[Atriya]

Has anyone tried the Topping P50 with the Qutest? Does the 5v/1A output work well?

1A is minimum according to the manual, so it should work. Haven't tried it though.

 

[Sense]

1A is minimum according to the manual, so it should work. Haven't tried it though.

Is there any reason why 1A would do anything to the sound quality?

 

[Atriya]

Has anyone had any issues with the Chord drivers for the Qutest, on Windows 10? Using these drivers, I have various problems when playing music upsampled beyond 192Khz: clicks, pops, electronic blips, sometimes even white noise on one or both channels, when using either HQPlayer or Roon to upsample. Strangely (to me), none of these problems arise if I simply uninstall the Chord drivers i.e. even though the device manager calls the Qutest an "unidentified device" with no drivers at all, it inexplicably plays (via both HQPlayer and Roon) a 768Khz/32-bit stream perfectly via USB, with no glitches whatsoever. I wrote to Chord support about this and they appear to be clueless.

 

[technobear]

Has anyone had any issues with the Chord drivers for the Qutest, on Windows 10? Using these drivers, I have various problems when playing music upsampled beyond 192Khz: clicks, pops, electronic blips, sometimes even white noise on one or both channels, when using either HQPlayer or Roon to upsample. Strangely (to me), none of these problems arise if I simply uninstall the Chord drivers i.e. even though the device manager calls the Qutest an "unidentified device" with no drivers at all, it inexplicably plays (via both HQPlayer and Roon) a 768Khz/32-bit stream perfectly via USB, with no glitches whatsoever. I wrote to Chord support about this and they appear to be clueless.

Why are you upsampling on the PC when you have a Qutest?

That's like buying a dog and barking yourself!

You should feed your Qutest a bit perfect signal at the native sample rate of the file.

 

[Sense]

Speaking of drivers...I didn't install the drivers on my Surface Pro X...I'm running the Windows 11 beta and it recognizes it as "Qutest". Not sure if that means anything.

 

[Atriya]

Why are you upsampling on the PC when you have a Qutest?

That's like buying a dog and barking yourself!

You should feed your Qutest a bit perfect signal at the native sample rate of the file.

Because HQPlayer is supposed to do such a good job at upscaling, that is it is apparently comparable not even to the upscaling of the Qutest with its 50k taps, but to the M Scaler with its 1 million taps!:

https://audiobacon.net/2021/03/17/hqplayer-better-than-a-5000-upscaler/

I'm personally not making any such claims myself. I'm just doing listening tests, and so far doing the upsampling with HQPlayer sounds better to me than letting the Qutest do it by itself.

 

[Rukley]

Looking for amo recommendations for the Qutest. Im looking at the SPL Phonitor X / XE, Qutest will be a stepping stone to the TT2 later on so would like to get an amp I can still use with that later on. Will eventually get a second tube amp.

 

[RobertSM]

Looking for amo recommendations for the Qutest. Im looking at the SPL Phonitor X / XE, Qutest will be a stepping stone to the TT2 later on so would like to get an amp I can still use with that later on. Will eventually get a second tube amp.

I own the qutest and till about a month ago also owned the Phonitor X. It's a outstanding pairing. The Phonitor X is a very neutral and linear amp. But please don't take that as cold or sterile because that's not the case at all. The pairing allows for the easy and detailed sound of the qutest to pair with the speed and refined muscle of the Phonitor X. It's a great combination and one that I'd highly recommend.

 

[Christer]

Why are you upsampling on the PC when you have a Qutest?

That's like buying a dog and barking yourself!

You should feed your Qutest a bit perfect signal at the native sample rate of the file.

Oops, mea culpa for "liking" the post!

IMO actually Very Strong opinion Qutest or any other Chord Dac should be fed upsampled files via Mscaler!

Or possibly HQ Player? I have not tried HQ Player so I can not say how much of an improvement it adds over Qutest on its own. But I know for sure that Mscaler transforms Qutest from an ok dac into close to but not quite SOTA territory.
Going up the ladder to TT2 and ultimately DAVE adds more transparency but at very steep costs imho.

Another way of sending Qutest a 24/705 or 32/768 upsampled signal that I have tried with some VERY interesting results would be PGGB.

According to those who have a really optimised chain that is a clear improvement even over the current Mscaler with Chord dascs and some other dacs too.
Not endorsed by Rob, but he is now working on a quote: "much more advanced new Mscaler".

Personally I love my Mscaler enough to hold off until things settle down a bit regarding PGGB versus a new Mscaler.

But I suspect that the cheapest but not most user friendly way, to get the best SQ out of a Qutest might be PGGB provided one has a competent enough computer to process and upsample files to 24/705 or 32/768.
An ideal playback format would probably be a NATIVELY recorded 32/768 file once DAVINA arrrives on the scene.
But that is most probably still Years from now, and will most certainly NOT come cheap.
And neither will a new improved Mscaler I guess?
So if you want the best possible SQ from your Chord dacs, DO try the above options for yourself.

Cheers CC

 

[Atriya]

Oops, mea culpa for "liking" the post!

IMO actually Very Strong opinion Qutest or any other Chord Dac should be fed upsampled files via Mscaler!

Or possibly HQ Player? I have not tried HQ Player so I can not say how much of an improvement it adds over Qutest on its own. But I know for sure that Mscaler transforms Qutest from an ok dac into close to but not quite SOTA territory.
Going up the ladder to TT2 and ultimately DAVE adds more transparency but at very steep costs imho.

Another way of sending Qutest a 24/705 or 32/768 upsampled signal that I have tried with some VERY interesting results would be PGGB.

According to those who have a really optimised chain that is a clear improvement even over the current Mscaler with Chord dascs and some other dacs too.
Not endorsed by Rob, but he is now working on a quote: "much more advanced new Mscaler".

Personally I love my Mscaler enough to hold off until things settle down a bit regarding PGGB versus a new Mscaler.

But I suspect that the cheapest but not most user friendly way, to get the best SQ out of a Qutest might be PGGB provided one has a competent enough computer to process and upsample files to 24/705 or 32/768.
An ideal playback format would probably be a NATIVELY recorded 32/768 file once DAVINA arrrives on the scene.
But that is most probably still Years from now, and will most certainly NOT come cheap.
And neither will a new improved Mscaler I guess?
So if you want the best possible SQ from your Chord dacs, DO try the above options for yourself.

Cheers CC

Very interesting. I've been testing HQPlayer for upsampling to the Qutest. (I can't (i.e. shouldn't) buy the M Scaler right now.) I'll try PGGB too then.

 

[uzi2]

PGGB must be worth a try. If only for the HHGTTG references...

 

[Triode User]

Personally I love my Mscaler enough to hold off until things settle down a bit regarding PGGB versus a new Mscaler.

Hi Christer, Hope you are well. With a Rob reported date due late next year for the new Mscaler we have plenty of time to save! I am anticipating nearer to Dave in pricing level though.

 

[Christer]

Hi Christer, Hope you are well. With a Rob reported date due late next year for the new Mscaler we have plenty of time to save! I am anticipating nearer to Dave in pricing level though.

Hi Nick, I am ok, but a bit frustrated over the fact that although I have had both my shots there is almost two months wait in line to renew my passport so no travels abroad this autumn for me. .But at least I am quite happily enjoying my music, both via Q/HMS and at my piano. And your personal take with your, quite optimised system, on PGGB versus Mscaler "1 " , putting costs like computer needed and storage needs aside, ie "what" is the current winner in pure SQ terms in your opinion?

Cheers CC

 

[Atriya]

PGGB must be worth a try. If only for the HHGTTG references...

I started a PGGB trial, and upsampled some 44.1/16 tracks to 705/32 (various genres). I did some A/B testing between the upscaled and original tracks on the Qutest, using a Topping A90 amp and (Hifiman) HE6SE headphones. I was able to tell absolutely no difference between the two, and was completely guessing on most trials of the A/B process. Not a surprise that the results showed a near 50-50 ratio of right and wrong choices.

 

[Triode User]

Hi Nick, I am ok, but a bit frustrated over the fact that although I have had both my shots there is almost two months wait in line to renew my passport so no travels abroad this autumn for me. .But at least I am quite happily enjoying my music, both via Q/HMS and at my piano. And your personal take with your, quite optimised system, on PGGB versus Mscaler "1 " , putting costs like computer needed and storage needs aside, ie "what" is the current winner in pure SQ terms in your opinion?

Cheers CC

Sorry to hear about the passport delays. I admit my passport expired about 4 years ago and I have not bothered to renew it because I am quite happy just riding my horses.

On the PGGB vs Mscaler front a few weeks ago I reverted back to 100% Mscaler. This is mainly for convenience but at the moment my system is just sounding so good using the Mscaler/Dave that I do not find myself feeling inclined to chase after a different sound. Partly I think this is due to some upgraded DC4/ARC6 power supplies that I got for the Dave and Mscaler but also due to some other fine tuning I have been doing. Whatever the reason I am finding myself just playing music and enjoying it rather than feeling a need to fiddle with the system.

Also, I am now using Squeeze + Squeezelite on my Antipodes and I am waiting for the release of the new 3.1 software for the Antipodes and with it the ability to utilise the latest version of Squeeze + Squeezelite enabled play PGGB 705 and 768 files (I am limited to FS8 playback with the version of Squeeze/Squeezelite that I have available until I get the Antipodes software upgrade).

When I do get that software update (promised weeks ago as per usual with such things!) I will be minded to play again with PGGB vs Mscaler. It will be interesting to see what I hear after the gap of not using PGGB files for playback.