[alchemical]

Nevertheless, the star of the show is the 4 bands EQ function that the new mojo offers. As a result I was able to tune the new mojo closer to the sound signature offered by the original which is slightly warmer sounding. With 3db at 20 Hz and 2db at 120Hz I was able to match the sound signature with more dynamics and higher level of transparency.

I followed the above from @Another Audiophile and from my recollection of the Mojo OG signature this gets my Mojo 2 pretty much there, but better.

 

[GreenBow]

I've caved in, bought the M2.

Compared to M1, my brief initial impression is the M2 out of the box sounded a bit thinner, but still very good.

Using the EQ changed all that. I've added gain to the Bass and Midbass EQ, and now all sounds good and even better than M1. Other than bass, I'm impressed how other frequencies, to my ears, remain pure and unaffected (unlike other DAPs or DACs which produces more 'artificial' sound when using their DSP).

I'm a very happy camper. My only gripe is ad hoc connection issues when on the go and using my phone as wifi hotspot.

My two-cents on your post, and to all upgraders to Mojo 2.

I would suggest leave the EQ off for a week or two. That's unless you are outright wanting to recreate the Mojo (1) tonality of course. Or compensating for brighter headphones.

Anyway most press reviews of the Mojo 2 suggest it has better bass, and overall meatier sound than the Mojo.



I say this because I always found Chord upgrades to sound bright at first until I adjusted.

When I initally went from a Meridian Explorer to Chord Mojo it took about ten to fourteen days to adjust. After that I heard and located the bass as full, the tonal balance right, and everything in place. The Mojo was right and the Meridian Explorer was wrong. (The ME was right in a cheaper way I suppose.)

Before that, I found the Mojo sounded hollow and metallic, or thin as you describe the Mojo 2. Although initally I did notice it had more detail. Then within a few days I noticed it was smoother because it was clearer. (As opposed to the Meridian Explorer sounding smoother because it had more bass and mid-bass bloom. In other words, artificial warmth.)

When I bought the Hugo 2, it took a whole month to fully adjust. Life also felt too short not to listen constantly to the Hugo 2, so that was cool. At first listening to the Hugo 2 was like splinters of mostly, yellow, orange, and red light, were being fired. The new level of detail was blinding and bright; hence why it took a whole month. After that month though, bass on the Hugo 2 easily outclassed the Mojo.

Same when I got TT2. It took about two weeks. As with every upgrade, I could hear the improvements intially but I could not process it all as a whole.

Then when I started driving speakers directly with TT2, meaning no amplifier, I needed at least a week to adjust. More like three weeks to fully settle with it.


As I say, initially each upgrade sounded thinner and brighter. After adjustment, the better DAC simply sounded better.


My last advice is, to hear your new DAC at its best as soon as possible, listen to some new music. Then you're not comparing the old and new DAC, on tracks that you know by heart.

 

[chesebert]

I'm quite a bass head. Added +5db to lower bass, and mid-bass.

No change to lower treble and high treble (i. E. 0db 'flat').

With these settings, the bass quantity and quality surpasses M1.

You are probably clipping the signal given almost all modern recordings are compressed.

Every 3dB boost also increases power requirements by 2x - your mojo likely is clipping because it can’t deliver that much power at low freq.

 

[pneumonia]

Would really appreciate your comparison of Mojo 2 vs Hugo 2.

The H2 is more revealing, able to retrieve more detail and the crossfeed feature seems to be more prominent than on the M2 from what I can tell.

However, M2 is more of a fun listen for me, works really well with IEM's and the compact size is a plus.

 

[mnp75]

As a UX designer, upfront I was pretty sure that the menu system with color-coded lights was a usability disaster but was willing to let that slip by as I didn't see myself using the EQ much.

Color me surprised: having now used the Mojo 2 for just couple of days, I actually find the menu in practice absolutely fine and have even been testing the EQ & crossfeed functions quite a lot. Sure, there's a bit of learning curve and it's not as fast as doing similar things from a smartphone app, but the buttons and the color coding gets the job done surprisingly well after a brief orientation period. (Granted, if you're color blind this is not a device for you…)

Also never been a fan of the design esthetics of Chord in general, but Mojo actually looks kinda cool to me – somehow reminesces guitar effect boxes in its minor quirkiness, those I've always found fascinating looking. And gotta appreciate the feeling of craftmanship, feels solid and durable (maybe apart from the weirdly attached USB-C connection that has a different material to it from anything else in the body).

 

[alchemical]

As a UX designer, upfront I was pretty sure that the menu system with color-coded lights was a usability disaster but was willing to let that slip by as I didn't see myself using the EQ much.

Color me surprised: having now used the Mojo 2 for just couple of days, I actually find the menu in practice absolutely fine and have even been testing the EQ & crossfeed functions quite a lot. Sure, there's a bit of learning curve and it's not as fast as doing similar things from a smartphone app, but the buttons and the color coding gets the job done surprisingly well after a brief orientation period. (Granted, if you're color blind this is not a device for you…)

Also never been a fan of the design esthetics of Chord in general, but Mojo actually looks kinda cool to me – somehow reminesces guitar effect boxes in its minor quirkiness, those I've always found fascinating looking. And gotta appreciate the feeling of craftmanship, feels solid and durable (maybe apart from the weirdly attached USB-C connection that has a different material to it from anything else in the body).

Completely agree. I’d had myself convinced I was going to need to keep ducking back into the manual, but after that surprisingly brief orientation it felt very easy and natural fine-tuning across the different settings and EQ as required.

 

[cpaulik]

As a UX designer, upfront I was pretty sure that the menu system with color-coded lights was a usability disaster but was willing to let that slip by as I didn't see myself using the EQ much.

Color me surprised: having now used the Mojo 2 for just couple of days, I actually find the menu in practice absolutely fine and have even been testing the EQ & crossfeed functions quite a lot. Sure, there's a bit of learning curve and it's not as fast as doing similar things from a smartphone app, but the buttons and the color coding gets the job done surprisingly well after a brief orientation period. (Granted, if you're color blind this is not a device for you…)

Also never been a fan of the design esthetics of Chord in general, but Mojo actually looks kinda cool to me – somehow reminesces guitar effect boxes in its minor quirkiness, those I've always found fascinating looking. And gotta appreciate the feeling of craftmanship, feels solid and durable (maybe apart from the weirdly attached USB-C connection that has a different material to it from anything else in the body).

Completely agree on the menu system. I would even go further and say that I prefer it to any smartphone or touch interface. I can use the M2 while not even looking at it just by counting how often I've pressed.

I would even argue that the colors don't matter too much because you can tell if you are in the menu or not just by looking which balls are lit up.

 

[mnp75]

Completely agree on the menu system. I would even go further and say that I prefer it to any smartphone or touch interface. I can use the M2 while not even looking at it just by counting how often I've pressed.

I would even argue that the colors don't matter too much because you can tell if you are in the menu or not just by looking which balls are lit up.

Good point, tactile controls always have that benefit that you can use them "blindfolded" as long as you remember the patterns needed for the operation (and have the patience to count the steps)

 

[lwells]

My last advice is, to hear your new DAC at its best as soon as possible, listen to some new music. Then you're not comparing the old and new DAC, on tracks that you know by heart.

This is a great point. Thank you.

 

[kumar402]

You are probably clipping the signal given almost all modern recordings are compressed.

Every 3dB boost also increases power requirements by 2x - your mojo likely is clipping because it can’t deliver that much lower at low freq.

Ya I always felt if we have to use EQ in Mojo and use shelf like >3db then have to reduce gain from software, isn’t it ? Defeating the purpose of lossless EQ.

 

[Baten]

I would ask to who has already tried to publicize the precise eq settings to make the sound similar to M1

How does that answer Pier Paolo's question? He is asking about the eq settings to make the sound similar to M1.

In theory there really should not be such a change in frequency response between M1 and M2 that you could EQ one to the other. That would be shocking. A DAC should still output flat....

 

[lwells]

In theory there really should not be such a change in frequency response between M1 and M2 that you could EQ one to the other. That would be shocking. A DAC should still output flat....

In theory....

But plenty of people have noticed that they do not sound the same in practice. I especially hear the difference in electric guitars. The M2 presents them more thin and cold.

 

[Kentajalli]

Ya I always felt if we have to use EQ in Mojo and use shelf like >3db then have to reduce gain from software, isn’t it ? Defeating the purpose of lossless EQ.

I am sure Mr. Watts has thought of that, he is very thorough

 

[chesebert]

My two-cents on your post, and to all upgraders to Mojo 2.

I would suggest leave the EQ off for a week or two. That's unless you are outright wanting to recreate the Mojo (1) tonality of course. Or compensating for brighter headphones.

Anyway most press reviews of the Mojo 2 suggest it has better bass, and overall meatier sound than the Mojo.



I say this because I always found Chord upgrades to sound bright at first until I adjusted.

When I initally went from a Meridian Explorer to Chord Mojo it about ten to fourteen days. After that I heard and located the bass as full, the tonal balance right, and everything in place. (The Mojo was right and the Meridian Explorer was wrong. The ME was right in a cheaper way I suppose.)

Before that, I found the Mojo sounded hollow and metallic, or thin as you describe the Mojo 2. Although initally I did notice it had more detail. Then within a few days I noticed it was smoother because it was clearer. (As opposed to the Meridian Explorer sounding smoother because it had more bass and mid-bass bloom. In other words, artificial warmth.)

When I bought the Hugo 2, it took a whole month to fully adjust. Life also felt too short not to listen constantly to the Hugo 2, so that was cool. At first listening to the Hugo 2 was like splinters of mostly, yellow, orange, and red light, were being fired. The new level of detail was blinding and bright; hence why it took a whole month. In the end though, bass on the Hugo 2 easily outclassed the Mojo.

Same when I got TT2. It took about two weeks. As with every upgrade, I could hear the improvements intially but I could not process it all as a whole.

Then when I started driving speakers directly with TT2, meaning no amplifier, I needed at least a week to adjust. More like three weeks to fully settle with it.


As I say, initially each upgrade sounded thinner and brighter. After adjustment, the better DAC simply sounded better.


My last advice is, to hear your new DAC at its best as soon as possible, listen to some new music. Then you're not comparing the old and new DAC, on tracks that you know by heart.

That’s not how “upgrade” works my friend. When was the last time you gone to see your neighborhood orchestra and you said to yourself the sound is too real I can’t process all that realism?

As a general rule, if you are “upgrading” and that upgrade forces you to listen to one or another kind of music or makes you feel like you need to avoid certain kind of music or recording (I don’t mean one or two specific badly mastered recordings), you are doing it wrong.

 

[chesebert]

I am sure Mr. Watts has thought of that, he is very thorough

Mr Watts cannot bend the laws of physics. I am sorry that’s just how the world works.