[The Jester]

I was thinking about tt2 too. But wonder how much percentage improvement will it brings to Chord Cutest.

Depends on the rest of your system, I bought the Qutest as all I wanted was a stand alone DAC as I spent a lot of time, effort and money choosing my systems pre amp, headphone amp etc, chose it after a lengthy audition before I read anything here, since then reading comments and excellent explanations of why it sounds different from Rob Watts himself I decided to try the MScaler, big leap in $$ had me sceptical but once it was in the system and optimised … not having it wasn’t an option ….
Just a personal opinion but with a new high end MScaler coming there could be some appearing on the used market ?

 

[lowrider007]

Got a refund on my Qutest from eBay that had the dodgy RCA's (phew), and today I have received a 'nearly new' one from from Peter Tyson with 3 years warranty included, was in mint condition, doesn't even looked used with all accessories sealed, I've been running this one @ 2v and sounds cleaner to me, I know it doesn't make sense but maybe my amp takes the 2v better, if anyone is wondering this is definitely an upgrade over the Mojo 2.

 

[Jon L]

Chord Qutest vs Gustard X26 Pro DAC.

I finally gathered my thoughts together on this comparison, partially motivated by finding a 5V Lithium battery supply for Qutest that sounds better than other 5V battery supplies I have tried in past. Unfortunately, this battery supply was something that came with some other non-audio product very long ago, and I have no idea where I would even buy one currently as there are no labels.

Straight to point, I am glad I did not sell the Qutest because with this battery supply, I prefer its treble/midrange presentation over Gustard X26 Pro by around 10-15% range, while I prefer the Gustard's bass presentation by at least around 20-30%. Yup, life is not easy, and there are choices to be made. In bass punch, definition, power, Gustard simply walks all over Qutest. Qutest sounds just fine in bass until one rips some good EDM, rock, dance music on the Gustard, and the differences become quite obvious. Sigh..

On the other hand, Qutest makes higher percentage of recordings sound palatable and more beautiful without appreciable decrease in resolution or detail. The difference here is subtle but significant. Akin to when one waxes and polishes a car, it feels like Gustard quit at about 95% compared to Qutest that got the ink-black, mirror-shine. Great recordings sound great on both DAC's, but the over-produced, etchy recordings are a bit more difficult to tolerate via Gustard.

*Note. My digital source is a fanless audio PC with native battery powering the SOtM USB card and USB-to-spdif converter. There are no USB cables or spdif cables connecting server/DDC/DAC.

*Caveats. These observations are made using the most revealing system I have, which happens to be actively-biamped compression driver/horn speaker system. Without this battery supply, using the stock wall-wart with Qutest loses some of the midrange magic, leading to Gustard pulling head.

 

[LeeJB1970]

Deleted

 

[LeeJB1970]

Chord Qutest vs Gustard X26 Pro DAC.

I finally gathered my thoughts together on this comparison, partially motivated by finding a 5V Lithium battery supply for Qutest that sounds better than other 5V battery supplies I have tried in past. Unfortunately, this battery supply was something that came with some other non-audio product very long ago, and I have no idea where I would even buy one currently as there are no labels.

Straight to point, I am glad I did not sell the Qutest because with this battery supply, I prefer its treble/midrange presentation over Gustard X26 Pro by around 10-15% range, while I prefer the Gustard's bass presentation by at least around 20-30%. Yup, life is not easy, and there are choices to be made. In bass punch, definition, power, Gustard simply walks all over Qutest. Qutest sounds just fine in bass until one rips some good EDM, rock, dance music on the Gustard, and the differences become quite obvious. Sigh..

On the other hand, Qutest makes higher percentage of recordings sound palatable and more beautiful without appreciable decrease in resolution or detail. The difference here is subtle but significant. Akin to when one waxes and polishes a car, it feels like Gustard quit at about 95% compared to Qutest that got the ink-black, mirror-shine. Great recordings sound great on both DAC's, but the over-produced, etchy recordings are a bit more difficult to tolerate via Gustard.

*Note. My digital source is a fanless audio PC with native battery powering the SOtM USB card USB-to-spdif converter. There are no USB cables or spdif cables connecting server/DDC/DAC.

*Caveats. These observations are made using the most revealing system I have, which happens to be actively-biamped compression driver/horn speaker system. Without this battery supply, using the stock wall-wart with Qutest loses some of the midrange magic, leading to Gustard pulling head.

Thanks for your comparison. What's the best 5V battery you've used that you can supply details for?

 

[Jon L]

Thanks for your comparison. What's the best 5V battery you've used that you can supply details for?

If I hadn't found this one, I would have stuck with my modified Allo Shanti linear PS.
I know that youtube channel "Passion for Sound" uses and recommends "Batpower" battery supply.

I may have to try that one in the future, but IME, I have not gotten along with battery supplies that have multiple variable voltages (5V, 9V, 12V, etc), especially the low-priced ones. This one I found has only 5V voltage output, meaning it only has one regulator instead of 3-4 regulators. I would look around the house and see if you have a simple 5V-only battery pack and try some first..

 

[johnnym]

If I hadn't found this one, I would have stuck with my modified Allo Shanti linear PS.
I know that youtube channel "Passion for Sound" uses and recommends "Batpower" battery supply.

I may have to try that one in the future, but IME, I have not gotten along with battery supplies that have multiple variable voltages (5V, 9V, 12V, etc), especially the low-priced ones. This one I found has only 5V voltage output, meaning it only has one regulator instead of 3-4 regulators. I would look around the house and see if you have a simple 5V-only battery pack and try some first..

What is this one?

 

[headstef]

Does any one know if the Qutest can work safely with a voltage of 6+ Volts? I wonder if I could try 4x1,5 volt D-size batteries to listen initially for improvements over the stock supply. Then I could spend for a proper battery suplly.

 

[Reactcore]

@headstef
I would better try figure out what its minimum voltage is.. see if it takes a safe 4,5v from 3 cells.

I know it has an internal DC step up regulator to 12v then down to 8v for amp section.
I measured that.

 

[ChristoT]

Thanks @Rob Watts for your reply. Do you anticipate the 'port hole' and source/filter lights on the Qutest having a long life?

I have a slightly off-topic question regarding the sample rate indicator light. I’m connecting a DAP via toslink to my Qutest and it works great, even with 192 kHz files. I noticed, however, that sometimes the indicator light glows in green for some 96 kHz albums, as it should, but then for other 96 kHz music files it’d be red. I wonder what might be the reason for that inconsistency. Since the DAP indicates the signal it sends out as 96 kHz, does Qutest sometimes read it as lower sample rate? As far as I could tell, it doesn’t cause any issues with the sound quality whatsoever, but I am wondering if it’s a problem that I should dress somehow, to avoid possible signal misreading or down sampling, etc.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Jon L]

What is this one?

To quote myself:
Unfortunately, this battery supply was something that came with some other non-audio product very long ago, and I have no idea where I would even buy one currently as there are no labels.

 

[johnnym]

To quote myself:
Unfortunately, this battery supply was something that came with some other non-audio product very long ago, and I have no idea where I would even buy one currently as there are no labels.

I was hoping we might crowd source the answer if we know what the non-audio product was. If course if it’s just a loose battery from years ago it will be harder, but seems like it could be worth sourcing.

 

[Rob Watts]

I have a slightly off-topic question regarding the sample rate indicator light. I’m connecting a DAP via toslink to my Qutest and it works great, even with 192 kHz files. I noticed, however, that sometimes the indicator light glows in green for some 96 kHz albums, as it should, but then for other 96 kHz music files it’d be red. I wonder what might be the reason for that inconsistency. Since the DAP indicates the signal it sends out as 96 kHz, does Qutest sometimes read it as lower sample rate? As far as I could tell, it doesn’t cause any issues with the sound quality whatsoever, but I am wondering if it’s a problem that I should dress somehow, to avoid possible signal misreading or down sampling, etc.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Qutest's sample rate display is accurate - it will tell you correctly the input that it is receiving, otherwise there would be problems internally as the WTA filter needs to know exactly the incoming sample rate.

So unfortunately a 96k file that is displayed as red has been sample rate converted by the source.

 

[ChristoT]

Qutest's sample rate display is accurate - it will tell you correctly the input that it is receiving, otherwise there would be problems internally as the WTA filter needs to know exactly the incoming sample rate.

So unfortunately a 96k file that is displayed as red has been sample rate converted by the source.

Thank you, Rob! Much appreciated and good to know. Love the Qutest, btw. Both, the sound signature and the distinct iconic appearance.

 

[Reactcore]

Love the Qutest, btw. Both, the sound signature and the distinct iconic appearance.

So unfortunately a 96k file that is displayed as red has been sample rate converted by the source.

It also means theres room for SQ improvent if you resolve this to bit perfect audio data from your source