[Romi54]

Ok, but there are people who see Yggdrasil on par with Dave.

That's why I'm asking

 

[Romi54]

One of these days I will compare. Qutest is in my setup at work, Yggy A2 in my home (main) setup. I like them both but I've never swapped them around.

Take the Qutest home and compare both.

 

[betula]

Ok, but there are people who see Yggdrasil on par with Dave.

That's why I'm asking

Those people probably didn't find their eyeglasses after getting up in the morning.

 

[miketlse]

One of these days I will compare. Qutest is in my setup at work, Yggy A2 in my home (main) setup. I like them both but I've never swapped them around.

Yes a good test. For all of us our preferred solution at home, may be different to our preferred solution at work, where considerations like network access and installing apps or drivers, may be showstoppers.

 

[betula]

Every opinion is just one man's opinion (including mine). I have seen quite a few people preferring Hugo 2 to Yggdrasil.
I am not a good source as I have never had a chance to audition Yggdrasil, I am just going by my trustworthy reviewers and friends who heard both the Yggie and Chord DACs.
I have also read pretty much all available online literature on these DACs.
To me no DACs compete with Qutest under £2000. And no DAC/amps compete with TT2 under £4000. Chord does something right, which is realism and 3D space.
I am sure Yggie is a nice DAC if you are ready to embrace its bulkiness and weight, but these days you can pick one up for £1400 on the secondhand market: the exact same price of a secondhand Hugo2.
In my experience secondhand market indicates real value more than the original RRP does. Secondhand DAVE as a comparison is still above £5K.
I don't think Yggie competes with DAVE. IMO even TT2 destroys it. Regarding Qutest it might be a matter of preference.

 

[knopi]

I would buy easily Qutest becouse if you will want sell it one day it will hold much better value.

 

[RuiNguyen]

I sold my Yggy Analog Gen 2 and kept the Chord Qutest till now. To me and my brother, the Qutest is the better one. We have very different taste in music genres but we both think that the Yggy is dry and boring. The only thing makes Yggy better than Qutest is the overall detail but not too much. The system that I tried on the Qutest and Yggy was Sonus Faber Venere Signature, Tannoy Kensington GR, Monitor Audio Bronze 2, Mcintosh Ma6700, Accuphase E480, Denon PMA 1520 AE. I've compared AB Qutest and Dave. Qutest was 7/10 or 8/10 compared to DAVE. There is no way the Yggy is on par with the DAVE.

Ok, but there are people who see Yggdrasil on par with Dave.

That's why I'm asking

 

[BlakeT]

For me personally, DAC's are the one area in my systems where I have been hesitant to drop serious amounts of money. My reasoning is, DAC's are very much a "flavor of the month" item (flavor of the year is probably more accurate). Today's beloved DAC will be a "yeah, its a fine DAC, but it is easily beat by the new [insert model)".

I might try an M-Scaler at some point though.

 

[Hooster]

I sold my Yggy Analog Gen 2 and kept the Chord Qutest till now. To me and my brother, the Qutest is the better one. We have very different taste in music genres but we both think that the Yggy is dry and boring. The only thing makes Yggy better than Qutest is the overall detail but not too much. The system that I tried on the Qutest and Yggy was Sonus Faber Venere Signature, Tannoy Kensington GR, Monitor Audio Bronze 2, Mcintosh Ma6700, Accuphase E480, Denon PMA 1520 AE. I've compared AB Qutest and Dave. Qutest was 7/10 or 8/10 compared to DAVE. There is no way the Yggy is on par with the DAVE.

No surprise there. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ew-and-measurements-of-chord-qutest-dac.5981/

Yggy 86, Qutest 114

 

[Liu Junyuan]

Well, Yggy is almost 12kg (25lbs) and Qutest is 770g (1.6lbs).

They both seem to be top choices of DACs, although Yggie is getting a bit old. Qutest might have the edge in realistic sound and sound stage depth according to what I have read.

I run a TT2 now so I am not really looking back to anything lesser.

I came here because I am interested in the Qutest.

Yggy is far from dated. The A1 was released in 2015, I believe. The Dave very close to that. Even if the Dave was "getting a bit old" next year, would it not still be a good DAC? I think in ten years it will still be a great DAC.
With that said, I am not sure if you know the Yggy received a major update to its analog board and will be upgraded to Unison USB early next year; the latter will be huge. My point is that the DAC is upgradable; it's not the same DAC as it was upon release, and one doesn't need to sell, say the A1, and buy an entirely new A2 version DAC, which is what every other company does. You have to sell your Chord TT if you want to upgrade to TT2.

My second point is that new <> better in audio. I use a vintage Sonic Frontiers DAC that I love. I sold my Yggy A1 because I preferred the Sonic Frontiers. In retrospect, I preferred Gungnir MB to Yggy A1. But Yggy A2 is a much different sounding DAC.

Size depends on user. I have an audio rack. Many Yggy owners also use speakers. Not everyone uses size as a parameter. Others do.

Now, on to Qutest: what are the strengths of TT2 over it? I am very interested.

Thanks!

 

[dinus777]

https://darko.audio/the-darko-dac-index/

According to darko.audio, Qutest is also ranked higher.

 

[theveterans]

Yggdrasil and Qutest both in division 1 BTW. The line up is arranged alphabetically. Hugo 2 is higher because it can act as headphone amp plus you can extend its features with 2Go even though its equal or lesser (non-galvanic isolation inputs) the sound quality of Qutest.

Still curious on how would M Scaler + DAVE fair against the dCS Bartok sitting at the Uber throne

 

[Liu Junyuan]

Yggdrasil and Qutest both in division 1 BTW. The line up is arranged alphabetically. Hugo 2 is higher because it can act as headphone amp plus you can extend its features with 2Go even though its equal or lesser (non-galvanic isolation inputs) the sound quality of Qutest.

Still curious on how would M Scaler + DAVE fair against the dCS Bartok sitting at the Uber throne

Dave + M Scaler is my dream setup for Utopia. But there are so many great options at lower "divisions." Some of my best memories in the hobby were with sub $600 chans + HE-500/HD650

 

[BlakeT]

Every opinion is just one man's opinion (including mine)..

I agree with you in general terms on general topics. Like you, I also read every review I can get my hands on when considering audio purchases. After all, I don't have the time, interest or money to try every available option within my budget and I use reviews to narrow my lists. I always consider the source when reading reviews and comments. However, on this specific topic, I suppose I would also say that not all opinions should be weighted equally. I believe Torq's opinion with respect to DAC's is worth more than pretty much anyone else I am aware of.

1. Torq has the time, interest and money needed to buy the majority of all of the higher performing DAC's people are interested in. From reasonably priced to cost-no-object. (dCS, MSB, TotalDac, etc.)
2. This is Torq's money, he didn't accept free gear or discounts as he wanted no bias or favoritism. He bought them all, and then had to sell them off, taking the financial hit.
3. He was willing to go through the painstaking process of comparing all these DAC's and then taking huge amounts of time to provide a write-up with his results for all to see.
4. Torq's headphone and speaker rigs are absolutely SOTA systems, capable of revealing everything.
5. These DAC's were tested in his systems, with his music. This is absolutely key, and something people gloss over. They hear a DAC at a headphone meet, with an unfamiliar amp or music and then try to draw conclusions about the DAC.
6. At some level, listening for, and then comparing sonic attributes is a learned skill, gained through personal experience of conducting these experiments.


Now, lest anyone question Torq's sonic tastes or hearing abilities all Chord fans should also know that after listening to the majority of the greatest DAC's in the world, Torq ended up with Chord DAC's (Dave with Blu-MK2 and TT2 with Hugo M-Scaler) as his references and preferred DAC's, and he can afford to buy any DAC on the planet. Although he indicates he still has and very much enjoys the Yggy A2 when he just wants to listen to music, and also uses the RME ADI-2 for a reference for comparison purposes.

See e.g.

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/57357-chord-hugo-2-upgrade-m-scaler-or-tt2/

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/57062-upgrading-from-my-yiggy/

I personally believe Torq's DAC thread is right up there with the greatest contributions from any forum member on any audio forum, of all time. Joining others like this one: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/battle-of-the-flagships-58-headphones-compared.634201/

 

[Richardhoos]

Probably a silly question but something I can’t figure out and has me confused.

How do I use a Bluesound Node 2i with the Qutest via coax to the BNC ports? Is there a special adapter needed?

Right now I’m using optical but I was curious to try coaxial as well, I’m just unfamiliar with “BNC” ...

Thanks!