Chord Electronics Qutest DAC - Official Thread

[Reactcore]

The 768k recordings sounded reminiscent of an M scaler - extended bass with precision and a cavernous soundstage, with good instrument separation and focus. But it was by no means perfect though.

Sure the ADC will be pulse array based, just like the DACs. Indeed, mathematically an ADC is the same as a DAC but with analogue integrators and quantizers - a DAC has digital integrators and quantizers. The tricky bits are maintaining stability with analogue integrators, and the decimation path, as aliasing makes huge differences to the performance.

I guess a ADC will work best battery operated without switching based step up/down transforming to have the cleanest reference voltages.

Different topic
I have pointed this before but you have'nt replied to it.. but whats your take on HRTF research?

I read you talking of how amazing you can hear for example a dog barking 500m away or the brain being capable of discerning the direction a sound comes from.

It does'nt seem to stop by creating the perfect timing of transients and best small signal accuracy, but also how ones own ear gets the reflected waves of a sound from the torso, ear shelf and canal.
The brain processes those tiny delays to interprete depth and direction too.

A stereo amplified system can't fully recreate this unless these personal reflections are taken into account..

I have read about the realizer from Smyth and although i haven heard it.. i found their explanation and approach interesting.

 

[Rob Watts]

HRTF does work quite well - but - it needs accurate modelling of your own HRTF, and it needs really good DSP. 64 bit floating point is not up to the task unfortunately - getting DSP to be fully transparent requires much better accuracy than this. More about this issue later this year...

It only sorts out direction, not depth though. Perception of depth is another major issue, which HRTF will only degrade due to inadequate DSP.

 

[Reactcore]

HRTF does work quite well - but - it needs accurate modelling of your own HRTF, and it needs really good DSP. 64 bit floating point is not up to the task unfortunately - getting DSP to be fully transparent requires much better accuracy than this. More about this issue later this year...

It only sorts out direction, not depth though. Perception of depth is another major issue, which HRTF will only degrade due to inadequate DSP.

I've seen software engineers creating ways to 'scan' ones ear with a mobile and app to use this model to calculate a persons HRTF as a file to use in a DSP.. interesting times are ahead.

Hm what else could change soundwaves to give them 'travelled distance' ? oh well..

Anyway thankyou for taking the time for answering. I'm for sure staying tuned 🛰

 

[miketlse]

Hm what else could change soundwaves to give them 'travelled distance' ? oh well..

Air temperature, because it changes the air density, and the speed of sound?
Could impact things if headphones make one ear hotter.
Also if you are listening to speakers in your home, and one side of the room is hotter than the other.

 

[The Jester]

Atmospheric absorption increases with frequency, given that the different hairs in different parts of the Cochlea respond to different frequencies and the actual sound is compiled by the brain from those various signals, talking really small level differences like Db/100metre might go some way to explaining Rob’s experience with vanishingly low levels of small signal accuracy making such a difference to depth perception ?

 

[Victorr]

What will it be? Chord Qutest 2???
https://chordelectronics.co.uk/coming-soon

 

[RobertSM]

What will it be? Chord Qutest 2???
https://chordelectronics.co.uk/coming-soon

Now this is exciting!

Good eye @Victorr

 

[ardbeg1975]

Now this is exciting!

Good eye @Victorr

I’m hoping for Qutest chassis sized “baby” mscaler.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

I’m hoping for Qutest chassis sized “baby” mscaler.

Could be. But its probably "just" Mojo 2

 

[elira]

Could be. But its probably "just" Mojo 2

That would be a weird shape for a Mojo.

 

[JaquesGelee]

That would be a weird shape for a Mojo.

We'll see. But have a look to the round rubber feets on the bottom. Those are only mostly at (semi) portable devices so far. Maybe a refreshed edged design.

 

[thePhones]

Could be. But its probably "just" Mojo 2

You could be right, the cutout on the very bottom looks like a micro USB. But I hope it will be the new Mscaler for Dave with MASSIVE buttons

 

[The Jester]

Now this is exciting!

Good eye @Victorr

I’d like to see that too …. Two standard Qutest buttons plus two large DX ones ?

 

[WaveTheory]

I just posted a review of the Qutest on my YT channel:



Enjoy!

 

[Fugue]

Are you using a modern ultrabook by any chance? Myself and Atriya both were and think they are the source of the issue.

No, an HP Omen.