[dawktah2]

Another video posted, not much about sound.

 

[musicday]

Another video posted, not much about sound.

Thank you for the link.I am looking forward to see and hear more about the Qutest.

 

[maxh22]

I enjoyed the video, beautiful packaging if you ask me. Packaging looks much more refined than the original Hugo 2 box, does anyone know if they updated the Hugo 2 box?

 

[agedbest]

nothing more than a box???

thanks for sharing

 

[agedbest]

serial number 34357.....looking for a complete review soon

 

[miketlse]

serial number 34357.....looking for a complete review soon

Looks like they are not starting with serial number 00001 then.

 

[Deftone]

More glamor shots.

I prefer this aggressive, muscled up with sharp angles design from chord much more than the curves of previous design. Definitely more mature and serious looking. Good work John.

 

[elviscaprice]

thanks at last something interesting

I was a bit stunned by the reviewer's statements and comments

especially this: "Interestingly (I guess) the best I heard from the Qutest came when I wound up HQPlayer to DSD512 and fired bits at the Qutest at 22megabits per second - which goes completely against the official guidance from Chord/Watts. Maybe Rob would explain that I need the MScaler and a million taps instead."

I wouldn't put much into this. There is no doubt that the source quality in clocking and power still matters when streaming to the Qutest, regardless of G.I.. Thus the reviewer was streaming from a noisy source to begin with, probably the same computer they used to upsample with HQP. Basically it says nothing, and if one was to use a lower power PC with good clocking and power, it would blow away the HQP upsampling/filtering, in bit perfect streaming, with a Chord DAC.

 

[Danny86]

At the same time though, it was the same (noisy or not) computer used to stream both the standard and upsampled content.
In theory, when the content is upsampled the computer gets even noisier. So hearing a better(I know this is subjective) result is even more curious.

Last but not least I doubt that someone who builds DACs from kits would be unable to optimize a computer for audio (Linux was mentioned so already a good sign).

I wouldn't put much into this. There is no doubt that the source quality in clocking and power still matters when streaming to the Qutest, regardless of G.I.. Thus the reviewer was streaming from a noisy source to begin with, probably the same computer they used to upsample with HQP. Basically it says nothing, and if one was to use a lower power PC with good clocking and power, it would blow away the HQP upsampling/filtering, in bit perfect streaming, with a Chord DAC.

 

[daredevil_kk]

Mine just arrived at the shop, but l’m not free to collect it till next Wed.


I’ll post up a review once I have it up and running in my system.

Cheers,
KK

 

[jayz]

Proly not seen a DAC connected up quite like this. I just don't like to hear analog cable so Qutest feeds directly into my active speakers.

Figured I won't have time to experiment with power supplies and also I am unaware how vulnerable the rest of my system is to noise so therefore, Qutest is being powered from an iFi iPower 5v rather than stock supply. And I expect it will be a while before any critical listening can be done but meantime, it will hopefully get around 40 hours burn-in this week alone. I am new to Chord so unfortunately will be unable to compare against other Chord DACs. Initial impressions are positive. Tried to gather a few words from the audiophile vocabulary to sum up but suffice to say at this point that overall finesse and articulation remain unhurt but whatever I played sounded nicer - as if instruments got upgraded/oiled up and vocals had more emotion . Have to say I have done the Linn journey all the way to all-aktiv but never quite enjoyed the end result because it has always been a sacrifice of transparency. PRAT, I think I am going to keep you this time...

 

[JWahl]

In regards to power supply options, when I'm able to buy the Qutest, I'm considering pairing it with the iFi nano iUsb. It seems like it could be a good value since it can feed cleaner USB signals and provide 5V USB power via the second output. It may even be a little overkill.

I've already traded down from my more expensive amp to free up funds for the Qutest. I'm just waiting for the official U.S release before I put my Mojo and Elear up for sale.

It might seem a little odd using the Qutest with a much cheaper amp (in my Sig now), but using the new amp with the Mojo, I feel like it's plenty transparent to source. I usually try to prioritize source quality over amp anyways.

 

[elviscaprice]

never mind

 

[dawktah2]

Another video posted, not much about sound.

Just watched his updated video of demo tracks. Isn't this useless since the sound quality is only has good as what your system can get through Youtube?

 

[miketlse]

Just watched his updated video of demo tracks. Isn't this useless since the sound quality is only has good as what your system can get through Youtube?

I haven't watched this video, but many demo videos are potentially misleading, in that the sound is recorded via a phone mike>converted to digital by the phone ADC>maybe converted further to a youtube compatible format> then when played back by phone/laptop/tablet, there is a further conversion by DAC, and potentially playback via crappy phone/tablet speakers.
All these opportunities to degrade the original source music signature, are conveniently forgotten, by the original enthusiast who recorded the video.