[jarnopp]

Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried optical with my Marantz cdplayer as a transport, it had the same harsh sound as the USB-connection.

Optical is a good suggestion. You might try different output settings, also. It has 1v, 2v, and 3v. Your amp may not like the higher voltages.

 

[zek4u]

Too much silver in your cables or a bad cable? i.e. interconnect/speaker cable. Do other sources sound fine?

Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried optical with my Marantz cdplayer as a transport, it had the same harsh sound as the USB-connection.

 

[Joe-Siow]

My unit has got prox. 70 hours of playing time. My 804D3 are bright speakers. Gregory Porter en Leonard Cohen are enjoyable, but high notes on a piano or violin are really hurting my ears.

Matching is very important. Being an owner of a Qutest myself, I wouldn't say it is bright sounding. It has very good transparency and details though.

What amp do you have in the chain? The 804D3 is also very transparent and focuses more on details as well, so perhaps copper cabling would be more suitable in the system.

 

[Eddie O]

Thanks for the advice. My main system: desktop running Foobar with Fidelizer, Qutest, 2 x Marantz pm14s1SE bi-amp, Van de Hull Snowline (copper with silver), B&W 804D3, dedicated listening room with Akotherm absorption. I’ve tried all output levels on the Qutest. After some more burn-in time I’m planning on changing the cables, the Snowline do probably emphasize the higher notes. My Audiolab qdac sounds fine in this set up.

 

[dac64]

Thanks for the advice. My main system: desktop running Foobar with Fidelizer, Qutest, 2 x Marantz pm14s1SE bi-amp, Van de Hull Snowline (copper with silver), B&W 804D3, dedicated listening room with Akotherm absorption. I’ve tried all output levels on the Qutest. After some more burn-in time I’m planning on changing the cables, the Snowline do probably emphasize the higher notes. My Audiolab qdac sounds fine in this set up.

Audiolab products are warm sounding. If you have a pre-amp, I'd play CD from any CD player/transport to the qutest to verify. Another thing I'd try it to toe-out the speakers, and move the speakers front or back to enhance the low, better low, better body and better high!

And hear-say, silver-plated copper sounds brighter than pure silver.

have you try optical? or notebook with battery to qutest?

 

[Hummer25]

Matching is very important. Being an owner of a Qutest myself, I wouldn't say it is bright sounding. It has very good transparency and details though.

What amp do you have in the chain? The 804D3 is also very transparent and focuses more on details as well, so perhaps copper cabling would be more suitable in the system.

Hi Joe, I agree and would very much recommend trying copper cable. I had similar issue in my system and was running cables with plenty of silver in them. I switched to copper and the sound was much more balanced and the edgy top end brightness disappeared.

 

[Currawong]

Silver shouldn't do that. I guess there must be plenty of cables made with silver that deliberately make the music sound that way to seem like they are adding detail. If you get something like Moon Audio's Silver Dragon there is none of that.

Though it's with the Hugo 2, I've been testing the Soundaware P1 with very good results, enough so that if I was in the market for it I'd consider it with the Qutest as my desktop system.

 

[bmfmarius]

@Eddie O, nice system you have there! But i couldn't notice that it's lacking, from my point of view, an important piece of the transport chain.
That desktop computer is not suitable for the rest of the system. The sibilance at/of the high notes is due to the jittery nature of your desktop computer.
Get a sotm 200/ 200 ultra streamer, connect the qutest to the dedicated USB port and you are set..
I have a much cheaper system and I've started with the desktop PC, then rpi3 with linnear power supply, sotm 100 and now sotm200.
Connected to the sotm is the Hydra-Z USB bridge > coax to Mojo
VERY IMPORTANT, the streamer and the bridge are being powered from an diy PSU with L200c voltage regulator and 22k mundorf cap, Elna caps, AND a 12V 9Ah Maxwell ups battery!
Without the battery, the magic disappers.
The rest of the system elex-r amp> QA 3050 speakers!

 

[Romi54]

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!

 

[plsvn]

Or does this only have to do with the volume?

on my tubes pre it doesn't even affect volume in the slightest
YMMV

 

[Eddie O]

@Eddie O, nice system you have there! But i couldn't notice that it's lacking, from my point of view, an important piece of the transport chain.
That desktop computer is not suitable for the rest of the system. The sibilance at/of the high notes is due to the jittery nature of your desktop computer.
Get a sotm 200/ 200 ultra streamer, connect the qutest to the dedicated USB port and you are set..
I have a much cheaper system and I've started with the desktop PC, then rpi3 with linnear power supply, sotm 100 and now sotm200.
Connected to the sotm is the Hydra-Z USB bridge > coax to Mojo
VERY IMPORTANT, the streamer and the bridge are being powered from an diy PSU with L200c voltage regulator and 22k mundorf cap, Elna caps, AND a 12V 9Ah Maxwell ups battery!
Without the battery, the magic disappers.
The rest of the system elex-r amp> QA 3050 speakers!

Thanks for your advice. The Sotm is definitely on my shortlist. I’m upgrading in steps (more fun). A dedicated desktop or streamer would be the next step. Power and cable at the finish. I was just kind of disappointed because the Qutest sounds not even nearly as good as the cheaper and older Audiolab. Has the 200 ultra an advantage over the 200 on the Qutest?

 

[bmfmarius]

Has the 200 ultra an advantage over the 200 on the Qutest?

Well it does come with their (best?!) Reclocker vs the standard 200.
The ultra was to expensive for me and I already own the hydra-z witch is doing the reclocking and has galvanically isolated usb
So for your system the ultra would be great.

 

[Eddie O]

Well it does come with their (best?!) Reclocker vs the standard 200.
The ultra was to expensive for me and I already own the hydra-z witch is doing the reclocking and has galvanically isolated usb
So for your system the ultra would be great.

The Qutest reclocks and has galvanic islolation on the usb also. Perhaps the 200 ultra is overkill?

 

[bmfmarius]

Maybe, maybe not

 

[zek4u]

I’ve had great luck with my microrendu running off a Teddy 9V PSU. I plan on using it with a Qutest. Was using an MCRU with my 2Qute and was thinking of another one with the Qutest. I’m a big believer in garbage in, garbage out. My CAPs carbon runs off a good Teddy 12V and the microrendu I believe further eliminates jitter, RFI, RMI. I think Chord’s work to eliminate problems make me feel secure. Start with dirty motherboard noise going across your USB, your going to have problems. Do think Mac’s are a little better then PCs but further isolation using these bridges is the way to go. Microrendu, ultrarendu, SOTM 200, etc.

Oh, almost forgot, my Time Warner router/modem absolutely killed my sound! Moving to a good $400 Linksys router fixed the issue. Blue Jean ethernet cables are cheap.