Chord Mojo(1) DAC-amp ☆★►FAQ in 3rd post!◄★☆

[mediabox]

Storage Case
 
http://iconosquare.com/p/1193350812811068504_1569715448
 
http://iconosquare.com/p/1195363820210947738_1569715448

 

[Layman1]

I've only thus far have heard the following "live" :
Adele @ Royal Albert Hall
Utada Hikaru @ Wild Life Concert
Eric Clapton Unplugged

And they sound amazing. The sense of realism from the music, the emotion, the music is just overwhelmingly enjoyable. Mojo just keeps me surprising me whenever an old track is played that I've not listened to recently, it's able to extract and present details that weren't noticed or discerned previously. But it does it so naturally. Then when I listen to the same track on a different DAC, I take notice of the nuances but they aren't presented as naturally or more veiled and less distinct.

Ooo, I forgot to ask about Eric Clapton Unplugged, I love that one!
May I ask what version/format you listen to for that album? I do own the CD but had, ahem, acquired a couple of FLAC versions online too, for convenience and in pursuit of better sound quality.
Just wondering if there's any concensus on a 'best version' of this great album?

 

[Ike1985]

I don't know what most of you are using with Android phones, but as I said earlier; it was between the Audotechnica ($62 and several weeks of waiting (international shipping) on Amazon) or $10 for the Meenova mobility micro-b to micro-b otg, I had credit on Amazon so it only ended up costing me $6 and I'll get it Friday.  i went ahead and ordered the Meenova since my S7 edge will be here tomorrow and I don't want to have to wait 3 weeks to be able to listen to it.  Still I wonder how much of a sound upgrade it would have been going with the $62 cable vs the $10 cable, I'm guessing miniscule to non-existent given it's digital transmission not analog however I wonder if the Audiotechnica would have handled RF/EMI better. 

 

[betula]

Recurring topic, but reading recent comments I felt like to add this.
Mojo is fantastic with anything.
BUT
there are differences between sources. Can't explain why.

Mojo fed by DX80 coaxial was very clean for me, but highs were piercing and fatiguing after 20-30 mins.
(DX 80 on its own wasn't fatiguing and was great as a DAP, but with Mojo not the best pairing. Mojo is more lifelike and big upgrade over DX80 hp out. However DX80 hp out is big upgrade over Fiio X3ii's hp out.)

Moto G (Android) and computer (YouTube HD) with generic usb cable is about the same level.
Softer sound, more bass quantity, but not better quality than DX80 with coaxial. DX80 is more detailed but piercing, fatiguing. Computer, android is smoother, more easy-listening sound. Maybe grainier, less detailed, but still very enjoyable. Weightier, more fun overall.

Using Foobar with ASIO or WASAPI lifts the USB listening experience to another level. Much better than Android or straight out from computer. Cleaner sound, more detail, everything is more pronounced, huge quality upgrade, and still not fatiguing. With FLAC or DSD, or simply with good quality 320 recording it is awesome. Beats any Android (UAPP) or straight outta computer experience. Gives you the "in the studio" feeling instead of "listening to something" feeling.
 
A quality usb cable can even improve this feeling. (In my case this is Cinnamon) it gives 10% more to clarity and balance.
 Just felt like to share.
 

 

[NaiveSound]

Recurring topic, but reading recent comments I felt like to add this.

Mojo is fantastic with anything.

BUT

there are differences between sources. Can't explain why.


Mojo fed by DX80 coaxial was very clean for me, but highs were piercing and fatiguing after 20-30 mins.

(DX 80 on its own wasn't fatiguing and was great as a DAP, but with Mojo not the best pairing. Mojo is more lifelike and big upgrade over DX80 hp out. However DX80 hp out is big upgrade over Fiio X3ii's hp out.)


Moto G (Android) and computer (YouTube HD) with generic usb cable is about the same level.

Softer sound, more bass quantity, but not better quality than DX80 with coaxial. DX80 is more detailed but piercing, fatiguing. Computer, android is smoother, more easy-listening sound. Maybe grainier, less detailed, but still very enjoyable. Weightier, more fun overall.


Using Foobar with ASIO or WASAPI lifts the USB listening experience to another level. Much better than Android or straight out from computer. Cleaner sound, more detail, everything is more pronounced, huge quality upgrade, and still not fatiguing. With FLAC or DSD, or simply with good quality 320 recording it is awesome. Beats any Android (UAPP) or straight outta computer experience. Gives you the "in the studio" feeling instead of "listening to something" feeling.

 

A quality usb cable can even improve this feeling. (In my case this is Cinnamon) it gives 10% more to clarity and balance.

 Just felt like to share.

 

I also am looking for a better way or a better alternative than dx80 to mojo, I find mojo much better than dx80, but idk what to pair it with, note 5 sounds better but I don't want to use it with mojo, I need a separate rig. Yet no to exceed dx80 resell value

 

[Deftone]

Its a little frustrating with the double USB cable to my Sony ZX1, its getting very sensitive to casual movement.

I was eagerly waiting for the the SD card module in Mojo, can the Chord Team please advise how far away we are with releasing it ?

6-8 months away buddy

 

[betula]

I also am looking for a better way or a better alternative than dx80 to mojo, I find mojo much better than dx80, but idk what to pair it with, note 5 sounds better but I don't want to use it with mojo, I need a separate rig. Yet no to exceed dx80 resell value

Honestly I am not sure, if you can get better sq pairing Mojo with any portable unit than using it with ASIO or WASAPI from computer.
There might be, but I haven't come across with any of them yet.

 

[Peter Hyatt]

Any issues with Mojo in stock in the US?
 
I'm closer to pulling the trigger on it.  

 

[Deftone]

  Recurring topic, but reading recent comments I felt like to add this.
Mojo is fantastic with anything.
BUT
there are differences between sources. Can't explain why.

Mojo fed by DX80 coaxial was very clean for me, but highs were piercing and fatiguing after 20-30 mins.
(DX 80 on its own wasn't fatiguing and was great as a DAP, but with Mojo not the best pairing. Mojo is more lifelike and big upgrade over DX80 hp out. However DX80 hp out is big upgrade over Fiio X3ii's hp out.)

Moto G (Android) and computer (YouTube HD) with generic usb cable is about the same level.
Softer sound, more bass quantity, but not better quality than DX80 with coaxial. DX80 is more detailed but piercing, fatiguing. Computer, android is smoother, more easy-listening sound. Maybe grainier, less detailed, but still very enjoyable. Weightier, more fun overall.

Using Foobar with ASIO or WASAPI lifts the USB listening experience to another level. Much better than Android or straight out from computer. Cleaner sound, more detail, everything is more pronounced, huge quality upgrade, and still not fatiguing. With FLAC or DSD, or simply with good quality 320 recording it is awesome. Beats any Android (UAPP) or straight outta computer experience. Gives you the "in the studio" feeling instead of "listening to something" feeling.
 
A quality usb cable can even improve this feeling. (In my case this is Cinnamon) it gives 10% more to clarity and balance.
 

 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/795911/audioquest-caught-in-cable-scam

 

[salla45]

  Agree 100%.  Mind you, my mother told me the same thing about the Tooth Fairy

Just joking lol. For me, this described effect is one of the main things making me want to try the Mojo.
For those who have it, have any of you tried listening to either of the following live albums on it, and if so, did you notice the effects described above?
Simon and Garfunkel: The concert in Central Park (the original one, back in 1981 or something like that)
Neil Young: Unplugged.
When referring to live concerts, I wonder if these kinds of albums would reap the full benefits?
Thanks in advance

Hehe.
 
I made a list of great live albums to listen to with mojo earlier. I am pretty sure S&G was on it. Great album. Bought it when it came out in early 80's and know it intimately. Sounds superb via mojo. 
 
Another one which really got to me recently when listening to Mojo, and overwhelmed me was the live Lucinda Williams at the Fillmore. There's a track called Out Of Touch on there which just completely blew me away emotionally. It starts "big" and raw and just keeps on growing throughout. It has a neil young guitar sound which just gets to you. Can't recommend it enough.
 
Talking of NY, I don't really know that album well. But if you do like NY, check out Live Central Park (hehe back there again) by Dave Matthews. Absolutely stunning sound quality and musicianship. AND there's THE best version of Cortez the Killer on there ive ever heard. Featuring Warren Haynes on guitar, a real must listen, and completely laid bare with Mojo.
 
Another one which got to me recently was the CSN 2012 album. Great!
 
Talking of Mojo, it's really 2 things which set it apart from anything else i've heard; transient response and timbre. Well there's the 3rd aspect of coherent detail retrieval, but is that tied to transient resonse and timbre? It's just natural, in a very visceral sense.
 
Supplement: Mojo is a great window onto the musical landscape:  It's a wonderful piece of kit which is agnostic in it's abilities. Listen to great classical and you get the sense of acoustic, the scale, the minutae, the power and the subtlety. Listen to group Jazz and you get the sense of interplay, the telepathic concentration of the musicians, you can feel their reactions to each other as they play out and become part of the audience's wonder to it. With great rock there's a sense of rhythm very clearly delineated with bass lines and drums coming out very well and sounding very pure and tight. You can get lost in this, utterly.
 
Now... to me this is special. It's pretty hard to put into words. I've been on a "hifi grail" search for many years off and on. In fact my search put me in touch with Rob Watts personally and I worked for him back in the early 90's for a short while (my first job).  However, until I really got to grips with the capabilities of what the Mojo can do, I didn't fully understand WHAT exactly I was seeking. Now I understand. It's not about the sound quality in relative, objective, cold terms: yes these are important aspects, but as a means to an end. It's about that spark of magic, of engagement which allows the listening experience to transcend from a passive dispassionate affair to become  wholly fulfilling and almost participatory in nature. It doesn't happen all the time, of course, or we'd be lost in our listening rabbit hole rather more than we are already, hopelessly addicted in the euphoria. But when it does (and it happens more often now with Mojo), it's completely sublime.

 

[pytter]

 

   
A quality usb cable can even improve this feeling. (In my case this is Cinnamon) it gives 10% more to clarity and balance.
 Just felt like to share.
 

 
 

   
http://www.head-fi.org/t/795911/audioquest-caught-in-cable-scam

 
 
 
Bestula - I think you are putting a challenge down to the people who are sceptical of the possibility of big (or any) improvements between different USB cables....  Maybe this is for another forum!

 

[salla45]

 
Ooo, I forgot to ask about Eric Clapton Unplugged, I love that one!
May I ask what version/format you listen to for that album? I do own the CD but had, ahem, acquired a couple of FLAC versions online too, for convenience and in pursuit of better sound quality.
Just wondering if there's any concensus on a 'best version' of this great album?

love the unplugged. i just have the normal CD flac version.
 
You know the Clapton with Winwood at Madison Square Gardens? Amazing. And the live cream gig at the albert hall 2005? Both are INCREDIBLE. Well worth checking out the DVD/Bluray versions of each. Sound amazing with Mojo whichever format. Music at its finest!

 

[Rob Watts]

  100% agree. I've been expounding on these aspects of the Mojo for some time. 
 
So many times I've been completely engaged and mesmerized with the performance when listening to mojo. It's as if we have a direct line to the moment the recording was made and we can experience the raw emotion, the connection between musicians, the electricity. I have NEVER experienced this before. Like you say, the live recordings seem to emphasise this more than anything. Amazing stuff. And it's not about specifics of sound quality. If one tries to latch on to these aspects from an analytical, dry, scientific perspective, the magic is gone.

 
I first started experience this musical quality - that of being connected to the musicians, being able to perceive the instruments "talking" to one another with Hugo - and in my long career designing audio gear I have never experienced anything like it. What was really curious, was that I could play back 1930's mono recordings, and still get this effect of being drawn into the musical performance.
 
The very odd thing about this is that the earlier product, the first Qute, which Hugo (and now Mojo as he is Hugo's younger brother) was based upon from a design POV, certainly did not have this quality - it was extremely good from an audiophile perspective, but certainly did not have that being there sense that Hugo/Mojo has.
 
Why is it odd? Its because there was (I thought at the time) only a relatively small engineering change between Qute and Hogo/Mojo, but this change was revolutionary - and I just did not realise it at the time. In short its about the fact that sound is a continuous waveform, but digital is sampled. The job of a DAC is to reconstruct the sampled digital data and convert it back to a continuous waveform - and the musicality aspect is about how well the DAC creates the original continuous signal that was in the ADC. But what is crazy is how sensitive the brain is to tiny errors in this process - and by tiny I do mean very, very small, and things must be right in the time domain down to tens of nano seconds to extremely small values.
 
So why would minute timing errors destroy musicality for me? That I don't know, its part of the wonders of perception and being human.
 
More things on heaven and earth...
 
Rob

 

[x RELIC x]

I am continuously astounded that we underestimate the capabilities of the human brain.

 

[salla45]

   
I first started experience this musical quality - that of being connected to the musicians, being able to perceive the instruments "talking" to one another with Hugo - and in my long career designing audio gear I have never experienced anything like it. What was really curious, was that I could play back 1930's mono recordings, and still get this effect of being drawn into the musical performance.
 
The very odd thing about this is that the earlier product, the first Qute, which Hugo (and now Mojo as he is Hugo's younger brother) was based upon from a design POV, certainly did not have this quality - it was extremely good from an audiophile perspective, but certainly did not have that being there sense that Hugo/Mojo has.
 
Why is it odd? Its because there was (I thought at the time) only a relatively small engineering change between Qute and Hogo/Mojo, but this change was revolutionary - and I just did not realise it at the time. In short its about the fact that sound is a continuous waveform, but digital is sampled. The job of a DAC is to reconstruct the sampled digital data and convert it back to a continuous waveform - and the musicality aspect is about how well the DAC creates the original continuous signal that was in the ADC. But what is crazy is how sensitive the brain is to tiny errors in this process - and by tiny I do mean very, very small, and things must be right in the time domain down to tens of nano seconds to extremely small values.
 
So why would minute timing errors destroy musicality for me? That I don't know, its part of the wonders of perception and being human.
 
More things on heaven and earth...
 
Rob

I always think of the analogy with the visual; take video gaming, as example, as processing power has increased exponentially over the past 2 decades or so, as has the video quality of the state of the art in-game graphics, but it's still not "humanly real"; there are moments where it's fairly photo-realistic in image quality but the brain perceives the whole package differently, the movement of characters, shifts in background textures, that computerized "sheen" of unreality, and the hardest to get right: facial characteristics. CGI comes to mind also in film work. We're getting there but not quite there yet in video terms. Higher and higher power is required on a processing level to achieve oh-so-subtle improvements in computer video capability required to transport us beyond the illusion even for brief moments. 
 
The point is, that its a bit of a perversion of the law of diminishing returns. In order to fool the brain into a different state of consciousness either aurally or visually, almost to a state of  "being there"  (with all the raw emotions that may encompass) has required improvements in reproduction at a miniscule level like you have mentioned, but these have necessitated exponentially higher processing power/advanced research and development with the associated costs that go with it of course. 
 
I also think that, because of the fact that the aural side of perception involving musical emotion and interpretation, is far less obvious and understood than the visual side of interpretation and comparison to reality, that we have been in a bit of a "dark ages" of audio for the last 20 years, which Mojo, Hugo and of course, other products from the Chord stable will help rectify. That and the whole MP3 issue and music industry distribution system of course. But that's another story