[vlach]

fun tweak : disconnect the internal battery and connect to a Linear Power Supply (like Topping P50).

The result is a more lively & expansive sound. I tried to compare it with the internal battery as well as power bank. Ultimately, the result is subtle, but once I heard the LPS, going back to without sounded relatively dull and compressed.

Can you show us how the LPS is connected inside the Mojo 'in lieu' of the internal battery and how do you manage to still close the casing?

 

[maheeinfy]

So i connected Mojo to my Win10 computer today and put on headphones
As soon as i played something there was this LOUD pink noise that almost blew my eardrums out. My ears are still ringing after couple hours. I never listen loud so dont know how the volume setting on Mojo got that high. Prior to this incident i ran mojo in fixed line out mode but i know it should revert back to normal volume setting after a power cycle.
I have been using this setup for a while so dont know what changed except for some windows updates
Anyone experience this?

 

[Kentajalli]

So i connected Mojo to my Win10 computer today and put on headphones
As soon as i played something there was this LOUD pink noise that almost blew my eardrums out. My ears are still ringing after couple hours. I never listen loud so dont know how the volume setting on Mojo got that high. Prior to this incident i ran mojo in fixed line out mode but i know it should revert back to normal volume setting after a power cycle.
I have been using this setup for a while so dont know what changed except for some windows updates
Anyone experience this?

Yes did it to me too, but with Android phone.
It was my own fault, I was experimenting with oversampling, when Mojo lost the synch lock and the loud noise.
Check your software player, drivers, choose eirher WASAPI or ASIO as output.

 

[maheeinfy]

Yes did it to me too, but with Android phone.
It was my own fault, I was experimenting with oversampling, when Mojo lost the synch lock and the loud noise.
Check your software player, drivers, choose eirher WASAPI or ASIO as output.

Thanks. What is synch lock? I didn’t have this issue with my other DACs

 

[Kentajalli]

Possible Ideas for a Mojo-II (if one in pipeline!)
- Just humble suggestions for a possible new version.
Robwatts has said he will not do minor upgrades, it has to be sound quality based before he does it.
Also I remember reading his notes on Mojo design, and he explained about his milliwatt budget, heat dissipation and how he is not using the full capabilities of the existing FPGA chip because of the Budget and heat generation.
- Furthermore, the coloured marbles on the Mojo can be loved or hated, however since it is part of CHORD's look, I suppose we should accept them.
I really think that Hugo 2 form is more functional than Mojo's - so here is my suggestion.

Lets make the marbles a little smaller and move them to the side, while we are at it, lets do away with slanted CHORD logo.
It would give us a more square box, leaving more room inside for a larger battery (to help with our milliwatt budget).
Doing away with the dated TOSLINK and combining it with the existing COAX socket, means we could move the headphone socket to its place, and frankly one is enough!
If anybody likes to share, they can get a splitter from the pound shop (Dollar-shop).
The above opens up a lot of space inside.
By turning over the board, the bottom shell can easily double as a heatsink for the input chip and the FPGA if one thermally bonds them to it.
Did anyone notice the USB-C charging port?
These days fast USB chargers are everywhere using a type-c cable. They have a native 9V output, this means that Mojo atleast will not need the noisy , heat producing switch-mode charging circuit, so not only it can charge the battery faster, but a lot cooler too!
Now that the heat issue is somewhat resolved, and we have more room inside for a possible 2500 mAh battery (instead of current 1650mAh), Robwatts can utilize the full potential of the FPGA chip, to improve the sound quality we are all after.
What do you think?

 

[Kentajalli]

Thanks. What is synch lock? I didn’t have this issue with my other DACs

when DAC and computer/phone loose their synch between each other.

 

[538110]

While I admire the innovativeness to power the Mojo with an LPS, it may not be a long term solution. Given the Mojo is extremely RF sensitive, the worse thing you can do to a Chord DAC is to use an LPS. As RW has mentioned, you maybe hearing RF and mistaking it for increase in SQ. He has mainly given up advising against LPS and I don't blame him as it falls on deaf ears 95% of the time. On the other Chord threads, LPS is promoted because they are trying to sell BNC cables. Once you go LPS, you are locked into that ecosystem. Once you are locked into that ecosystem, those BNC cables become an option. So the more RF introduced into the system with an LPS, the more the promoted BNC with unproven hacks tries to resolve the RF issue to contain the bleeding. Better to have no RF with batteries and more solid BNC cables with no hacks to choose from and stop the bleeding altogether. Those Chord threads are basically BNC with hacks sales threads. Yours for only $2000. But you get a nice wooden box to ship the BNC cable.

With the Mojo2 possibly on the horizon, it may not make sense to sink money into powering a Mojo for desktop use. But if you have parts laying around like a PowerAdd battery pack, you can a use regulator @7.1V or 7.5V or 8V. Please take caution as I have not tried this since I do not own a Mojo anymore. But seeing more Mojo users tinkering, I just want to propose another option.

Other Chord users have used this successfully with their TT2, etc.:

https://www.ldovr.com/product-p/dxp-1a5s.htm

Here is their architecture (Note 9V to 5V, you can possible 9V to 8V or 12V to 8V, etc.):

Using a PowerAdd battery set to 16V and a DXP-1A5DSC with the pre-regulator output set to 15V and the final regulator output set to 13.5V, the drop in noise floor and the improvement in dynamics and control with my Hugo TT2 is just unbelievably better when compared against the PowerAdd by itself or against the stock 15V SMPS. It's like a completely upgraded DAC with this little device even though this DAC is powered internally with supercaps.

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...eaming/page/643/?tab=comments#comment-1039386


My Hugo2 is still in excellent condition, but I do plan to power with 2 X 3.3V SuperCaps one day if I run efficient speakers. SuperCaps only play a role if running speakers. Hugo2 min I believe is 6.5V. It runs 2 batteries, so easier to third-party battery than the Mojo. On my battery pack, I can tweak to run higher than 3.3V, so I should clear the 6.5V min with ease.



For my battery power supply on the right two terminals, I can run 3.3V, 6.6V, 9.9V and 13.2V then throw a regulator in the mix if I had to. The 13.2V can run a TT2 or HMS, but I plan to run a low latency realtime kernel i9 Music Server PC build with the battery supply which can scale if needed; but dependent if I can get the right parts this summer:



You may also want to consider a Monoprice SlimRun USB optical if for desktop use. I plan to use with an Uptone USB PCB microUSB (USB cables are colored, but the USB PCB should not be) with Hugo2 similar to the diagram above.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=16377

https://www.monoprice.uk/products/m...ber-optic-slimrun?_pos=1&_sid=482504f10&_ss=r

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/taiko-audio-sgm-extreme-the-crème-de-la-crème.27433/page-150#post-631854

I was an toslink optical only user, but since PC build needs USB to fully utilise the realtime kernel I had to look into USB optical solutions. They use this for their $30,000 Music server so it should be fine for my humble i9 build. Note also they use expensive ($2500-$7500) PCIe USB cards on their Music Servers, I plan to just use StarTech PCIe USB cards for now.

Good luck Mojo users...

 

[jarnopp]

Possible Ideas for a Mojo-II (if one in pipeline!)
- Just humble suggestions for a possible new version.
Robwatts has said he will not do minor upgrades, it has to be sound quality based before he does it.
Also I remember reading his notes on Mojo design, and he explained about his milliwatt budget, heat dissipation and how he is not using the full capabilities of the existing FPGA chip because of the Budget and heat generation.
- Furthermore, the coloured marbles on the Mojo can be loved or hated, however since it is part of CHORD's look, I suppose we should accept them.
I really think that Hugo 2 form is more functional than Mojo's - so here is my suggestion.



Lets make the marbles a little smaller and move them to the side, while we are at it, lets do away with slanted CHORD logo.
It would give us a more square box, leaving more room inside for a larger battery (to help with our milliwatt budget).
Doing away with the dated TOSLINK and combining it with the existing COAX socket, means we could move the headphone socket to its place, and frankly one is enough!
If anybody likes to share, they can get a splitter from the pound shop (Dollar-shop).
The above opens up a lot of space inside.
By turning over the board, the bottom shell can easily double as a heatsink for the input chip and the FPGA if one thermally bonds them to it.
Did anyone notice the USB-C charging port?
These days fast USB chargers are everywhere using a type-c cable. They have a native 9V output, this means that Mojo atleast will not need the noisy , heat producing switch-mode charging circuit, so not only it can charge the battery faster, but a lot cooler too!
Now that the heat issue is somewhat resolved, and we have more room inside for a possible 2500 mAh battery (instead of current 1650mAh), Robwatts can utilize the full potential of the FPGA chip, to improve the sound quality we are all after.
What do you think?

It has to work with Poly, unless they also release a Poly2.

 

[Kentajalli]

It has to work with Poly, unless they also release a Poly2.

We shall leave that to Chord.
You don't expect me to think of everything , do you?
Poly also needs Hires BT , perhaps ...

 

[Johnfg465vd]

No minor upgrades. So if there is a Mojo II, it most likely will have improved sound quality.

Other improvements like
1. Including bluetooth in the Mojo (with atleast Aptx HD support)

2. I don't own Poly, but read that it is a pain to setup and needs a few improvements like being able to read songs in an SD Card instead of just playlists. A better android app, easier way to turn on the devices.... So an improved Poly with if possible a slightly lower price.

3. Single headphone out or maybe a different type of jack for second output (4.4mm, 2.5mm...). Not balanced, but something that works similar to a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter. For use with existing cables. Ex. My Sundara has a 4.4mm cable (Desktop use) and my Meze has a 2.5mm SPC cable. With such a second output, there wouldn't be a need to carry adapters.

3. A switch to bypass internal Amp for pure DAC use.

4. Type C USB. Cause why not

5. Switch to toggle between battery and external power. While I haven't had any problems, when I use Mojo in FPS games there's always a worry in the back of my mind about battery health.

Would be nice to see
The design/looks are subjective and I don't like or hate Mojo's design. As long as it sounds good, I'm happy.

 

[surfgeorge]

So i connected Mojo to my Win10 computer today and put on headphones
As soon as i played something there was this LOUD pink noise that almost blew my eardrums out. My ears are still ringing after couple hours. I never listen loud so dont know how the volume setting on Mojo got that high. Prior to this incident i ran mojo in fixed line out mode but i know it should revert back to normal volume setting after a power cycle.
I have been using this setup for a while so dont know what changed except for some windows updates
Anyone experience this?

I had that as well with defective Meenova Lightning-Micro USB cables. I am not sure what exactly happens, but it only happened with specific cables (I have several of those). Really loud, and with sensitive IEMs I imagine that it could reach dangerous levels.

 

[damdl]

I had that as well with defective Meenova Lightning-Micro USB cables. I am not sure what exactly happens, but it only happened with specific cables (I have several of those). Really loud, and with sensitive IEMs I imagine that it could reach dangerous levels.

oh wow, I actually own one of those cables, but, I would imagine this happening if you actually push the volume of your device? or is this something that may happen even at normal levels of listening?

 

[surfgeorge]

oh wow, I actually own one of those cables, but, I would imagine this happening if you actually push the volume of your device? or is this something that may happen even at normal levels of listening?

It has happened several times and I think the volume setting has no influence - the pink noise seems to be at or near the maximum output of the Mojo.

I initially bought one short and one long cable, and the long one had that intermittent pink noise issue. That cable was replaced.
2 years later the old cables were worn and I bought another short/long set, which work fine. So one out of 5 had the issue.

 

[mykeldg]

Here is my quick comparison of the Chord mojo with the Topping P50 LPS (battery disconnected) vs Without :


Difference is subtle but audible considering the lots of factors with youtube compression, crappy microphone, room coloration, etc.

I also read above that Rob Watts, Kentajalli & Outroduction doesn't advise on doing this and it might just be noise giving an illusion of more clarity. I would not pretend to know more than these pros so -- that might actually be true -- I would just leave this here as an experiment. Listen and see for yourselves if the difference is worthit or not. For me, I feel like it has more clarity, & brilliance -- but that is very subjective could may well be noise adding some flair. When using the inbuilt battery, seems to slightly fuller but less defined albeit smoother.

 

[mykeldg]

Can you show us how the LPS is connected inside the Mojo 'in lieu' of the internal battery and how do you manage to still close the casing?

The LPS I used was the Topping P50 whose outputs are regular USB ports. So its kinda just like powering it via its micro USB port (just with the battery disconnected to ensure the internal battery is not being utilized.)