[Chester Rockwell]

Stream? No. Gather yes The 1's and 0's. The cd player, since I bypass the internal dac, mainly acts as a time keeper and is the main keeper of all disc data read .the Qutest interpets whatever flow and gathering of info/data to do its d/A conversion from the cyrus's flow and interpetation .
Qutest doesn't take information...it receives .

You’re right, ‘stream’ was a poor choice of words on my part.

Is my point not still valid though? Errors can still occur between the CD player and the Qutest. It’s just the same as any other source in that respect.

 

[Triode User]

Most wall adaptors are not regulated, this means that the voltage they produce varies with load. For a "5V" adaptor with minimal load the voltage may be as high as 12 or 15 V.

Having read your post I thought it might be interesting to go round the various wall adaptor power supplies I have littered through the home. At no load they were all within about 5% of stated output, even quite lowly spec ones. I would be worried
if I had a 5v supply giving 12V or 15V and would put it straight on the bin.

Out of interest the Chord MScaler plug in power supply measured spot on 15V with no load (15v is its stated output).

 

[Romi54]

Does anyone use the IFI ipurifier 3 along with the Qutest?

What are your experiences?

 

[Qute Beats]

Does anyone use the IFI ipurifier 3 along with the Qutest?

What are your experiences?

I use iFi purifier 2. While this gave clearly audible benefit on previous DAC, its hard to hear any difference with Qutest. Also recently bought iFi Silencer 3 to try, this goes at the PC end and I find it makes a small improvement.

edit t fix typo

 

[Romi54]

maybe the effect with the ipurifier3 is greater than with the 2 ....

 

[HumanMedia]

Most wall adaptors are not regulated, this means that the voltage they produce varies with load. For a "5V" adaptor with minimal load the voltage may be as high as 12 or 15 V.

The current supplied should change with load but in a decent supply the voltage should not. Only poor quality unregulated supplies vary with load and this is frowned upon. You would never want an unregulated supply in an audio system as it will also kick out all sorts of garbage as well as go over-voltage with low current draws. If a low grade 5v supply went as high as 7v, this could slowly burn out the regulaters in the source equipment, or in the case of the Chord just blow its protection diode which is not covered by warranty. A crappy unregulated 12v supply into a 5v device will end in tears.

And most wall wart adapters are regulated, and only dirt cheap, really poor quality linear supplies are not regulated and these should avoided for unless you are charging a battery with them, or powering a small motor or lights but never electronics and definitely not a Qutest.

 

[nephilim32]

You’re right, ‘stream’ was a poor choice of words on my part.

Is my point not still valid though? Errors can still occur between the CD player and the Qutest. It’s just the same as any other source in that respect.

it would be if I were streaming, however I think not because I use a hard wired connection amongst my sources.

Having read your post I thought it might be interesting to go round the various wall adaptor power supplies I have littered through the home. At no load they were all within about 5% of stated output, even quite lowly spec ones. I would be worried
if I had a 5v supply giving 12V or 15V and would put it straight on the bin.

Out of interest the Chord MScaler plug in power supply measured spot on 15V with no load (15v is its stated output).

You know. I've been thinking about what you said and I've been doing more research into this matter and it seems the consensus is around 50/50 for having a 12v power supply to a 5v low current pulling device. Some have said you can have 7volt tolerance given my variables but I simply don't wanna risk it either. It isn't worth it . the possibility of the dialectric barrier protectors being fried is high. I imagine that the Qutest is a regulated supply at 5v 2a not the other way around because of what you said. I shouldn't believe everything I read in online electronics forums . should have consulted a professional right away . I've also tried to inform my seller from eBay my request for a 5v but the jerk wont get back to me through a response . ah well . worst case I ship it back . Don't wanna bother getting a voltage converter either . anyhow .thanks for checking your amps. You may have saved me a headache .

The current supplied should change with load but in a decent supply the voltage should not. Only poor quality unregulated supplies vary with load and this is frowned upon. You would never want an unregulated supply in an audio system as it will also kick out all sorts of garbage as well as go over-voltage with low current draws. If a low grade 5v supply went as high as 7v, this could slowly burn out the regulaters in the source equipment, or in the case of the Chord just blow its protection diode which is not covered by warranty. A crappy unregulated 12v supply into a 5v device will end in tears.

And most wall wart adapters are regulated, and only dirt cheap, really poor quality linear supplies are not regulated and these should avoided for unless you are charging a battery with them, or powering a small motor or lights but never electronics and definitely not a Qutest.

Ah yes. Exactly! Which is why I want to omit the cheap SMPS out of my sound chain .

 

[nephilim32]

The current supplied should change with load but in a decent supply the voltage should not. Only poor quality unregulated supplies vary with load and this is frowned upon. You would never want an unregulated supply in an audio system as it will also kick out all sorts of garbage as well as go over-voltage with low current draws. If a low grade 5v supply went as high as 7v, this could slowly burn out the regulaters in the source equipment, or in the case of the Chord just blow its protection diode which is not covered by warranty. A crappy unregulated 12v supply into a 5v device will end in tears.

And most wall wart adapters are regulated, and only dirt cheap, really poor quality linear supplies are not regulated and these should avoided for unless you are charging a battery with them, or powering a small motor or lights but never electronics and definitely not a Qutest.

I also agree with you .I find the risk is just too high .
I am getting a 5V .
I read that there are tolerances but I don't wanna risk it . I think it will end in tears. Lol

 

[musickid]

and void the warranty its madness. the supplied psu came about after extensive trial and error.

 

[Macaron]

I use iFi purifier 2. While this gave clearly audible benefit on previous DAC, its hard to hear any difference with Qutest. Also recently bought iFi Silencer 3 to try, this goes at the PC end and I find it makes a small improvement.

edit t fix typo

Hi, I used before iPurifier 2, the change was audible (more depth) but I wouldn't advice this device (they where not only gains on my side with it), I switched after to a Allo Usbridge, the result is far better than the iPurifier 2 (didn't tried the v3).

 

[OctavianH]

That Allo Usbridge seems to have more functions one might not need like streaming. What I would be interested is a simple filter/regenerator for the USB signal and nothing more which works with Qutest.

 

[michaelvv]

@Rob Watts thank you for the info. Very interesting, as always.

Can you help me with DSD-playback, please?
I`m using Qutest via USB from MacBook Pro. Music in DSD256 from nativedsd.com. There are no problems with PCM hi-res, including DXD (24/352,8). Only with DSD. I`ve tried three different players: latest Audirvana, Colibri and Bitperfect with it`s DSD Master add-on.

Colibri makes the worst experience. It plays DSD, but I get a lot of clicks during playback. Audirvana with default settings plays .dsf file good, but Qutest light was blue, not white. Processor usage significantly raised, so I assume some type of conversion was involved. If I set Audirvana to DoP I get white light, but there are clicks during playback. Much less clicks than it was with Colibri, but still.

Creating "Hybrid-DSD" with DSD Master and playing it with BitPerfect is not the most comfortable solution, but sounds better. I still had some clicks, but much less than in previous cases. After taking the USB-decrapifier out of chain, I found that I have less clicks. After changing my USB-cable with more expensive one (AudioQuest Cinnamon) situation improved once again.

Now everything sounds great, but occasionally I might have one or two clicks during the playback of one track. I don`t understand what`s the reason. Is it my USB output to blame, or my software. Unfortunately, I don`t have any other sources, capable of DSD streaming, to check if it`s a problem with my DAC.

Hi Ragnay-BY

These issues with DSD playback also exists on Linux OS with both 2Qute and Hugo2 DAC's. I have tried virtual everything with both ARM and Intel based setup and a tons of different Linux kernels.
Please take a look on this thread on diyaudio.com : https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based/310578-chord-2qute-dop-challenge.html

Right now I'm running gentooplayer : https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/55235-gentooplayer/

This can run entirely in ram so it's only depended on CPU ( Intel i5-7600T ) RAM ( 8GB ) and a USB cable to my Chord 2Qute DAC.

PS! There is a issue with seeing the images on diyaudio.com as my ISP has messed with my router

Best Michael.

 

[bcoryh]

I am a long-time lurker - thank you for all of the great info - but I have never posted. Time to jump in!

I recently purchased a Qutest and am considering a new amp that has only balanced inputs. My current interconnects are Nordost Heimdall IIs with RCAs. The amp designer said that the amp works "perfectly with RCA to XLR adapters or cables ... and splits the phase automatically and with no loss."

I've looked online and through the forums but I cannot find what seems to be a quality RCA to XLR adaptor. I assume they exist and I am just missing them. Are there any such adapters that Qutest users recommend?

My apologies if this already has been addressed.

Thanks so much.

Cory H.

 

[AndrewOld]

I am a long-time lurker - thank you for all of the great info - but I have never posted. Time to jump in!

I recently purchased a Qutest and am considering a new amp that has only balanced inputs. My current interconnects are Nordost Heimdall IIs with RCAs. The amp designer said that the amp works "perfectly with RCA to XLR adapters or cables ... and splits the phase automatically and with no loss."

I've looked online and through the forums but I cannot find what seems to be a quality RCA to XLR adaptor. I assume they exist and I am just missing them. Are there any such adapters that Qutest users recommend?

My apologies if this already has been addressed.

Thanks so much.

Cory H.

Just make, or get someone to make, RCA to XLR leads for you. That way you avoid an adaptor. Bluejeanscable.com (amongs others) will make such leads for you, though you need to write to them with the correct pin out. It should be in the amp manual, or the manufacturer should be able to tell you. It is often hot to pin 2, return to pin 3, ground to pin 1 at the XLR end, and hot to the center pin of the RCA and return and ground to the ground of the RCA.

 

[nick77]

Cardas XLR adapters are the go to for audiophile.