[Nik74]

WIll do for sure. It's a tiny room and the set up far from ideal but it will have to do for now. Lack of good space for a speaker set up was what brought me into the head fi world to start with but with my new amp being great for both headphones and speakers , I could not pass on the opportunity !

 

[Zzt231gr]

WIll do for sure. It's a tiny room and the set up far from ideal but it will have to do for now. Lack of good space for a speaker set up was what brought me into the head fi world to start with but with my new amp being great for both headphones and speakers , I could not pass on the opportunity !

Do these work in corners?

 

[Sage Encore]

Hi did you go for the qutest? Was it better than the one in 430had?

Hi Roy,
I did get the Qutest and also the Pontus, but both are sold now and now with Terminator from Denafrips. The Qutest is a good but I did not like the digital glare and also from the built in DAC of the Simaudio which although is well implemented, not my cup of tea. I like warm detailed sound and hence got the Pontus and now hace upgraded to the Terminator after selling both the Qutest and the Pontus.

 

[Roybenz]

Hi Roy,
I did get the Qutest and also the Pontus, but both are sold now and now with Terminator from Denafrips. The Qutest is a good but I did not like the digital glare and also from the built in DAC of the Simaudio which although is well implemented, not my cup of tea. I like warm detailed sound and hence got the Pontus and now hace upgraded to the Terminator after selling both the Qutest and the Pontus.

Thanks for input. Have you tried any of auralic dac?

 

[Sage Encore]

Thanks for input. Have you tried any of auralic dac?

You are welcome. I have never listened to an Auralic before.

 

[Nik74]

Do these work in corners?

Yes. In my setting one of them will be in a corner but the right side one , while close to the wall , will be far from the corner

 

[Roybenz]

Is there a tonal difference regarding the power settings (1V, 2V or 3V)? Or does this only have to do with the volume?

Many Thanks!

Did you figure this out?

 

[Ragnar-BY]

I`ve used 3V and 1V settings for some time with my V200 amp. With 1V my system sounds better by a small margin. Tonally both settings are almost the same, but with 1V treble is smoother and overall sound signature seems darker (by a very small margin). YMMV, because I`m not sure what is causing this difference. It may be my amp, not the Qutest itself.

 

[Triode User]

It is not impossible that 3v is ever so slightly driving your amp into clipping and causing the slightly less smooth sound.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

Violectric`s max input is rated as +21dBu, so it should be far from clipping at 3V, but who knows. Anyway, it`s great to have three different options in Qutest. One or another setting would do the job right.

 

[Gibson59]

I had another opportunity to demo the Qutest vs the Hugo 2 for about two hours yesterday with my HEKse/Lazuli Reference. I’m gonna do a longer write-up on the HEKse thread for anyone interested. But my main takeaway is that I absolutely prefer the sound of the Qutest over the Hugo 2. This is whether the Hugo 2 is serving as a DAC/line out only and powered by my Wells Milo amp or with HEKse plugged directly into the Hugo 2 using no external amplification (which many claim is ideal).

I’m still in a bit of shock. After demoing these two against each other a month or two ago and having these same findings I though maybe I was a little nuts. But after this second time demoing them I’m certain about my personal opinion here. IMO if you don’t need portability and you have a good amp than the Qutest is this better sounding DAC... and cheaper! I’m mindful of course that the amp pairing with Qutest is important and my Milo may just have great synergy with it. But either way, it’s a Qutest for me over the Hugo 2 and it’s an easy choice after spending significant time with them on two different occasions in an ideal listening environment.

 

[PY034]

I’m using the Qutest with my Sennheiser HDV820. I didn’t quite understand SQ of the Qutest initially, and was wondering how on earth that Chord didn’t implement full balanced output. Would the Qutest had sounded different using a balanced output, well those were my whining, but SQ wise, I fully agree with it and somehow prefer it to the dac on my HDV820.

 

[snatex]

I`ve used 3V and 1V settings for some time with my V200 amp. With 1V my system sounds better by a small margin. Tonally both settings are almost the same, but with 1V treble is smoother and overall sound signature seems darker (by a very small margin). YMMV, because I`m not sure what is causing this difference. It may be my amp, not the Qutest itself.

Did you play with the pre-gain on the v200 to get the Qutest dialed in at the different voltages?

 

[Ragnar-BY]

Did you play with the pre-gain on the v200 to get the Qutest dialed in at the different voltages?

No, I`m always using recommended (0) setting. I`ve tried to play with pre-gain with my previous DAC, but found the default setting to be most natural and returned to it.

 

[jwbrent]

I had another opportunity to demo the Qutest vs the Hugo 2 for about two hours yesterday with my HEKse/Lazuli Reference. I’m gonna do a longer write-up on the HEKse thread for anyone interested. But my main takeaway is that I absolutely prefer the sound of the Qutest over the Hugo 2. This is whether the Hugo 2 is serving as a DAC/line out only and powered by my Wells Milo amp or with HEKse plugged directly into the Hugo 2 using no external amplification (which many claim is ideal).

I’m still in a bit of shock. After demoing these two against each other a month or two ago and having these same findings I though maybe I was a little nuts. But after this second time demoing them I’m certain about my personal opinion here. IMO if you don’t need portability and you have a good amp than the Qutest is this better sounding DAC... and cheaper! I’m mindful of course that the amp pairing with Qutest is important and my Milo may just have great synergy with it. But either way, it’s a Qutest for me over the Hugo 2 and it’s an easy choice after spending significant time with them on two different occasions in an ideal listening environment.

Besides the galvanic input, perhaps another reason for the Qutest sounding better to you is the reduced resonance in its brick-like chassis.