[Nik74]

I can unreservedly recommend the one that comes free in the box. If it is good enough for Rob Watts, it must be good enough

Chord could so easily design and sell expensive power supplies for their products as an upgrade if they deemed it necessary like so many other manufacturers do, I m glad they haven’t gone down that route. And I m sure they have good reasons not to. I find it quite honourable specially bearing in mind that it would have been particularly lucrative ...

 

[VintageFlanker]

IMHO, there's nothing to discuss here.

If some PSU would make the Qutest sound better, Chord would know about it. As they claim it won't improve anything, it won't improve anything. Period.

There is NOTHING to gain for Chord to claim such things if it wasn't real. Don't you think their ultimate purpose is to sell the best product for the money?

Sorry, but I tend to trust engineers more than audiophiles...

 

[ATXKyle]

IMHO, there's nothing to discuss here.

If some PSU would make the Qutest sound better, Chord would know about it. As they claim it won't improve anything, it won't improve anything. Period.

There is NOTHING to gain for Chord to claim such things if it wasn't real. Don't you think their ultimate purpose is to sell the best product for the money?

Sorry, but I tend to trust engineers more than audiophiles...

Don't want to get into a PSUs debate but just want to provide an alternate viewpoint from someone who's actually tried it. I'm a 2Qute owner and my experience is that upgrading the power supply (in my case to an Uptone LPS1.2) unequivocally and pretty dramatically improved the sound. Was VERY happy with the upgrade. It's important to have the digital source feeding your DAC on clean power as well. Filtering in the DAC helps a lot but can only do so much ...

 

[ATXKyle]

ouch! that ended that thought quickly lol.. any other recommendations?

Uptone LPS1.2

 

[Hi Rez]

Uptone LPS1.2

+1

 

[Triode User]

Don't want to get into a PSUs debate but just want to provide an alternate viewpoint from someone who's actually tried it. I'm a 2Qute owner and my experience is that upgrading the power supply (in my case to an Uptone LPS1.2) unequivocally and pretty dramatically improved the sound. Was VERY happy with the upgrade. It's important to have the digital source feeding your DAC on clean power as well. Filtering in the DAC helps a lot but can only do so much ...

It would be very useful if you could describe the change in the sound due to adding the power supply on account of one mans improvement being another mans worsening. Thanks.

 

[Nik74]

It is becoming clear to me that different people will want to tune the sound of their DAC towards slightly different signature directions. And what often feels like an improvement may be more equanimously and accurately described as a difference.
The bottom line could be whether that difference in sound enhances your enjoyment and what you perceive as musical involvement.
I am in no position to disagree with anyone who likes a bit of added RF light and clarity when I get chills down my spine by two valve amps chained together adding their flavour of second degree harmonics and voluptuousness to my otherwise “incisively neutral” Qutest
I hope you re all enjoying your music this eve

 

[Triode User]

It is becoming clear to me that different people will want to tune the sound of their DAC towards slightly different signature directions. And what often feels like an improvement may be more equanimously and accurately described as a difference.
The bottom line could be whether that difference in sound enhances your enjoyment and what you perceive as musical involvement.
I am in no position to disagree with anyone who likes a bit of added RF light and clarity when I get chills down my spine by two valve amps chained together adding their flavour of second degree harmonics and voluptuousness to my otherwise “incisively neutral” Qutest
I hope you re all enjoying your music this eve

I am with you up to a point and I say this as a lover of the valve amp sound, distortion and all. I have had valve amps for maybe 40 years and they do send that tingle down my spine even though I know it is often distortion. The thing is though that it is relatively benign distortion. And that is the difference between valve amp distortion and RF noise distortion. One is pleasing to the ear and the other is harsh noise that makes me for one want to turn the hifi off. (Listening to Agnes Obel, Aventine - HiRes version, simple and sublime music, I love that deep gravely cello sound)

 

[Sound Eq]

can I ask what is the difference in sound when you use 2 V or 3 V, assuming there is any, I hook up my qutest to ifi pro ican using USB

 

[jwbrent]

can I ask what is the difference in sound when you use 2 V or 3 V, assuming there is any, I hook up my qutest to ifi pro ican using USB

2V is a pretty standard output for home source products, hence, preamps, integrated amps, etc. are designed for this input level. I had to switch my Qutest from the default 3V to 2V because it was overloading my Luxman amp. Even in cases where 3V doesn’t cause this type of problem, the volume adjustment on the connected device loses its fineness of adjustment; small adjustments bring bigger changes in volume level.

With that said, some feel a higher output gives a more authoritive sound, a more dynamic sound. It really depends on the output impedance and input impedance/sensitivity of the connected devices.

 

[Sound Eq]

2V is a pretty standard output for home source products, hence, preamps, integrated amps, etc. are designed for this input level. I had to switch my Qutest from the default 3V to 2V because it was overloading my Luxman amp. Even in cases where 3V doesn’t cause this type of problem, the volume adjustment on the connected device loses its fineness of adjustment; small adjustments bring bigger changes in volume level.

With that said, some feel a higher output gives a more authoritive sound, a more dynamic sound. It really depends on the output impedance and input impedance/sensitivity of the connected devices.

so by default its was 3V, if yes then I am sure chord chose it to be default for a reason, don't you think so ?

 

[marcusd]

so by default its was 3V, if yes then I am sure chord chose it to be default for a reason, don't you think so ?

The default setting is 1V and is chosen simply because the lowest value is the safest value electrically out of the box.

 

[plsvn]

default setting is 1V

default, OTB, is 3v. same as it was (but fixed) for 2Qute

 

[Sound Eq]

The default setting is 1V and is chosen simply because the lowest value is the safest value electrically out of the box.

i thought so as well, as I saw it red when I first fired it up, but then forget if it was really red or blue on first day of purchase, thanks for confirming it was 1V and I choose to go with 2 V

 

[Sound Eq]

default, OTB, is 3v. same as it was (but fixed) for 2Qute

i think it was 1 V