[musicday]

Elvis are you getting the Qutest to drive directly your Omega Juniors? I will be interested in knowing how this pair sounds.

 

[elviscaprice]

Elvis are you getting the Qutest to drive directly your Omega Juniors? I will be interested in knowing how this pair sounds.

No, I will not. The only upgrade for myself over the 2Qute is the increased resolution of the Hugo 2 DAC internals. That is not enough of an upgrade in my mind (at the moment). I would like an amp stage a little bigger, 1 Watt @ 8ohms would be nice like Hugo 2. Plus a digital volume control with remote. I'm not thrilled with the Qutest micro terminated supply either.

That being said, I am quite pleased with the 2Qute, at the moment, driving my Super 8XRS Omegas. I have no reason to doubt that the Qutest wouldn't also do the same.

Hugo 2 is another option, but then I have to again cope with the non industry standard micro inputs, ugggghhh. Let alone I'm not a fan of battery power signature.

So I do nothing, till Chord/Rob Watts brilliant resolving DAC technology fulfill my feature/design needs. Let's just hope that the new TT will be reasonable cost without the battery design. I'm not going to pay twice the Hugo 2 cost for balanced outputs that I don't need. I can't win it seems.

 

[JWahl]

And I don't see the point in buying a Chord DAC if your not going to take advantage of the built in low impedance amp direct without coloring with some external amp/pre-amp, including top end tube.

Different strokes for different folks.

I can appreciate the strengths of chord DACs, but for my tastes, I find the analog stages to be lacking. This isn't unique to Chord of course, many ultra low distortion amps are often perceived as sterile. Chord DAC/Amps like the Mojo do still manage to avoid sounding sterile considering how well they measure. That's a feat on it's own. But I still find good external amplification to be more dynamically impactful and spacious.

My theory is that the ultra low distortion analog stages reveal flaws in the recording equipment and ADC process. I think that allowing specific spectra of harmonic distortion, while still keeping it low, may help to simulate or at least cover up these flaws psycho-acoustically. Of course, what specific harmonic spectra a person prefers is subjective.

For instance, I'm currently trying to nail down if I actually prefer tubes, or just the transformers that tube amps often have. I'm probably going to sell my current hybrid tube amp and Elear to help fund the Qutest purchase, and perhaps "downgrade" to a Metrum Aurix to pair with the Qutest. It uses transformers for voltage gain with current buffered output.

I also have a side theory about transformers, that although they don't have the best distortion measurement, that the stage driving them benefits from driving a fixed load under a dynamic signal. I still have yet to find a good explanation of how audio distortion is measured with an actively changing music signal. Kind of how Rob describes noise floor modulation if that makes sense. Perhaps I'll start a thread in sound science so I'm not getting too off topic.

Anyways, it's definitely possible to still appreciate Chord's dacs with external amplification. For me, it's a necessity.

 

[Currawong]

Hi guys.

What ampflier you will recommend pairing this bad boy for driving Fostex TH900/LCD-XC?

Personally, I don't find the TH900 to be very resolving. The LCD-XC were more-so though. The Hugo 2 seems to be pretty good with planers of that type. I don't honestly reckon you could get an amp under $1k, maybe more, that would do better with your headphones.

For me, the only reason I'd suggest getting a Qutest over a Hugo 2 would be if you already had an amp and you will not ever consider the transportability factor, ie: It'll only ever sit at home.

 

[PHC1]

Different strokes for different folks.

I can appreciate the strengths of chord DACs, but for my tastes, I find the analog stages to be lacking. This isn't unique to Chord of course, many ultra low distortion amps are often perceived as sterile. Chord DAC/Amps like the Mojo do still manage to avoid sounding sterile considering how well they measure. That's a feat on it's own. But I still find good external amplification to be more dynamically impactful and spacious.

My theory is that the ultra low distortion analog stages reveal flaws in the recording equipment and ADC process. I think that allowing specific spectra of harmonic distortion, while still keeping it low, may help to simulate or at least cover up these flaws psycho-acoustically. Of course, what specific harmonic spectra a person prefers is subjective.

For instance, I'm currently trying to nail down if I actually prefer tubes, or just the transformers that tube amps often have. I'm probably going to sell my current hybrid tube amp and Elear to help fund the Qutest purchase, and perhaps "downgrade" to a Metrum Aurix to pair with the Qutest. It uses transformers for voltage gain with current buffered output.

I also have a side theory about transformers, that although they don't have the best distortion measurement, that the stage driving them benefits from driving a fixed load under a dynamic signal. I still have yet to find a good explanation of how audio distortion is measured with an actively changing music signal. Kind of how Rob describes noise floor modulation if that makes sense. Perhaps I'll start a thread in sound science so I'm not getting too off topic.

Anyways, it's definitely possible to still appreciate Chord's dacs with external amplification. For me, it's a necessity.

Perhaps the answer you are looking for. http://www.rothwellaudioproducts.co.uk/html/mc_step-up_transformers_explai.html

 

[gr8soundz]

My theory is that the ultra low distortion analog stages reveal flaws in the recording equipment and ADC process. I think that allowing specific spectra of harmonic distortion, while still keeping it low, may help to simulate or at least cover up these flaws psycho-acoustically. Of course, what specific harmonic spectra a person prefers is subjective.

For instance, I'm currently trying to nail down if I actually prefer tubes, or just the transformers that tube amps often have.

I'm in a similar boat lately. Must have rebuilt my portable stack 3 or 4 times in the past couple of weeks due to fatigue from distortion (I believe). I also prefer tubes and finally found a portable tube amp I'm happy with but have swapped sources multiple times and am constantly changing headphones. I too suspect some of the problem lies within certain recordings since my level of fatigue fluctuates between artists/albums.

Haven't tried any Chord stuff yet but figure any of their DACs (/amp?) paired with my Oppo PM-3 (which has the lowest measured distortion of all my headphones) might be the best pairing to try for lowest distortion. Maybe then I can decide if tubes are still a must (for me) going forward.

 

[PHC1]

I'm in a similar boat lately. Must have rebuilt my portable stack 3 or 4 times in the past couple of weeks due to fatigue from distortion (I believe). I also prefer tubes and finally found a portable tube amp I'm happy with but have swapped sources multiple times and am constantly changing headphones. I too suspect some of the problem lies within certain recordings since my level of fatigue fluctuates between artists/albums.

Haven't tried any Chord stuff yet but figure any of their DACs (/amp?) paired with my Oppo PM-3 (which has the lowest measured distortion of all my headphones) might be the best pairing to try for lowest distortion. Maybe then I can decide if tubes are still a must (for me) going forward.

Seek out better recordings instead of swapping gear. Much of the music these days is just terrible with dynamic range compression and loudness mastering. It's not the gear, it's the crap music that fatigues.

 

[GSP_]

Most high-end DACs are standalone DACs like the Qutest. I'd venture to guess that most headphone users buying it would have used an external amp anyway. (Rather than opting for something like the Hugo 2 as an all-in-one solution.) Plenty of people prefer external amps for whatever reason. (Whereas I thought the Mojo sounded roughly as good as the $4,300 430HAD.) I'm not sure whether most Qutest buyers will use it with speakers even if that was the company's intention. I wouldn't be surprised if more of them only used headphones, especially given Chord's strong presence on this headphone forum. And, of course, there are those (like myself) who would use it with both speakers and headphones. (And a few, again including myself, who would experiment with direct drive.)

That’s because we are on a headphone centric site. Were we on a home-audio site, you’d see the opposite.

 

[Music Alchemist]

That’s because we are on a headphone centric site. Were we on a home-audio site, you’d see the opposite.

I was referring to all users regardless of which sites they post on. It's likely that the majority of them would use speakers rather than headphones, but not guaranteed, and that likelihood decreases with Chord's strong presence on Head-Fi. (This doesn't count those who use both.)

 

[GSP_]

I don’t know why you’d think that. This is the only outlet that I know of where users insist on hooking up everything to headphones. In the rest of the world - DAC only products are implemented in home audio systems. I very highly doubt the majority of Qutest buyers will be headphone only users.

 

[Music Alchemist]

I don’t know why you’d think that. This is the only outlet that I know of where users insist on hooking up everything to headphones. In the rest of the world - DAC only products are implemented in home audio systems. I very highly doubt the majority of Qutest buyers will be headphone only users.

Head-Fi is only a small part of the headphone enthusiast community. There are plenty of other headphone forums, audiophile forums which contain a good percentage of headphone users, and countless headphone users who don't post on forums. I did acknowledge that it is likely for most Qutest owners to use speakers, but there is still a possibility for more than half to use headphones.

 

[miketlse]

I'm in a similar boat lately. Must have rebuilt my portable stack 3 or 4 times in the past couple of weeks due to fatigue from distortion (I believe). I also prefer tubes and finally found a portable tube amp I'm happy with but have swapped sources multiple times and am constantly changing headphones. I too suspect some of the problem lies within certain recordings since my level of fatigue fluctuates between artists/albums.

Haven't tried any Chord stuff yet but figure any of their DACs (/amp?) paired with my Oppo PM-3 (which has the lowest measured distortion of all my headphones) might be the best pairing to try for lowest distortion. Maybe then I can decide if tubes are still a must (for me) going forward.

If you search the Mojo thread, you will find many posts, from owners who found that the PM-3 had good synergy with the Mojo.

 

[emrelights1973]

Personally, I don't find the TH900 to be very resolving. The LCD-XC were more-so though. The Hugo 2 seems to be pretty good with planers of that type. I don't honestly reckon you could get an amp under $1k, maybe more, that would do better with your headphones.

For me, the only reason I'd suggest getting a Qutest over a Hugo 2 would be if you already had an amp and you will not ever consider the transportability factor, ie: It'll only ever sit at home.

my thoughts put on screen better than me

 

[emrelights1973]

I don’t know why you’d think that. This is the only outlet that I know of where users insist on hooking up everything to headphones. In the rest of the world - DAC only products are implemented in home audio systems. I very highly doubt the majority of Qutest buyers will be headphone only users.

Hugo being so popular in Naim forums as DAC, nobody with a pair of headphones.... so do not underestimate the hugo / hugo2 / TT / Dave as a DAC only.... Chord is famous for its DAC, the headphone amps had been a free gift sort of ))

 

[plsvn]

I don’t see the point of buying a Chord DAC if you don’t team it with a powerful enough amplifier to let it unleash the full might and scale of large scale orchestral works.

3W, 2A3, SET paired with 105db speakers here and... if I set the volume knob beyond 1/3-1/4 the walls start shaking