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Questyle CMA400i or CMA600i

W2S

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Hi All

Does anyone have any experience with the Questyle CMA400i or CMA600i amp / dac

Such as build quality, sound, features and is it worth the money

Thanks
 
OP
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W2S

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No one with one of above amp?
 

NTomokawa

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Impressive webpage for a Chinese company. Much less "audiophoolery" than Audio-GD, too.

Hopefully somebody can make some measurements.
 

GeekyBastard

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Tried their CAS192D before, really weird sound, it just sounds... Analytical... Not in a good way, just hard, harsh, and hollow.

I think Questyle are more like Wyred4Sound, they put all "premium" parts they could find together and hope it could put out good sound, just check their website, I don't like their advertisement at all, "Best"/"Top"/"Premium"/"Golden"/"True" everywhere, that's alarming enough for me.
 
OP
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W2S

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Seems to get a lot of good reviews?

That's why I was interested
 

tired_guru

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I had CMA400i, sounded like one of the best combos I have heard in my life, no matter the price. Their current mode headphone amps are breakthrough in driving any headphones. Amazing punch, clarity, speed. Built like a tank, epic dac, epic amp. Regarding price cma400i is a killer. But you have to listen to it and let your ears be the judge. I was able to listen HD700 and HE-4 on it and was shocked. Don't be fooled by the site, have a look into the design, all features and sound.

I wonder how it measures but after what I heard, I wouldn't care much. Just the curiosity.
 
OP
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W2S

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Hi tired_guru

Thanks much appreciated just need to find a local dealer who has one I can demo.

My choices are CMA400i or RME ADI-2 Dac

Keith is sorting out a RME loaner so I can test in home environment before purchasing not so easy for the Questyle
 

tired_guru

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CMA400i sounded great to my ears especially with neutral, fast and clear headphones (T1 gen 2, HE-4, HD700, T90). It has a lot of power without hint of distortion, changeable GAIN, TRUE DSD processing without PCM conversion. Muting relays for power-on & power-off transients. USB isolation is great. DAC chip is top notch AK4490. Great low phase noise clocks. CMA400i looks great especially with transparent top.

I had a chance to compare it directly with pioneer u-05, aune s6 and ifi dac. It was like OK, but after I checked out cma400i it was like enlightment, at least with mentioned headphones. Punchy, with amazing depth, resolution, with a lot of weight and authority, focus, great tonality, attack and decay.

As I am great fan of companies like AUNE, S6 in my opinion had to let go in this competition. CMA400i was more like epic S16 from AUNE which is now discontinued regarding the sound (only DAC section of S16, because the amp is not so good there, amp in CMA400i is amongst the best)
 
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OP
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W2S

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Hi tired_guru

Headphones I'm running are the Audeze LCD2F & LCD2C open and a pair of Oppo PM-3 sounds like the Questyle CMA400i could be a good match.

Did you have the plexiglass top? Were did you get from?

Thanks
 

ShiZo

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I liked my rme adi 2 dac much better.
 
OP
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W2S

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Thanks Everyone

Think for now going to stick to the RME ADI-2 Dac

But if I get an opportunity to Demo the Questyle CMA400i I will

Would be nice if Amirm had a CMA400i to test but looking at all the features and Warranty of 5 years on the RME looks better Value
 

tired_guru

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Hi tired_guru

Headphones I'm running are the Audeze LCD2F & LCD2C open and a pair of Oppo PM-3 sounds like the Questyle CMA400i could be a good match.

Did you have the plexiglass top? Were did you get from?

Thanks

You can buy it separately if you ask your dealer. It is about 20-30$.

I think you should try both units by your own ears, never according to other users personal opinion (mine or others). By listening to subjective opinion you're on the best way for a big disappointment.
 
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Noldur

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@ShiZo

You wrote "I liked my rme adi 2 dac much better. "

Could you describe, please, what exactly you liked better on the RME Adi-2 DAC?
And better than which device? Questyle 600? 400? Both?
Do you think the Questyle are coloring the sound a bit, for example?
Would be great to hear more details, because i'm interested in either one of them, and it's difficult to get them all at the same time....

Thank you!
 

ShiZo

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Dac vs Dac I don't know. But when compared as units the amp section on the adi destroyed the questyle 400i.

The 400 was really quite. Maybe the 800 wouldn't suffer from that. And also I didn't hook the questyle to another amp. So I don't know the quality of dac vs dac once again.

But isn't their amp technology supposed to be good? The 400 couldn't drive easy to drive headphones.
 

Noldur

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Thank you! A friend of mine first tested the ADI-2, found it very good, very accurate, but nothing really special, not really involving, then ordered the Questyle 400, and was very impressed by its "musicality", he enjoyed the Questyle much more, he felt the Que was much more involving. Bought a 600i finally and is very happy. It would be very interesting if the Questyles are coloring the sound a bit, and maybe the RME is the more neutral one... I would use both devices to drive my active monitors as DAC + Pre combination, Headphones would be only an additional usecase....
 

ShiZo

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At the time I was only interested in driving headphones, so that's the only thing I judged it on. It definitely sounded clean, it just didn't have enough power for my liking. It didn't sound like it colored the sound at all to me. Now you have me wondering how it would have sounded as a dac with my thx hpa4 with headphones and as a preout.
 

escalibur

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I’ve heard many positive comments regarding Questyle but their support is very poor. You can read some stories at Head-Fi.
 

JJB70

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As a general observation you find out a lot about a company when things go wrong.
 
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