Chord Electronics Qutest DAC - Official Thread
May 5, 2020 at 2:08 PM Post #4,756 of 6,775
Yes, I thought my description of either it works or it doesn't was more akin to night and day, especially in the optical sense:beyersmile:
I'm not doubting your experience, but I have not heard a similar thing widely stated with optical and I am fully aware that placebo is a very powerful effect. Clearly you will be keeping the QEDs connected in future and be very happy that you did...

I can also hear an improvement of clarity (not brighter but better) compared to really basic optical cables. But then again there are cheap very well made cables like Kabeldirekt optical cables (which I normally recommend) where to be honest I am not so sure I can hear a difference but I still like to experiment 😎
 
May 5, 2020 at 2:35 PM Post #4,757 of 6,775
I can also hear an improvement of clarity (not brighter but better) compared to really basic optical cables. But then again there are cheap very well made cables like Kabeldirekt optical cables (which I normally recommend) where to be honest I am not so sure I can hear a difference but I still like to experiment 😎
Wouldn't it be great to know why?
 
May 5, 2020 at 5:10 PM Post #4,759 of 6,775
Edit: Supra ZAC Optical Cable apparently supports 32/384 so may try that to see if I can get higher sampling rates 😎

While I'm all for technological progress, I don't think 32/384 will ever be supported on the software driver and transceiver end since optical is a legacy tech.

I tried DXD PCM files (352) and my player I believe just downsamples to 192. It plays fine and well, but the Chord button color on the Hugo2 displayed 192. Of course I was hoping this wasn't true as it was playing fine, but after looking at the hardware, software code and Chord button color; 192 reality set in....

IMO, glass optical has lifelike, neutral and natural qualities. The type of signature I pursue. It also retains USB's crispness without USB's harshness. Not to mention the pure noise-free black deep abyss black background.

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https://statics.cirrus.com/pubs/proBulletin/WM8804_WM8805_ProductFlyer.pdf
 
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May 5, 2020 at 6:13 PM Post #4,760 of 6,775
@AC-12 thanks much for your advice above. I've already been in contact with the owner of Ciunas Audio and it's seeming pretty promising. He even says the current version has two outputs for more than one device. And by SCPSU, are they referreing to the Ciunas Audio ISO-PS?

I did some more digging and found a teardown of another Ciunas product.

ASR

It maybe time to play it safe with a traditional LPS... Looks like QC issues on the second hand Ciunas DAC product.

It's cool though someone has this setup in the past:

https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649535818-chord-qutest-dac-plus-supercapacitor-power-supply/

It's a tough call as the SQ aspect seems to be there:

isops.png


AS

but with the teardown photos, QC issues is usually a red flag...
 
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May 5, 2020 at 6:29 PM Post #4,761 of 6,775
I guess many of you are in the UK so favour the Ciunus product, but not far away are some of the best supercapacitor supplies on the planet, the Farad3. Sound great with Chord products and are designed never to go over voltage even if the regulators fail down the track. No quality issues there. I have two and love them.

https://faradpowersupplies.com/
 
May 5, 2020 at 8:46 PM Post #4,762 of 6,775
I guess many of you are in the UK so favour the Ciunus product, but not far away are some of the best supercapacitor supplies on the planet, the Farad3. Sound great with Chord products and are designed never to go over voltage even if the regulators fail down the track. No quality issues there. I have two and love them.

https://faradpowersupplies.com/

I'm near Disneyland. Not so much in favour of Ciunus, but I have yet to see another pure Supercapacitor option available. There's LPS w/ SC output (hybrid) like the Farad3 and Shanti, but not pure 100% SC. I remember Farad Capacitors from car audio amplifiers so nice to see it mentioned.

farad.png


AS

I guess SC is too cutting edge at this time to have different purchasing options:

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DIY

Nice to see someone mention the Gotham DC cable:

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AS2
 
May 6, 2020 at 5:31 AM Post #4,763 of 6,775
AC 12 well I guess I'm not sure anymore about the Ciunas Audio ISO-PS option because of the teardown report you linked from ASR. Though to be fair there was a very good explanation on the 2nd post justifying the design reasons for its' appearance. However the Allo Shanti option is well reviewed and endorsed wider than the Ciunas products, and has also measured very well and seems possibly safer. What did you mean about "not pure 100% SC"? The Shanti website says the final power comes from the supercapacitors on the output. Even save for that, it sure was received well on the other forums you linked.
 
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May 7, 2020 at 3:01 AM Post #4,764 of 6,775
AC 12 well I guess I'm not sure anymore about the Ciunas Audio ISO-PS option because of the teardown report you linked from ASR. Though to be fair there was a very good explanation on the 2nd post justifying the design reasons for its' appearance. However the Allo Shanti option is well reviewed and endorsed wider than the Ciunas products, and has also measured very well and seems possibly safer. What did you mean about "not pure 100% SC"? The Shanti website says the final power comes from the supercapacitors on the output. Even save for that, it sure was received well on the other forums you linked.

Okay, glad you did not hit the submit button on the purchase. I was worried you already placed an order. It's tough, everything screams solid product but durability, safety and QC now comes into play. Maybe you can ask the owner about the SC output on LPS devices compared to his SC product? I'll check back over the weekend, long week...

Some of RW posts state there is no RFI filtering on LPS. Isn't it better looking into SMPS-rolling which has at least some RFI filtering? Haven't looked into SMPS units yet...
 
May 7, 2020 at 6:36 PM Post #4,766 of 6,775
Some of RW posts state there is no RFI filtering on LPS. Isn't it better looking into SMPS-rolling which has at least some RFI filtering? Haven't looked into SMPS units yet...

I’m sure it was more of a blanket statement to cover many cheap LPS that people would get off eBay. I remember quite a few people on forums thinking that if they spent $50 on an EBay LPS it would surely be better than a $5 SMPS? at this price they are probably not and won’t be RFI filtered and most are not even regulated! (Disaster approaching) More expensive Quality audiophile LPS are usually filtered (with the BOBW you can even see the filter box external to the supply) but these are usually in the hundreds of dollars and a big proportion of the cost of the DAC.

Better to have a blanket statement / policy to protect everyone than a list of exceptions and leaving it open to interpretation for people to assume that their $50 EBay wonder would surely be safe.
 
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May 8, 2020 at 6:12 AM Post #4,767 of 6,775
Hey guys, thanks to conversations I've had with the owner of Ciunas Audio I discovered a few things that would hopefully clear a few recent misconceptions on their power filters - copied here with his permission.

Brief Model Overview
Firstly as you can see on this link, they offer 6 models of their ISO-PS filter that vary in both price and size starting at just €150 for their 5v version (that's the one for the Qutest), all the way up to €300 for their 23v version. The size / price increases with each increment of larger voltage version to accommodate the internal voltage regulators, control circuitry & different amount of supercapacitors.

Also they are almost finished developing a variable voltage version that allows you to bypass the internal regulators that charge the supercaps & keep the supercaps charged directly from your own input power supply. This way you can use it for any of your components with DC input, even with an option to power from battery without regulator, and the potentiometer is said to have no impact on fidelity.

Their power filters now all come with 2x (dual) DC outputs of the same voltage, and he also has options for 2x outputs both of different DC voltage outputs for a different price / size.

Clarification on ASR 'teardown report'
"This was a 7 year old DAC which was not designed to be opened (& the user guide mentions this) as the circuitry is tight. The very opening of the products disturbs the 3D stack of boards. As I said that thread on ASR is not how one should go about reviewing a product. He was sent a 7 year old DAC by someone who had bought it on ebay & didn't know how to operate it appropriately - I don't even know what he might have done to it internally? The battery was dead & Amir (the site owner & reviewer) didn't contact me about its operation before posting this review (he has history with me so is not exactly unbiased) which as some posters pointed out is the professional way to go about such reviews. If he had contacted me I would have suggested he test the battery first & discovered immediately that it was depleted - something he didn't test first as you would expect with a battery powered device). If my products had quality issues you would see it reported in many places other than ASR (who historically has a gripe with me)."

Customer Reviews - Supercapacitor Power supplies from Ciunas Audio

Jens from Denmark
The 9v supercapacitor ISO-PS is replacing a 9v ifi audio ipower powering a SOtM tx-USBultra Special Edition and the dc connection is a Ghentaudio Neotech UPOCC 7N Copper 16AWG (JSSG360) cable. SQ improvement is greater than I had expected, is obvious to hear and is also of another nature than my tweaking with lifepo4 batteries and lt3045 regulators normally gives. The ISO-PS has given the sound a clean and pure but most of all an overwhelming presence.

James from Utah - using 5V ISO-PS
Wow... less graiin and noise floor than the LPS
1.2. I can hear that immediately! A hint more space and detail... immediately apparent. More relaxed.

Okay this is going to be fun going through my collection
…...
Im smiling ear to ear and every where in between. Thank you so much, James


Hagen from Germany - using 12V
I am very happy with the power supply. Better resolution, the naturalness of the music playback becomes larger; more calm, a blacker background.
The sibilance and perceived distortions are significantly reduced.
In short, I have more fun listening to music !!!!
A clear recommendation from me for your power supply!
I will recommend it to my customers, although I have no financial advantage.
The price of the ISO-PS is very good.


Graham from canada - using 5V supercap ISO-PS into Chord DAC
Definitely, hearing deeper into the music. Some interesting little ambient sounds coming
I don’t recall hearing before, that must be a result of the lower noise floor. Not noticing any
Negative impact which is equally important.


Clive from UK - using 5V supercap ISO-PS into Chord Qutest
SMPS (Rob Watts stock) was my reference
Detailed, not obviously harsh

Supercap
Initially quite similar to SMPS but a bit more listening revealed it as smoother with very solid (tight) bass, made SMPS sound a little harsh. bass light & imprecise. I tried unplugging the "charger" - I couldn't detect any difference.

SBooster LPS
Smooth without the tightness of the Supercap bass, I think this is why when I compared last time I preferred the SMPS to this LPS - Rob Watts says something about interwinding capacitance with LPS providing a route for RF (so some LPS are poor) or did I get two things mixed up?

Supercap wins


Chris from UK - 5V ISO-PS
Compared to iFi iPower (5V) + battery pack) the most noticeable improvement for me was leading edge transients – that alone was worth the purchase. However with further listening, I would suggest that the soundstage has got wider. Low level details in the far left & right are much more noticeable. And this effect is totally repeatable when swapping between the ISO-PSU & the iPower/battery combination.

Robin from US
Hi John! I am using the last PS with the Sonore ultraRendu. I like to use the PS Audio LanRover in the mix and I power it with the first PS you sent. I still have to connect a module to run a fiber cable but what I have now sounds excellent. I continue to be way impressed with the SILENT, very BLACK background. I will let you know as I play around with everything. I love your products :wink:

Other Comments
I've already ordered my ISO-PS from Ciunas Audio, and not only is it cheaper than the other options out there but the reviews seem solid (it was said that most of their customers do not frequent audio forums which is why there are not many reviews in our circles), and not to mention that the Allo Shanti for one uses thin flimsy non-removable DC output wires. Speaking of Allo Shanti, here were his comments on it:

"The Shanti is a very good PS, AFAIK. It does use two small 3.3F supercapacitors on each channel it's output for 5V which equates to 1.65F capacitance - that's why the power comes up in one or two seconds I suspect these supercaps were an afterthought?). My PS has 350F supercapacitor banks (the number per bank is dependent on voltage - 5V I use 3 supercaps, 7V 4 supercxaps & so on - I always use one more than absolutely required - gives more energy storage). The Shanti is a conventional PS with transformer rectifier bridge, a large bank of electrolytic capacitors, a capacitance multiplier & some voltage regulators - its main energy storage is in the electrolytic capacitors not those small supercapacitors. My PS takes about 1-2mins to come up to full power because the supercaps are charging up. One other issue you will see reported with the Shanti is that when it's turned off the substantial power left in its bank of capacitors, drains into any devices connected to it which may be a problem with some devices? My SC-PS isolates the outputs from the supercaps when switched off so no drain of power into attached devices."

RE measurements of power output quality: "I don't have measurements yet as ripple & noise on power supplies are difficult to make correctly, requiring at least differential scope probes but measurements will not tell you how something sounds - listening is the critical test - if the PS doesn't provide a noticeable improvement then it doesn't matter how good (or how bad) the measurements."

Also his customer service was excellent and very responsive and he said they have a 30 days home trial to evaluate it against other PSes, + 3 year warranty.
Also I see no use in SMPS rolling with this marvel of a filtered power supply from Ciunas Audio incoming. :thumbsup:
 
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May 8, 2020 at 11:39 AM Post #4,768 of 6,775
I can also hear an improvement of clarity (not brighter but better) compared to really basic optical cables. But then again there are cheap very well made cables like Kabeldirekt optical cables (which I normally recommend) where to be honest I am not so sure I can hear a difference but I still like to experiment 😎


This is my experience. As much as I hate to admit a cable makes a difference.
Cheap glass (something from amazon) *is the same* as Lifatec. The Lifatec is all around prettier tho, and feels better. It just says "premium" in the hand.
Either glass was better than plastic. Although I can see why some people might like the plastic more. It was a slightly warmer? fuzzier? sound. It's an almost imperceptible difference though.

I have yet to hear a difference in an RCA cable of any kind in my own limited testing.
I have yet to hear a difference in power cables of any kind in my own limited testing.
I have yet to test a variety of headphone cables.
 
May 9, 2020 at 8:55 AM Post #4,769 of 6,775
Inspired by @Reactcore posts I had to try my planar headphones direct. HQPlayer has a really smooth digital volume control, so it all works well

Good to hear that👍 next step is adding extra buffer caps inside. Planars need more voltage.. i assume u run qutest on 3v setting? Im on 2v
 
May 9, 2020 at 10:43 AM Post #4,770 of 6,775
Good to hear that👍 next step is adding extra buffer caps inside. Planars need more voltage.. i assume u run qutest on 3v setting? Im on 2v
Thanks, I started at 2v and was able to go up to about -15db before it was getting too loud. I will try 3v...
Yes that's a definite improvement and still not an issue if I had forgotten to change my HQPlayer default setting from -2db. Too loud for listening, but not uncomfortably so for a short while.
 
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