[iBrian]

And it's out!

Well to bad for me. I had to return my mojo. . I already miss it. I hope to be getting another one

 

[Mojo ideas]

I have sold the PHA-3 a few months ago, and my Mojo is still out for repair (a bit worrying btw, almost a month out...), but I'd say this : Mojo just wowed me in a way the PHA-3 never did although it was very good especially balanced. That's from memory (to take with a grain of salt, memory can play tricks...) Mojo sound more forward overall, it packs more punch the dynamics is so spectacular, low level detail retrieval never striked me as much as the Mojo too. I'd say the PHA-3 has better separation balanced.

hi David I'm concerned that your unit is still not back with you. So please can you write to me with some more details such as where you are and who is your retailer and I'll get it checked out and let you know what's happened and where the unit is

 

[Mojo ideas]

guys after spending like load **** of money on equipment TOTL earphones , amps , dacs , sometimes i came to a state where i dont know if there is a different between playing my iems/headphones  straight from laptop or plug them into the mojo would make any different , but today after been using the mojo for like 5 days , i put it to rest a little and i plugged my hd800 straight back to the amp without that little mojo and the sound is oh my CRAP , i thought something wrong then i go back to other headphones and all sound crap to me now  without the mojo , this device is magic  

sorry about that but your audio soul belongs to Chord now your brain has been up graded

 

[CareyPrice31]

hi David I'm concerned that your unit is still not back with you. So please can you write to me with some more details such as where you are and who is your retailer and I'll get it checked out and let you know what's happened and where the unit is

 
Was watching your YouTube video - so true about "brain burn-in".
 
The Mojo is incredible - I honestly don't think their is a DAC regardless of price on the market that comes close.
 
Now just release the Mojo case so we don't damage our precious Mojo's!

 

[Christer]

  Maybe a good idea for Hugo mk2 would be to have one USB with isolation and the other without instead of the HD & SD USB inputs so desktop users can have better sound without needing extra hardware e.g wyrd or regen, and still have the best portable device.

I absolutely agree with your suggestions.
I would much rather have  a Hugo or Mojo mk2 which actually includes galvanic isolation than having to buy an add-on product. RF is a real  problem with HUGO.
I am much more interested in having the  absolutely best possible,most transparent SQ than as small a product  as possible  .
I wouldn't mind if the next non-compromise  portable product from Chord will be  twice the size and weight of Hugo. It would still be much smaller and hopefully lighter than the Benchmark DAC 2HGC that I used to lug around on my travels before buying HUGO.
But the Benchmark has got galvanic isolation!
A bit too soft and NOT as resolved as HUGO when it works without problems. But I have  never ever had any  any RF problems with Benchmark.
Frankly HUGO can sound pretty bad when RF problems occur, which they do sometimes .
Nor do I use iPhones or other such products for my music ,I use my  Macbook pro laptop and I want to be able to play all included resolutions and formats up to DXD pcm and DSD 256. And when they become available even DSD 512 and DXD 768.
Optical  as suggested by Rob,obviously only works up to DSD 64 and 24/192. With my admittedly still limited experience with higher sampling DSD rates, I can still say DSD 64 is not the ultimate SQ with DSD.
In other words ,yes there  still seem to be important improvements to be made for those of us who listen to acoustic music and hear glare as something not desirable.
When the real thing,acoustic music, is your one and only reference, you tend to get very spoilt and expect the closest approach to that reference  without  irritating portablity compromises thrown into the equation.
Having said all this HUGO,sounds terrific  in the jungle without any polluting electrical appliances in sight than the batteries in both my Mackbook and Hugo in use.

 

[ubs28]

I guess.  I know I found Hugo awkward to carry around when I had my demo unit.  In theory I could fit the m9XX and a battery in a big enough jacket pocket.  That doesn't mean I think it's portable by any means.  To me the Hugo is portable in the same way as an iPad Mini is.  If you consider the iPad mini pocketable and something you would walk around the streets with, then sure.  I don't think most people feel that way though.  And very few people in the Hugo thread use it as a "walk around." unit.  Instead more of a "transportable stationary" unit.  It's not worth arguing about I guess.  But it's clear the person we are responding to also felt that the Hugo isn't "portable."  I guess we can all disagree on what exactly portable means, as it is a very poorly defined category.  To me, anything wider than iPhone + model is too big to be "walk around portable" and instead falls into the "transportable portable" category.  

An iPad mini doesn't fit in my jacket so that doesn't even compare.

The Chord Hugo can be used to walk around so it is portable.

 

[davidmolliere]

hi David I'm concerned that your unit is still not back with you. So please can you write to me with some more details such as where you are and who is your retailer and I'll get it checked out and let you know what's happened and where the unit is

 
Thanks a lot John, I'll PM you the details.
 
It was sent by the retailer to the official distributor in France (Exception Musicale) then they told me it shipped to you that might explain the delay. I tried to get updates but they told me it usually took 20 business days, and in my case 10 business days on top... 

 

[Christer]

  To eliminate the RF and signal correlated noise on USB you need galvanic isolation. The downside to galvanic isolation is that it draws power from the source - which is not something we can do with a mobile product. All Chord desktop DAC's have USB galvanic isolation now.
 
That said, mobile sources are much lower noise - they have very efficient processors, unlike a PC, and there is no ground, so circulating currents are much less, so it is a much smaller problem with mobile. If you can do it, use the optical, as this usually sounds the best and is completely isolated. Optical has a undeservedly poor reputation, as it sounds much smoother and darker than other inputs, and this is just a feature of lower noise floor modulation - its smoother with better instrument separation and focus - but lack of glare is often confused with a lack of detail resolution. Listening tests must be done with a lot of care, as it is easy to draw the wrong conclusions!
 
Rob

Thanks for a response straight from the horse's mouth  for a change. But your response still leaves a few questions.
First,does "not something we can do with a portable product" ,mean impossible  to do ?Or is it  more  of  a design choice?
Second ,optical only works up to 24/192  pcm and DSD 64 doesn't it?
I want to be able to play all rates available without having to change setup from USB to optical between tracks.
There are several galvanic isolators on the market that in theory could be used with HUGO and Mojo aren't there?
Another question would be if there will be an SSD card-reader/player unit add-on for Mojo  from Chord soonish,? 
If so,wouldn't that solve the  irritating problems with otherwise  basically SOTA standard products we are talking about here once and for all?
Simply  loading  music at any sample rate or format on a, say 250 to 500gigabyte SSD cardreader/player unit, and then  press play without any pc or iPhone or iPad involved sounds almost like choosing a direct cut LP over tape recorded LP in the old analogue days to me.
I already store all my hi res files on separate  portable hardrives and would love such an option especially if it would also  solve my present problems. 
RF/EMi glare on what are already known to be  well recorded  massed strings in particular, can be  almost painful when they occur.
PS I think Jaben  here in Singapore will open today, I wonder if they also  have Mojo in stock? I know AV1 does ,but they don't open again until the 13th.
 
Cheers Chris

 

[supakijku]

Hello everyone,
 
I'm a newbie here. Does anyone has experience paring Mojo with Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Mine is not working.
 
Micro OTG to Micro  = Status light turn to light purple but no sound come out from Mojo or Note 2
Micro to Micro = Status light is off sound come out form Note 2
 
I don't have any problem paring Mojo with Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and 5 by using Micro OTG to Micro but one thing i notice is that the status light of Mojo is different
when i connect to Note 2 (Note 3,5 the light turn Blue, but Note 2 is light purple)
 
Thank you in advance.

 

[deltronzero]

Is there a way to get the AK Jr working with Mojo?

 

[x RELIC x]

Is there a way to get the AK Jr working with Mojo?

No, the AK Jr doesn't have digital out.

 

[Ra97oR]

Out of curiosity ordered an optical cable to try out the Mojo with optical in.

 

[Rob Watts]

The problem with galvanic isolation is that the USB decoder chip and the data transmitter is powered from the mobile phone. There is no point in having 8 hours on Mojo if your mobile phone battery is depleted earlier. That said, you really need isolation when using a PC; its an order of magnitude smaller problem when using mobile phones, as everything is battery with no ground loops, and mobiles are incredibly power efficient compared to PC's - which gives you very much lower RF noise.

 

[bocosb]

  The problem with galvanic isolation is that the USB decoder chip and the data transmitter is powered from the mobile phone. There is no point in having 8 hours on Mojo if your mobile phone battery is depleted earlier. That said, you really need isolation when using a PC; its an order of magnitude smaller problem when using mobile phones, as everything is battery with no ground loops, and mobiles are incredibly power efficient compared to PC's - which gives you very much lower RF noise.

I can see the logic behind not including a galvanic isolation on Mojo as it is intended for mainly mobile use.. However, i'm researching a dac/amp for:
 50% desktop use as a dac only, connected to my pc and feeding both my headphone amp and speaker amp
 30% laptop use when away from home as a dac/amp
 20% connected to my mobile phone when traveling
 
Until now I found Mojo the best candidate, 2 line outs for home use, great SQ, can power HD650 and easy to carry - But in 80% of the cases i would need a galvanic isolation - will Chord provide in the future such device, or can u recommend what specs this devices should have if bought from other companies? 

 

[Mojo ideas]

Thanks for a response straight from the horse's mouth  for a change. But your response still leaves a few questions.
First,does "not something we can do with a portable product" ,mean impossible  to do ?Or is it  more  of  a design choice?
Second ,optical only works up to 24/192  pcm and DSD 64 doesn't it?
I want to be able to play all rates available without having to change setup from USB to optical between tracks.
There are several galvanic isolators on the market that in theory could be used with HUGO and Mojo aren't there?
Another question would be if there will be an SSD card-reader/player unit add-on for Mojo  from Chord soonish,? 
If so,wouldn't that solve the  irritating problems with otherwise  basically SOTA standard products we are talking about here once and for all?
Simply  loading  music at any sample rate or format on a, say 250 to 500gigabyte SSD cardreader/player unit, and then  press play without any pc or iPhone or iPad involved sounds almost like choosing a direct cut LP over tape recorded LP in the old analogue days to me.
I already store all my hi res files on separate  portable hardrives and would love such an option especially if it would also  solve my present problems. 
RF/EMi glare on what are already known to be  well recorded  massed strings in particular, can be  almost painful when they occur.
PS I think Jaben  here in Singapore will open today, I wonder if they also  have Mojo in stock? I know AV1 does ,but they don't open again until the 13th.

Cheers Chris

Hi the difficulty we face with optical outputs from all products is that they don't work above 192k we believe our input might well work above 192 k but we can't test for it. If be happy to hear from you if you can find a source with an output greater than the present 192 kHz limit.