Chord Mojo(1) DAC-amp ☆★►FAQ in 3rd post!◄★☆
Dec 22, 2015 at 3:17 PM Post #7,382 of 42,765
Dec 22, 2015 at 3:43 PM Post #7,384 of 42,765
Please excuse me if this has been already answered. There are simply too many pages to dig through so I'll just ask the following question:

Here's a question for those familiar and own the Mojo. Since the DAC chip is programmable and not off the shelf variety, does this mean that it's future proof and won't be obsolete vs newer DAP's being released in the future with off the shelf chips? Chord can reprogram and change things as needed no?
 
Dec 22, 2015 at 3:55 PM Post #7,385 of 42,765
Why?

What is wrong with doing what you're good at, and have years of expertise doing, and not over-extending into territory in which one does not have the same high level of expertise?

Similar discussion, here:

www.head-fi.org/t/784602/chord-mojo-the-official-thread-read-the-third-post-for-updated-info/90#post_11993350



Nothing wrong with it. But I sure would like to hear some of Chord's own speakers and headphones. So they got some years of expertise in dacs, year 2018 and they'll also have some expertise in speakers and headphones.
 
Dec 22, 2015 at 4:02 PM Post #7,386 of 42,765
Nothing wrong with it. But I sure would like to hear some of Chord's own speakers and headphones. So they got some years of expertise in dacs, year 2018 and they'll also have some expertise in speakers and headphones.


They could team up with one of several excellent English speaker manufacturers.  Speakers are analog and they are electromechanical.  Acoustics is a whole new science and art for a digital company.  It's better to stick to your core competence.  That said, speakers with their own amps, DSP and digital cross-overs, developed by Chord and a speaker company partner who knew the speaker side of the game could be very interesting indeed.  In fact, it wouldn't take much to turn Mojo into a two channel pre-amp for a 2-way digitally crossed speaker.  
 
I'd like to see Chord have a go at this now that they have nailed how to make a great DAC. 
 
Dec 22, 2015 at 4:37 PM Post #7,387 of 42,765
My mojo is completely black silent with extremely sensitive 12 driver Ciems.

 
I won't contest that claim.  No doubt, there's quite a range in sensitivity between CIEMs.  Likewise, there's a big range in sensitivity between listeners.  Unfortunately, using JHA Roxannes, the noise floor is clearly audible to me.  Be glad if it's not in your set up, because the Mojo puts out amazingly high end sound otherwise.
 
Dec 22, 2015 at 5:01 PM Post #7,390 of 42,765
Total silent no noise at all with SE846's which are meant to be extremely sensitive.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
 
Dec 22, 2015 at 5:16 PM Post #7,391 of 42,765
  @Rob Watts or @Mojo Ideas, or anyone please.
 
Please I have a question about the 'line-out' specification of the Mojo. I read in the Mojo manual that pressing both volume buttons puts in in line-out mode at 3V.
 
1. Is that 3V peak-to-peak, or 3V peak. I have been reading that line-level is 1.7V peak and 3.5 peak to peak.
 
2. If the Mojo sets to 3V peak, how much would we reduce the volume to make it equate to 1.7V peak. (What sort of colour configurations on the volume buttons.)
 
Many thanks to anyone that can clear this up.

 
Mojo's "line out" mode is 3 Vrms, so 9 Vp-p. It maintains 3 Vrms all the way down to 50 ohms so it's an overkill as a "line out".
 
To get 1.7 Vp-p (0.6 Vrms) that you want, the colour is around green. I usually set to blue for 2 Vrms, whereas Mojo's 3 Vrms is purple.
 
Some literatures mention the consumer audio line level should be 0.5 Vrms (1.4 Vp-p) and professional gear is 1.2 Vrms (3.5 Vp-p).
However, a lot of consumer gear output much higher than 0.5 Vrms, more commonly around 2 Vrms (because higher voltage means better perceived dynamic range), so you might find setting Mojo to 0.6 Vrms too quiet. For example, my iBasso DX80 does 1.6 Vrms.
 
In general, most consumer audio preamps should have input protection to at least 2 Vrms overload protection, just in case some idiot uses their mobile phone headphone out turned up to max volume to act as a pseudo "line out" on their boombox. That means 3 Vrms on Mojo is pretty high and can clip some preamps on loud piece of recording.
 
In reality most quality preamps will have much higher input voltage tolerances but the bottom line is that it will affect how it sounds.
 
Dec 22, 2015 at 5:18 PM Post #7,392 of 42,765
I picked up a Mojo yesterday.  As many have previously indicated, the DAC is exceptional.  I compared it to the Hugo DAC using the Leckerton UHA-6S amp to control for differences in the Mojo and Hugo’s respective amp sections.  I couldn’t hear a difference.  Both devices have really upped the ante on portable DAC resolution.  They depict spacial information previously only audible to me on my desktop DAC.  Unfortunately, once I got the Mojo home, I realized that its amp noise floor is quite audible with IEMs.  It’s right around the cusp of being a deal breaker.  I haven’t yet decided.

I don’t really fault Chord for this.  They know just a handful of us will take issue with this noise floor.  If they’d optimized the amp for IEM use, hundreds of fools would complain because the Mojo wouldn’t offer enough gain to their HD800s.

Running HD800s from a tiny portable amp is like pulling an oversized semi truck load with a pickup.  You might actually be able to do it.  But it’s never going to work well, as no pickup truck has sufficient power and torque for the task.


Take it back. Unfortunately I had the same issue with the JH Angie with the Mojo I had pre-release for the Canadian tour. I sent it back to Chord and they fixed it promptly. The Mojo analogue out is essentially the same as the Hugo and should not hiss with IEMs. Full stop. Especially the Roxannes. Actually the Mojo has a lower noise floor than the Hugo. I didn't hear the hiss with full sized cans either and can assure you that it's not normal to hear hiss like you describe. Sorry.
 
Dec 22, 2015 at 5:22 PM Post #7,393 of 42,765
Hey guys, I'm new to head fi and got the chord mojo lately. I just have a quick question about output source quality.
 
So i have a macbook pro and a Note 4 phone. I notice that when i connect my sure 846 to macbook pro> mojo it has a more better sound stage and more controlled sonic wave then on my note 4>mojo. 
 
Why is that? the MBP is connected via usb>mojo and note 4 otg>mojo. All my music files are the same flac files, but they really sound different on these two devices.  I did have set the macs Hz to maximum, so dunno if that makes a difference?
 
Thanks
 
Dec 22, 2015 at 5:28 PM Post #7,394 of 42,765
My Mojo has the dreaded startup hiss, experienced by @Ivabign and few others. It would normally go away, if I press the volume down button or plug-in a usb cable.
So, I decided to put up with it for 3 weeks. But, this week the hiss wouldn't go away at all, it would go away after a minute or after re-starting.
The workaround was too much of a hassle and not consistently reproducible, So I have sent it back to Moon Audio. But, Moon Audio is closing for the holidays (12/24 - 12/28), hoping to get it back by New years.
 
Time to dust-off the HUGO.
 
Dec 22, 2015 at 5:28 PM Post #7,395 of 42,765
  Hey guys, I'm new to head fi and got the chord mojo lately. I just have a quick question about output source quality.
 
So i have a macbook pro and a Note 4 phone. I notice that when i connect my sure 846 to macbook pro> mojo it has a more better sound stage and more controlled sonic wave then on my note 4>mojo. 
 
Why is that? the MBP is connected via usb>mojo and note 4 otg>mojo. All my music files are the same flac files, but they really sound different on these two devices.  I did have set the macs Hz to maximum, so dunno if that makes a difference?
 
Thanks

 
You should check on whether either of the music playback programs you are using are doing some software upscaling etc.
 
If you want to compare the two devices side by side, you have to first ensure that you are outputting "bit perfect" to the Mojo.
By doing this, it should not matter whatever Hz you set yout Mac audio setting to. If you are playing a 44.1kHz 16bit file, the player should output 44.1kHz 16bit to the Mojo.
 
For example on Mac you can use programs like JRiver or Audirvana on exclusive mode (no upsampling etc), and on the Android, there are apps like Onkyo HF player etc.
 
If you have both devices definitely outputting bit perfect to Mojo, there can be other differences such as the noise being transmitted across the USB cable etc, though Mojo should be fairly resilient to these. Maybe try changing the USB cable to see if that affects anything.
 

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