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/24bit-vs-16bit-the-myth-exploded.415361/

Cool, thanks; *are* there any devices that can do that currently?

 

[Music Alchemist]

Cool, thanks; *are* there any devices that can do that currently?

I don't know, but why would you want or need it?

 

[soundkist]

I don't know, but why would you want or need it?

Just curious, thanks!

 

[crayons23]

The point is to support devices that can do that, whether now or in the future. But conversely, there's no point playing files higher than lossless 16-bit / 44.1 kHz (the PCM Red Book standard) because there's no audible benefit. (This is different from the advanced upsampling and other digital processing Chord DACs do.) Reference links below.

https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/24bit-vs-16bit-the-myth-exploded.415361/

what are your thoughts on upsampling with a roon based hq network player such as signalyst? i feel like i can hear a noticeable difference on classical music. however i am not sure i can justify the high cost of the hqplayer.

 

[Music Alchemist]

what are your thoughts on upsampling with a roon based hq network player such as signalyst? i feel like i can hear a noticeable difference on classical music. however i am not sure i can justify the high cost of the hqplayer.

I posted about this before, including recently. Read this post:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cho...-official-thread.869417/page-11#post-13971064

Basically, doing extreme software upsampling (and noise shaping, etc.) can help most DACs, but with Chord DACs, it interferes with the much more advanced digital processing of the DAC and results in lower fidelity. Rob Watts has gone into depth about this, but I lost the links to his posts, so you'd have to track them down or ask him to get all the details.

If you bypass the digital processing of HQPlayer and use its Network Audio Adapter feature, it can have objective benefits when used with a network player, Roon, etc.

Which network player are you using? I'd like to eventually get this one: https://www.sotm-audio.com/sotmwp/english/portfolio-item/sms-200ultra/

 

[dmance]

...
Basically, doing extreme software upsampling (and noise shaping, etc.) can help most DACs, but with Chord DACs, it interferes with the much more advanced digital processing of the DAC and results in lower fidelity. /

This does not make sense ...what is an external M-Scaler doing? Basically just what a software upscaler is doing: taking redbook CD resolution content and upscaling it to 705.6kHz. So if there could be a software upscaler doing the same thing as M-Scaler - "exactly the same processing" - then the sound would be the same.

 

[crayons23]

I posted about this before, including recently. Read this post:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cho...-official-thread.869417/page-11#post-13971064

Basically, doing extreme software upsampling (and noise shaping, etc.) can help most DACs, but with Chord DACs, it interferes with the much more advanced digital processing of the DAC and results in lower fidelity. Rob Watts has gone into depth about this, but I lost the links to his posts, so you'd have to track them down or ask him to get all the details.

If you bypass the digital processing of HQPlayer and use its Network Audio Adapter feature, it can have objective benefits when used with a network player, Roon, etc.

Which network player are you using? I'd like to eventually get this one: https://www.sotm-audio.com/sotmwp/english/portfolio-item/sms-200ultra/

I am on a trial version of this, https://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html

but i will not purchase it for the retail price. it does lower fidelity on some songs but for example on Goulds Goldberg Variation (version 2) it makes the sound significantly better. SOTM makes a more inexpensive version as well i had looked at but not ready for this at this time.

 

[Music Alchemist]

This does not make sense ...what is an external M-Scaler doing? Basically just what a software upscaler is doing: taking redbook CD resolution content and upscaling it to 705.6kHz.

Not even close. It's exponentially more complex than simply telling a software program to upsample the file to 705.6 kHz. Please research it, or better yet, talk to @Rob Watts about it.

So if there could be a software upscaler doing the same thing as M-Scaler - "exactly the same processing" - then the sound would be the same.

"If" is a big word here.

The Blu MkII costs over $10K and has technology that has never been seen before. If a simple software program could do it, well...I'd love for that to happen, but I won't cross my fingers.

 

[jbarrentine]

Selling black 2Qute for 900 in the FS section. It's just too forward for headphones, regardless of how fantastic it sounds.