[Jon L]

Nicely done comparison of many DAC's.

ARES II vs D90 vs Bifrost 2 vs ADI-2 vs Gungnir vs Qutest [Mega DAC Roundup & Comparison]

 

[daytrader]

Nicely done comparison of many DAC's.

ARES II vs D90 vs Bifrost 2 vs ADI-2 vs Gungnir vs Qutest [Mega DAC Roundup & Comparison]

Saw this when it first ran on YouTub, great stuff!

 

[daytrader]

Is anyone running the Qutest with an external BT? I’m thinking of the ifi specifically. Just wonder how much sound quality suffers over the air as compared to a hard line connection, either a USB or other wired type?

 

[elira]

Is anyone running the Qutest with an external BT? I’m thinking of the ifi specifically. Just wonder how much sound quality suffers over the air as compared to a hard line connection, either a USB or other wired type?

Bluetooth is lossy, you have to compress/decompress the stream. It should work fine and you might have good enough sound quality, but I wouldn't use a qutest exclusively for that.

 

[daytrader]

Bluetooth is lossy, you have to compress/decompress the stream. It should work fine and you might have good enough sound quality, but I wouldn't use a qutest exclusively for that.

Does Chord get around this with the Hugo 2tt? Or is the BT pretty much included as a convenience feature?

 

[arjuna93]

Is anyone running the Qutest with an external BT? I’m thinking of the ifi specifically. Just wonder how much sound quality suffers over the air as compared to a hard line connection, either a USB or other wired type?

You can use Airport Express with Optical out to Qutest. Supports only CD quality, but Lossless.

 

[jwbrent]

Does Chord get around this with the Hugo 2tt? Or is the BT pretty much included as a convenience feature?

All BT codecs are lossy, but not to the same degree. There’s no way, for instance, running an iFi xCAN for BT with your Qutest that the sound will be comparable, or any other BT transceiver, for that matter. The technology isn’t there yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if sometime in the future lossless BT becomes a reality.

So, no, the TT2’s built-in BT is not lossless.

 

[jeremya]

@Rob Watts, how tolerant is the 5V power input on the Qutest? I happen to have a 6V regulated supply (Farad Super3) that I use to power another device in my playback chain and I'm wondering if the Qutest would tolerate 6V power input... or if I'd be sending it to the great FPGA pile in the sky just for trying...

 

[jeremya]

Nicely done comparison of many DAC's.

ARES II vs D90 vs Bifrost 2 vs ADI-2 vs Gungnir vs Qutest [Mega DAC Roundup & Comparison]

Indeed. Thanks for sharing this!

 

[Rob Watts]

@Rob Watts, how tolerant is the 5V power input on the Qutest? I happen to have a 6V regulated supply (Farad Super3) that I use to power another device in my playback chain and I'm wondering if the Qutest would tolerate 6V power input... or if I'd be sending it to the great FPGA pile in the sky just for trying...

You would send it to the great FPGA pile in the sky with 6v... It must be USB voltage compliant, that is 5v +/- 0.25v.

 

[arjuna93]

@Rob Watts Could you please comment on Coaxial, does it make any difference if RCA-terminated cable is used (with an adapter on Chord side) or BNC-terminated (with an adapter on the source side)?

 

[arjuna93]

On Hugo 2 optical sounds the same as USB - and this is via headphones, so no ground loop from the source, and hence no ground currents. It changes as soon as you ground the connection, which normally happens with Qutest, as you will connect an amp on the outputs. Now to reduce the ground currents (RF noise into the ground plane of the DAC) I use galvanic isolation and RF filters - but it's not possible to totally eliminate the issue. If you use a low power, simple source, then USB sounds the same as optical (particularly with battery powered sources), so use the optical as your benchmark. To do the listening tests correctly you need to disconnect all other sources. Coax has no galvanic isolation, and direct coupling to the grounds, so will always be the brighter sounding input.

The reason it sounds brighter is RF noise when interfering with analogue creates more noise floor modulation, which makes it sound brighter.

Oh wow. Thank you very much for insightful info. I was planning to get Coax converter to try it, but now feel like I better stay with Optical. Saves me some cash too.

 

[jeremya]

You would send it to the great FPGA pile in the sky with 6v... It must be USB voltage compliant, that is 5v +/- 0.25v.

Thank you so much for confirming! I had a feeling that would be your answer, but your designs are so robust in general that I wanted to rule out any doubt. =^)

 

[Rob Watts]

@Rob Watts Could you please comment on Coaxial, does it make any difference if RCA-terminated cable is used (with an adapter on Chord side) or BNC-terminated (with an adapter on the source side)?

It probably won't make any difference at all, but I would have the BNC on the Qutest side as any possible miss-termination will have less of an effect, as any signal reflection would have a smaller impact when closer to the source.

 

[arjuna93]

It probably won't make any difference at all, but I would have the BNC on the Qutest side as any possible miss-termination will have less of an effect, as any signal reflection would have a smaller impact when closer to the source.

I went through your earlier comments and saw you recommend Optical over Coax.

I am currently using Airport Express to send signal via Optical into my 2Qute. Since I am unsure if using Airport is a good way, I initially thought to get a USB–Coax converter like Aurorasound. However since you say Optical is preferred over Coax, I would rather stay where I am or get USB to Optical converter.