Chord Electronics Qutest DAC - Official Thread

[ChordElectronics]

CHORD ELECTRONICS ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE

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Qutest is a UK-made standalone digital-to-analogue converter based on our multi-award-winning Hugo 2 technology.

Qutest doesn’t follow the norm, it sets the standard with a brand new compact chassis design by John Franks with a stunning black finish, making it ideal for desktop environments. It benefits from a huge 49,152-tap filter, 10-element Pulse Array design by forum regular Rob Watts and features over 750x the processing power of DAC-chip rivals.

The new Qutest greatly improves on the previous 2Qute and user comments on the forum have helped shape its development. New filter options just like on Hugo 2 are now available, helping to tailor the sound. A front-mounted input selector switch makes source swapping simple: multiple sources can connect with seamlessly transition between devices. Plus, press both the ‘Filter’ and ‘Source’ buttons together at start-up and select from a variable output voltage of 1V, 2V, or 3V!

Pair Qutest with your headphone amplifier to tailor the sound to your liking, or connect to your amplifier for the purest audio experience, you can also upgrade streamers, CD transports/players and most digitally connected devices. Plus, there’s no discriminating against DAPs - Qutest supports Android, iOS, Windows, Apple OS X and Linux devices.

Qutest supports all major commercially available file formats up to 768kHz PCM and native DSD tracks to 512 (Octa-DSD).

Availability: Available for pre-order now

Price: £1195.00

Visit the Chord Electronics website for more information

 

[Bulbsofpassion]

£1995.00 ?!

 

[Music Alchemist]

£1995.00 ?!

No, £1195. (~$1,600 USD.)

 

[seeteeyou]

Just adding my 2 cents, it's OK to drive sensitive speakers (e.g. Omega and Voxativ) and headphones directly with the RCA outputs of Quetest

A late night recommendation:

Connected different sensitive headphones direct to the RCA outlets on the 2Qute, and used my streamer with bit perfect digital vol, and it sounds very good!

Regarding volume control under Windows 10 etc.

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/...rd-2qute/?page=14&tab=comments#comment-667497

With the limited one op-amp up to 3V (line level) and having to use JRiver for volume control, I find I need to convert DSD on the fly to PCM 192, in order to control volume digitally.

 

[Bulbsofpassion]

@Music Alchemist Ah @ChordElectronics updated this, originally it said £1995.

 

[elviscaprice]

Nevermind,
What is the minimum requirements for 5V or does it need the full power input? Not so excited about the micro power input, to be honest. Now I'm thinking Hugo 2 over this?? With the micro power input and no volume control.

 

[Music Alchemist]

Why the short tap length as the current 2Qute?

The tap length is 49,152; same as the Hugo 2.

 

[iDesign]

If the Qutest had a headphone input, I suspect Chord would have had an even bigger success.

 

[Bulbsofpassion]

Nevermind,
What is the minimum requirements for 5V or does it need the full power input? Not so excited about the micro power input, to be honest.

Supplied charger is 5v 2A So I'd imagine it needs that. What's the problem with a Micro USB connection?

 

[elviscaprice]

Supplied charger is 5v 2A So I'd imagine it needs that. What's the problem with a Micro USB connection?

Alot, it's not exactly an ideal setup for a low impedance source. Of course Rob is going to say that power supply doesn't matter, again.

 

[Bulbsofpassion]

Alot, it's not exactly an ideal setup for a low impedance source. Of course Rob is going to say that power supply doesn't matter, again.

I'm sure you could replace the power supply with whatever you want, the fact it would have to be terminated with a micro-USB connector really shouldn't make a difference should it?

 

[AndrewOld]

What are the dual BNC inputs for? Surely not a Blu2?

 

[elviscaprice]

I'm sure you could replace the power supply with whatever you want, the fact it would have to be terminated with a micro-USB connector really shouldn't make a difference should it?

Yes and no, concerning impedance.
Really it makes sense that Chord uses this input, micro, for power. It alleviates the dummy error using improper power supply.

 

[seeteeyou]

Some of us already own UpTone Audio UltraCap LPS-1 and it's relatively easy to add an adapter for StarQuad DC power cables

However, it's very important to find out whether Qutest is consuming more than 5 watts or otherwise. LPS-1 is only good enough for 5.5 watts.

Regarding 2Qute, we're able to get away with two units of LPS-1 connected in parallel (7V + 5V = 12V) to provide up to 13.2 watts continuously. Actually the manual stated 0.5A @ 12V or 6 watts

https://chordelectronics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2Qute-User-Manual.pdf#page=4

 

[Music Alchemist]

What are the dual BNC inputs for? Surely not a Blu2?

Yep.