CHORD Mojo 2 Review (Portable DAC & HP Amp)

[srkbear]

You're perfectly welcome to your own opinion. Some people love certain brands of cars and some people have an aversion to those same brands. Same with DACs. I personally find the Mojo 2 to be a beautiful and elegant piece of gear, with just the right size and features for a couple of my significant use cases. It performs very well and it's got excellent build quality, a really nice finish, really great tactile buttons, and cool playful colors to indicate volume and other things. Some people might not like it, but that's true about anything (at least I have actual experience with one, unlike almost everyone else here). I personally think most of the iFi, Fiio, Topping, and similar stuff looks like junk for example (with a few exceptions).

Then this comes down to a taste issue, and I certainly don’t fault you for enjoying your Mojo 2. At all.

 

[kanefsky]

There definitely is, I own two—but if it’s working for you, then I was mistaken. No offense intended!

Do you have a link to the product? I've never heard of it. The only issue with a USB-C iPad that I know of is for a device that requires significant power to run, in which case you can use any powered USB hub so that the DAC gets power from the hub instead of drawing it from the iPad. But since the Mojo 2 has a battery it doesn't need to draw power from the iPad.

 

[staticV3]

Afaik there's only a Digital AV Multiport Adapter, not a Camera Connection Kit for Type-C iPads

 

[Axo1989]

Do you have a link to the product? I've never heard of it. The only issue with a USB-C iPad that I know of is for a device that requires significant power to run, in which case you can use any powered USB hub so that the DAC gets power from the hub instead of drawing it from the iPad. But since the Mojo 2 has a battery it doesn't need to draw power from the iPad.

There's a USB-C to USB adaptor from Apple, but its not a CCK. The latter was only required to connect to LIghtning ports (which do some auto-routing of their connections depending what you are running to/from the device).

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

The chord hugo, and now Qutest have been just fine for me, although I honestly can't say they have "improved" the "listening experience"!
However, surely this Rob Wats product range and jumbo blather, such as it may be, is microscopic, if compared to Wilson Audio and a number of other manufacturers?

 

[SRKRAM]

You're perfectly welcome to your own opinion. Some people love certain brands of cars and some people have an aversion to those same brands. Same with DACs. I personally find the Mojo 2 to be a beautiful and elegant piece of gear, with just the right size and features for a couple of my significant use cases. It performs very well and it's got excellent build quality, a really nice finish, really great tactile buttons, and cool playful colors to indicate volume and other things. Some people might not like it, but that's true about anything. At least I have actual experience with one, unlike almost everyone else here. I personally think most of the iFi, Fiio, Topping, and similar stuff looks like junk for example (with a few exceptions).

I've owned a Mojo 2 since day 1 in the UK, and it suits my use case pretty well, which is listening around the house; in my office, on the sofa or in the garden. The headphones I use it with are Denon D9200, Focal Clear & Audeze LCD-X 2021. I like the design, although I do wish it had USB-C for charging. I can see how people who haven't used it would complain about the usability, but it's actually pretty straight forward to use, as long as you know how to count to about 5.

Sound wise it's a nice improvement over the original Mojo. The bass is more present and impactful than the OG, and it sounds more detailed. Initially, the treble was a little jarring because it is more prominent than on the OG, but I prefer it now.

I really like the cross-feed feature, and typically leave it on level 1 or 2. The EQ function won't replace a parametric EQ, but I find it useful for adding a bass shelf; It isn't much use where you would need a peek filter. e.g. I haven't been able to use it to fix the 4k issue in the LCD-Xs.

The only other devices I've compared it to are the Fiio M11 Plus LTD & ESS versions. All though the Fiios were more convenient, all-in-one solutions, I ended up selling both because I preferred the sound of the Mojo 2 - It had deeper, tighter bass, more detail, and just sounded more pleasant. The DSP features are also a nice bonus which don't require any additional SW. I also owned an ifi idsd Signature in the not so distant past, but ended up selling it because it sounded too dark and not very engaging to listen with. I haven't compared to any desktop gear, as I sold all that stuff when I found that it didn't have any audible benefit over portable gear, and didn't suit my use case.

 

[Axo1989]

There definitely is, I own two ...

You appear to be mistaken, but it would be interesting to know what you are referring to.

 

[AudioSceptic]

I bristle at the DAVE selling for >10 grand given that it’s almost eight years old and has much in the way of obsolete tech. I disdain Rob Watts’ arrogance and many dubious scientific claims he makes about his gear to justify its price point. I am appalled by what he is charging for his portable streamer (that requires two components to work unless you buy his DAC), given that an RPI can do everything it can at a fraction of the cost. Mainly it’s about their price points, which I think are grossly unjustified.

So, apart from all that, what is it that you don't like? ;-)

 

[Ken Tajalli]

As I understand it, the main selling point of this over the mojo 1 is the DSP function which Mr Watts claims to be the best thing since sliced bread. It would be nice if at some point it was possible to test that vs an upstream solution (say Roon on a pc) and other on device implementations (say on the rme adi 2 dac and maybe the Qudelix 5k). No idea how the test would work in terms of measurements.

+1

 

[Ken Tajalli]

The THD+N vs Power sweeps on the other hand have much finer resolution.
View attachment 208393
69.73mW at 300Ω = 4.57Vrms

Mojo (1 and 2) operate in class A at higher headphone impedances.
To get 6.5V swing from a 7.4V battery in class A is just about the limit, if one needs more power, then it is either balanced or bigger battery.
Mojos don't do balanced, they are inherently single ended by design.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Yes, the original Mojo also had a high output voltage.
It requires an internal DCDC converter.

To have such output and voltage swing, the battery is rated at 7.4V - to charge it with standard USB power of 5V, a charge pump is a must.
Since Mojo2 has USB-C input, I wonder why it was not used to power the unit since it can go 9V, 12V etc.
Chord believes in SMPS since they can filter it well.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Just a thought. If Imake a dual 3.5mm jack to 4.4mm female jack, can the output increase to 4V? The device will be much more versatile then

The two sockets are wired in parallel.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

...... smartphone so how do you combine them into a neat "bundle" in your pocket?

You don't! bad idea to have a noisy phone and portable DACs (no USB isolation) tightly wrapped anyways. Any DAC!

Separate them in the same pocket

Don't then ..

and they are likely to jiggle against one another, probably causing damage; put them in different pockets and you have the awkwardness of the cable connecting them.

been doing it with my Ifi's and Fiio's before Mojo.

 

[solderdude]

Mojo (1 and 2) operate in class A at higher headphone impedances.
To get 6.5V swing from a 7.4V battery in class A is just about the limit, if one needs more power, then it is either balanced or bigger battery.
Mojos don't do balanced, they are inherently single ended by design.

From a 7.4V battery and using low drop output opamps you could get about 7Vpp = 1.9Vrms.
To charge such a battery from 5V already requires a DCDC converter.

Seeing that the output voltage swing is about 5.2V in higher imp. (14.7Vpp) there would have to be about 15V inside.
For the output to be in real class-A for 300ohm HP's a 25mA idle current would be needed = 0.4W per channel in wasted heat. (1W including a good converter for audio alone).

 

[AudioSceptic]

Apparently you can, but I see nothing in their included accessories that offers an OTG cable that is designed for iOS devices, so I would have guessed that the CCK would be necessary—but another user on here has apparently had luck with it working without it. I think it would definitely depend on the generation of your iPad though. There are many other portable DACs, including offerings from FiiO and iFi, that now come with both iPhone and iPad OTG cables that don’t require the kit.

Some of the iFi products include a Lightning-to-USB-C cable/adapter, so Chord should do the same, considering this is an expensive product.

 

[AudioSceptic]

There definitely is, I own two—but if it’s working for you, then I was mistaken. No offense intended!

There's something weird going on here. I assumed that the switch to USB-C on the iPad meant that the port would work like a normal USB port, so why would a USB-C CCK exist? If it is required, how can some DACs work with a simple USB-C cable?

 

[AudioSceptic]

You don't! bad idea to have a noisy phone and portable DACs (no USB isolation) tightly wrapped anyways. Any DAC!

IIRC Chord supplied a couple of elastic bands with the original Mojo for that very purpose. They must have been ignorant of these issues!

 

[Ken Tajalli]

IIRC Chord supplied a couple of elastic bands with the original Mojo for that very purpose. They must have been ignorant of these issues!

And then they got flooded with customers saying their phones made clicking and otherwise noises into their sound.
Rob Watts checked the issue out and he put it down as Not RFI but EMI!
it was the close proximity of the phones to the unit.
I know it is fashinable to use rubber bands, but I found the whole idea not very clever.
Imean you get two wide rubber bands across the effing screen to start with! not smart .. ..

 

[Dan Clark]

What ”upgrade” are you referring to?
The 20-22kHz extension?

I don‘t know what exactly the internal change was but Rob told me the highs were closer to the Hugo 2 than the original Mojo, which could be a bit sharp up top. To me it’s the biggest audible change. Cymbals and strings just sound much airier than my Mojo 1…

 

[Ken Tajalli]

I don‘t know what exactly the internal change was but Rob told me the highs were closer to the Hugo 2 than the original Mojo, which could be a bit sharp up top. To me it’s the biggest audible change. Cymbals and strings just sound much airier than my Mojo 1…

Just my 2 pence.
Firstly, respect! you make very good headphones.
Secondly, there are two distinct sound quality changes from Mojo classic to Mojo2.
- better power supply regulation, giving better seperation and wider sound stage
- capacitor coupling is gone from digital section to analogue section, improving resolution, specially in Bass!
the above two, transformed the warmish and closed-in sound of version 1 to a more open, less warmish sound of the 2 version.
Mojo2 has some way to go to catch Hugo2.