Chord Mojo(1) DAC-amp ☆★►FAQ in 3rd post!◄★☆
Mar 11, 2018 at 12:34 PM Post #35,567 of 42,758
Sorry all i would like to amend my previous statement. My Mojo was not able to charge for a long period.

I just noticed that my Mojo will stop charging itself when my battery is still in red unplugged from charging cable. Obviously it is not fully charged yet so i plug it in back and it shows white again, without flashing. Unfortunately the white light will go off after sometime, and it is still red with the unit on.

I will 'force' charging it over night later with the unit is still on and see how it goes.
 
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Mar 11, 2018 at 1:03 PM Post #35,568 of 42,758
Hi, I’m currently listening to my music on Qobuz App on iPhone 6 + Chord Mojo DAC + AKG K812 Headphones.

About an year ago, I moved from Tidal to Qobuz on the iPhone after noticing a big difference in sound quality.

Today, I listen to my music on Amarra 4 on a MacBook Pro, streaming MQA from Tidal, which seems to sound better than anything else I have tried so far. Some reviews say that MQA should sound better than Qobuz Hi-Res, anyway.

Now, I’m planning an upgrade - moving to Chord Hugo 2 + Focal Utopia Headphones - which I’m quite confident about, however, I’m not sure of what music source and player would match them properly.

So, in summary, I want to stream Tidal MQA or Qobuz Hi-Res - but never play local files - and still maintain portability, considering that quality isn’t compromised, otherwise I would be happy to go for a bulkier player or desktop one.

Maybe Chord Poly (combined with the Mojo) would allow me to stream and play music bypassing the phone’s player?
Or, the Hogo 2 could offer me a better solution?

Any guidance/recommendation/suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much!
 
Mar 11, 2018 at 3:38 PM Post #35,569 of 42,758
Hi, I’m currently listening to my music on Qobuz App on iPhone 6 + Chord Mojo DAC + AKG K812 Headphones.

About an year ago, I moved from Tidal to Qobuz on the iPhone after noticing a big difference in sound quality.

Today, I listen to my music on Amarra 4 on a MacBook Pro, streaming MQA from Tidal, which seems to sound better than anything else I have tried so far. Some reviews say that MQA should sound better than Qobuz Hi-Res, anyway.

Now, I’m planning an upgrade - moving to Chord Hugo 2 + Focal Utopia Headphones - which I’m quite confident about, however, I’m not sure of what music source and player would match them properly.

So, in summary, I want to stream Tidal MQA or Qobuz Hi-Res - but never play local files - and still maintain portability, considering that quality isn’t compromised, otherwise I would be happy to go for a bulkier player or desktop one.

Maybe Chord Poly (combined with the Mojo) would allow me to stream and play music bypassing the phone’s player?
Or, the Hogo 2 could offer me a better solution?

Any guidance/recommendation/suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much!

Mojo/Poly will allow you to bypass the player and stream in hi res. It also sounds simply fabulous, streaming from Roon (local or Tidal HiFi) or playing from its SD card using Glider or another suitable app. So, 2Go for Hugo when available should also sound great. And portable.

Regarding MQA, you might check this out:
https://www.computeraudiophile.com/...-of-controversies-concerns-and-cautions-r701/
 
Mar 11, 2018 at 4:21 PM Post #35,570 of 42,758
Hi, I’m currently listening to my music on Qobuz App on iPhone 6 + Chord Mojo DAC + AKG K812 Headphones.

About an year ago, I moved from Tidal to Qobuz on the iPhone after noticing a big difference in sound quality.

Today, I listen to my music on Amarra 4 on a MacBook Pro, streaming MQA from Tidal, which seems to sound better than anything else I have tried so far. Some reviews say that MQA should sound better than Qobuz Hi-Res, anyway.

Now, I’m planning an upgrade - moving to Chord Hugo 2 + Focal Utopia Headphones - which I’m quite confident about, however, I’m not sure of what music source and player would match them properly.

So, in summary, I want to stream Tidal MQA or Qobuz Hi-Res - but never play local files - and still maintain portability, considering that quality isn’t compromised, otherwise I would be happy to go for a bulkier player or desktop one.

Maybe Chord Poly (combined with the Mojo) would allow me to stream and play music bypassing the phone’s player?
Or, the Hogo 2 could offer me a better solution?

Any guidance/recommendation/suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much!
If you want to chase MQA, keep these opinions of Rob Watts in mind. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cho...official-thread.831345/page-231#post-13489662
 
Mar 12, 2018 at 2:20 AM Post #35,571 of 42,758
My Chord Mojo is almost unusable. First, for more than 2 months it has problems holding a charge for more than 2 hours. I tried different chargers, even though the one I use (Anker) is a great charger and is one of the recommended ones (or it was when I bought it). The Mojo randomly starts making static noise for which the only solution is to restart it (this for about 6 months now). Lately it shuts down (again randomly), especially while using JRiver MC 23 on Windows. On Linux it's less often that Mojo shuts down. Initially I thought the shutdown is due to the battery but at times I can restart it and it works even for 1 full hour.

Pretty disappointed in the quality; yes it's cheap but also not it isn't very good. Looking on the Amazon website, 25% of the ratings for Mojo are 3 or below which I thought is ok (??). If you read through those 25%, there are complaints about Mojos with the static / hissing or battery problems. Mine has both.
Emailed Chord... All I got back was a generic "contact the dealer" message but my Mojo is older than 1 year, it is almost 18 months old so the dealer has no obligations (nor do I have expectations at this point). I will not pay to fix it - not worth to me; too many problems.
All in all the Mojo worked perfectly (or almost perfectly) for about 9 months but after that it is a PITA.
I thought I should share this so others know there are quality issues with Mojo.
 
Mar 12, 2018 at 3:16 AM Post #35,572 of 42,758
My Chord Mojo is almost unusable. First, for more than 2 months it has problems holding a charge for more than 2 hours. I tried different chargers, even though the one I use (Anker) is a great charger and is one of the recommended ones (or it was when I bought it). The Mojo randomly starts making static noise for which the only solution is to restart it (this for about 6 months now). Lately it shuts down (again randomly), especially while using JRiver MC 23 on Windows. On Linux it's less often that Mojo shuts down. Initially I thought the shutdown is due to the battery but at times I can restart it and it works even for 1 full hour.

Pretty disappointed in the quality; yes it's cheap but also not it isn't very good. Looking on the Amazon website, 25% of the ratings for Mojo are 3 or below which I thought is ok (??). If you read through those 25%, there are complaints about Mojos with the static / hissing or battery problems. Mine has both.
Emailed Chord... All I got back was a generic "contact the dealer" message but my Mojo is older than 1 year, it is almost 18 months old so the dealer has no obligations (nor do I have expectations at this point). I will not pay to fix it - not worth to me; too many problems.
All in all the Mojo worked perfectly (or almost perfectly) for about 9 months but after that it is a PITA.
I thought I should share this so others know there are quality issues with Mojo.
Chord have shipped over 50000 mojo, and your mojo seems to be one of the rare units that fails.
You have contacted chord, and they have advised you to follow their standard returns policy, which is to return units via the dealer. However you are not prepared to do that.
Are you just looking to have a good moan, or do you want your mojo to be repaired?
 
Mar 12, 2018 at 4:10 AM Post #35,573 of 42,758
Chord have shipped over 50000 mojo, and your mojo seems to be one of the rare units that fails.
You have contacted chord, and they have advised you to follow their standard returns policy, which is to return units via the dealer. However you are not prepared to do that.
Are you just looking to have a good moan, or do you want your mojo to be repaired?

I don't believe @Boerd is "looking to have a good moan" but just offering his perspective on Mojo's long term endurance.

I had to re-solder one of the headphone sockets on mine last year, I think it was nearly 18 months old at the time, is that acceptable? Many people wouldn't even attempt that kind of repair themselves.

Part of the issue I'm sure is caused by modern lead-free solders that all devices must employ these days, if any of the joints between the FPGA and the circuit board failed though I don't think many DIY'ers would be able to attempt that kind of repair, myself included, I suspect if that happened the only cost effective option would be to buy a new Mojo and I don't think I would buy a new one myself, but move to another brand.

None of this is Chord's fault though, it happens, but for a portable device that costs as much as Mojo does, are we are not right to expect a few years at least of worry-free use, or at least until Mojo 2 is released. :)
 
Mar 12, 2018 at 4:27 AM Post #35,574 of 42,758
I just noticed that my Mojo will stop charging itself when my battery is still in red unplugged from charging cable. Obviously it is not fully charged yet so i plug it in back and it shows white again, without flashing. Unfortunately the white light will go off after sometime, and it is still red with the unit on.

I will 'force' charging it over night later with the unit is still on and see how it goes.

Perhaps your cell has really increased impedance from how it is aging. This would cause the cell to polarize more during charging and therefore would hit the designed upper voltage cutoff sooner. I imagine this would be very likely if you frequently listen to the unit while it is charging.

Aging of lithium ion cells are driven by parasitic side reaction on the electrode surfaces. These are a function of time and temperature. I'm a little uncomfortable with the warmth i feel this unit get to when it is charging. For this reason, I don't listen while it charges in hopes to not exasperate the issue. Please keep in mind, that if the cell potentials are sufficiently low and the cathode active material were sufficiently specified for this temperature this is not an issue at all. However, I do not know the designed upper cuttoff voltage of the cell in the Mojo; nor the cathode material. I am just playing it safe because I love this product.

I'm not familiar with the charging protocol or protection circuit for this particular device but this would be my guess. Your LED indications would make sense to me if they are giving an idea of the state of charge from some rudimentary coulomb counting.

If the LED indicators are giving an idea of the state of charge as a function of voltage, I would guess your issue is not with the cell. Something is wrong elsewhere in the circuit.
 
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Mar 12, 2018 at 7:21 AM Post #35,575 of 42,758
I don't believe @Boerd is "looking to have a good moan" but just offering his perspective on Mojo's long term endurance.

I had to re-solder one of the headphone sockets on mine last year, I think it was nearly 18 months old at the time, is that acceptable? Many people wouldn't even attempt that kind of repair themselves.

Part of the issue I'm sure is caused by modern lead-free solders that all devices must employ these days, if any of the joints between the FPGA and the circuit board failed though I don't think many DIY'ers would be able to attempt that kind of repair, myself included, I suspect if that happened the only cost effective option would be to buy a new Mojo and I don't think I would buy a new one myself, but move to another brand.

None of this is Chord's fault though, it happens, but for a portable device that costs as much as Mojo does, are we are not right to expect a few years at least of worry-free use, or at least until Mojo 2 is released. :)
There have probably been 5 Mojos reported with his issue, on this thread during a period of nearly 3 years. That is a failure rate of 1 in 10,000. A similar number of failures with broken usb sockets. It is unfair of anyone, to publicly post that a product has quality issues, when the failure rates are so low. Throw enough mud, and eventually some will stick.
 
Mar 12, 2018 at 8:19 AM Post #35,576 of 42,758
My Chord Mojo is almost unusable. First, for more than 2 months it has problems holding a charge for more than 2 hours. I tried different chargers, even though the one I use (Anker) is a great charger and is one of the recommended ones (or it was when I bought it). The Mojo randomly starts making static noise for which the only solution is to restart it (this for about 6 months now). Lately it shuts down (again randomly), especially while using JRiver MC 23 on Windows. On Linux it's less often that Mojo shuts down. Initially I thought the shutdown is due to the battery but at times I can restart it and it works even for 1 full hour.

Pretty disappointed in the quality; yes it's cheap but also not it isn't very good. Looking on the Amazon website, 25% of the ratings for Mojo are 3 or below which I thought is ok (??). If you read through those 25%, there are complaints about Mojos with the static / hissing or battery problems. Mine has both.
Emailed Chord... All I got back was a generic "contact the dealer" message but my Mojo is older than 1 year, it is almost 18 months old so the dealer has no obligations (nor do I have expectations at this point). I will not pay to fix it - not worth to me; too many problems.
All in all the Mojo worked perfectly (or almost perfectly) for about 9 months but after that it is a PITA.
I thought I should share this so others know there are quality issues with Mojo.

Did you purchase your Mojo with a credit card? Many cards have warranty benefits that will double the warranty, usually up to one year. You might look into it.
 
Mar 12, 2018 at 9:08 AM Post #35,578 of 42,758
Mar 12, 2018 at 9:44 AM Post #35,579 of 42,758
Don't know why Chord Mojo with Poly module sounds better than Mojo alone?! Anyone felt the same too?!

yRQEsdz.jpg
 
Mar 12, 2018 at 12:18 PM Post #35,580 of 42,758
Chord have shipped over 50000 mojo, and your mojo seems to be one of the rare units that fails.
You have contacted chord, and they have advised you to follow their standard returns policy, which is to return units via the dealer. However you are not prepared to do that.
Are you just looking to have a good moan, or do you want your mojo to be repaired?

The "good moan" stuff made me smile but I was essentially saying that after 18 months I am looking at a paid repair and according to statistics I can see on Amazon.com there are others in the same situation; I didn't just buy that rare item that's defect. 18 months seem to be the point (again, reading reviews on Amazon.com) where most of the problems are reported.
In my post I also said it's not worth for me to pay for a repair (which now is the only alternative); the headphones I have can be used with my iPhone.
The reason for my post is that other people should know there are defect Chord Mojos out there and while the sound is great (it really is!) the Mojos do seem to have defects (or at least a certain percentage of them).
 

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