[krismusic]

i don't think we get offended too much - there are more important things in life to get worried about.

Anyone from the US has benefited from prices, couriers, broadband, IT, ............. (the list goes on for ever) that are far better than the rest of the world, for so long, that we have historically got frustrated.
Now all of a sudden, there seem to be a lot of US members complaining that prices are too high on some items, or that the courier service takes more than one day, ................. 

It is a wonderful opportunity to employ the british sense of humour, to tease you all a little bit, and as expected many of you are taking the bait.

Enjoy your Mojo, I know that I enjoy mine. 

Just remember. Chord is a British company. You wouldn't be interested if we weren't so freakin talented!

 

[RPB65]

Just remember. Chord is a British company. You wouldn't be interested if we weren't so freakin talented!

Well it was nice to have one item bought with a "Made in England" sticker on it! I am 47 and cannot remember the last time I was able to say that. 

 

[miketlse]

Just remember. Chord is a British company. You wouldn't be interested if we weren't so freakin talented!

 
Steady on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y

 

[krismusic]

Steady on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y

As I say. Talented!

 

[twiceboss]

Is it possible to connect balanc cable to the mojo? I heard hd800 is vastly improved when using balance cable.

 

[RPB65]

Is it possible to connect balanc cable to the mojo? I heard hd800 is vastly improved when using balance cable.

To the Mojo, no. 

 

[twiceboss]

 
To the Mojo, no. 

What if connected to Jotun? will it double amp etc?

 

[maxh22]

What if connected to Jotun? will it double amp etc?

It will only be amped once.

 

[x RELIC x]

Is it possible to connect balanc cable to the mojo? I heard hd800 is vastly improved when using balance cable.

When you connect to a balanced DAC / amp it isn't the headphone improvement you are hearing, the headphones don't care about balanced vs SE, besides having extra power if needed. The headphones are just the end of the chain revealing what's in front of them. You are hearing the topology improvement balanced from the source gear.

The third post of this thread in the section titled 'Informative Posts by Rob' explains in what ways the the Mojo's SE output is superior to a balanced output.

It's been posted many times, but here it is again:

Spoiler: Please read this for your answer from the designer regarding balanced

Originally Posted by Rob Watts View Post

Originally Posted by agisthos View Post
Rob you should give a definitive 'why SE is better' explanation. Get it over with, because many (most) audiophiles have been biased towards balanced and are not going to understand where you are coming from.

One good argument I heard from the Densen founder (Thomas Sillesen) is that each half of the signwave runs through a series of components that will always have tolerances different from each other, so when combining the signal they will not ever match, causing an increase in distortion (of some kind I cannot remember).

Charles Hanson, of Ayre, who is a proponent of fully balanced equipment, has even stated that for pure sound quality SE will always sound better, but this is on the bench, where the power supply and analog signal stages can be kept physically apart. When putting them in a box he prefers balanced.
Well this is a complex subject, and sometimes a balanced connection does sound better than single ended (SE) - in a pre-power context - but it depends upon the environment, and the pre and power and the interconnect. But the downside of balanced is that you are doubling the number of analogue components in the direct signal path, and this degrades transparency. In my experience every passive component is audible, every metal to metal interface (including solder joints - I once had a lot of fun listening to solder) has an impact - in case of metal/metal interfaces it degrades detail resolution and the perception of depth. So going balanced will have a cost in transparency.

In DAC design, going balanced is essential with silicon design; there is simply too much substrate noise and other effects not too. But with discrete DAC's you do not need to worry about this, so going SE on a discrete DAC is possible, and is how all my DAC's are done. But differential operation hides certain problems (notably reference circuit) that has serious SQ effects; so going SE means those problems are exposed, which forces one to solve the issue fundamentally. In short, to make SE work you have to solve many more problems, but the result of solving those problems solves SQ issues than differential operation hides when you do measurements.

Rob

Originally Posted by Rob Watts View Post
Component count is very important for transparency. Doubling the number of parts in the direct signal path does degrade depth perception and detail resolution.

But there is another problem with balanced operation. Imagine a balanced differential in, differential out amplifier. The input stage is normally a differential pair (maybe cascoded) with a constant current source. Now the input stage is free to move up and down to accommodate the common mode voltage - but the input stage common mode impedance is non linear, and if the common mode voltage has a signal component (it always will have due to component tolerances) then this will create a signal dependent error current, thereby generating distortion. Unfortunately, the negative feedback loop of the amplifier can't correct for this distortion as it can't see the error on the summing nodes. So there will always be a limit to the performance. With SE operation, this problem does not occur, as the differential input stage is clamped to ground.

Now DAC designers are well aware of this - that's why all high performance DAC's use two single ended I to V converters from the current OP of the DAC's, then use a differential to SE converter to create the voltage OP. There are other reasons for doing this as well, as the DAC requires a very low impedance virtual ground for low distortion, and you can only get this using dual SE amps - another problem is RF and its much easier to decouple SE than differentially - this in turn creates a lot more noise floor modulation, making it sound less smooth.

But for me the most important is transparency. I had an amp that had two modes - differential or SE - listening in balanced mode flattened the sound stage depth dramatically,and it sounded harder, less smooth. That said, there are circumstances when balanced operation can be better than SE, for example when you are looking at connecting a pre-amp to a power amp, and what is best depends upon particular circumstances. In short, if SE operation is noisy, try balanced.

Rob

What if connected to Jotun? will it double amp etc?

No, Mojo doesn't have a separate headphone amp built in. It outputs 100% of the time from its line out (the I/V conversion OP stage). It's not the same as conventional DACs/amps. You can read about it in the third post of this thread as there is a lot of information regarding the Mojo's output stage.

Here's one snippet:

Spoiler: please read this for the answers to Mojo's output stage

Originally Posted by Rob Watts View Post

Originally Posted by AndrewH13 View Post


Just a thought. Why do other DAC/headphone amps have amp sections when Hugo/Mojo get by without one, and many including Chord say it is more transparent? Have Chord got the patent for ampless amps

Because they can't using chip based DAC's. Chip DAC's have two current outputs. So you need two I to V converters (amps) then a differential to single ended amp, then a headphone buffer to deliver the current. You also need a lot of analogue filtering wrapped around these amps. So why are normal DAC's so complex in the analogue domain? Two reasons:

1. Silicon DAC's are horribly noisy, as the substrate and grounds are bouncing around due to switching activity. So to counter this, it is done differentially, which means the ground noise is cancelled. It also hides the problems of the reference circuitry, which can't be made with low enough impedance on silicon. This translates to more distortion, and crucially noise floor modulation.

2. Delta sigma converters run at low rates - best is at 12 MHz - this means that there is a lot of noise that must be aggressively filtered out in the analogue section. This also applies with R2R DAC's too as these have even worse problems due to the very slow switching speed.

So to run with a single amp section you need the DAC to be single ended and to run the noise shapers at much higher rates to reduce your filtering requirements. Because the analogue section with Mojo is discrete, I can use extremely low impedance and low noise reference supplies - something that is impossible on silicon. This has the other benefit of eliminating noise floor modulation (actually there is a lot more to it than this as there are countless other sources of noise floor modulation in a DAC). To make the filtering easier, the pulse array noise shapers run at 104MHz - over an order of magnitude faster than normal. There are other benefits to running the noise shapers at 104MHz, principally the resolving power of the noise shaper. Now soundstage depth is determined by how accurately small signals are reproduced. The problem with noise shaping is that small signals get lost - any signal below the noise shaper noise floor is lost information. But by running the noise shaper at much faster rates you solve this problem too - indeed Mojo noise shapers exceed 200dB THD and noise digital performance - that's a thousand times more resolving power than high end DAC's.

If I get time today I hope to publish noise floor modulation measurements showing Mojo has zero measured noise floor modulation. This level of performance does not happen on any other non pulse array DAC's at any price, and its the primary reason why Mojo sounds so smooth and musical.

Rob

 

[x RELIC x]

Yes but its getting the power it needs but battery empties anyways, that's the problem

The problem is your expectations that this is the case. There is a net drain on the battery when listening while plugged in. It's all covered in the third post of this thread in the battery and charging section, and also recently brought up again.

See this link:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/784602/chord-mojo-the-official-thread-please-read-the-3rd-post/25650#post_13005155

 

[Asuhra]

Guys, help me out here.
 
I got the Mojo last week but I was really disappointed. The Mojo should be called the "Bassline killer", it completed trashed my entire music collection.
 
I can only hear music with Bassline, Drums, Kick (percussion type instrumentals,etc). My ears are completely incompatible with acoustic music. Guitars, Violins, Pianos and all those types of instruments cause massive distortion in my ears irrelevant of the audio equipment I have, low res or high res, Mojo included.
 
First I tried the Mojo with my B&W P7 and it's literally the worst thing I've heard in my life. The Mojo completely destroyed the amazing bass impact and bass line of the P7 and yet the Mids never showed up. It feels like a big chuck of the frequency spectrum is missing (Lows and Mids). Because the Mojo also tames the highs it's even worst, half of my music sounds almost like mono with the Mojo+P7, atrocious really, you have to hear it to believe how monophonic, dark and hideous it sounds.
 
I was about to give up on the Mojo but for some reason decided to try my old and trusty HD25 II with brand new velour pads and holly cow, what a massive change for the better!!!! Although the HD25 have very crude ear piercing Mids and Highs it was like going from Mono to full blown Stereo, sometimes even 3D like. All of a sudden hundreds of new beautiful stereophonic sounds popped up out of nowhere, sounds that are nowhere to be seen with the P7. I thought to myself, "so, this is what the mojo really sounds like, damn!!"
 
The only problem? Although everything else sounds a thousand times better with the HD25, there is still no bass, no Bassline, and no Kick impact with 99% of of my tracks that are known for having powerful impactful bass and very forward Bassline.
I fixed this in some way by getting the Real Bass Exciter plugin for Foobar.
 
Settings:
Threshold Frequency: 550Hz-700hz (Depends on Music)
Harmonic Frequency: 45Hz
Harmonic Bandwidth: 50Hz
Harmonic Energy: 24-30dB (Depends on Music)
Above Pre-Wave Decay: -92dB
Below Pre-Wave Decay: -11dB
 
Now, this completely changed everything. My HD25 now sound better than when I was Djeing with them back in the day. Even though the Kick is still not where I want it to be now I can feel that really tight and impactful kick without ever bleeding into the other frequencies (great!). Unfortunately I can not raise the Harmonic energy further to create more Bass impact because the sound starts to get horrible and distorted after 30dB.  I realized I either need a more compatible pair of headphones with the Mojo or an AMP with Bass gain, maybe the Cayin C5?
 
So, this is where I need your help to choose either Heaphones or an AMP. Something tells me an AMP would be better because If the Mojo took out all the Bass from the HD25 and P7 it will probably remove the Bass from every other headphone. (((( Hope not!!
 
Anyway, can you Mojo owners test the following tracks yourselves with your headphones or amps to see what pairs better with it?
 
This one is masterfully produced and it's one of the few tracks I have where I can hear the kick impact without EQ. Only problem? The kick instead of sounding Pum, Pum, Pum like it's supposed to sounds a bit like Pock, Pock, Pock (kind of hallow but nothing major). Can you test it with your headphone or amp with bass gain to see if it sounds fuller/more fun?

 
This one is missing kick impact and sounds too metallic and kind of hollow (need a bit fuller sound and obvious kick impact)

 
This one is missing the Bassline and Kick again, should sound fuller.

 
Same problem with this one, too weak of a bassline and kick, specially when there are lots of others sounds. Most of my music collection sound like this one. The Mojo puts all the secondary sounds in spotlight at the expense of kick and baseline and this should never happen as the Bassline is the engine & rhythm of the music and without it all you have is an incoherent soup of sounds.

Just one note: Take into account these are compressed youtube versions of the tracks and they have more bass than the original files because of compression. Spotify is the same, actually even worst, all the tracks seem to have gone through a compressor.
 
 
I'm really hopping headphones like the Audeze Sine or maybe even the Meze 99 Classics (cheaper) which are considered fun and engaging work with the Mojo. Or Maybe even the Cayin C5 AMP or similar. But if someone tells me his headphones/amp don't have that much better bass but instead they have insane instrument separation and 3D type sound where you can almost reach and touch the sounds I will not know what to do.lol I would like to have them both, the tight bass/kick impact and the full on 3D sound, regardless of how big the sound stage is. My Fischer Audio DB02 MkII has one of the tiniest soundstages yet when properly Equalized it's full on 3D with superb instrument separation so I could care less about big sound stage at this stage. ))
 
Almost looks like I'm asking for Headphones or AMPs that sound like LSD. =D Actually deep down I think I am. =))))) I actually had a eur4000 car audio setup that sounded like it, hehe.
 
Appreciate your help guys. Heck, maybe we could even start a thread about Mojo + EDM heaphones so that people don't end up in the same situation where I am at, with a brand new B&W P7 which is completely useless with the Mojo for my music collection.
 
take care

 

[jmills8]

Guys, help me out here.

I got the Mojo last week but I was really disappointed. The Mojo should be called the "Bassline killer", it completed trashed my entire music collection.

I can only hear music with Bassline, Drums, Kick (percussion type instrumentals,etc). My ears are completely incompatible with acoustic music. Guitars, Violins, Pianos and all those types of instruments cause massive distortion in my ears irrelevant of the audio equipment I have, low res or high res, Mojo included.

First I tried the Mojo with my B&W P7 and it's literally the worst thing I've heard in my life. The Mojo completely destroyed the amazing bass impact and bass line of the P7 and yet the Mids never showed up. It feels like a big chuck of the frequency spectrum is missing (Lows and Mids). Because the Mojo also tames the highs it's even worst, half of my music sounds almost like mono with the Mojo+P7, atrocious really, you have to hear it to believe how monophonic, dark and hideous it sounds.

I was about to give up on the Mojo but for some reason decided to try my old and trusty HD25 II with brand new velour pads and holly cow, what a massive change for the better!!!! Although the HD25 have very crude ear piercing Mids and Highs it was like going from Mono to full blown Stereo, sometimes even 3D like. All of a sudden hundreds of new beautiful stereophonic sounds popped up out of nowhere, sounds that are nowhere to be seen with the P7. I thought to myself, "so, this is what the mojo really sounds like, damn!!"

The only problem? Although everything else sounds a thousand times better with the HD25, there is still no bass, no Bassline, and no Kick impact with 99% of of my tracks that are known for having powerful impactful bass and very forward Bassline.
I fixed this in some way by getting the Real Bass Exciter plugin for Foobar.

Settings:
Threshold Frequency: 550Hz-700hz (Depends on Music)
Harmonic Frequency: 45Hz
Harmonic Bandwidth: 50Hz
Harmonic Energy: 24-30dB (Depends on Music)
Above Pre-Wave Decay: -92dB
Below Pre-Wave Decay: -11dB

Now, this completely changed everything. My HD25 now sound better than when I was Djeing with them back in the day. Even though the Kick is still not where I want it to be now I can feel that really tight and impactful kick without ever bleeding into the other frequencies (great!). Unfortunately I can not raise the Harmonic energy further to create more Bass impact because the sound starts to get horrible and distorted after 30dB.  I realized I either need a more compatible pair of headphones with the Mojo or an AMP with Bass gain, maybe the Cayin C5?

So, this is where I need your help to choose either Heaphones or an AMP. Something tells me an AMP would be better because If the Mojo took out all the Bass from the HD25 and P7 it will probably remove the Bass from every other headphone. (((( Hope not!!

Anyway, can you Mojo owners test the following tracks yourselves with your headphones or amps to see what pairs better with it?

This one is masterfully produced and it's one of the few tracks I have where I can hear the kick impact without EQ. Only problem? The kick instead of sounding Pum, Pum, Pum like it's supposed to sounds a bit like Pock, Pock, Pock (kind of hallow but nothing major). Can you test it with your headphone or amp with bass gain to see if it sounds fuller/more fun?



This one is missing kick impact and sounds too metallic and kind of hollow (need a bit fuller sound and obvious kick impact)



This one is missing the Bassline and Kick again, should sound fuller.



Same problem with this one, too weak of a bassline and kick, specially when there are lots of others sounds. Most of my music collection sound like this one. The Mojo puts all the secondary sounds in spotlight at the expense of kick and baseline and this should never happen as the Bassline is the engine & rhythm of the music and without it all you have is an incoherent soup of sounds.


Just one note: Take into account these are compressed youtube versions of the tracks and they have more bass than the original files because of compression. Spotify is the same, actually even worst, all the tracks seem to have gone through a compressor.


I'm really hopping headphones like the Audeze Sine or maybe even the Meze 99 Classics (cheaper) which are considered fun and engaging work with the Mojo. Or Maybe even the Cayin C5 AMP or similar. But if someone tells me his headphones/amp don't have that much better bass but instead they have insane instrument separation and 3D type sound where you can almost reach and touch the sounds I will not know what to do.lol I would like to have them both, the tight bass/kick impact and the full on 3D sound, regardless of how big the sound stage is. My Fischer Audio DB02 MkII has one of the tiniest soundstages yet when properly Equalized it's full on 3D with superb instrument separation so I could care less about big sound stage at this stage. ))

Almost looks like I'm asking for Headphones or AMPs that sound like LSD. =D Actually deep down I think I am. =))))) I actually had a eur4000 car audio setup that sounded like it, hehe.

Appreciate your help guys. Heck, maybe we could even start a thread about Mojo + EDM heaphones so that people don't end up in the same situation where I am at, with a brand new B&W P7 which is completely useless with the Mojo for my music collection.

take care

EQ the Mojo.

 

[x RELIC x]

I've never EVER thought the Mojo as removing bass. I can safely say the Mojo does not in any way suck out any bass in comparison to my other gear. More likely you are used to a very colored sound, or, as you say, the match with the P7 isn't good (I haven't heard the P7). My suggestion is to use EQ or get the Vmoda M-100, or other bass heavy headphone for your needs.

 

[god-bluff]

Is the jack fully pushed in the Mojo or have you tried the non remote cable on your B&Ws? I haven't experienced problems with remote cables with the Mojo but I have with other amps. Sounding mono

Also HD25 sounds sublime with Mojo IMO

 

[god-bluff]

Well it was nice to have one item bought with a "Made in England" sticker on it! I am 47 and cannot remember the last time I was able to say that. 

Graham Slee products are hand made in Barnsley a few miles from me. There are a few other examples but agree it is very satisfying to have something made in this country. An increasing rare thing sadly