[Slim1970]

I for one has never experienced any RF issues with Mojo. I know the potential is there with it or any electronic device for that matter. I just enjoy the Mojo for what it is. I think it’s one of the top two affordable and portable/transportable devices you can buy along with the iDSD BL. I go back and forth with them depending on which headphone I’m using all the time. I don’t care about RF interference or eventual battery replacement with my Mojo. I just care about getting the best possible sound out of my headphones and the Mojo is one of the few devices that can do that to my ears.

 

[jimm2]

During the two years that the Mojo has been on sale, the battery replacement options seem to have evolved/expanded to become:

1. The default of returning your Mojo through the dealer, who then forwards it to the service centre
2. If the owner is happy to perform a DIY repair, then either PM @Mython or @Mojo ideas , who will then facilitate the arrangements for sending the battery to the dealer. You then collect the battery from the dealer, without any additional costs.
3. Some customer focused dealers are happy to perform the DIY repair free of charge (lets face it, the DIY repair should only take 5 minutes, then leave the Mojo charging for a few hours, and switch on to check that the charging circuit has worked ok)

There have been several posts describing options 2 and 3 proceding smoothly.
Hope this answers your question.

Just wanted to report my results with getting a new Mojo replacement battery per option 2 in the above instructions.

I contacted @Mojo ideas and within a week I had a new battery ready for pick up at the dealer. Hats off to Chord and @Mojo ideas for the excellent support.

 

[miketlse]

Just wanted to report my results with getting a new Mojo replacement battery per option 2 in the above instructions.

I contacted @Mojo ideas and within a week I had a new battery ready for pick up at the dealer. Hats off to Chord and @Mojo ideas for the excellent support.

Thanks for the feedback. Battery life understandably worries potential owners like @DivaFonda, so any 'return on experience' on the advice that I (and several other long-term members of the Chord threads) provide 'in good faith' is very welcome.

The consensus seems to be emerging that it is not so much 'heavy usage' that poses a risk, but rather leaving the mojo on charge 24/7 for months on end. The consensus is also that the battery life will be maximised, if the normal usage is to keep the battery operating within the range 25% to 75% charged. I try and follow this regime myself, and have experienced no problems - but I should also add that I do not use my Mojo heavily every day (I am not from the generation which is listening to music 16h/d, every day).

 

[adamsmarbles]

for me personally after going through a ton of brainstorming with its 24/7 battery usage, i've had to change my behavior with it. I unplug it to check its battery status light, i've had to think of ways of turning it off more, in hindsight chord mojo is a step forward but an experiment, and we brought into it, i just hope there is a cheaper better solution in the future by chord, something that makes the battery optional would be the best solution. For example I could get the exact same quality or better with a £250 z370 aorus on board motherboard these days, this product is wierd, but great that its unique too. I'm very mixed opinion about it. (im not overly slating it, im just expressing frustration, and workarounds.)

So.. since i know i get good sound to my amp(s) by this dac, vs its amplification. I've wired its line out to the onkyo amp, it feeds the speakers, sure it adds a tiny bit of colour, but i like it, and sure its variable line out, but it works outstandingly thus far. I use the headphone out to feed my magni 2. So now i have the option of switching it on or off and not worrying about taking anything away from my setup, i've been listening to my hd 600 for the last week, no distortion, real power house.

 

[Yourmomm]

for me personally after going through a ton of brainstorming with its 24/7 battery usage, i've had to change my behavior with it. I unplug it to check its battery status light, i've had to think of ways of turning it off more, in hindsight chord mojo is a step forward but an experiment, and we brought into it, i just hope there is a cheaper better solution in the future by chord, something that makes the battery optional would be the best solution. For example I could get the exact same quality or better with a £250 z370 aorus on board motherboard these days, this product is wierd, but great that its unique too. I'm very mixed opinion about it. (im not overly slating it, im just expressing frustration, and workarounds.)

So.. since i know i get good sound to my amp(s) by this dac, vs its amplification. I've wired its line out to the onkyo amp, it feeds the speakers, sure it adds a tiny bit of colour, but i like it, and sure its variable line out, but it works outstandingly thus far. I use the headphone out to feed my magni 2. So now i have the option of switching it on or off and not worrying about taking anything away from my setup, i've been listening to my hd 600 for the last week, no distortion, real power house.

You get the same performance out of an onboard sound chip, on a GBP250 motherboard?!! Good luck with that...

in blind testing, and to my ears, my mojo consistently outperforms audiophile dacs I've owned, which were three times the price...(admittedly a bit older, and mentioning no names...). It still outperforms a couple of modern dacs, (one I've just heard, and one I like, and still own), at twice the Mojo's price.

I know the internet gives power to the people, and that a lot of people's subjective experience may vary, but bugger me if a lot of the grumbling on here about battery mistreatment and rf interference (with which I've admittedly never suffered) seems to be somewhat petty. The Mojo is a fantastic product, at a frankly unbelievable price point. But then I come from expensive, (other headphone amp $2400US, main system amp $10000) high end audio, so it's all relative....despite these outlays, and for my ether flows, the Mojo is still the best amp I've currently got...

 

[GrussGott]

For most of us, the Mojo does perform as an 'almost do no wrong' device.
Most of the issues regarding RFI, cables, music players, batteries etc, were discussed in great depth almost two years ago, and @Mython captured much of the consensus about best practice in post #3.
Putting simple ferrite chokes ($1) on USB cables will cure most RFI, and using the optical input removes the issue completely.

I would not characterize it as "consensus", rather the opinion of a group of like minded people with dissenters shouted down.

With that, here's my "consensus" on the Mojo

Sound
Mojo strengths: staging, imaging, spatiality, layering
Mojo neutral: Resolution, detail; speed, transients, focus; tonality, timbre
Mojo weak: Dynamics, slam, contrast

Physicality
Mojo strengths: solid chunk of kickarse metal, funky design, super portable
Mojo weaknesses: connectors are cheap / weak, coax input is 3.5mm; sensitive to EMI; battery can crap out

Against competitors like the LH labs geek out V2, iFi iDSD BL, AQ DFR, Meridian Ex 2 the mojo does well, sitting in the middle in most places, at the top on some, at the bottom on some (research based opinion).

For me: I've just purchased the Mojo new, love it, and will be keeping it for three reasons:
(1.) I want to go deep on the Chord sound and experience the FPGA DAC tech for myself
(2.) It's got a "relaxed" sound compared to, say, the iFi BL, and I like relaxed. Some complain the Mojo falls off at the top and bottom; that's ok for me with mobile use-cases
(3.) The EMI issue - which it most definitely has - is not a problem for me as my mobile use is on a plane or sitting down somewhere connected to my laptop

RECOMMENDATIONS
* If you like a relaxed sound and want a super portable device where your mobile use cases are connected to your laptop or sitting a small distance from your phone, I'd recommend the mojo - if you have it, chances are the Mojo will drive it
* If you need something that sits right next to your phone, you might/will get EMI issues (based on my testing, 100% with newer android and iPhones, no problem with tablets or laptops)
* If you're looking for a desktop solution, you can get, say, a Mimby/Magni3 for $348 and it's probably an end-game desktop setup unless you've got an extensive HP collection and looking to plumb the aural depths
* Going even cheaper on the desktop solution, you can get a Topping D30/A30 stack or a SMSL stack for ~$200 - based on my experiences you need pretty good equipment and a great ear to need more

 

[GrussGott]

despite these outlays, and for my ether flows, the Mojo is still the best amp I've currently got...

Well it's definitely not the right amp for my Aeon Flows - for that if I wanted portable I'd probably go with the iFi given to my ear the Aeons aren't bassy enough so I'd be flipping that iFi bass boost, and that's also an area the mojo falls short in.

That said, with my wired P7Ws and PSB M4U2s the mojo is great, also my wired P5s but now we're getting pretty far down to quality curve Also, the Aeon Flows CHOW CHOW CHOW the mojo's battery - probably not a surprise given the efficiency of the Aeon Flows but it's still quite noticeable: the mojo gives me about 6-8 hours on the Aeon flows (sometimes less) and double that with my P7Ws.

Overall my battery strategy is top up, use down to red, charge overnight. Pretty much the same thing I do with all of my battery equipment, so we'll see.

The mojo is a portable device so it's weird to me that so many people complain about its limitations as a desktop "dac" which it technically can't even be.

The mojo is great for what it was designed for: mobile use.

 

[Zojokkeli]

The mojo is a portable device so it's weird to me that so many people complain about its limitations as a desktop "dac" which it technically can't even be.

I've had no problems with Mojo as a desktop solution for the past year I've had the pleasure to own it. Works fine with my TH900s and Genelec M040s, and no issues with battery or thermal shutdown.

 

[Leo-]

I'm wondering from the comment above if the noise is picked up by the cable since I leave the cable in even if the Mojo is disconnected - I will give it a try without the cable and the Mojo disconnected. As it stands now it is bloody annoying since the noise is louder than my normal listening level on IEMs.

So I've tried the interference thingy with and without the USB cable connected. Most of the interference is indeed picked up by the cable (7cm in my case), however it is still audible without the cable connected - very faint but audible. The reason for that seems to be that my phones' antenna to be located at the bottom and therefore close to the USB port. At least it looks like since the interference is highest as as the bottom of the phone gets close to the USB port. - in this case the pops and hissing get loud again even if the cable is not connected. It's not a practical scenario though.

Does it bother me? Yes since in practice prevents me from using the phone as a transport, but then I'll replace it with a DAP soon.

I like the idea of compiling a 'wishlist' for a Mojo 2, to me it seems like most desired improvements are not on the audio side.

 

[Deftone]

I rarely got RF problems with mojo, maybe 3-4 times over the course of a year and a half of owning. What I did want the most though was an auto shut off feature to save battery as 50% of my listening time is done at night before and while I go to sleep. I’d basically get a couple hours use for every full charge, it would have been a really nice feature to have and not wake up to a dead mojo.

 

[GrussGott]

I rarely got RF problems with mojo, maybe 3-4 times over the course of a year and a half of owning. What I did want the most though was an auto shut off feature to save battery as 50% of my listening time is done at night before and while I go to sleep. I’d basically get a couple hours use for every full charge, it would have been a really nice feature to have and not wake up to a dead mojo.

Mine has an auto-shut off. Also, in comparison to the iFi iDSD my the Mojo snags interference every time vs the iFi which never gets any ever.

 

[Deftone]

Mine has an auto-shut off. Also, in comparison to the iFi iDSD my the Mojo snags interference every time vs the iFi which never gets any ever.

Auto shut off is a now a thing in newer batches of mojo?

That’s true my iDSD black label never had problems either but it didn’t sound as good as Mojo.

 

[jarnopp]

Auto shut off is a now a thing in newer batches of mojo?

That’s true my iDSD black label never had problems either but it didn’t sound as good as Mojo.

I have an original, but newer models have auto shut-off if no signal is detected after 10 minutes, when using optical or coax. Doesn’t work with USB. So, maybe Poly can implement this feature?

 

[Deftone]

Ah that’s a shame, I never use optical always usb.
I would have parted ways with usb though just for that feature. Oh well I have Hugo 2 now.

 

[435279]

I have an original, but newer models have auto shut-off if no signal is detected after 10 minutes, when using optical or coax. Doesn’t work with USB. So, maybe Poly can implement this feature?

Apparently an auto power down when using USB causes computer crashes. I'm not sure why, my computer never crashes when I turn Mojo power off manually even when playing music, I'm not sure why an auto power off would be any different to a manual power off.