[Ohhellyea]

Dear All!

I have a Khadas Tone 2 Pro DAC/AMP and I was thinking about upgrading and taking a step up. I'm looking for a portable dac/amp to be used with IEM's (Kiwi Ears Quintet and a few Thieaudio models), and I was wondering if the Mojo 2 is still the way to go, or is there anything else that should be considered in 2024?

Your imput is greatly valued and happy new year 4 all of you!

 

[ducnsh]

In my opinion, M2 is still good in the next 3-4 years (until M3, maybe ) since its sound is surprisingly good for its size, and has many nice features: desktop mode, crossfeed, and especially UHD EQ, this EQ implementation is the best I have tried, I have never used EQ feature before in any source and DAC since it is distorted when using.

 

[tjkohli]

In my opinion, M2 is still good in the next 3-4 years (until M3, maybe ) since its sound is surprisingly good for its size, and has many nice features: desktop mode, crossfeed, and especially UHD EQ, this EQ implementation is the best I have tried, I have never used EQ feature before in any source and DAC since it is distorted when using.

Seems like you have a Mojo 2 and a Hugo 2 — what are your pros/cons of each?

 

[ducnsh]

Seems like you have a Mojo 2 and a Hugo 2 — what are your pros/cons of each?

Technically, Hugo2 has better sound in clarity, transparent, and soundstage, but to my ears and gears, the difference is not too much and you need to sacrifice the portability to acquire that difference. Besides that, M2 offers the UHD EQ, which is a game changer for me since the EQ implementation on M2 is excellent. So if you want to fully exploit the sound quality in terms of detail, clarity, ..., do not use EQ, also accept the Hugo2's size, and your budget can adapt, Hugo2 will be your choice. Otherwise, Mojo2 is enough for almost cases.

 

[Ohhellyea]

In my opinion, M2 is still good in the next 3-4 years (until M3, maybe ) since its sound is surprisingly good for its size, and has many nice features: desktop mode, crossfeed, and especially UHD EQ, this EQ implementation is the best I have tried, I have never used EQ feature before in any source and DAC since it is distorted when using.

I was wondering if there is anything that comes close to it with the portable DAC/Amp use case in mind.

 

[moosimal]

In my opinion, M2 is still good in the next 3-4 years (until M3, maybe ) since its sound is surprisingly good for its size, and has many nice features: desktop mode, crossfeed, and especially UHD EQ, this EQ implementation is the best I have tried, I have never used EQ feature before in any source and DAC since it is distorted when using.

Do you have any recommendations as what to use as the media player source? I want to avoid using my cellphone.

 

[ducnsh]

Do you have any recommendations as what to use as the media player source? I want to avoid using my cellphone.

I use foobar2000 and tidal for desktop usage on both MacOS and Windows

 

[grumpy213]

I own a Mojo 2 along with the Poly module as well as some dongles and DAPs.

I would say that the Mojo 2 from a sound quality perspective is rather excellent but there are some oddities with it that make it rather difficult to recommend to everyone.

• Only 3.5mm outputs - obviated by using an adapter but inconvenient;
• Not very intuitive interface - the coloured balls get taking used to to recall certain settings for certain options;
• Micro USB - heavily reliant on microUSB for connectivity with USB-C for data input and not charging;
• Amplification stage - higher noise floor to my ears compared to some dongles and DAPs that I have tried with sensitive IEMs.

Modern DAC/Amps from Chi-Fi manufacturers such as Shanling (H3, H5, H7) have better quality-of-life adjustments such as SD card slots (removing the need to buy Poly), bluetooth, 4.4mm outputs, sheer power output, etc.

Ultimately, I have not tried these and cannot make a statement from a sound quality perspective but these are rather excellent quality-of-life additions compared to the relatively restricted Mojo 2.

 

[kumar402]

From SQ POV, even Mojo1 in 2024 is as good as it was in 2015
Feed optical and enjoy

 

[ducnsh]

I own a Mojo 2 along with the Poly module as well as some dongles and DAPs.

I would say that the Mojo 2 from a sound quality perspective is rather excellent but there are some oddities with it that make it rather difficult to recommend to everyone.

• Only 3.5mm outputs - obviated by using an adapter but inconvenient;
• Not very intuitive interface - the coloured balls get taking used to to recall certain settings for certain options;
• Micro USB - heavily reliant on microUSB for connectivity with USB-C for data input and not charging;
• Amplification stage - higher noise floor to my ears compared to some dongles and DAPs that I have tried with sensitive IEMs.

Modern DAC/Amps from Chi-Fi manufacturers such as Shanling (H3, H5, H7) have better quality-of-life adjustments such as SD card slots (removing the need to buy Poly), bluetooth, 4.4mm outputs, sheer power output, etc.

Ultimately, I have not tried these and cannot make a statement from a sound quality perspective but these are rather excellent quality-of-life additions compared to the relatively restricted Mojo 2.

Agree with your points, I hope that in M3 or H3, Chord can solve the noise floor to pair with sensitive IEMs.

 

[Mon44]

The Mojo 2 is still a very good option in 2024, but it works better with headphones than with IEMs.