Chord Electronics Qutest DAC - Official Thread

[jjazzy]

I went back and rewatched some of the old videos last night. That might have been one of the first Passion for Sound videos I ever watched. I was still over a year away from getting sucked into the headphone rabbit hole when it came out. If you don't need the headphone functionality, the TT2 can seem a bit steep, especially to buy blind. I read some diametrically opposed accounts of the M Scalar with Qutest. One person saying it was undetectable and a complete waste, while another waxed poetic about the dramatic improvements. I wish they made a mini Scalar for the Qutest that was price appropriate. It might not be all that effective though or have extreme lag with proportionately less computing power. I'm in no rush to upgrade. It seems every time I go through this mental exercise to explore potential upgrade paths from the Qutest the conclusion is it's going to be very expensive to make a worthwhile improvement. The TT2+MS may be so amazing that they're a steal at $10k (seriously), but it's going to be a while before I find out.

By second hand or demo, not new. Saves you a lot of money. I payed 6 for the combi not 10, for new! (Demo, full warranty).

In general the mscaler benefit, all of my dacs but especially my mojo2, tt2, and in the past qutest and Dave

 

[jjazzy]

Count me among those in the current small group marriage counseling session with their Qutest. You fellow head-fi-ers are not alone.

One thing I do know now is that I have concluded that I cannot buy anything else (DAC-wise) on blind faith or other Youtube reviews. I'll have to hear it myself because the Qutest is really very good and diminishing marginal returns are very steep from here. That conclusion has of course slowed me down and calmed my audiophilia nervosa.

Otherwise, I hope to wake up one morning and just be magically cured of audiophilia nervosa.

I agree fully never buy blind, but is there seriously no shop that sents one to try, or a shop to compare? I have done that many times? I read this kind of comment many times?? I don’t buy blind ever, even my first qutest I had at home for 9 days before decising to actually buy it

 

[The Jester]

Indeed,
Probably only be half the posts here if everyone had an available, accomodating bricks n mortar store …
No matter how wonderful people tell you how things sound, it’s how it sounds to you that counts … bonus with Chord and some other gear is the person that puts their name to it does the design work with measurements and listening tests …

 

[nerdward]

This was not my experience with a qualification. When owning an earlier generation Chord DAC I experimented with a number of different coax cables ranging in price from $30 - $1,500US to connect to a Bluesound Node N130. Doing some blind testing with others indicated big and noticeable differences between the sound signature of the different cables, with performance generally mirroring price. I settled on a Chord Company Signature ARAY I picked up used for about 1/3 list, and I am using it now with the Qutest and really like the results. There were a few other cables in my test I could have lived with as well.

Reading posts here about galvanic isolation, I thought I would try my best optical cable with the Qutest and compared it to the Chord Signature ARAY coax. I liked the ARAY cable better, but not by a mile. I have fairly clean power in my main listening room and go to great lengths with good cabling, power conditioning and zero SMPS to keep noise to a minimum. So the qualification here is that in my case I had to spend a lot on a coax cable to get superior performance from that format with the Node and the Qutest. Based on my current enjoyment level, I have no regrets.

I did also compare USB output from a Surface Laptop 4 running version 32 of JRiver to the coax out of my Node and the performance difference was smaller than between the optical and coax cables with the Chord coax edging out the DHLabs USB. Perhaps a better USB cable would have prevailed, dunno.

kn

You certainly have to go with what your ear likes.
I was surprised at the difference between the three coaxial cables I was able to compare, these were major component change type differences and I’ve heard smaller differences when comparing amplifiers.
Unfortunately I’ve only compared sub £500 cables so have no idea what they sound like circa £1000, that’s not something I could justify proportional to the cost of a Qutest (and at that price I’d sooner buy another Qutest for a second optical input) but would certainly be interested in hearing coaxials at that price point.

It’s so difficult to put our perception of sound in to words but optical into the Qutest has an effortless purity to it that I’ve never heard in my own home and a clarity I’ve never experienced without some discomfort from the upper mids and beyond.

 

[musicus]

I should be getting a Qutest tomorrow and I'm really curious if it delivers more than the Cambridge Audio CXN V2 streamer that I currently have. I highly rate the Cambridge and so have doubts that this would be a worthy upgrade, but I reserve my judgement for now. Having spent a few hours reading through this and other related forums, it seems, to my surprise, that the preferred connection method is via an optical TOSLINK cable. Would it matter if I use a cheapo plastic-fiber cable off Amazon or should I get something better, presumably with a glass-fiber core? I'm going to feed the Qutest from the Cambridge but should I also consider getting an alternative source, like a Nuc PC, Mac Mini, Holo Red, Innuous, Nucleus,...?

 

[jjazzy]

I should be getting a Qutest tomorrow and I'm really curious if it delivers more than the Cambridge Audio CXN V2 streamer that I currently have. I highly rate the Cambridge and so have doubts that this would be a worthy upgrade, but I reserve my judgement for now. Having spent a few hours reading through this and other related forums, it seems, to my surprise, that the preferred connection method is via an optical TOSLINK cable. Would it matter if I use a cheapo plastic-fiber cable off Amazon or should I get something better, presumably with a glass-fiber core? I'm going to feed the Qutest from the Cambridge but should I also consider getting an alternative source, like a Nuc PC, Mac Mini, Holo Red, Innuous, Nucleus,...?

The Qutest is definitely easily, the better sounding analogue output. but do replace the included PSU and replace it for a decent LPS power supply like a sbooster or above.

A decent, affordable optical cable: 40$
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001D1A8KM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A249O53PC30JPE&psc=1

use any streamer, but don't use nuc pc's or mac mini's etc.... mac mini is only good for a decent Roon server

 

[Blindranger]

I should be getting a Qutest tomorrow and I'm really curious if it delivers more than the Cambridge Audio CXN V2 streamer that I currently have. I highly rate the Cambridge and so have doubts that this would be a worthy upgrade, but I reserve my judgement for now. Having spent a few hours reading through this and other related forums, it seems, to my surprise, that the preferred connection method is via an optical TOSLINK cable. Would it matter if I use a cheapo plastic-fiber cable off Amazon or should I get something better, presumably with a glass-fiber core? I'm going to feed the Qutest from the Cambridge but should I also consider getting an alternative source, like a Nuc PC, Mac Mini, Holo Red, Innuous, Nucleus,...?

I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how noticeable the improvement is using an external DAC.

 

[The Jester]

Love what it does with Redbook CD’s from the 80’s
Cambridge transport via Toslink …

 

[musicus]

Love what it does with Redbook CD’s from the 80’s
Cambridge transport via Toslink …

I too have the Cambridge CXC CD transport, normally connected via a coax to the CXN V2, tried a TOSLINK optical in the past but couldn't tell any difference so stuck with a coax (75 ohm).

 

[The Jester]

I too have the Cambridge CXC CD transport, normally connected via a coax to the CXN V2, tried a TOSLINK optical in the past but couldn't tell any difference so stuck with a coax (75 ohm).

Other brands can vary, feeding Chord equipment via Toslink guarantees no RF or other noise …. Usual reported jitter “issues” with Toslink not a problem with chord DACs and their relative immunity to input jitter …

 

[MWeston]

So, at long last, my main question is: Is the Qutest enough of a step over the Mojo 2 given my current headphones and speakers that it would be worth adding it to accompany the Anni?

Well, I don't know if this helps but here is my opinion.

The Qutest is a smoother sound. I don't want to use the words "laid back" because it definitely isn't lacking in any way, but it is richer most of the time. I find the Mojo2 more aggressive and I don't want to call it bright but sometimes it sounds a bit tweaked that way compared to the Qutest. The worst part is that on some songs, I like the slightly more aggressive Mojo2 sound and then on other tracks the full detailed and smoother sound of the Qutest is way more appealing. To make matters worse, there are a few songs that are so aggressive on their own that both devices sound quite similar to each other.

Perhaps with aggressive music, you will like the Qutest if you ever feel the Mojo2 is too much. Or if you only like that energetic, slightly more forward sound, plus the EQ feature, the Mojo2 is a pretty darn good solution. I use each one in different locations and I keep the Qutest with my higher cost headphones at home. I listen to metal and hard rock music so I don't know how other genres will fair with these DACs. I'm very happy to keep both with my needs!

 

[jjazzy]

Well, I don't know if this helps but here is my opinion.

The Qutest is a smoother sound. I don't want to use the words "laid back" because it definitely isn't lacking in any way, but it is richer most of the time. I find the Mojo2 more aggressive and I don't want to call it bright but sometimes it sounds a bit tweaked that way compared to the Qutest. The worst part is that on some songs, I like the slightly more aggressive Mojo2 sound and then on other tracks the full detailed and smoother sound of the Qutest is way more appealing. To make matters worse, there are a few songs that are so aggressive on their own that both devices sound quite similar to each other.

Perhaps with aggressive music, you will like the Qutest if you ever feel the Mojo2 is too much. Or if you only like that energetic, slightly more forward sound, plus the EQ feature, the Mojo2 is a pretty darn good solution. I use each one in different locations and I keep the Qutest with my higher cost headphones at home. I listen to metal and hard rock music so I don't know how other genres will fair with these DACs. I'm very happy to keep both with my needs!

Connect a mscaler to the mojo2 as I did, then it surpasses the qutest easily out of experience, but seriously that is crazy I agree, but have the mscaler so I tried.

I think mojo2 sound the best with Iem’s anything bigger, you notice power lags a little.

Qutest is only a dac, so without tricks, you need a headphone amp, that influence the sound as well. So you can’t directly compare it.

The same with my tt2+mscaler the headphone, sounds amazing, connecting my burson gt with v7’s and the sound changes, another direction just as amazing but different.

 

[MWeston]

Ha ha! I'm sure the mscaler can make things unfair but I definitely don't have one. Also, I should say that I have never plugged any headphones into the Mojo2. I use it as a DAC only.

I really want to try a TT2 next but I've been more focused on a new headphone rather than anything further up the chain. One day though!

 

[ChristoT]

Ha ha! I'm sure the mscaler can make things unfair but I definitely don't have one. Also, I should say that I have never plugged any headphones into the Mojo2. I use it as a DAC only.

I really want to try a TT2 next but I've been more focused on a new headphone rather than anything further up the chain. One day though!

My extremely subjective personal experience- I plugged Mojo 2 into my system just once, out of curiosity, and almost immediately unplugged it and returned to its default Qutest. With wider staging and more spacious presentation, the Qutest is clearly a device intended for system setups, while Mojo 2 is a mobile device that sounds so good it could be also included in system setups. Also, to stare the obvious, isn’t Anni literally made for Qutest? The matching chassis designs, the stack that goes with them and all?
As for M Scaler- I remember reading somewhere that the Mojo 2 is probably the one Chord DAC that wouldn’t benefit much from it. Given the significantly different price brackets of the two devices, it was considered that very few people would be adding M Scaler to their Mojo 2. I think what happens now is rather people already owning M Scaler level of setups, plugging their mobile Mojo devices out of curiosity.

 

[hakunamakaka]

My extremely subjective personal experience- I plugged Mojo 2 into my system just once, out of curiosity, and almost immediately unplugged it and returned to its default Qutest. With wider staging and more spacious presentation, the Qutest is clearly a device intended for system setups, while Mojo 2 is a mobile device that sounds so good it could be also included in system setups. Also, to stare the obvious, isn’t Anni literally made for Qutest? The matching chassis designs, the stack that goes with them and all?
As for M Scaler- I remember reading somewhere that the Mojo 2 is probably the one Chord DAC that wouldn’t benefit much from it. Given the significantly different price brackets of the two devices, it was considered that very few people would be adding M Scaler to their Mojo 2. I think what happens now is rather people already owning M Scaler level of setups, plugging their mobile Mojo devices out of curiosity.

I own both Mojo2 and qutest for long time already. Qutest actually been with me since it's release and is superior to Mojo2. Stage depth, detail and width is tier above than in Mojo2 on my 2ch setup. It's more elegant and nuanced presentation, while Mojo2 is more rounded and direct. I do have an itch for M Scaler, but it would be probably an overkill for both of these chord dacs.

For casual consumer who has active speakers and headphones Mojo 2 is no brainer though