[Arniesb]

wow thats lots of things, but i think I need to look into this so for the ipower shall buy one for the dac and amp as well

Yes it's a lot but its proven. Ifi galvanic have Ultimate Galvanic isolation which cancels mains noise and other stuff, have reclocking, restoring, noise suppressing. Cable pick up ton of noise too + Curious with Silver conductor and separated power line are basically Everything that will kill all the noise and digital sound and replace it with analong and vinyl quality sound.

 

[Nik74]

You should get better sound and low end using a micro usb to Ethernet converter

I m not sure I understand, Where would I connect the Usb and the ethernet ? If you re refering to the Chromecast , it doesn't make sense to me - possibly for lack of technical understanding

 

[maxh22]

I m not sure I understand, Where would I connect the Usb and the ethernet ? If you re refering to the Chromecast , it doesn't make sense to me - possibly for lack of technical understanding

This is the adapter to get Ethernet working with chrome cast:

Snowpink Ethernet Adapter for Fire TV Stick (2nd GEN), All-New Fire TV (2017), Chrom... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DJ756NM/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_M94ZBbSGAQXMQ

For the usb I would recommend hooking it up to a power bank / portable battery.

 

[Sound Eq]

Yes it's a lot but its proven. Ifi galvanic have Ultimate Galvanic isolation which cancels mains noise and other stuff, have reclocking, restoring, noise suppressing. Cable pick up ton of noise too + Curious with Silver conductor and separated power line are basically Everything that will kill all the noise and digital sound and replace it with analong and vinyl quality sound.

so how do u connect all these things to each other, can you tell me how the connection sequence would be

 

[Arniesb]

so how do u connect all these things to each other, can you tell me how the connection sequence would be

Actually i dont Have Ifi galvanic, but have Nano usb 3.0. Ofcourse i will buy Ifi Galvanic later. It should be i think like this - Idefender + ipower to Igalvanic and then To Dac. More info you can find on Ifi forums.
In my system ifi nano usb + shielded cable helped tremendously, so now i ordered Wireworld Platinum starlight 7 to get best when it comes to fighting digital sound and getting cleanest sound.
Yes great dacs sound awesome, but they not gonna clean all the mess from noisy power lines and radio frequencies contaminated sound.

 

[Sound Eq]

Actually i dont Have Ifi galvanic, but have Nano usb 3.0. Ofcourse i will buy Ifi Galvanic later. It should be i think like this - Idefender + ipower to Igalvanic and then To Dac. More info you can find on Ifi forums.
In my system ifi nano usb + shielded cable helped tremendously, so now i ordered Wireworld Platinum starlight 7 to get best when it comes to fighting digital sound and getting cleanest sound.
Yes great dacs sound awesome, but they not gonna clean all the mess from noisy power lines and radio frequencies contaminated sound.

the starlight is way above my intention to spend, just curious using what you mentioned, in what way did you really feel those improved things with your qutest, as I am not in what is ideal on paper but not translated into real sound quality difference

 

[SoundeScapes]

hi everyone, I hope to get some answers as I am not good in technical things

my setup is

alienware laptop 15 R3--- chord qutest---- usb---- ifi ican pro amp---- headphones ( Hifiman He1000 V2 )

1- I read some people talk about noisy usb signal , is there anything you guys recommend to buy within ( 300 - 500 usd ) to get the best signal form my laptop to the chord
2- do you advise I buy certain usb cables ( 200 usd -300 usd )
3- how bout interconnects form my dac to amp, I am using a cheap audioquest interconnect that costs only 30 usd , i can not remember its name
4- do you believe using a mac mini would be better to use than my alienware
5- finally in the media players, I see wasapi and asio options which one to use, and do u change any of the driver settings , please share

i know all these are noob questions, but i would like to know about how to get to a better level of signal transfer

It's always difficult to advise on specific products in audio, especially cables.
IMO USB cables do make a difference and I use a cable with the power cable separated from the data myself
so I'm sure the Curious cable is probably a good one.
I have never tried regenerators or reclockers myself and I know Rob has advised against them.

To try something pretty simple and cheap to start with I would recommend:

1a, AQ Jitterbug. It cleans up some of the noise. Made a difference for me.
1b, Ferrites. I know it's almost a banned word in here but I decided to try myself after all the buzz and
even though I'm not done testing yet I really feel most of the harshness I still experienced is now gone.
2, A cable I found to have really good performance/price ratio when testing a few years ago is AQ Cinnamon.
I thought it sounded really good at the time and was the 2nd best and the cost is ~$70 (compared to at least $340 for Curious for example).

5, I have not experimented much with different media players or driver settings but what you can do is to read through
Highend-AudioPC's free optimization guide: https://www.highend-audiopc.com/PDF/audiophile-optimizer-setup-guide.pdf
and try some of it. BIOS settings, USB software settings etc.

Even though I think that using a Linear PSU improved SQ for me slightly, in a speaker setup, I cannot recommend it because
I'm not sure the improvement matches the cost.

All the above IMHO

 

[Arniesb]

the starlight is way above my intention to spend, just curious using what you mentioned, in what way did you really feel those improved things with your qutest, as I am not in what is ideal on paper but not translated into real sound quality difference

I dont tell you to buy The most expensive cable. I just sayin that difference is so big for me when it comes to usb cables so i go for the best. Curious is very very good for the price. It have Everything you need... Siver, good shielding and separated power line.
P.S i would stay clear of Audioquest Usb Cables. They all are overhyped by people who didnt heard better ones...
I Have Aq Forest and it have nothing going to fight noise and it sound extremely boring, digital, harsh and lifeless. They have nothing to fight noise, High frequency inferfence.
Aq Jitterbug is absolutely worst buy i ever did and it actually degrade sound... Making it slow, Veiled, extremely forward, lackin air and Soundstage.
I dont know how Ifi Usb solutions can make sound worse, cause that it do is Restore signal, Kill noise. Qutest sounded so much better with My nano usb 3.0 than alone when tried it with my dealer.

 

[VintageFlanker]

I don't think any extra usb "thing" may clean or improve the Qutest USB input... This is the best USB treatment I ever tested on any DAC. Period.

I quote myself (many months ago) what I wrote about the Qutest's galvanic isolation :

It's not.

Trust me, I owned MANY DACs these lasts years and almost all of them took, more or less, audible noise from my computer via the USB input (worst case: Nuprime DAC-9). This noise was very audible in my MA Silver 10 tweeters, less with headphones.

The Qutest is DEAD SILENT pluged in USB on my system, and this is the first DAC I own to work that way.

 

[SoundeScapes]

I dont tell you to buy The most expensive cable. I just sayin that difference is so big for me when it comes to usb cables so i go for the best. Curious is very very good for the price. It have Everything you need... Siver, good shielding and separated power line.
P.S i would stay clear of Audioquest Usb Cables. They all are overhyped by people who didnt heard better ones...
I Have Aq Forest and it have nothing going to fight noise and it sound extremely boring, digital, harsh and lifeless. They have nothing to fight noise, High frequency inferfence.
Aq Jitterbug is absolutely worst buy i ever did and it actually degrade sound... Making it slow, Veiled, extremely forward, lackin air and Soundstage.
I dont know how Ifi Usb solutions can make sound worse, cause that it do is Restore signal, Kill noise. Qutest sounded so much better with My nano usb 3.0 than alone when tried it with my dealer.

YMWV obviously. I have heard different cables and still think that AQ's are well built, good sounding cables
and for the reasonable price the Cinnamon is good.
In a perfect world with a perfect source you shouldn't need a Jitterbug, or reclockers, or regenerators etc.
I have read different opinions on the Jitterbug and I'm sure it all depends on surrounding equipment, electrical environment,
preferences etc but for me it was an improvement with a noisy source.
Now just recently, after some changes to source and other things, I've removed the Jitterbug and cannot detect a difference anymore.

 

[jwbrent]

I don't think any extra usb "thing" may clean or improve the Qutest USB input... This is the best USB treatment I ever tested on any DAC. Period.

I quote myself (many months ago) what I wrote about the Qutest's galvanic isolation :

Same here, dead quiet using my MacBook Air to the Qutest with a Penon Audio pure silver USB cable.

 

[Rob Watts]

Rob Watts,

Regarding USA Warranty:

Would you please state the terms of
the Chord Qutest 3 yr. warranty if
Qutest is purchased from authorized
USA distributor. If a warranty repair
is necessary is the repair actually
done in the USA by the distributor,
or does the distributor send it to
England, or is it a matter of the
distributors discretion? In the event
that a repair can not be satisfactorily
performed by the authorized dist.
is Chord responsible for resolving
the issue; eg. purchaser sends dac
directly to Chord England if auth.
dist. is out of business or lack
technical ability to perform repair?

Sorry to bother you with this but
warranty is part of the purchasing
decision and I am currently
evaluating a Qutest on a trial
basis.

regards,

gad-

I am actually independent of Chord, as I am merely the designer, so this is by no means an official answer.

But my understanding is that warranty repairs are handled via Chord's US service centre, organised by your dealer. Chord monitor the situation, and provide the ultimate back-stop. Most repairs are easy to fix; some require brand new boards for which the service centre install. I do know that Chord take looking after customers wherever you are in the world very seriously, and have seen them bending over backwards to sort issues out.

 

[plsvn]

have seen them bending over backwards to sort issues out.

btw, and OT... have an “early” Mojo (S# on sticker). it runs really hot (but back then Chord said it is nothing to worry about)
though a friend bought one recently (“engraved” S#) and... it only gets “warm-ish”

should I contact Chord?

 

[Hi Rez]

hi everyone, I hope to get some answers as I am not good in technical things

my setup is

alienware laptop 15 R3--- chord qutest---- usb---- ifi ican pro amp---- headphones ( Hifiman He1000 V2 )

1- I read some people talk about noisy usb signal , is there anything you guys recommend to buy within ( 300 - 500 usd ) to get the best signal form my laptop to the chord
2- do you advise I buy certain usb cables ( 200 usd -300 usd )
3- how bout interconnects form my dac to amp, I am using a cheap audioquest interconnect that costs only 30 usd , i can not remember its name
4- do you believe using a mac mini would be better to use than my alienware
5- finally in the media players, I see wasapi and asio options which one to use, and do u change any of the driver settings , please share

i know all these are noob questions, but i would like to know about how to get to a better level of signal transfer

For improving the USB signal you could try the UpTone Audio ISO Regen. The iFi products could offer similar improvements, but I don't have experience with those. The ISO Regen is in your price range, has a 30 day money back guarantee, so at most you are out shipping if it doesn't make a noticeable improvement for you. It would likely still offer improvements should you at some point in the future change your source. This might be your most cost effective improvement.

Regarding USB cables, I would second the suggestion for the AudioQuest Cinnamon. There are better cables out there, but the cost of the Cinnamon is reasonable compared to the super expensive cables. And unless you are in a "cost no object" quest, IMO you'll get a bigger improvement for the money with something like the ISO Regen above than with a USB cable. Maybe look at source and USB cleanup before going down this rabbit hole.

Source matters. A stock Mac mini might be an improvement. A Mac mini with SSD, modified to use a linear power supply would be an improvement, but at a non-trivial cost. A dedicated server / renderer would almost certainly offer a noticeable improvement, but also at a cost.

Interconnects IMO would offer the least improvement for the $$.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sound Eq]

For improving the USB signal you could try the UpTone Audio ISO Regen. The iFi products could offer similar improvements, but I don't have experience with those. The ISO Regen is in your price range, has a 30 day money back guarantee, so at most you are out shipping if it doesn't make a noticeable improvement for you. It would likely still offer improvements should you at some point in the future change your source. This might be your most cost effective improvement.

Regarding USB cables, I would second the suggestion for the AudioQuest Cinnamon. There are better cables out there, but the cost of the Cinnamon is reasonable compared to the super expensive cables. And unless you are in a "cost no object" quest, IMO you'll get a bigger improvement for the money with something like the ISO Regen above than with a USB cable. Maybe look at source and USB cleanup before going down this rabbit hole.

Source matters. A stock Mac mini might be an improvement. A Mac mini with SSD, modified to use a linear power supply would be an improvement, but at a non-trivial cost. A dedicated server / renderer would almost certainly offer a noticeable improvement, but also at a cost.

Interconnects IMO would offer the least improvement for the $$.

Hope this helps.

this looks interesting as well, now I have another question, since my laptop has only 2 usb ports, and I am connecting many usb devices to my laptop, using a usb hub, is there a good quality usb hub that I should buy with the regen, or it doesn't matter with the regen as it does all the work regardless what usb hub i use on my laptop

to ask more precisely can i connect 4 usb devices ( 2 external storage devices and 1 dac and 1 mouse ) to a usb hub and still use regen to achieve what it is supposed to achieve