[emilsoft]

Oh yeah, didn't even get the advertised 4 hours. 3 hours at a push....

3 hours is plenty for the pure honey dripping in my ears

The Andromeda does have BAD design, and its sensitivity of 112dB for 1mW is not the main issue.
Look at this:

These are impedance curves for 2020 version vs the original.
From 20Hz to 1kHz it remains mostly at 8 or less, mostly at 4 ohm!
You need an amp, not only to be able to drive such a low impedance, but having a noise floor not to make them sound hissy at the same time.
The ADI 2 you mentioned is mains powered and a strange beast having one of the best ever noise floor, that ASR measured, but only from the dedicated IEM output.
It also costs $2000.
Mojo2 is a cost effective portable device, It is second to none, in this department at least.

I mean are super low sensitivity ATC speakers with infinite baffle badly designed too then? They require massive 100 watt high current amplifiers to sound their best, yet are touted as some of the best sounding loud speakers at any price. It's the nature of the design which has it's side effects in order to achieve a high performance - similarly with Andromeda - they require specific pairing of low impedance amplification (which is nowadays very common - practically all amplifiers are designed this way with 0-2 OI, which the Andromeda is designed for), but they're very easy to drive - the issue is not the impedance mismatch with Andro anymore, but the hissy amplification - which is solvable either with gain/impedance sensing designs auto matching their output current (Earmen Sparrow), 3.5mm low noise low power output design tailored for IEMs (RME ADI2), or just voodoo like the Woo WA8 (I have no clue how they achieve total silence on their 3.5mm) - it's a solvable problem nowadays with good engineering.

I also have hissy hiss with Softears RSV - another sensitive IEM.. is this a terrible design too? It works wonderfully out of my RME or WA8

 

[Zap67]

Can you recommend a usb c cable to connect mojo 2 to ipad?

 

[Stevko]

Can you recommend a usb c cable to connect mojo 2 to ipad?

Fiios cable is great

 

[Kentajalli]

I mean are super low sensitivity ATC speakers with infinite baffle badly designed too then? They require massive 100 watt high current amplifiers to sound their best, yet are touted as some of the best sounding loud speakers at any price.

ATC speakers, specially the smaller ones, have low efficiency, that's true. But then again, all smaller speakers are like that. Smaller speakers are more desired, for obvious reasons, but because of the small size of the bass driver, they need far more power to move enough air to reproduce bass, and their midrange and treble are artificially tamed down to match the bass response, so there is a price to pay for their small size - Low Efficiency!
ATC also caters for monitoring jobs at recording studios, so they go for closed box design, which further lower their total efficiency.
Believe me or not, it is far easier to make amps at 200W or more, than make an amp that behaves perfectly at 40uW.
But there is no need for an IEM to parallel wire five or more drivers, with no regards to impedance or sensitivity! There are single driver IEMs from the likes of Sennheiser that compete in terms of sound quality, that present a far easier load for the amp.

It's the nature of the design which has it's side effects in order to achieve a high performance - similarly with Andromeda - they require specific pairing of low impedance amplification (which is nowadays very common - practically all amplifiers are designed this way with 0-2 OI, which the Andromeda is designed for), but they're very easy to drive - the issue is not the impedance mismatch with Andro anymore, but the hissy amplification - which is solvable either with gain/impedance sensing designs auto matching their output current (Earmen Sparrow), 3.5mm low noise low power output design tailored for IEMs (RME ADI2), or just voodoo like the Woo WA8 (I have no clue how they achieve total silence on their 3.5mm) - it's a solvable problem nowadays with good engineering.

I also have hissy hiss with Softears RSV - another sensitive IEM.. is this a terrible design too? It works wonderfully out of my RME or WA8

At any rate, this discussion is going to an Academic route.
I understand if there is a need to do something, you end up paying for it another way.
Let's not lose sight of the fact, that Mojo2 is a cost-effective, portable device. It manages to drive %95 of any IEM or headphone you throw at it, WELL.
There are odd ones, that require special amps.
BTW, low output impedance headphone amps, are not that common! To drive a 4 ohm load, the output impedance of the amp needs to be a fraction of the ohm (Like Mojo2 and Hugo2) - but about 80% (guessing) of other makes and models are in the few ohm region. Some of Topping and S.M.S.L devices, go into protection mode at less than 10 ohms or so, yes they do go quiet! but not the type you like

 

[thecrow]

Fiios cable is great

I just bought the fiio lightning to usbc cable
https://fiio.com/productinfo/718506.html

i found the usb c plug on the cable quite tight when plugging in. I was worried i might damage something as it needed a bit more force than usual to go in. I feel everything is fine though.

did you have the same experience with your cable on the usb c side?

(it is the plug and not the jack on the mojo2 as i tried the cable with other jacks for the same story)

 

[turbo87]

I just bought the fiio lightning to usbc cable
https://fiio.com/productinfo/718506.html

i found the usb c plug on the cable quite tight when plugging in. I was worried i might damage something as it needed a bit more force than usual to go in. I feel everything is fine though.

did you have the same experience with your cable on the usb c side?

(it is the plug and not the jack on the mojo2 as i tried the cable with other jacks for the same story)

I had a similar experience with the fiio cable on the usb c side also with the mojo2

 

[thecrow]

I had a similar experience with the fiio cable on the usb c side also with the mojo2

Thanks

 

[emilsoft]

ATC speakers, specially the smaller ones, have low efficiency, that's true. But then again, all smaller speakers are like that. Smaller speakers are more desired, for obvious reasons, but because of the small size of the bass driver, they need far more power to move enough air to reproduce bass, and their midrange and treble are artificially tamed down to match the bass response, so there is a price to pay for their small size - Low Efficiency!

BTW, low output impedance headphone amps, are not that common! To drive a 4 ohm load, the output impedance of the amp needs to be a fraction of the ohm (Like Mojo2 and Hugo2) - but about 80% (guessing) of other makes and models are in the few ohm region. Some of Topping and S.M.S.L devices, go into protection mode at less than 10 ohms or so, yes they do go quiet! but not the type you like

ATC speakers are unlike many others on the market as most of their designs are infinite baffle, i.e. fully sealed, and coupled with heavy duty burly drivers with huge voice coils (not your typical driver used by JBL/KEF ) - both of these add up to make them as one of the most if not most low efficiency speakers in the world (unlike any other small speakers on the market).
It's also not just about the watts but also the current and headroom of the amplifiers used to drive them. Just to add, ATC have been making speakers for home use for a long time and this is arguably their larger more profitable side vs the pro world, so I can't agree with you on that.

As I said earlier, these compromises are what gives them their special sauce sound quality (tight and clear bass with no overhang, very fast attack/decay etc) - it is the opposite of what Andromeda are doing with their super high efficiency and output impedance sensitivity - different design approaches both relevant. Would I have liked an Andromeda without OI dependency and amplifier pickiness? Sure, but if it means compromises to it's current sound by sticking a resistor in there or some damping - I wouldn't have it any other way.

90% of head amplifiers/sources nowadays have low OI, or 0: RME ADI: 0 OI, Earmen Sparrow: 0, Woo WA8 0-1, Sony ZX507 around 1 OI, WM1AM2: around 1, Mojo 1/2 0, ifi Gryphon 0 and many more I can't be bothered to keep listing - i can keep going all day. The sources that typically have high OI might be specialist tube amps tailored for specific headphones. Generally nowadays it's frowned upon to release OI over 1, it's a bad design and there's no excuse.

Mojo 2 hiss - it's ok I can live with it. Is it the best design on how to handle it? No, I gave examples of cheap, mid and expensive that use different principle to deal with sensitive IEMs and bring no hiss but also maintain low output impedance. There's no point protecting the shrine of Chord, it is what it is - I like the Mojo 2's sound quality, but it it's a hissy bugger with sensitive IEMs it's just a fact.

As for SMSL and Topping going into protection mode - you know that Topping also had a specific amplifier model fault that used to destroy headphones? Both of these manufacturers are awful in my book, they chase certain measurements to impress with numbers but sound awful and most of the time have design flaws (like the one you mentioned).

 

[Odezra]

I have the CA Andromeda 2020 and the mojo 2. Obviously it’s a picky iem.

I don’t think this is bad design myself as I don't think the market at this price point is offering devices that are great at everything. Instead, brands are picking their party pieces. Mojo 2 went with its unique dac implementation plus a ‘lossless eq’ system and improved battery while keeping all the other mojo 1 features and poly compatibility. Other units at this price point might give you better impedance, power performance, inputs / outputs etc etc but they will sacrifice other things.

The mojo is so good it played a role in my speaker system for a long time - it’s a great unit.

I still agree impedance could be better, but at this price point - i don’t think this is down to poor design or thoughtless omission. Plus - the ifi iematch is a cheap solution for sensitive HPs and IEMs meaning we don’t need to worry about impedance if we still value mojos other traits.

 

[emilsoft]

I still agree impedance could be better, but at this price point - i don’t think this is down to poor design or thoughtless omission. Plus - the ifi iematch is a cheap solution for sensitive HPs and IEMs meaning we don’t need to worry about impedance if we still value mojos other traits.

Iematch unfortunately kills the sound quality on the Andromeda for me - it smooths over the dynamics and just brings it down a couple of levels.

 

[Odezra]

Iematch unfortunately kills the sound quality on the Andromeda for me - it smooths over the dynamics and just brings it down a couple of levels.

That’s interesting - is the behaviour across all inputs (eg optical)? Interested to know if it’s purely an issue of the output stage changing the performance.

 

[Stevko]

I just bought the fiio lightning to usbc cable
https://fiio.com/productinfo/718506.html

i found the usb c plug on the cable quite tight when plugging in. I was worried i might damage something as it needed a bit more force than usual to go in. I feel everything is fine though.

did you have the same experience with your cable on the usb c side?

(it is the plug and not the jack on the mojo2 as i tried the cable with other jacks for the same story)

I use it with my earmen tr-amp. Not too loose or tight

 

[daveya]

I find my OTG cables a bit tighter, may be extra pin dunno

 

[AussieMick]

Can you recommend a usb c cable to connect mojo 2 to ipad?

AudioQuest Carbon for me. I also had terrific success with a Cardas Clear HS USB.

 

[AussieMick]

There is so much incredible gear on the market. Products that exist on the fringes (Susvara, super sensitive IEM’s, ATC) just need the right match.
Let’s stop complaining and do our research instead. Find products that match well and complement each other.