This.
I will just copy and paste if folks ask in the future. It's a simple and truthful summary
thanks to you both!
post #3 from
h1f1add1cted says similar here on the diffs and goes into greater detail ...they have both the iFi micro and mojo (must be nice)
http://www.head-fi.org/t/789009/chord-mojo-vs-ifi-micro-idsd-vs-m9xx-optional-vs-audeze-deckard-lcd-3-or-sony-xba-z5
- [img]http://cdn.head-fi.org/3/3e/100x100px-LS-3e2dbf9d_333.jpeg[/img]
- h1f1add1cted
-
- offline
- 649 Posts. Joined 4/2014
- Location: Germany
I want to compare the iFi micro iDSD and the Chord Mojo. Of course it's only my opinion. On this "high end audio" segment the difference on gear is mostly really small and sometimes only incremental steps between. The human audio memory is weak and without the same loudness level on both sources the slightly loader source will always sound greater and some other reasons come accross into with comparing gear. So blind testing is really tough job and for me which impresses me most is that the Mojo is on really really low volume, even more "impressive", than any other DAC/AMP I've tried yet with IEMs/CIEMs, but not with my full size cans.
The micro iDSD I own since almost the first release and the Chord Mojo I got one of the first units from the first batch. In the past I tried Chord Hugo vs iFi micro iDSD, but only with my full size cans and never with any of my IEMs/CIEMs. In the past I don't found a big change in terms of SQ, that a upgrade to the Chord Hugo from the micro iDSD is worth the money (for me), so for me I stopped looking into this Chord world.
But since the first leak of the coming Chord Mojo and the price tag I was really interested how this little baby Hugo will do the job, but my main focus was now a small DAC/AMP for my IEMs/CIEMs, because the mirco iDSD is to powerful, even with IEMatch enabled and don't like the volume matching with the analogue poti and the form factor is still a little bit large, which not a pleasure for my taste on use with IEMs/CIEMs.
So I ordered the Chord Mojo but the first bad experience was my unit was defect, my Mojo had serious buzzing/hissing noise, I got a replacement Mojo and this unit is buzzing/hiss free.
After some serious time I spent on compare for me both devices has their strengths. In general, I don't use the Mojo for full size cans. I use the Mojo only for my IEMs and CIEMs, after my comparing incl. full size cans.
The micro iDSD drives all my full size cans pretty amazing including my HD 800. This should not sound like the Mojo isn't able to drive the HD 800 well too, no but please the iDSD has a monster amp section and provides greater battery life which is for me also important. One of the parts which is only present whithin the big brother - the Hugo - is the great analogue crossfeed feature. This is missing on the Mojo, but the iDSD has his own awesome analogue crossfeed which I really love and I like it for classical music (which I mostly hear).
With sensitive IEMs/CIEMs it's a different story, the Mojo is perfect for such sensitive headphones (regardless the small treble roll off the Mojo has), I prefer the really great volume matching and it's slightly better overall in terms of SQ compared to the iDSD but only with IEMs / CIEMs, this change is not like day and night, but it's easy to hear. Is it's worth to spent 600 Euros for this kind of "small" upgrade? For me yes it is, because it's not only the SQ it's the whole package of the Mojo I like.
For full size cans I personally don't would use the Mojo, for me the bang for your buck in this price range for full size cans is still the iDSD imho. I would never gave any of them both back, I'm happy I'm not interested any more in dedicated DAP world, since the Mojo provides very impressive audio performance:
http://ohm-image.net/data/audio/rmaa-chord-mojo-24-bit , or the iDSD will never has trouble fire up any full size cans I maybe will own in future. I like my DAP + DAC/AMP combos, since I use two DX50 as transport with large battery and 256 GB full size sd cards (soon with 512 GB full size sd cards, but currently with 300 Euros to expensive) and don't need any other gear for semi portable use.
Again it's only my opinion, I know different taste, different impressions, different needs and much more (incl. the budget) makes at the end the choice of the right gear. So happy listening all Mojo and iDSD users.