[adeseaso]

I just find the Mojo soundstage too small for my liking.

If on a budget I can thoroughly recommend the original Hugo. It's everything you like about the Mojo but produces a larger and more powerful sound with more detail. If you browse the Hugo thread around the dates where the Hugo 2 started shipping you'll see that not everyone thought the successor was a more enjoyable listen despite it being more resolving.

 

[miketlse]

Does it bring a benefit to the Mojo’s sound if I tape off the ground pin on the USB cable? I taped the ground pin, and the Mojo still works perfectly without cutting out.

If this does bring sound improvement, in what way would it be? I also tried taping the 5v pin, but the Mojo stops working with that pin blocked.

The 5V on the VBUS pin is used by the Mojo to detect that the usb cable is live and being used for music data. If the 5V is removed, the usb input port will auto switch-off.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/watts-up.800264/post-15551150

 

[dakanao]

The 5V on the VBUS pin is used by the Mojo to detect that the usb cable is live and being used for music data. If the 5V is removed, the usb input port will switch auto switch-off.

And the ground pin? Will it make an improvement if that pin is taped? Because I have it taped and it works perfectly.

 

[miketlse]

And the ground pin? Will it make an improvement if that pin is taped? Because I have it taped and it works perfectly.

I don't remember ever reading anything about the ground pin - it is normally the 5V pin that gets mentioned by @Rob Watts .
If you do a search using 'VBUS' and 'everywhere' and posted by Rob, you will find several posts, but mainly relating to the desktop dacs - those use the 5V to power galvanic isolation of the usb input. The Mojo is a mobile product, and galvanic isolation would drain the battery too fast.

Rob has posted a lot of interesting design theory info, but finding it is dependent on knowing or guessing the correct search terms.

 

[arjuna93]

I don't know what the exact reason is, it might be the reclocking, or it might be the cleaner power, but the W4s recovery with a linear power supply does amazing things for my Hugo and mojo, everything is taken up a few notches, resolution, transparency, depth, you name it. All of a sudden the instruments and voices come to life, having a solid physical presence, Super focused pinpoint imaging and an incredible sense of space and depth, width and height.

How does it compare to Hugo with USB input?

 

[adeseaso]

How does it compare to Hugo with USB input?

I don't know if a Hugo is picking up more noise than a Mojo over USB but the result is in any case a lot more apparent with the Hugo's unforgiving filter. Listening to the Hugo out of my noisy desktop PC was uncomfortable to the point where I packed it up after a few days and put it in my drawer wondering what the fuss was about when I first bought it.

When I tried it with a clean source (DigiOne in this case) all of the harshness and graininess was traded for smoothness and depth and I have tried no setup that I enjoy more.

The 2Qute in your signature has a better USB implementation with galvanic isolation.

 

[Kentajalli]

I must be the lucky one.
My Mojo does not pickup any noise through USB.
All three inputs sound identical to me - I have Sennheiser IE800, UE900S and Q-Jays to listen with.
USB coming from my Huawei phone, through a DIY cable - Phone >> USB Hub >> MicroSD card reader and >> Mojo.
I have fitted tiny ferrite cores at ends of the cable, but frankly even before I had no issues - mind you the cable is 750mm long, so it is not one of those 2 inch contraptions that keeps Mojo adjacent to the phone.
The same music coming from a battery operated laptop through coax, USB from phone and optical from media server/preamp - all sound identical.
Ask yourselves:
Could it be your USB cable? and/or DAC sitting next to a noisy device?
I wonder!

 

[Prometeia]

My guys I've just gotten a m1 Mac mini, and the mojo doesn't connect via usb??

First time using an Apple computer am I missing something??

 

[damdl]

My guys I've just gotten a m1 Mac mini, and the mojo doesn't connect via usb??

First time using an Apple computer am I missing something??

It should work, macOS does not require a driver to be installed, what program are you using to listen to music?

 

[vlach]

My guys I've just gotten a m1 Mac mini, and the mojo doesn't connect via usb??

First time using an Apple computer am I missing something??

Did you select the Mojo in the MIDI audio output settings?

 

[adeseaso]

I must be the lucky one. My Mojo does not pickup any noise through USB.

Sure it does, though your ferrite cores may help and smaller mobile usb sources should be less problematic than a computer. Rob has touched on the issue of the Mojo's RF noise sensitivity many times, for example in post #7158 in this thread;

"You may say why can't you make it insensitive to it; well I go to silly lengths to RF filter and decouple, and use dual solid ground planes on the PCB, but you can't remove the problem. For Dave, Hugo TT and 2 Qute I have galvanic isolation, and this eliminates the problem (along with other SQ problems such as sound-stage depth). But I can't do this with portable devices, as it draws power from the phone."

As an example of the effect there is a test here of a good streamer (Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra) where they happen to measure the jitter difference vs computer playback on the Mojo specifically. Measurement below and link here: https://www.hifinews.com/content/pro-ject-stream-box-s2-ultra-network-bridge-lab-report

A lot of mobile sources should be just fine but I think it's an issue to be aware of and where some fiddling and trial of higher quality sources can be justified.

 

[Kentajalli]

Sure it does, though your ferrite cores may help and smaller mobile usb sources should be less problematic than a computer. Rob has touched on the issue of the Mojo's RF noise sensitivity many times, for example in post #7158 in this thread;

"You may say why can't you make it insensitive to it; well I go to silly lengths to RF filter and decouple, and use dual solid ground planes on the PCB, but you can't remove the problem. For Dave, Hugo TT and 2 Qute I have galvanic isolation, and this eliminates the problem (along with other SQ problems such as sound-stage depth). But I can't do this with portable devices, as it draws power from the phone."

As an example of the effect there is a test here of a good streamer (Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra) where they happen to measure the jitter difference vs computer playback on the Mojo specifically. Measurement below and link here: https://www.hifinews.com/content/pro-ject-stream-box-s2-ultra-network-bridge-lab-report

A lot of mobile sources should be just fine but I think it's an issue to be aware of and where some fiddling and trial of higher quality sources can be justified.

Wow!
That computer is causing Mojo jitter to go up by a factor of 100 times or more - must be one hell of a noisy computer.
However, the other two players are pretty much the same, and jitter is at -145dB, which is some achievement.
I reckon an average portable player would be more similar to these lower rates of noise. Even at 10dB more (10 times more noise) - the figure is still at an astronomically low level of -135dB - which brings me to my argument, which is, no human can hear it !! let alone create bigger sound stage and more focused bass guitar.
The other inputs on Mojo are not that clean either - coax is also an electrical input , susceptible to RF noise.
Optical has got to go through two transformation to become optical at source and be decrypted at reception.
Since Mojo is not powered from USB input, the RFI from USB is limited, unless you have a super noisy device connected.
So YES , noise is everwhere but is it always a USB issue, or is it bad cabling or proximity to noise?
after all, the data pins on a USB are balanced, so it needs ground wire, (data+) and (data-) pins , the +5v pin simply switches to that input.
If any of those pins should have high impedance, the cable itself would act as an antenna, and then the ferrite cores may help.

 

[boodi]

let alone create bigger sound stage and more focused bass guitar

exactly were you put your money in audio when you scale into hiend and exactly were piled dirtities in the signal disrupt the presentation i.e. bigger sound stage and more focued bass guitar

 

[Kentajalli]

exactly were you put your money in audio when you scale into hiend and exactly were piled dirtities in the signal disrupt the presentation i.e. bigger sound stage and more focued bass guitar

You do realize that the graph above is only the "Jitter noise spectra" which contributes to only a small portion of the total noise.
Even at best case scenario, Mojo has a noise floor of about -110dB.

 

[boodi]

sure
I'm not particularly advocate of choosing gears by measures , quite the opposite ( by ears ) , sorry it was just a casual comment about finding noises in expensive gears or the supposedly perceived audio effect of them..
the mojo is not that expensive too