Chord Mojo 2 Thread ___ [product released January 31, 2022 -- starting on page 95 of thread]
May 14, 2024 at 10:42 AM Post #10,636 of 10,861
Those IEMs are 94db sensitivity and 22 ohm impedance. Mojo2 can drive them to 120 dB easily. You are implying that by adding more electronics, the sound can get better (more dynamic). However, all you can really be doing in this case is adding distortion. Since adding an amp does not bypass or change anything in the Mojo at all, there is no other conclusion. It may sound preferable, but it is further altering the original signal and also totally unnecessary to achieve the most transparent playback at listenable volumes. Just something to consider for folks looking to add multi-$k amps and such.
People will have different opinions here, there is no point to argue about it. It's not all in the stats, or is it? Many owners of Anni will tell you they are extremely power hungry, and similar to Storm scale with high power headroom, which makes them sing.. many will say not, whatever one prefers. Same as somebody can hear a difference in the cable, while many claim there can't be any.. yet there are cables worth thousands of dollars. My monarch\kiwis are very loud on yellow color, while I can push Anni's to blue+. When you read reviews about amps and adding amps to Mojo2, you will read a lot of them which say and claim the amps increase soundstage, add bigger punch, make mids\top more airy and so on.. is everyone making things up? Also who is talking about wanting 100% transparent sound, if you ask me I want interesting lively sound that is joy to listen, and yeah add amp to alter some things and not get sterile dac sound. But again, I am not saying anybody else should follow this - it's merely my opinion\taste. Mojo2 is a fine unit but I know several people who added Kobo 475 for example to the Mojo and preferred that a lot more.
 
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May 14, 2024 at 12:08 PM Post #10,637 of 10,861
But of a noob question, will a 4.4 balanced cable work for the SE headphone jack on the mojo with a 4.4 to a 3.5 connector?
 
May 14, 2024 at 12:22 PM Post #10,638 of 10,861
But of a noob question, will a 4.4 balanced cable work for the SE headphone jack on the mojo with a 4.4 to a 3.5 connector?

Yes, no problem. I do that all the time with my balanced IEM/Headphones...

This is the one I use, it seems to unavailable now. I have also used one from ddHiFi that's just an adapter rather than a short cable (DJ44C).

https://www.fiio.com/productinfo/114157.html
 
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May 14, 2024 at 12:35 PM Post #10,639 of 10,861
May 14, 2024 at 12:37 PM Post #10,640 of 10,861
May 14, 2024 at 1:17 PM Post #10,641 of 10,861
May 14, 2024 at 10:17 PM Post #10,642 of 10,861
Yes, for me optical provided much better results than using direct USB connection.
I'm giving it a other go. I have a question about sampling rates. Iirc the optical in on the mojo 2 is limited to 96k, in just trying to understand if there is a conversion before the optical out and than another one at the mojo2. I have an optical out on my rme babyface pro that I use. Can you explain a little if you can about what exactly you find better? Thanks.
When you read reviews about amps and adding amps to Mojo2, you will read a lot of them which say and claim the amps increase soundstage, add bigger punch, make mids\top more airy and so on.. is everyone making things up?
My humble BCL does that at the tiny cost of recessed mids, and loss of focus I think. More punch and wider soundstage. Sounds richer, different presentation, I couldn't say better or worse, more like different flavours. I'm not sure yet if I prefer one I or the other yet, the original BCL does sound bigger with more heft.

Edit: on A/b ing optical vs usb, optical sounds massive. The usb is colder and may be brighter overall. The optical seems to have a warm and rich thing going on, more air and three dimensional, I don't know how that's possible but I'm beginning to much prefer it.. I don't know how to express it but I seems to do what the BCL was doing to with the USB in a way, with out the negatives. The optical is superior, I didn't think much of it earlier. I wonder howmuch coloration is coming from the RME., I don't know hot it works yet.

Edit 2:
I was serious about getting a poly. I'm wondering if the poly may some how manage to retain more of the optical character, I need to check if there is a different between the micro usb and usb c.
 
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May 15, 2024 at 1:15 AM Post #10,644 of 10,861
Random question to the thread - does running the Mojo 2 in intelligent desktop mode provide more power to full-size cans? Or, put another way, do people sense a difference in their listening experience running in intelligent desktop mode vs. the battery when listening to demanding, power hungry cans / IEMs?

I recently decided to open up the Mojo 2, disconnect the battery, and run the thing in intelligent desktop mode from an old Uptone LPS 1.2 I had lying around. For some reason I'm preferring listening to my Caldera's direct vs. using one of my headamps (Satri Circut Labs HDA 5230 Mk 2 - less than a month in use - and the Schiit Pietus Maximus). I'm getting more detail and clarity going direct at the cost of some dynamic grunt that I normally get via a headamp.

I'm curious if others have had similar or dissimilar experiences.
 
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May 15, 2024 at 1:42 AM Post #10,645 of 10,861
Random question to the thread - does running the Mojo 2 in intelligent desktop mode provide more power to full-size cans? Or, put another way, do people sense a difference in their listening experience running in intelligent desktop mode vs. the battery when listening to demanding, power hungry cans / IEMs?

I recently decided to open up the Mojo 2, disconnect the battery, and run the thing in intelligent desktop mode from an old Uptone LPS 1.2 I had lying around. For some reason I'm preferring listening to my Caldera's direct vs. using one of my headamps (Satri Circut Labs HDA 5230 Mk 2 - less than a month in use - and the Schiit Pietus Maximus). I'm getting more detail and clarity going direct at the cost of some dynamic grunt that I normally get via a headamp.

I'm curious if others have had similar or dissimilar experiences.
For me, it totally depends on the headphone. The HD 600 sounds much nicer to me coming out of the Mojo 2 versus my amp. As do a set of my IEMs. Not sure what explains the difference since they share no obvious traits in common. But like so much else in audio, I just try a bunch of stuff and keep doing what works.
 
May 15, 2024 at 2:05 AM Post #10,646 of 10,861
It probably depends of the amp synergy as well. When I was testing PA10 with it, didn't like it either vs direct. Loss of detail.

However add a sick amp like Tsuranagi, Enleum or mass kobo and behold :)
 
May 15, 2024 at 2:29 AM Post #10,647 of 10,861
The Tsuranagi is hard to get hold of. Also, wow, the price
 
May 15, 2024 at 2:36 AM Post #10,648 of 10,861
Yes, Tsu is insanely expensive, but so is Enleum hpa-23rm, maybe even best choice for Mojo due to fully unbalanced design that both have.

Kobo 475 seems to be a good price option.
 
May 15, 2024 at 3:20 AM Post #10,649 of 10,861
I am not sure I want a box which behaves differently on USB and optical.
Or perhaps the problem is coming from the source, could be a resampling or something like this...
(Just to say what a few others may be thinking…..)
Or maybe, just maybe, allegedly maybe, perchance allegedly maybe……the cables themselves might have some effect.

Just sayin’…..

:)

The only thing i remember / can go by (which is a reflection of my very limited experience of optical cables), when i had a metrum hex dac and tried a cheap optical cable that i somehow dug up from around the house (no idea where from), i did think the sound was warmer than the cheap coax cable i had laying around - i know that probably doesn’t help anyone, but since i already started a post I thought i’d add it.

I never got around to trying a “proper” optical cable up to this point as my cables are usb up to this point

All the best
 
May 15, 2024 at 5:56 AM Post #10,650 of 10,861
I'm giving it a other go. I have a question about sampling rates. Iirc the optical in on the mojo 2 is limited to 96k, in just trying to understand if there is a conversion before the optical out and than another one at the mojo2. I have an optical out on my rme babyface pro that I use. Can you explain a little if you can about what exactly you find better? Thanks.

My humble BCL does that at the tiny cost of recessed mids, and loss of focus I think. More punch and wider soundstage. Sounds richer, different presentation, I couldn't say better or worse, more like different flavours. I'm not sure yet if I prefer one I or the other yet, the original BCL does sound bigger with more heft.

Edit: on A/b ing optical vs usb, optical sounds massive. The usb is colder and may be brighter overall. The optical seems to have a warm and rich thing going on, more air and three dimensional, I don't know how that's possible but I'm beginning to much prefer it.. I don't know how to express it but I seems to do what the BCL was doing to with the USB in a way, with out the negatives. The optical is superior, I didn't think much of it earlier. I wonder howmuch coloration is coming from the RME., I don't know hot it works yet.

Edit 2:
I was serious about getting a poly. I'm wondering if the poly may some how manage to retain more of the optical character, I need to check if there is a different between the micro usb and usb c.
I have the same experience that you have described under "Edit". If I use USB connection, the sound is much more analytical, and can get quite fatiguing very quickly. Don't forget, that my source is a gaming PC, so the superior results of using optical connection might come from the fact that when using optical cable, I have galvanic isolation, which gets rid of unwanted noise coming from my PC.
 

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