Chord Electronics Qutest DAC - Official Thread

[jbarrentine]

Microsoft fixed windows audio subsystem many years ago. To my knowledge people shouldn't have to jump through special hoops for quality audio on windows any longer.

 

[KBee]

One thing I have noticed is that foobar2000 sometimes has a slight stutter when starting a track. It's brief, and seems to only happen when I skip to or double-click a track, presumably it builds up a cache if it triggers organically on a playlist. I don't get that playing a file in VLC, Musicbee or AIMP. The performance does seem to be worse in foobar2000, and I don't know why.

My settings are at the bottom of the previous page in this thread, if anyone can advise.

 

[technobear]

The other thing I've noticed is that the input light never changes from green, whether I'm playing 16-bit 44.1khz music or 24-bit 96khz. Maybe I'm missing something, but I was under the impression the light was supposed to change with sample rate.

You may think you are using ASIO but you clearly aren't.

Have you installed the ASIO extension foo_out_asio? (Preferences->Components)

Have you selected the Chord ASIO driver as your output device? (Preferences->Playback->Output)

 

[JoinDivision]

I'm using my Qutest DAC mostly with foobar2000 and while I'm finding it to be great, I'm concerned I may not have it configured optimally.

One thing I've noticed is that it's quite slow, a slight lag, when skipping to the next song, or when seeking from one part of a track to another. I'm also unsure on how to best configure some of the settings.

The other thing I've noticed is that the input light never changes from green, whether I'm playing 16-bit 44.1khz music or 24-bit 96khz. Maybe I'm missing something, but I was under the impression the light was supposed to change with sample rate.

I have also occasionally, when going to use audio in another software (e.g. MPC-HC or Spotify) after listening in foobar2000, have been greeted with loud white noise instead of my audio. Opening and closing the software or, on one occasion, having to restart the Qutest has solved this. Not sure what could be causing this.

Here's my settings:

• I'm using the ASIO Chord 1.05, I'm guessing the ASIO is the one to go for with the Chord? I've tried WASAPI but I have no idea if that's transparent, it does seek a little bit faster. (Shouldn't things be faster with ASIO?)
• Buffer length I've tried at the minimum of 50ms and up to 4000ms with no discernable difference for the most part although very low led to it falling over itself at the start of songs, as I guess is to be expected.
• I've tried checking and unchecking "Use 64-bit ASIO drivers" with no discernable difference. My Windows is 64-bit so I have it enabled.
• I have real-time process priority enabled.
• In Windows settings I'm at 24-bit, 96000hz.

I sometimes feel it's struggling to "keep up" with the music, there's no noticeable skips (except for starting a song if I set the buffer too low) but it's just a feeling I have. This may be a placebo.

I'm not quite as nuanced in the intricacies of the various settings as some of you, so apologies if these are obvious points, but what can I improve upon here? I'm using a decent machine, I do have various other audio drivers installed for various other devices I only occasionally use for different things.

I used foobar for a while and found that you need to use the Chord asio driver from here https://chordelectronics.co.uk/product/qutest so first step would be to use that one if you aren't already, which might mean uninstalling the existing asio and installing the Qutest specific one. When in the output menu of foobar the drop down should say 'KS Chord ' I think so you will know you have the right one. I think you also have to allow 'exclusive control ' for that device in windows audio settings so that it can bypass you're windows devices signal processing - if you're at 24/96 in windows and the light is always green it probably means that your windows internal DAC is doing the processing instead of the Qutest as the green light is for that bitrate. You will notice a huge improvement in sound when it's working right. Let me know if that doesn't work and I will boot up my laptop and check for you.

 

[KBee]

You may think you are using ASIO but you clearly aren't.

Have you installed the ASIO extension foo_out_asio? (Preferences->Components)

Have you selected the Chord ASIO driver as your output device? (Preferences->Playback->Output)

I used foobar for a while and found that you need to use the Chord asio driver from here https://chordelectronics.co.uk/product/qutest so first step would be to use that one if you aren't already, which might mean uninstalling the existing asio and installing the Qutest specific one. When in the output menu of foobar the drop down should say 'KS Chord ' I think so you will know you have the right one. I think you also have to allow 'exclusive control ' for that device in windows audio settings so that it can bypass you're windows devices signal processing - if you're at 24/96 in windows and the light is always green it probably means that your windows internal DAC is doing the processing instead of the Qutest as the green light is for that bitrate. You will notice a huge improvement in sound when it's working right. Let me know if that doesn't work and I will boot up my laptop and check for you.

Thanks, I was looking in the wrong place for the light, it is changing with sample rate, but the less then perfect performance in foobar2000 remains.

Here's my settings, foo_out_asio is also installed:

I have no option for "KS Chord" but as far as I'm aware these settings are correct (buffer length aside, I have no idea what to do with that or if it even makes a difference for ASIO).

It just feels a lot like foobar2000 is struggling to "keep up", and there's a fraction of a second at the start of tracks I skip to that's either missing or glitchy sometimes, almost as if the hardware is struggling to keep up, but VLC/Aimp/Musicbee are all fine when tested so it's a foobar2000 thing.

I've also noticed that high-intensity tasks like scanning ReplayGain can stutter the audio. But this isn't a slow machine and shouldn't have any issues. I'm not sure what to try.

 

[Jetblack08]

Question… are there more than one driver updates for the Qutest or just one? If more than one, could someone post the links to others?

 

[JoinDivision]

Thanks, I was looking in the wrong place for the light, it is changing with sample rate, but the less then perfect performance in foobar2000 remains.

Here's my settings, foo_out_asio is also installed:

I have no option for "KS Chord" but as far as I'm aware these settings are correct (buffer length aside, I have no idea what to do with that or if it even makes a difference for ASIO).

It just feels a lot like foobar2000 is struggling to "keep up", and there's a fraction of a second at the start of tracks I skip to that's either missing or glitchy sometimes, almost as if the hardware is struggling to keep up, but VLC/Aimp/Musicbee are all fine when tested so it's a foobar2000 thing.

I've also noticed that high-intensity tasks like scanning ReplayGain can stutter the audio. But this isn't a slow machine and shouldn't have any issues. I'm not sure what to try.

Here is a photograph of what mine looks like

 

[KBee]

I don't have that option at all, does this require some sort of additional component? There's no KS audio options, I thought that ASIO would be correct for ASIO audio. I installed, and have reinstalled, the drivers from their website.

 

[JoinDivision]

I don't have that option at all, does this require some sort of additional component? There's no KS audio options, I thought that ASIO would be correct for ASIO audio. I installed, and have reinstalled, the drivers from their website.

I think you might need to uninstall the previous Chord Asio driver first, on this forum someone had a similar issue and they said removing the previous Chord driver for their mojo fixed it and the computer didn't get confused. Hopefully it's that simple let us know how you get
http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/3700-chord-qutest-cannot-play-with-jplay-mini/

 

[beardyweirdy]

The buttons on mine are sticking and operating randomly. Anyone else had this issue?

 

[elira]

The buttons on mine are sticking and operating randomly. Anyone else had this issue?

They shouldn’t, are you in a very humid area? Did you spill something on it?

 

[beardyweirdy]

No, not at all. At one point the buttons were totally stuck

 

[Laminator]

No, not at all. At one point the buttons were totally stuck

I experienced this twice. First time the DAC was within the return window so the dealer replaced it. Second time I sent it in for warranty repair. Not sure what they did to fix it. More discussion on page 379 of this thread.

 

[beardyweirdy]

It does appear to be an issue on some models.

 

[miketlse]

It does appear to be an issue on some models.

How long have you been using the Qutest?