Chord Electronics Qutest DAC - Official Thread

[Epiteto]

Wrong thread
I apologize please cancel

 

[Moonglum]

Does anyone else watch Hans Beekhuyzen on YouTube? He’s made some interesting videos over the last few months about the reasons why network switches and Ethernet filters can impact audio. Much appears to do with jitter. I’ve found it interesting to note my own experiences here. Even though Rob Watts repeatedly reports here that Qutest is for all intents and purposes immune to jitter, I have found a positive impact of placing an audiophile Ethernet switch and filter in between my router and my streamer that feeds my Qutest. Has anyone else had any positive or negative experiences using different Ethernet switches with server/streamer sources connected to their Qutest ?

 

[GuiltyRocker]

Does anyone else watch Hans Beekhuyzen on YouTube? He’s made some interesting videos over the last few months about the reasons why network switches and Ethernet filters can impact audio. Much appears to do with jitter. I’ve found it interesting to note my own experiences here. Even though Rob Watts repeatedly reports here that Qutest is for all intents and purposes immune to jitter, I have found a positive impact of placing an audiophile Ethernet switch and filter in between my router and my streamer that feeds my Qutest. Has anyone else had any positive or negative experiences using different Ethernet switches with server/streamer sources connected to their Qutest ?

I usually just go Wifi, that way there is no cable connected to any switch, or router. You have to be careful with what you hear, if you connect an "audiophile switch" to the DAC, it may introduce electrical noise and noise floor modulation, that can sound as an improvement at first, as it adds brightness and an artificial perception of extra detail. However, it's all artificial and over time it will start bothering you, I have seen the measurements of all Chord DACs when extra jitter is added to test them and it is all rejected, the Qutest and other Rob Watts-designed DACs have amazing jitter rejection measurements. Use a good streamer on wifi and use Toslink, it usually is better than USB as it has complete RFI and EMI and all noise rejection, Rob recommends Toslink and I agree after trying all other inputs. Toslink also decouples the ground plane of the streamer, so it doesn't allow the streamer to pollute the ground plane of your DAC.

 

[Moonglum]

I usually just go Wifi, that way there is no cable connected to any switch, or router. You have to be careful with what you hear, if you connect an "audiophile switch" to the DAC, it may introduce electrical noise and noise floor modulation, that can sound as an improvement at first, as it adds brightness and an artificial perception of extra detail. However, it's all artificial and over time it will start bothering you, I have seen the measurements of all Chord DACs when extra jitter is added to test them and it is all rejected, the Qutest and other Rob Watts-designed DACs have amazing jitter rejection measurements. Use a good streamer on wifi and use Toslink, it usually is better than USB as it has complete RFI and EMI and all noise rejection, Rob recommends Toslink and I agree after trying all other inputs. Toslink also decouples the ground plane of the streamer, so it doesn't allow the streamer to pollute the ground plane of your DAC.

Thanks for your thoughts - yes I have read the entire thread actually so am well aware of RW’s preference/recommendation to use optical- alas my Innuos server/streamer is usb only- it’s actually Ethernet only as well, no wi-fi. I suppose I could use a DDC to try to get optical out into the Qutest, haven’t fully explored that.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

Thanks for your thoughts - yes I have read the entire thread actually so am well aware of RW’s preference/recommendation to use optical- alas my Innuos server/streamer is usb only- it’s actually Ethernet only as well, no wi-fi. I suppose I could use a DDC to try to get optical out into the Qutest, haven’t fully explored that.

Try a good DDC and let me know what you think, it would be a cool experiment.

 

[Moonglum]

Hey guys - I’m a fan of the audiophile label 2L and they have some amazing recordings available to purchase as hi res downloads. Some of my favourites were recorded straight to DXD and are offered as DXD downloads. But can the Qutest play DXD format ?

 

[Reactcore]

Hey guys - I’m a fan of the audiophile label 2L and they have some amazing recordings available to purchase as hi res downloads. Some of my favourites were recorded straight to DXD and are offered as DXD downloads. But can the Qutest play DXD format ?

DXD is actually 24bit PCM and should be playable with Qutest, so long your player can process it.

https://help.nativedsd.com/en/articles/94634-dxd-resolution-explained

 

[Moonglum]

My Innuos streamer offers two settings for handling DSD output to a DAC - which of these should I choose when using Qutest ? 1. DSD over PCM 2. Native DSD

 

[lexx21]

Dsd over pcm. The qutest is pcm only. Use hqplayer to upsample/convert. Innuous will also act as an naa endpoint. I want one of those...lol.

 

[knownothing2]

Dsd over pcm. The qutest is pcm only. Use hqplayer to upsample/convert. Innuous will also act as an naa endpoint. I want one of those...lol.

I do not think this is accurate.

“The Qutest supports PCM files from 44.1kHz/16-bit all the way up to 768kHz/32-bit as well as natively supporting DSD to DSD512.”

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/chord-electronics-qutest-dac/

“DSD support: Native playback supported. DSD64 (Single) to DSD512 (Octa-DSD)”

https://chordelectronics.co.uk/product/qutest

kn

 

[Moonglum]

I do not think this is accurate.

“The Qutest supports PCM files from 44.1kHz/16-bit all the way up to 768kHz/32-bit as well as natively supporting DSD to DSD512.”

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/chord-electronics-qutest-dac/

“DSD support: Native playback supported. DSD64 (Single) to DSD512 (Octa-DSD)”

https://chordelectronics.co.uk/product/qutest

kn

Well I can confirm that the Native DSD setting in Innuos does NOT work with Qutest - Innuos is a Linux based server so maybe that is the reason

 

[knownothing2]

Well I can confirm that the Native DSD setting in Innuos does NOT work with Qutest - Innuos is a Linux based server so maybe that is the reason

Sounds like an email to Innuos and Chord is in order.

 

[lexx21]

I stand corrected.

 

[trashkpi]

Hi there,

I recently tried Chord and was impressed by the sound quality.

Yesterday, I designed and printed a stand for it, which turned out quite well.

If anyone is interested, I can share the file.

 

[Moonglum]

Hi there,

I recently tried Chord and was impressed by the sound quality.

Yesterday, I designed and printed a stand for it, which turned out quite well.

If anyone is interested, I can share the file.

Looks excellent- wish you were in the uk and I would pay you to print one for me