The discovery thread!

[paggio]

Gone full circle on my chi fi journey from many years ago.. my first purchased was moondrop kanas pro... now i have the moondrop illustrious... (with many in-between...lol)

Will add impressions later but right now im enjoying it..

I only hope this cable won't become yellow after 1 year

 

[activatorfly]

I only hope this cable won't become yellow after 1 year

I choose gold cables in order to avoid potential jaundice.

 

[SushiiFi]

I choose gold cables in order to avoid potential jaundice.

Black and copper-colored cables hide oxidation best.

 

[Vonbuddy]

 

[JamoBroGuy]

Hey all! I'm back again dropping my weekly review (I really need to step it up and get these things churned out faster ). This time we have the much loved AFUL Cantor #teamstarrynight4life. This set has great detail and very impressive BA bass! But ultimately the tuning is a bit spicy for me . I can still understand why it gets a lot of praise though and I only wish I didn't have this stupid treble sensitivity. Here are the links to the review on Head-fi and my blog for those interested and a special shoutout to @Jaytiss for the loan! Until next time, stay wonderfulers!

I didn’t even read the review (and I probably won’t, no offence) but upon seeing how many stars you gave it my face turned red, a train horn sound started playing and steam started coming out of my ears.

this is a joke. im prob the most biased person on this website, plus my music taste is insanely weird. pls dont come after me. also i started poking around asr out of curiosity and ive lost half my brain cells send help

 

[naSzzz]

Your prior posts about this set and others have got me feeling "bud-curious." I feel like I should have at least one pair laying around!

While I respect the fact that DIYers have "cracked the code" on tuning, I just can't get behind the build quality and aesthetics of DIY sets. For that reason, I'm currently floating between this set, the BGVP DX7, the Yincrow RW-3000, and the Penon Conductor as my first (only?) set of flathead earbuds. I'm in no rush to decide so I figure I'll wait to hear from more reviewers/listeners on the

The DX7 is a little bit tricky due to its size (smaller than the MX500 shell, as far as I know),But for me it fit perfectly fine and sound awesome.

 

[thaslaya]

I didn’t even read the review (and I probably won’t, no offence) but upon seeing how many stars you gave it my face turned red, a train horn sound started playing and steam started coming out of my ears.

this is a joke. im prob the most biased person on this website, plus my music taste is insanely weird. pls dont come after me. also i started poking around asr out of curiosity and ive lost half my brain cells send help

Don't worry, I got you!

 

[Erkil]

DAWNWOOD by Chen Mu Acoustics a $100 single DD iem thats blown me away with its big bass with superb quality playback. Clear articulate mids and extended treble using the Gold tuning nozzles (black ones had sibilance issues) i have added a cable from Xhins the 4W Dark/Bright copper cable with correct QKZ connections terminated with 4.4mm pentacon. Using BGVP brass eartips a warm, detailed dynamic sounding signature with wide, deep staging. My new favourite budget single DD iem.



Edit the nozzle is average length the pic makes it look long it's just pulled inside out when I removed from my ears

No complaints about this one! Still on the black nozzle. Nice packaging, specially for the taobao price. Supposedly a limited edition NF Acous DD in these ones. @eileenyeh, can you confirm this? Tuned with more bass than it’s NF Acous counterparts

 

[cagix]

What makes the Chord Mojo so special that ppl are willing to give up balanced for it?

It is what you want mojo 1 is to me opposite special it was opposite to what i want. Mojo 2 is probably better but i dont want source only on one strong point like amping. Just because some source is stronger on amp dont does it to me automaticaly better.

 

[Hypops]

What makes the Chord Mojo so special that ppl are willing to give up balanced for it?

For IEMs, balanced comes with more drawbacks than benefits IMO. Very few IEMs benefit from the added voltage of a balanced connection. In fact, for most sets on most amps, a balanced connection gives you less ability to fine tune the volume level. The Mojo 2 in particular is powerful. I can't think of any IEMs that would need more power than it delivers. Worse, with balanced outputs, it's very easy to start impacting the FR of low-impedance IEMs because of balanced connections' higher output impedance. IMO there's no advantage to using balanced with IEMs, but there are significant potential drawbacks.

The only possible benefit to balanced connections is that sometimes a differential circuit design (terminating in a balanced output) can have lower crosstalk performance vs SE designs--leading to a better sense of stereo separation, imaging, and staging--but in the case of the Mojo 2 and most other modern dongle DACs, it's not an issue since SE crosstalk figures are already stupidly good.

Not only is the Mojo 2 powerful, but it can also be used as a DAC instead of a DAC/amp. In my desktop system (feeding a Feliks Echo MkII OTL amp and a Singxer SA-1 solid state amp), it goes toe-to-toe with standalone DACs costing up to $1k. Being able to disconnect it and then also use it as a portable dongle DAC/amp is insane. It's also got an optical input in addition to USB, making it even more versatile. I love my Mojo 2. Might even be my favorite piece of audio electronics.

They really are not giving up anything as balanced isn't necessary when a DAC's twin 3.5 mm jacks are each capable of 600mW 4.2V at 30 ohms and an impressive 0.06 ohm output impedance and 118 dB of stereo separation. The 3.5 single ended connections on a Mojo outperform many 4.4 balanced connections on other portable sources, it basically provides 3.5 mm outputs comparable to good desktop DAC AMPs, rather than what is normally seen in portable DACs. I cannot personally attest to the sound quality of the Mojo/2 but have seen nothing but very positive professional and user reviews and comments.

Exactly. And I can also attest to its stellar sound quality.

 

[cagix]

For IEMs, balanced comes with more drawbacks than benefits IMO. Very few IEMs benefit from the added voltage of a balanced connection. In fact, for most sets on most amps, it gives you less ability to fine tune the volume level. The Mojo 2 in particular is powerful. I can't think of any IEMs that would need more power than it delivers. Worse, with balanced outputs, it's very easy to start impacting the FR of low-impedance IEMs because of balanced connections' higher output impedance. IMO there's no advantage to using balanced with IEMs, but there are significant potential drawbacks.

Not only is the Mojo 2 powerful, but it can also be used as a DAC instead of a DAC/amp. In my desktop system (feeding a Feliks Echo MkII OTL amp and a Singxer SA-1 solid state amp), it goes toe-to-toe with standalone DACs costing up to $1k. Being able to disconnect it and then also use it as a portable dongle DAC/amp is insane. It's also got an optical input in addition to USB, making it even more versatile. I love my Mojo 2. Might even be my favorite piece of audio electronics.


Exactly. And I can also attest to its stellar sound quality.

1 k maybe but i will be take dc elite in form dac instead. With grandeur scale price i take gustard a 26 in everyday to chord qutest. I dont trust any chord because my experience isnt good.

 

[SushiiFi]

For IEMs, balanced comes with more drawbacks than benefits IMO. Very few IEMs benefit from the added voltage of a balanced connection. In fact, for most sets on most amps, a balanced connection gives you less ability to fine tune the volume level. The Mojo 2 in particular is powerful. I can't think of any IEMs that would need more power than it delivers. Worse, with balanced outputs, it's very easy to start impacting the FR of low-impedance IEMs because of balanced connections' higher output impedance. IMO there's no advantage to using balanced with IEMs, but there are significant potential drawbacks.

The only possible benefit to balanced connections is that sometimes a differential circuit design (terminating in a balanced output) can have lower crosstalk performance vs SE designs--leading to a better sense of stereo separation, imaging, and staging--but in the case of the Mojo 2 and most other modern dongle DACs, it's not an issue since SE crosstalk figures are already stupidly good.

Not only is the Mojo 2 powerful, but it can also be used as a DAC instead of a DAC/amp. In my desktop system (feeding a Feliks Echo MkII OTL amp and a Singxer SA-1 solid state amp), it goes toe-to-toe with standalone DACs costing up to $1k. Being able to disconnect it and then also use it as a portable dongle DAC/amp is insane. It's also got an optical input in addition to USB, making it even more versatile. I love my Mojo 2. Might even be my favorite piece of audio electronics.


Exactly. And I can also attest to its stellar sound quality.

I am currently enjoying rain and listening to Mojo2 and Letshuoer s15. Lovely setup. I use mojo2 as my reference source to test iems.

In terms of balanced, it's easy buy a 3.5mm male to 4.4mm female adapter, issue solved.

 

[cagix]

Still dont understand why people like chord. Qutest is nothing more than stronger fiio m11 ess plus basicaly same sound only stronger on amp. Price for this sound is bad joke.

 

[SushiiFi]

Still dont understand why people like chord. Qutest is nothing more than stronger fiio m11 ess plus basicaly same sound only stronger on amp. Price for this sound is bad joke.

I have only used mojo 2 long term and demoed hugo 2 few times. Haven't had the opportunity to try their super expensive stuff.

 

[cagix]

Because this isnt their super expensive set from chord. Qutest is like first real table dac. You need chord tt2 with mscaler for great sound. This is what i want say you can have realy great dac from gustard but to able to touch better i trust tt2 will be better you must paid in gold.