[miketlse]

  Maybe a USB 2.0 hub will run the Mojo then.
 
----
 
Going back to my other old issue of random clicks, I noticed something a little odd this morning. I was listening to Classic FM on my DAB tuner though the Mojo, and had volume fairly quiet. I was getting a lot of clicks; like maybe every fifteen seconds. This is easily the highest count. The highest number of clicks I got before was about ten in one CD album.
 
I never even noticed clicks before on the radio. It could be interference. I am now running Mojo on my desktop connected to a DAB tuner on my desktop. I run an cheapy £2 optical to connect. ...I do wonder if I never noticed clicks before with the tuner because I lay music which covers the clicks. However I am sure I have played Classic FM quiet before. The optical cable does run under the tuner and in front of a Q Acoustics BT3 desktop speaker.  

 
Remember with the Mojo that you have two USB sockets.
1 - The charging socket needs at least 1A, so you cannot charge Mojo from a USB 1.0 socket.
2 - The data socket does not draw any current from the 5V line, so you could in theory connect to a USB 1.0 socket. The big question then remains as to whether the bandwidth would be enough, or whether USB 1.0 limits you to MP3, standard CD, or whatever.
 
The Meridian Explorer 2 requires nominal 5V at <500mA, so in power terms you could run it from a USB 1.0 socket. However that does not answer if USB 1.0 provides enough bandwidth for Hi Def music.
 
It should not make any difference if you run an optical cable under a tuner, or near to a speaker - the signal is optical, and not electrical.
When at home I always run Mojo on optical, because I got fed up with pops and clicks using USB.
We don't have DAB radio in france, so I cannot test how my Mojo works with DAB. However i do remember that when in the UK, I lived in an area of bad DAB reception, so that it was unusable inside houses.
 
I do remember one of the Mojo posts recommending cleaning the end of optical cables, to remove any crud that is interupting/corrupting the signal. That would be a low cost/hassle experiment for you to try - if it fails to improve, then you have lost nothing.

 

[GreenBow]

  guys:
 
any tracks you suggest which are useful in comparing the chord mojo with, say, the dragonfly red
and iFi micro idsd?
 
i am going to do some critical listening over the next week or so....of course it's always good to listen
to one's own music, but just wondering if there any general consensus on here.
 
 i just find the dragonfly so much nicer as a portable walkaround unit.
the mojo, in contrast, when paired with an ipod not as much...tonight when sitting down on a bench
and hooking up the mojo to my ipod touch to tidal hifi, if i moved the unit a bit or the wires got moved /touched
sometimes that bitrate ball would change
colour and i'd lose connection to tidal....frustrating...seems like the cck and chord extension handshake would get interrupted.
......maybe that small female micro usb chord or the micro usb imput in chord
is a bit finicky to movment w... on a table and no movement all was fine...otherwise, nada.
 
lastly, any further eta on this module/plate coming out?
 am sure that will make the connection much more stable...let alone more portable friendly
you can already see from the pic below that the plug into the mojo on the module
is expanded  to minimize movement/wiggle room (i know it's only a prototype...)
 

 
thanks

 
I had a Meridian Explorer before I bought the Mojo. I had some ideas of music which displays the Mojo's superiority and why.
 
Abba: Gold, sounded cheap clinical and very digital on the ME but much smoother on the Mojo.
Lake Street Dive on the Explorer (on some tracks) sounded jumbled, confused and difficult to unpick. The Mojo sets LSD out perfectly and improves listening to the band by a clear factor.
Def Leppard: Best Of, or Vault album. Sounds good on the Explorer, but the cymbals could sometimes be crashy. On the mojo they are cleared up a degree and mean more in the music.
Similar tidying up effect in Rush albums.
 
I was really surprised by these results because I like the ME sound signature. There are some moments where the Explorer was ahead. it had a thicker slightly warmer sound. Buzzy noises are more buzzy with the Explorer. One of my absolute favourite CDs, Chants and Dances of the Native Americans, sound excellent on the Explorer using bitperfect. It still sounds better on the Mojo however the instrument placement is thick and solid on the Explorer. You can see how the instruments are set at angles to one another in the mix. Whereas the Mojo clears up details and instrument placement is like the soundstage is much taller.
 
-----
 
The Mojo never ceases to amaze me. Like I just put on Norah Jones - Nightingale. What a presentation.
 
Generally across all music I found the Explorer has all the same instrument parts. Yet I didn't hear them because I wasn't focused on them. It's like some instruments at the side were invisible to my focus, but still there clearly. Like I was focused on the centre of the image, (using desktop speakers). Whereas the Mojo shows me what was in the music that I was somehow ignoring on the Explorer.   

 

[Slaphead]

My philosophical question for you is this:

Why use a Chord DAC to try and achieve a perfect conversion of digital files into analogue music, if you then want to use a valve amp to add plenty of second harmonic distortion to your music?

Surely you might as well start with the DAC from your phone, and then use a valve amp to add the distortion.

I would have thought that after trying to achieve perfectly accurate DA conversion, you are best using a solid state amp that adds as little distortion as possible. 
However I realise that there are many people happy to spend $10k on a DAC/valve preamp, but their rationale escapes me. 
I anticipate many posts from irate valve amp owners. 

Well, if you like the tube sound then it's almost always better to give a tube amp as pure a signal as possible for it to add it's own "qualities" than it is to feed it a crap signal and hope that it sorts it out in some way.

It's always easier to take something good and screw it up than it is to take something screwed up and try to make better.

 

[miketlse]

Well, if you like the tube sound then it's almost always better to give a tube amp as pure a signal as possible for it to add it's own "qualities" than it is to feed it a crap signal and hope that it sorts it out in some way.

It's always easier to take something good and screw it up than it is to take something screwed up and try to make better.

 
There was an element of gentle tease in my comments.
 
But the fact remains that it can be very expensive to obtain a very pure/clean signal from the DAC (I realise that Mojo is trying to level the field), and it just seem strange to me to then try and make the sound 'warmer' by adding distortion (and waste all the money spent on obtaining a pure input signal). 

 

[waveSounds]

   
I had a Meridian Explorer before I bought the Mojo. I had some ideas of music which displays the Mojo's superiority and why.
 
Abba: Gold, sounded cheap clinical and very digital on the ME but much smoother on the Mojo.
Lake Street Dive on the Explorer (on some tracks) sounded jumbled, confused and difficult to unpick. The Mojo sets LSD out perfectly and improves listening to the band by a clear factor.
Def Leppard: Best Of, or Vault album. Sounds good on the Explorer, but the cymbals could sometimes be crashy. On the mojo they are cleared up a degree and mean more in the music.
Similar tidying up effect in Rush albums.
 
I was really surprised by these results because I like the ME sound signature. There are some moments where the Explorer was ahead. it had a thicker slightly warmer sound. Buzzy noises are more buzzy with the Explorer. One of my absolute favourite CDs, Chants and Dances of the Native Americans, sound excellent on the Explorer using bitperfect. It still sounds better on the Mojo however the instrument placement is thick and solid on the Explorer. You can see how the instruments are set at angles to one another in the mix. Whereas the Mojo clears up details and instrument placement is like the soundstage is much taller.
 
-----
 
The Mojo never ceases to amaze me. Like I just put on Norah Jones - Nightingale. What a presentation.
 
Generally across all music I found the Explorer has all the same instrument parts. Yet I didn't hear them because I wasn't focused on them. It's like some instruments at the side were invisible to my focus, but still there clearly. Like I was focused on the centre of the image, (using desktop speakers). Whereas the Mojo shows me what was in the music that I was somehow ignoring on the Explorer.   

 
The Mojo ruined the Explorer² for me. It was my go-to DAC, but I can't see when I'll ever use it again now.

 

[vapman]

The Mojo ruined the Explorer² for me. It was my go-to DAC, but I can't see when I'll ever use it again now.

It also ruined my ability to enjoy the lossless files in my collection

 

[KT66]

add some Brendan Benson and a pair of T70p for audio bliss. Mojo bit scratched,cat thinks it's a hockey puck.

 

[KT66]

I find a DS XL case to be a perfect size

 

[GreenBow]

I found the point they made on the What Hi Fi of why the Meridian Explorer needs USB 2.0. (This must be why it doesn't work on my USB 1.0 hub even with CD FLAC files.)
 
Quote, "Furthermore, the Explorer employs USB audio class 2.0, which allows full native playback of high-resolution 192kHz sample rates. This is opposed to audio class 1.0 –as is found in the HRT microStreamer, for example – which limits the sample rate to 96kHz, with higher sample rates having to be downsampled."
 
http://www.whathifi.com/meridian/explorer-dac/review
 
I guess the Mojo sees the same reasoning.
 
I could buy a 2.0 hub and try the Mojo on it, but I'd rather not spend until someone confirms it. Thanks folks.
 
------------
Or of course I could use a USB extension cable. Hub or USB extension cable though will kind of defeat the object. If I end up buying a quality shielded USB cable for the Mojo that is. (Am thinking about buying a shielded cable to try stops random clicks on playback.)
 
A hub or extension cable will however make it easy to disconnect the PC from the Mojo. Thus allowing for input selection of optical easily; which is where this started.

 

[Mojo ideas]

The question is for the SD card module is that will it have 2  micro sd card slots or 1 that supports up to 500GB+ when they become available...

Yes it's looking very likely

 

[miketlse]

Yes it's looking very likely

So it will have either one or two SD card slots - still keeps us all on tenterhooks. 

 

[Mojo ideas]

From chord:

So it sounds like the connection in the camera connection kit with your iPhone sounds
like it might be coming loose? We have had a lot of failures of the camera connection kits recently,
either that or the little cable that we preceded with Mojo is breaking.


You can use any micro USB cable to charge Mojo, and listen to it too.


The device in the picture provided should be coming out within the next couple of months hopefully!

actually it's only a week or two away at this time!

 

[canali]

actually it's only a week or two away at this time!

great to hear it...as i'm sure i'm not the only one with this issue...
that module will make things sooo much easier on so many levels.
 
and the accompanying case for the mojo/module combo...any ETA on that, too, please?
prices?

 

[Mython]

 

The question is for the SD card module is that will it have 2  micro sd card slots or 1 that supports up to 500GB+ when they become available...

Yes it's looking very likely

So it will have either one or two SD card slots - still keeps us all on tenterhooks. 

 
 


deux d'entre eux

 

[Mojo ideas]

So it will have either one or two SD card slots - still keeps us all on tenterhooks. 

Sorry about being obtuse but we are still at least four months from showing working samples to the press so it's too early to show our hand at this stage, but as I've implied before I hope and think all of you will like what we've been beavering away at.