[Music Alchemist]

  Hi again Rob @Rob Watts 
@ChordElectronics
 
I've read a lot of your comments about the Mojo FPGA's up-sampling, in the 3rd post and elsewhere.
 
Just a quick question.
 
Does the Mojo's FPGA up-sample whatever comes in, even if I have a computer up-sample 24bit/44kHz music up to 32bit/768kHz before it goes to the Mojo?
 
So in this case, up-sampling before the Mojo won't really make the Mojo do less work in terms of processing, so there's no real benefit in up-sampling before the Mojo?
 
Or is there actually benefit in up-sampling 24/44 music to 32/768 PCM before the Mojo?
 
Thanks again !

 
It upsamples everything. They recommend to avoid any additional upsampling before it.
 

Haha. No, definitely not, and why the HE1K gets like 90% of my head time. Of course I drive it with the speaker taps of the McIntosh MHA-100 (netting around 12wpc into the HE1K's impedance). And if using the unbalanced analog inputs and mixdown calls for it I use the exceptional Perreaux TC2 bass/mid/treble tone control to massage the tonal balance. Now THAT is synergy.

.

Love the Mojo, but a wise man once said "A man's got to know his limitations" -Clint Eastwood, said either right before or after blowing away a "bad guy".

 
Every planar magnetic headphone I've heard (Abyss, HE6, HE400i, HE500, HE1000, LCD-2F, LCD-X) has a smoothed-over, rounded-off texture. The HE1000 sounded more smooth and lush than any of them; far too laid-back and fake-sounding for me. (I'm not talking about frequency response here.) Even entry-level STAX kills them as far as I'm concerned.
 
And no, you're not going to ever put 12 watts into it. (If you sent 12 watts into the HE1000 by maximizing the volume, it would reach about 131 dB. Even if the headphone drivers could reach that level without breaking up, that's as loud as a jet taking off and, needless to say, would destroy anyone's hearing in not much time at all. Plus dynamic peaks in the music would make everything distort since you'd already be at the limits of the amp at that point.)
 
To reach any given SPL level, the headphones use the same amount of power regardless of the amp. (The only thing increasing the power being sent into the headphones does is increase the volume.) As long as it meets the basic requirements (shown above in the images I made), it's not going to be driving them any better; it's just going to be altering the sound in some way due to other aspects of the design of the amp. In case you didn't know, the 430HAD outputs up to 8 watts at 50 ohms. But the differences in power between all these amps has no relevance because that extra power is never used.
 
Take an SPL meter and measure how loud you're listening with the HE1000. If it's 100 dB, you're only using 10 mW; if it's 110 dB, you're only using 100 mW; and if it's 115, you're only using about 316 mW.
 
Long story short, the Mojo can drive the HE1000 just fine up to a certain point, but its sound signature may not be to everyone's liking.
 
Since my HE500 is slightly harder to drive than the HE1000 and I don't come close to the Mojo's limits with it, I'd say I'm listening well under 115 dB (I haven't done SPL measurements to verify exactly how loud I listen with different types of music) and the story would be the same with the HE1000 as far as actually driving it goes. Since I listen louder than most do, that means for nearly everyone, the Mojo will have no issues driving the HE1000.
 
Nine times out of ten, what people are describing when talking about driving headphones (in this context) is simply the sound signature of their system.

 

[Deftone]

What's your opinion now ?
Mojo drives HD650 well ? (Not from power perspective)

Well HD650 is famous for "needing an expensive amp to reach is full potential" but from my supprise I found it can run from a phone and it does not sound bad at all. Anyway I tried the 650s with Schiit Vali, Burson Soloist and Mojo.

Vali - a little bass bloom and nice edge to guitars
Soloist - cold with a added hardness to treble, nice details.
Mojo - tighter bass, smoothest sound with a little extra detail.

None of these sounded dull or underpowered apart from straight from a smartphone where it wouldn't go loud enough for higher dynamic range music and noticeably missing a little body.

When I was talking about this before Jude quoted me and said it's an exceptional combination and I agree, HD650 + Mojo is one of the best setups I have heard regardless of price, same goes for AkG612 + Mojo.

 

[RobinTim]

   
It upsamples everything. They recommend to avoid any additional upsampling before it.

 
 
So it would therefore not make sense to use the Roon upsampling for example?

 

[Music Alchemist]

  So it would therefore not make sense to use the Roon upsampling for example?

 
You can try it and see how you like it, but in theory, it's best to let the DAC do its job.

 

[Hooster]

   
 
So it would therefore not make sense to use the Roon upsampling for example?

 
That is right, it would not.

 

[vincik]

Hello. I just bought Mojo. I would like to ask few question. Many thanks for replies!
 
1.How do i set up Foobar to get 100% of Mojo's potential? Thanks
 
2.I have Fiio x5 2nd DAP. How do i connect it to Mojo in order to let Mojo do the digital-analogue conversion? 3.5mm jack from coax out of Fiio to 3.5mm jack into Mojo?
 
3. How to setup foobar for dsd? I managed to get .dsf file working in foobar, but light on Mojo in red (44khz) and not white (DSD). So it is converted to PCM? How do i send it unconverted to Mojo?
 
4.i need two usb cables for both charging and dac with pc. do i need to buy something special or any usb cabels will do?

 

[m8o]

@Music Alchemist, you speak as if many, I, don't know all that. Or have a firm grasp on all the math; well educated on the matter; both academically and ongoing over decades.

Of course I know there is nowhere near wattS (plural) of RMS power being fed to my headphone. But to ignore what a well of power does give someone, is notable. Headroom.

The ability to produce high magnitude transients that are dozens higher in db than the average of the program material, without compression or the slightest bit of distortion; ie the voltage that shold be provided is never even close to slacking due to excessive current draw and supply having no reserves. I can assure you at the volume I listen, those musical peaks (not RMS) are hitting 'wattS' (plural) into my HE1K in extremely short bursts. Remember too before you spin off a retort, I have big blue VU meters that are telling me so, touted widely as being some of the best (accurate & fast) in the business, without me having to put my scope on the amp output taps to record the voltage peaks to tell me the same.

It is the lack of that power reserve a small, power limited device like the Mojo & M9xx misses, that adversely affect the 'body and heft' of the musical reproduction, in the HE1K (and I'll reiterate only that hp of all I have). Not just the 'signature' of the phone to begin with. Which you obviously dislike strongly, period, so why would you have any ability to rebuff what those who give it a fair shake tell you it does synergies with?

...I don't even know why I'm engaging here. Love my Mojo with 9 outta 10 of my phones. Lol

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Hello. I just bought Mojo. I would like to ask few question. Many thanks for replies!
 
1.How do i set up Foobar to get 100% of Mojo's potential? Thanks
 
3. How to setup foobar for dsd? I managed to get .dsf file working in foobar, but light on Mojo in red (44khz) and not white (DSD). So it is converted to PCM? How do i send it unconverted to Mojo?

 
Make sure you have these installed and select Chord's ASIO driver in foobar2000's output.
 
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_asio
http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Mojo-Windows-Driver.zip
 
I use the tutorial here for DSD:
 
http://www.audiostream.com/content/how-play-dsd-file-using-foobar2000
 

@Music Alchemist, you speak as if many, I, don't know all that. Or have a firm grasp on all the math; well educated on the matter; both academically and ongoing over decades.

Of course I know there is nowhere near wattS (plural) of RMS power being fed to my headphone. But to ignore what a well of power does give someone, is notable. Headroom.

The ability to produce high magnitude transients that are dozens higher in db than the average of the program material, without compression or the slightest bit of distortion; ie the voltage that shold be provided is never even close to slacking due to excessive current draw and supply having no reserves. I can assure you at the volume I listen, those musical peaks (not RMS) are hitting 'wattS' (plural) into my HE1K in extremely short bursts. Remember too before you spin off a retort, I have big blue VU meters that are telling me so, touted widely as being some of the best (accurate & fast) in the business, without me having to put my scope on the amp output taps to record the voltage peaks to tell me the same.

It is the lack of that power reserve a small, power limited device like the Mojo & M9xx misses, that adversely affect the 'body and heft' of the musical reproduction, in the HE1K (and I'll reiterate only that hp of all I have). Not just the 'signature' of the phone to begin with. Which you obviously dislike strongly, period, so why would you have any ability to rebuff what those who give it a fair shake tell you it does synergies with?

...I don't even know why I'm engaging here. Love my Mojo with 9 outta 10 of my phones. Lol

 
That's pretty interesting. If you ever measure the SPL of the HE1000 on your system during those peaks, please share how loud it is, and also how much power is being used.
 
I want to stress that I never denied headphones can sound different (and perhaps better) on different amps. But the most expensive amp I used had more than 8 watts available, so it should be a similar situation to your system where it can send multiple watts into the headphone if need be. (And it didn't sound any different on a less expensive but still powerful amp. Also, the jump in sound quality from the HE400i driven from the Fulla to the HE1000 driven by the 430HAD was not very significant at all to me.) I don't dislike the HE1000; I just don't like it nearly as much as certain other headphones.

 

[WayTooCrazy]

 

[Deftone]

 

 
 i dont understand?

 

[rosolo]

I just bought LG G5. Can anyone tell me what cable I need to connect to mojo please? (it uses usb type C)

 

[WhiteKnite]

I just bought LG G5. Can anyone tell me what cable I need to connect to mojo please? (it uses usb type C)

USB C OTG to Type B micro. Sit back and enjoy the RFI/EMI. Seriously, I can only use my G5 in airplane mode. There is a TON of noise otherwise. I'd suggest getting a long cable and a ferrite choke and keeping them separated. I planned to stack them and it's just not an option. I have the stuff on the way to DIY a cable and shield it as much as possible to see if I can make stacking work with this G5. This is what I currently use but don't recommend:

 

[vincik]

do i need OTG cable for pc connection or any cable will do? does it matter what length it will be?

 

[WhiteKnite]

  do i need OTG cable for pc connection or any cable will do? does it matter what length it will be?

No, you don't need OTG to connect to PC.  Any length will work.  

 

[x RELIC x]

I just listened to Rob Watts CanJam Singapore talk - link - and he pegs the brightness of the Hugo1 vs the smoothness of the Mojo to more noise floor modulation in the Hugo1. He says when others report that the Hugo1 is more transparent and bright that it's, in part, the Hugo1's (undesired) noise floor modulation they are hearing. He also goes on to say that he tuned the Mojo slightly warmer as well but the noise floor modulation in Hugo1 is a big part of why it's brighter than Mojo.

Interesting. I've long suspected this may be one of the reasons why the Hugo1 was reported as brighter and more 'transparent' as Rob has been continuously improving his WTA filter since Hugo1. Good to know. For me the devil is in the details. It's also interesting to me to know that it is as audible as he implies.

Edit: I'm not saying the Mojo is better than the Hugo1 or vice versa, I'm not qualified for that as I haven't heard the Hugo1. I'm saying it's fascinating to me to know what some of the reasons for the differences in sonic presentations between the two devices are according to the designer.