[jwbrent]

The counter view is that I recollect Rob Watts saying about another of his DACs that he had compared one straight off the production line with one that he had used a lot and he could tell no difference between them.

Yes, I recall that post about the Mojo. Whether he would say the same about the Qutest is unknown, but as mentioned, the better the DAC, the better the componentry inside, the more time needed for the sound to settle. In my view.

 

[ea666]

I think you'll love it right off the bat .I did. I use Cyrus gear as well, but you need a really elite amp to pair with their CD players. The Qutest will bridge that gap . You can use a modest amp and the Qutest usually set at 3V gives you a ton of power and volume flexibility.

I've changed the default from 1V trailed 3V and settled on 2V, which gives the same volume control prior to setting the Qutest. Changing to 2V injected some volume into my set up and now to allow for time to hopefully let the Qutest bring praise to my ears too

 

[Triode User]

Yes, I recall that post about the Mojo. Whether he would say the same about the Qutest is unknown, but as mentioned, the better the DAC, the better the componentry inside, the more time needed for the sound to settle. In my view.

Sure, of course it is all YMMV and IMO but I have not noticed any change in my Dave from the day that I turned it on 2 years ago until now (I very rarely turn it off or put it in standby).

 

[dc71]

Yes, I recall that post about the Mojo. Whether he would say the same about the Qutest is unknown, but as mentioned, the better the DAC, the better the componentry inside, the more time needed for the sound to settle. In my view.

For me, I felt like Qutest took a month or so of daily use to come on song and sound what I perceive as fully natural. Although sounding good from the first few hours, the perception/illusion of real-sounding voices and instruments improved for me over the first 4-5 weeks.

M-scaler is above my price range, but from what I hear in my system, using the upsampling to 24-384 in my Lumin U1 mini and feeding Qutest over a Curious USB cable, there seems to be value in upsampling to the max I can within my setup.

 

[nephilim32]

I've changed the default from 1V trailed 3V and settled on 2V, which gives the same volume control prior to setting the Qutest. Changing to 2V injected some volume into my set up and now to allow for time to hopefully let the Qutest bring praise to my ears too

Its a bit of trail and error, so the bit of switching involves finding the best match for your amps sensitivity output .
I am not sure what headphones you use, but I imagine for those who have orca fat impedance headphones like some Bayerdynamics or the purly resistive LCD 4's (600ohms planar) while using a modest amp will have to use the 3V setting . I have the Burson Soloist and use the HD 800's with a Cyrus transport and I need the 3V setting big time.
Anyhow I found that the 1 to 3V RMS setting is one of the Qutest's biggest values to me option wise . saved me from having to buy another amp .

 

[nephilim32]

Hello musickid.
Are you referring to Qutest or M Scaler with this statement ? Or both?
All I can say on this subject so far since "switching" from SPU to battery powered LPS since about a month is that every time I run out of battery in mid track of what I happen to be listening to when it happens and have to plug in the supplied one ,the difference between the battery powered LPS and the supplied SPU with Qutest but M Scaler connected with the supplied unit, at least where I am in Asian countries, is not subtle but quite immediately audible to me with most of my well recorded hi res mainly western classical acoustic music.
And the differences I hear are not in favour of the unit supplied with my Qutest.
The battery powered one sounds calmer/cleaner and purer,and simply better than the supplied one and I am happy I have got it because to me it takes Q/HMS one notch higher and closer to the real reference with my acoustic music.
Cheers Controversial Christer

This was impart to the voltage output matching of the Qutest and your LPS.
You have a possible risk running say a 12V or 15V power supply into a 5v unit.
You literally fry either the power supply or the dac itself depending on which is a regulated dc voltage output .
Anyhow .Battery supplied LPS or Isolation transformers like say from Torus power are the best! They make a difference just as you said .

 

[486930]

I found the V output to be absolutely critical to make the Qutest sound good. I use it with a Croft Pre/Power combo and with 2V and 3V it sounded metallic and glaring. With 1V it sounds full and fat while also being more transparent.

A question: I have tried two streamers, Innuos Zen Mini mk3 and Stream Box S2 Ultra. Innuos is the better one, and they both sound somewhat better than an iPad or laptop wired to the Qutest. I’ve found, however, that I kind of prefer the freedom of a wired laptop/iPad because I can use Tidal’s own app and likewise with BandCamp, Soundcloud, etc. So here’s the question: how do I maximise the sound from a wired laptop or iPad without a secoundary device that requires power? Is something like a fancy usb cable enough? Budget would be 500$

Thanks

 

[miketlse]

I found the V output to be absolutely critical to make the Qutest sound good. I use it with a Croft Pre/Power combo and with 2V and 3V it sounded metallic and glaring. With 1V it sounds full and fat while also being more transparent.

A question: I have tried two streamers, Innuos Zen Mini mk3 and Stream Box S2 Ultra. Innuos is the better one, and they both sound somewhat better than an iPad or laptop wired to the Qutest. I’ve found, however, that I kind of prefer the freedom of a wired laptop/iPad because I can use Tidal’s own app and likewise with BandCamp, Soundcloud, etc. So here’s the question: how do I maximise the sound from a wired laptop or iPad without a secoundary device that requires power? Is something like a fancy usb cable enough? Budget would be 500$

Thanks

USB cables can act like aerials, and pick up RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) from all the WiFi, phones, TVs etc, that fill today's homes.
Before you spend a lot of money on a secondary device, try adding one or more ferrite cores to your USB cable, near the end with the plug that feeds the Qutest.
Here are some examples, but there are various brands.
They are sized according to the diameter of the cable that they will fit, so be careful to use the correct size of ferrite.
They are cheap enough to experiment with, so the worst case scenario is that you hear no benefit, but haven't spent a fortune.
Many Mojo owners found that ferrites helped remove RFI, and improved the Mojo sound quality - so other Chord owners now find it worth experimenting with ferrites as well.

 

[jwbrent]

I found the V output to be absolutely critical to make the Qutest sound good. I use it with a Croft Pre/Power combo and with 2V and 3V it sounded metallic and glaring. With 1V it sounds full and fat while also being more transparent.

A question: I have tried two streamers, Innuos Zen Mini mk3 and Stream Box S2 Ultra. Innuos is the better one, and they both sound somewhat better than an iPad or laptop wired to the Qutest. I’ve found, however, that I kind of prefer the freedom of a wired laptop/iPad because I can use Tidal’s own app and likewise with BandCamp, Soundcloud, etc. So here’s the question: how do I maximise the sound from a wired laptop or iPad without a secoundary device that requires power? Is something like a fancy usb cable enough? Budget would be 500$

Thanks

Since you have an iPad, I presume you have a MacBook of some sort. I strongly recommend Audirvana + as your file playing software. It’s around $75 and it makes a nice performance difference with lots of functionality. If you have a Windows/Linux based laptop, I would research software music players.

 

[AlexB73]

I found the V output to be absolutely critical to make th8e Qutest sound good. I use it with a Croft Pre/Power combo and with 2V and 3V it sounded metallic and glaring. With 1V it sounds full and fat while also being more transparent.



Thanks

He he.
For 3volt rms output you need power supply voltage around 9 volt. For 2volt rms you need power supply ~6volt. And for 1 volt you need only 3 volt.
So it is obviously Qutest uses internal switched powers supply to boost external 5 volt power supply voltage. Only 1 volt rms output doesn't need voltage boost.

 

[Paul Bjernklo]

I found the V output to be absolutely critical to make the Qutest sound good. I use it with a Croft Pre/Power combo and with 2V and 3V it sounded metallic and glaring. With 1V it sounds full and fat while also being more transparent.

A question: I have tried two streamers, Innuos Zen Mini mk3 and Stream Box S2 Ultra. Innuos is the better one, and they both sound somewhat better than an iPad or laptop wired to the Qutest. I’ve found, however, that I kind of prefer the freedom of a wired laptop/iPad because I can use Tidal’s own app and likewise with BandCamp, Soundcloud, etc. So here’s the question: how do I maximise the sound from a wired laptop or iPad without a secoundary device that requires power? Is something like a fancy usb cable enough? Budget would be 500$

Thanks

My advise re usb cable; Get a Supra 2.0 USB cable, which comes highly recommend by quite a few people and have a great review by Hi-fi Choice, no need to spend more in my view and try some ferrites as per a previous post. The ferrites may not be needed as Qutest is galvanically isolated but is worth a try... Just my suggestions!

 

[486930]

Thanks guys. What about the Curious Cable?

 

[Triode User]

My advise re usb cable; Get a Supra 2.0 USB cable, which comes highly recommend by quite a few people and have a great review by Hi-fi Choice, no need to spend more in my view and try some ferrites as per a previous post. The ferrites may not be needed as Qutest is galvanically isolated but is worth a try... Just my suggestions!

I use the Supra 2.0 and have compared it to some quite exotic and expensive cables and I decided that the supra was just as good.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

He he.
For 3volt rms output you need power supply voltage around 9 volt. For 2volt rms you need power supply ~6volt. And for 1 volt you need only 3 volt.
So it is obviously Qutest uses internal switched powers supply to boost external 5 volt power supply voltage. Only 1 volt rms output doesn't need voltage boost.

Never thought about that. I was always using 3V mode, because at higher voltage you should have less influence from interconnects (at least in theory). I will try to listen to 1V mode.

 

[AlexB73]

Nobody knows how output of Qutest is designed except Rob Watts.
What I sad, if you need to make 2 or 3 volt rms output from 5 volt power you have to use switched DC-DC converter Flyback or Boost.
But it can be good implemented.
I tried all these option in my system.
3 volt output sounds most open and dynamic. 2 volt output sounds more cleaner and focused in high frequencies. 1 volt output sounds the worst.