plsvn
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Chord Electronics Qutest DAC - Official Thread
- Thread starter ChordElectronics
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Thanks but I already tried and the website directs me to Cyprus .I am waiting for an answer from Chord .
plsvn
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weird, as I just tried once more and...
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^^Click where it says website and you'll see.It seems weird to me,too!
plsvn
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oh, I see: weird indeed
might just be something wrong with the embedded URL or Cyprus might be the "fiscal" location: try calling or sending a mail
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Matez
Sponsor: Forza Audio Works
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Honestly, I'm finding the Qutest to be more ethereal and airy overall, but that characteristic can be tweaked slightly with the filter options. I personally found the Mojo to lean a bit warm or mid-range centered without being overly mushy. With the orange and red filters, it sounds a little like a gutsier Mojo but loses some of the superior transient attacks of the white and green filters. I never really found the Mojo to be particularly airy myself, at least in comparison to the Schiit Gungnir MB and Yggdrasil I owned previously. It could be that the ethereal quality of the Mojo you describe is the weakness in the lower bass, on which the Qutest does improve, but the more prominent Treble of the Qutest makes it airier, with more defined textures on instruments which rely on high frequency harmonics for texture (think snare drums, or violins).
I'm liking it more as I listen, especially now that I've had some time using the Massdrop CTH with it. I think this will be my "Goldilocks" DAC for awhile. Is it perfect? No. It doesn't have the authoritative deep bass of the Schiit multibits I've owned, though bass depth and impact is improved from the Mojo. What does seem counter-intuitive though, is that despite the more ethereal character of the Qutest, the transient response allows it to portray rhythmic nuances in music very well. I'd say that the transient response is the biggest improvement I notice over the Mojo. Lots of Head bobbing and toe tapping going on. At least some of that is the CTH, but that aspect seems even better with the Qutest than the Mojo. This is part of why I waited for the Qutest over the Hugo 2. I sometimes prefer the character that certain amps add.
I really like it as a total package, considering what it does relative to its physical size. The Yggdrasil sounds great, but is also physically massive for a desktop setup. It all fits nicely on this desktop shelf I bought. The iUSB is on the very bottom, with my overkill RF ferrite choke on the power cable with 4 turns.
You'll have to forgive the weird fish-eye effect. Only the wide-angle camera on my phone is working correctly at the moment.
The only unfortunate thing is that I can't test it with my Elear since the driver is busted and I'm waiting on an RMA from my dealer. Impressions are only with my modded HD-650 (removed spider with some strategic sorbothane peices applied)
I'm most likely going to stick with this for awhile. Though, I might look into the Liquid Platinum or Lyr 3 for amp upgrades in the future, or the Clear for headphone upgrades. I really need to get out to another meet in the future.
Great impressions, thanks! Fish-eye effect is forgiven
I love the Klipsch Cornwall. IMO the best sounding Klipsch speaker because their sound is much more balanced. I owned them back in the early 90s and had the chance to buy any of the Klipsch models. I loved the design of the Belle, really beautiful but that one and the K-Horn were to bright for my taste so I went for the Cornwall. After all these years I still miss them and Even thinking about buying a pair again...plenty of deep, perfectly controlled, bass here from the Qutest, a 2A3 SET power amplifier and Klipsch Cornwall (15" woofer usually pretty hard to tame)
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Just tried Qutest with InnuOS Zen Mini mk2 server and many of my observations regarding the Qutest have changed. With the Macbook pro running Audirvana I felt slightly detached from the performance/music and the soundstage was a bit flat. I also noticed a lack of dynamics and bass. However with the InnuOS Zen things have changed considerably. The soundstage now has greater width and lots more depth, dynamics and detail have increased substantially. Tonal quality and bass has improved, in particular the bass is now quite muscular. i am running the Qutest into an all valve preamp with a very nice valve line stage and the match seems perfect. The difference between the Macbook and InnuOS is huge which just goes to show you need a good front end feeding the DAC.
Vocals are very palpable and real with a great presence in the room. The Qutest, like DAVE is smooth sounding and very analogue in its presentation with very little remaining to remind you are listening to digital audio. For the money Qutest is very good value as I feel it gives me 75-80% of DAVE. Where it looses out is on soundstage /, depth and micro nuances in the music and the sheer gravity and wallop DAVE can produce in the bottom end. However in my system Qutest gives me as much as I could want and on well mastered material it really delivers the goods.
I use my vinyl rig as a benchmark and honestly Qutest with the InnuOS Zen was such a close match on some recordings I could find very little difference between the two, that is how analogue it sounds. With top end information the Qutest with the Zen now sounds much more detailed. I was astonished switching between the Macbook into Qutest and the InnuOS with a recording of Diane Krall called Temptation, her voice took on massive amounts more of detail and nuances and the dynamics of the recording had a real presence and gravity. The piano had a lot more weight and the whole performance sounded more natural and real as if your were in the room with the performers.
So my opinion of the Qutest has vastly improved just by switching from FBA via the Macbook to an InnuOS server. Just goes to show how important it is to feed your DAC the right material.
I must just add my Chord Qutest had already been run in so i noticed no harshness or a bright top end as some have found. however I am running it through an all valve preamp and Hybrid OTL power amp. Transparency is therefore very high!
Vocals are very palpable and real with a great presence in the room. The Qutest, like DAVE is smooth sounding and very analogue in its presentation with very little remaining to remind you are listening to digital audio. For the money Qutest is very good value as I feel it gives me 75-80% of DAVE. Where it looses out is on soundstage /, depth and micro nuances in the music and the sheer gravity and wallop DAVE can produce in the bottom end. However in my system Qutest gives me as much as I could want and on well mastered material it really delivers the goods.
I use my vinyl rig as a benchmark and honestly Qutest with the InnuOS Zen was such a close match on some recordings I could find very little difference between the two, that is how analogue it sounds. With top end information the Qutest with the Zen now sounds much more detailed. I was astonished switching between the Macbook into Qutest and the InnuOS with a recording of Diane Krall called Temptation, her voice took on massive amounts more of detail and nuances and the dynamics of the recording had a real presence and gravity. The piano had a lot more weight and the whole performance sounded more natural and real as if your were in the room with the performers.
So my opinion of the Qutest has vastly improved just by switching from FBA via the Macbook to an InnuOS server. Just goes to show how important it is to feed your DAC the right material.
I must just add my Chord Qutest had already been run in so i noticed no harshness or a bright top end as some have found. however I am running it through an all valve preamp and Hybrid OTL power amp. Transparency is therefore very high!
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Just tried Qutest with InnuOS Zen Mini mk2 server and many of my observations regarding the Qutest have changed. With the Macbook pro running Audirvana I felt slightly detached from the performance/music and the soundstage was a bit flat. I also noticed a lack of dynamics and bass. However with the InnuOS Zen things have changed considerably. The soundstage now has greater width and lots more depth, dynamics and detail have increased substantially. Tonal quality and bass has improved, in particular the bass is now quite muscular. i am running the Qutest into an all valve preamp with a very nice valve line stage and the match seems perfect. The difference between the Macbook and InnuOS is huge which just goes to show you need a good front end feeding the DAC.
Vocals are very palpable and real with a great presence in the room. The Qutest, like DAVE is smooth sounding and very analogue in its presentation with very little remaining to remind you are listening to digital audio. For the money Qutest is very good value as I feel it gives me 75-80% of DAVE. Where it looses out is on soundstage /, depth and micro nuances in the music and the sheer gravity and wallop DAVE can produce in the bottom end. However in my system Qutest gives me as much as I could want and on well mastered material it really delivers the goods.
I use my vinyl rig as a benchmark and honestly Qutest with the InnuOS Zen was such a close match on some recordings I could find very little difference between the two, that is how analogue it sounds. With top end information the Qutest with the Zen now sounds much more detailed. I was astonished switching between the Macbook into Qutest and the InnuOS with a recording of Diane Krall called Temptation, her voice took on massive amounts more of detail and nuances and the dynamics of the recording had a real presence and gravity. The piano had a lot more weight and the whole performance sounded more natural and real as if your were in the room with the performers.
So my opinion of the Qutest has vastly improved just by switching from FBA via the Macbook to an InnuOS server. Just goes to show how important it is to feed your DAC the right material.
I must just add my Chord Qutest had already been run in so i noticed no harshness or a bright top end as some have found. however I am running it through an all valve preamp and Hybrid OTL power amp. Transparency is therefore very high!
Sounds like you have achieved excellent results, reading your post reminded me of my own experience when comparing optical from my MSI laptop versus my V20 or Asus Zenbook. The MSI via optical has a much more muscular sound with greater depth and width. It's just too bad they don't have a server with toslink outputs so you could compare the two. I was looking at this server at one point because I have some CD's I want to play from time to time.
Rhinomyte76
New Head-Fier
Question re: Variable output voltage setting:
My qutest arrives in 2 days. Super pumped, but I don't really understand the variable output voltage and the effect that this will have. I will be running the qutest into an amp and sound kenzie headphone amp which then goes directly into headphones. Can anyone give me any suggestions or things I should consider in setting the variable output voltage? Thanks!!
My qutest arrives in 2 days. Super pumped, but I don't really understand the variable output voltage and the effect that this will have. I will be running the qutest into an amp and sound kenzie headphone amp which then goes directly into headphones. Can anyone give me any suggestions or things I should consider in setting the variable output voltage? Thanks!!
Hummer,that was awesome.You can't have good sounding music if even one piece of your link doesn't deliver!
Use 2V and if it sounds ok with the volume setting to all percentages you are good.Watts gave a detailed explanation before.
SearchOfSub
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Yes the Innuos Zen made a massive difference to the overall performance with the Qutest.
I have not got LS50s but have heard them quite a few times - they are superb and would fully recommend them!
jarnopp
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Try to find your amplifier’s input sensitivity. If, for example, it’s 2V, that means a 2V signal will drive it to max volume. You would use your preamp or digital volume control on an app, or the volume control in your amp if it’s an integrated amp, to lower the volume from there. But, depending how you are controlling the volume, you might choose a higher or lower setting so that you get e good volume range around middle position, especially if you are using an analog volume control.
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