Chord Qutest

[Kain]

Few questions regarding the Chord Qutest which I might be getting for my MacBook:

1. How much latency is there with the Qutest? Would fast paced gaming be possible with it?
2. Can I use the Qutest through a USB hub like the Caldigit Element Hub or would it be better to connect it directly to the MacBook?
3. Would the MacBook's keyboard volume controls control the volume with the Qutest?

 

[Kain]

Any comments? I know this DAC would probably be referred to as a "snake oil DAC" by ASR but I would still want to confirm if my assumptions are correct.

1. I read that the latency is not that much in the Qutest review here on ASR. Is this correct?
2. You can use the Qutest through a USB hub. There would be no difference between going through a hub vs. connecting directly to the MacBook, correct?
3. I assume the volume controls on the MacBook would control the volume with the Qutest?

 

[CMB]

Just so that you don't feel ignored. But, I have no clue about the Chord DACs. Sorry.

 

[fpitas]

probably be referred to as a "snake oil DAC" by ASR

I think "overpriced" is the more accurate description. I recall Amir testing other Chord stuff that was OK.

 

[amirm]

It definitely has more latency than traditional DACs. Its has a FIR filter with 49K taps. This by itself would mean a latency of over one second. But these are applied to the upsampled PCM data, not native. I don't remember the ratio for Quetest. If we use 16 times oversampling, then the latency would be a bit less than 0.1 second. Best thing to do is ask the company for exact figure. I know Rob Watts when I asked him as one of his presentations, agreed with this being order magnitude and said that he had to add video latency in Jriver to watch movies with his DACs. Net, net, not a good idea to use any of his DACs for gaming.

 

[amirm]

2. You can use the Qutest through a USB hub. There would be no difference between going through a hub vs. connecting directly to the MacBook, correct?

It would be negligible latency since USB is so much faster than audio data rates.

 

[amirm]

3. I assume the volume controls on the MacBook would control the volume with the Qutest?

If you use the standard audio pipelinein MacBook, yes, it would not only change volume but resample all the audio as well, taking away any benefit of using a high-performance DAC. If you bypass the audio pipeline (which I don't know if your game can do or not -- likely not), then you will lose volume control.

 

[Kain]

If you use the standard audio pipelinein MacBook, yes, it would not only change volume but resample all the audio as well, taking away any benefit of using a high-performance DAC. If you bypass the audio pipeline (which I don't know if your game can do or not -- likely not), then you will lose volume control.

Thanks.

I'm not going to game with it but just wanted to know about the latency thus just stated, hypothetically, if gaming was possible with it.

So, if I connect the Qutest to the MacBook and listen to hi-res lossless music on Apple Music, the audio will be resampled? What would I need to do to bypass the audio pipeline in the MacBook?

 

[amirm]

That's correct. You need to use a player that has specific support for "bit exact" playback. iTunes doesn't do this although there is a plug-in for it. Without it, as with Windows, all music is forced resampled to a single value. Here is a thread we had on it: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ng-bit-perfect-music-on-your-macintosh.29725/

Some common choices are Audirvana, Roon and JRiver.

 

[Kain]

Here is a post on another forum where someone is using a Qutest with their PC for everything (movies, music, and gaming) and doesn't seem to notice any delay/latency.

Does anyone game on high end dacs?

this might be an insanely dumb question, but currently I'm using a chord qutest & thinking of upgrading to a yggdrasil or a terminator, but being that I use the qutest for everything coming audio wise from my computer, movies, music but most importantly gaming, my question, is there a delay i...

www.stereonet.com

 

[Soria Moria]

Here is a post on another forum where someone is using a Qutest with their PC for everything (movies, music, and gaming) and doesn't seem to notice any delay/latency.

Does anyone game on high end dacs?

this might be an insanely dumb question, but currently I'm using a chord qutest & thinking of upgrading to a yggdrasil or a terminator, but being that I use the qutest for everything coming audio wise from my computer, movies, music but most importantly gaming, my question, is there a delay i...

www.stereonet.com

A person in the Qutest review thread said it has 15 ms of delay I believe.
In this thread the person sent a message to Chord for an answer and got the answer that it has 34.8 ms of latency which is quite bad and I wouldn't take the chance on it for games. https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57846

So I got my response back from Chord... awesome that they're able to provide the info quickly. Most video is played in 30 FPS and the Chord has 34.8 ms of latency at 44.1 kHz so there should be no lip sync issues.

 

[VintageFlanker]

1. How much latency is there with the Qutest? Would fast paced gaming be possible with it?

Had two Qutest back in the days, and never experienced any audible latency with whatever gaming (USB) or movies (Toslink)...

 

[Leejb1970]

I have the Qutest. No complaints at all.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

Had two Qutest back in the days, and never experienced any audible latency with whatever gaming (USB) or movies (Toslink)...

I can confirm that.
The latency is probably bigger than dac with default filter. But nothing concerning, played games without any problem

 

[Soria Moria]

Obligatory 'would you consider getting an RME ADI-2 DAC FS instead of a Qutest?" reply.
No latency issues and does far more things than a Qutest at cheaper cost.

 

[RayDunzl]

How much latency is there with the Qutest? Would fast paced gaming be possible with it?

Your eyes are slower than your ears...

"Reaction time is dependent on several factors like arrival of the stimulus at the sensory organ, conversion of the stimulus by the sensory organ to a neural signal, neural transmissions and processing, muscular activation, soft tissue compliance, and the selection of an external measurement parameter (Pain & Hibbs, reference [1]). Researches by Kemp et al., reference [7], show that an auditory stimulus takes only 8-10 milliseconds to reach the brain, but on the other hand, a visual stimulus takes 20-40 milliseconds. This implies that the faster the stimulus reaches the motor cortex, faster will be the reaction time to the stimulus. Therefore since the auditory stimulus reaches the cortex faster than the visual stimulus, the auditory reaction time is faster than the visual reaction time."

I've noticed a little sound delay helps with lip sync on the TV. Don't know if it is me or the presentation that is at fault.

 

[Kain]

Any comments/opinions on the Schiit Bifrost 2/64? It's quite a bit cheaper than the Qutest.

 

[panther]

Any comments/opinions on the Schiit Bifrost 2/64? It's quite a bit cheaper than the Qutest.

So I've had the Bifrost 2 for that matter. I play a few games (Baldurs Gate 3, War Thunder, Red Dead Redemption 2 and some strategy stuff when I get time) and had no issues with lip sync. Sound was excellent to me also. My only gripe with Schiit is I've had issues keeping the DACs detected through USB or optical at times. 99% of the time just unplugging the cables would fix the issue but it gets aggravating to me to give it the old reach around continually, and then go days with no issues (this was on 3 different PC's that have had no issues with other DACs). I've not had the Chord but I've been reading up on it lately.

 

[Kain]

So I've had the Bifrost 2 for that matter. I play a few games (Baldurs Gate 3, War Thunder, Red Dead Redemption 2 and some strategy stuff when I get time) and had no issues with lip sync. Sound was excellent to me also. My only gripe with Schiit is I've had issues keeping the DACs detected through USB or optical at times. 99% of the time just unplugging the cables would fix the issue but it gets aggravating to me to give it the old reach around continually, and then go days with no issues (this was on 3 different PC's that have had no issues with other DACs). I've not had the Chord but I've been reading up on it lately.

Yeah, I ended up getting the Bifrost 2/64 and have had it for some months now. Excellent sound quality.

 

[majingotan]

Yeah, I ended up getting the Bifrost 2/64 and have had it for some months now. Excellent sound quality.

Wait 'till you hear the Yggdrasil MIB

Spoiler

They sound exactly the same as the Bifrost