Chord Electronics Qutest DAC - Official Thread

[Zzt231gr]

The noise remains exactly the same absolute level with the three voltage settings - its a digital domain adjustment, no analogue changes whatsoever. The adjustment is to suit the pre-amp or amp overload issues, so it's entirely down to the connected amp as to which setting is best.

Thank you for your fast answer!

So,3V remains the best for my passive preamp?

 

[Rob Watts]

Absolutely!

 

[boxerlc]

Hi Rob,

I recently bought this qutest dac, when I tried to feed it with some 768KHz PCM or DSD512 audio stream output from HQplayer, I always heard very serious distortion, glitches, pure white noise on one channel(usually right) or audible white noise in the music background.

Could you tell me what might cause the problem?

I did some tests, hope they may be helpful:

1. when I play audio at 384Khz or DSD256, qutest has no problem.

2. mojo has the same issue when playing at highest possible sample rate(ex. 768KHz or DSD256 for mojo).

2qute seems OK at DSD128 and PCM 384Khz.

3. I tried qutest with the stock cable and a very short USB cable I have, didn't see significant improvement.

4. I thought it might be my computer that has performance issue, but I tried it with other DAC(RME adi2 dac), it is capable of feeding DSD256 or PCM 768KHz smoothly. Issue happens only when chord product is used.


I know you don't recommend people using any upsampling software with chord dac, but I just want to do a comparison of 'qutest playing hqplayer dsd512 vs qutest playing bit-perfect audio' in order to valid your point.

Thank you,

C

 

[miketlse]

Hi Rob,

I recently bought this qutest dac, when I tried to feed it with some 768KHz PCM or DSD512 audio stream output from HQplayer, I always heard very serious distortion, glitches, pure white noise on one channel(usually right) or audible white noise in the music background.

Could you tell me what might cause the problem?

I did some tests, hope they may be helpful:

1. when I play audio at 384Khz or DSD256, qutest has no problem.

2. mojo has the same issue when playing at highest possible sample rate(ex. 768KHz or DSD256 for mojo).

2qute seems OK at DSD128 and PCM 384Khz.

3. I tried qutest with the stock cable and a very short USB cable I have, didn't see significant improvement.

4. I thought it might be my computer that has performance issue, but I tried it with other DAC(RME adi2 dac), it is capable of feeding DSD256 or PCM 768KHz smoothly. Issue happens only when chord product is used.


I know you don't recommend people using any upsampling software with chord dac, but I just want to do a comparison of 'qutest playing hqplayer dsd512 vs qutest playing bit-perfect audio' in order to valid your point.

Thank you,

C

Are you using a computer as a source?
This thread contains suggestions that HQplayer and DSD512 could easily overload some CPUs, and cause stuttering, or no sound at all.
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/not-able-to-get-all-filters-to-play-at-dsd512/14963

 

[boxerlc]

Are you using a computer as a source?
This thread contains suggestions that HQplayer and DSD512 could easily overload some CPUs, and cause stuttering, or no sound at all.
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/not-able-to-get-all-filters-to-play-at-dsd512/14963

Thank you, as I said in number 4, my computer has enough procesing power for 44.1K to DSD256. I did encountered performance issue when processing 44.1K to DSD512, but i think my computer should be able to handle 44.1K to 705KHz or 48K to 768KHz without problem.

 

[Paul Bjernklo]

There was a huge difference when I changed my old SACD player to Cambridge CXC!

Totally agree. Get a good cd transport if you still play CDs (like I do quite a lot). I would probably recommend the Cambridge CXC based on reviews. I have the Cyrus CD XT Signature which sounds sublime with my Hugo 2. I can clearly hear a difference between transports and I would assume they are all mostly bit perfect (?), so there is definitely more than only “bit perfect” in the equation...

 

[Zzt231gr]

Totally agree. Get a good cd transport if you still play CDs (like I do quite a lot). I would probably recommend the Cambridge CXC based on reviews. I have the Cyrus CD XT Signature which sounds sublime with my Hugo 2. I can clearly hear a difference between transports and I would assume they are all mostly bit perfect (?), so there is definitely more than only “bit perfect” in the equation...

And CEC transports must be better but also much more expensive...

 

[Rivendell]

And CEC transports must be better but also much more expensive...

Ok everyone ive read this as read some more so here my questions

Dont want to bore you with the back story and nuts really as this is a headphone forum and i havent used my cans and valve headamp for ages
But, its an excellent thread about this dac and likely the place to find answers to questions
I do have a QuteEX and a rather nice hand built LPS
The ugo is out for me cos i dont like its looks cables out the side indeed!
Im not looking for portable, im looking for fixed
So thatll be the Quetest then !
I adore what the dac has done to the sound improved even further by the LPS
So in the off chance, anyonecompared/upgraded from EX -Test
Comments etc

Thank you.

 

[gordec]

I got to audition the Qutest today at my local shop. I really like the sound. Didn't pull the trigger because I wasn't sure if I should get Hugo 2 or Qutest. If purely used a desktop DAC, Qutest is better than Hugo 2 right with 2 BNC inputs? Hugo 2 only has a mini coaxial and toslink. I do not USB because my PC's USB output is terrible.

 

[plsvn]

just read a post on CA stating all Chord DACs but Dave do convert DSD to PCM. Is this indeed true? :/

 

[Zzt231gr]

Has anyone noticed any crosstalk between coaxial and optical?I find it to be annoying and I don't know if this worsens sound quality.

 

[boxerlc]

I got to audition the Qutest today at my local shop. I really like the sound. Didn't pull the trigger because I wasn't sure if I should get Hugo 2 or Qutest. If purely used a desktop DAC, Qutest is better than Hugo 2 right with 2 BNC inputs? Hugo 2 only has a mini coaxial and toslink. I do not USB because my PC's USB output is terrible.

USB is the best interface for qutest, theoretically it should have good performance regardless to your usb port quality as long as you feed the data fast enough. My personal experience is USB on qutest is better than coaxial, it should also be better than the coaxial on Hugo 2.

I think you have a good shot on qutest via USB.

 

[Christer]

The noise remains exactly the same absolute level with the three voltage settings - its a digital domain adjustment, no analogue changes whatsoever. The adjustment is to suit the pre-amp or amp overload issues, so it's entirely down to the connected amp as to which setting is best.

Thanks Rob, so I take it my headphone amp or maybe the difficulty of setting exactly the same loudnesss level is at play? Could you also explain why via optical my two cd players sound so different?
I was under the impression that once connected to Qutest all ANY different cd drives would do would be to feed the16/44.1 data to the DAC?
.
PS.If you like Debussy's music I can recommend the Chandos/Debussy/Deneuve/ RSSO 24/96 download.
One of Chandos' best in recent years imho.
Cheers Christer currently enjoying my Qutest quite a bit.
No Canjam for me this time around. I am "babysitting" a dog for friends in July.

 

[Rob Watts]

I suspect that there are a number of issues on the headphone amp - but for sure the noise OP from Qutest is fixed.

Maybe the optical OP's are not bit perfect? Maybe the CD players are creating different RF noise upsetting the Headphone amp? Most likely explanation is each CD player has different error rates. One benefit of ripping is that you can get error free rips, that will always play back the same bit perfect data. I have always found optical to be consistently the same SQ, but I do not have many optical sources.

I like Chandos, so will investigate the Debussy...

 

[soares]

Hi Rob,

I recently bought this qutest dac, when I tried to feed it with some 768KHz PCM or DSD512 audio stream output from HQplayer, I always heard very serious distortion, glitches, pure white noise on one channel(usually right) or audible white noise in the music background.

Could you tell me what might cause the problem?

I did some tests, hope they may be helpful:

1. when I play audio at 384Khz or DSD256, qutest has no problem.

2. mojo has the same issue when playing at highest possible sample rate(ex. 768KHz or DSD256 for mojo).

2qute seems OK at DSD128 and PCM 384Khz.

3. I tried qutest with the stock cable and a very short USB cable I have, didn't see significant improvement.

4. I thought it might be my computer that has performance issue, but I tried it with other DAC(RME adi2 dac), it is capable of feeding DSD256 or PCM 768KHz smoothly. Issue happens only when chord product is used.


I know you don't recommend people using any upsampling software with chord dac, but I just want to do a comparison of 'qutest playing hqplayer dsd512 vs qutest playing bit-perfect audio' in order to valid your point.

Thank you,

C

Same problem with mine. It's not computer related. Please see my post on this and others threads. Using my others Dacs, namely the one from OPPO 205, there is no problem. And yes the white noise comes always from the right channel...