Review and Measurements of Chord Mojo DAC and Amp

[Simon P]

Also based on the utter and profound lack of any evidence to the contrary.

Depends on what you admit as evidence. 'ESP is real... but cannot be tested with the clumsy tools of science' Freeman Dyson

 

[BDWoody]

Depends on what you admit as evidence. 'ESP is real... but cannot be tested with the clumsy tools of science' Freeman Dyson

If we can't start with 2+2=4, then we aren't going to really have common ground to work with.

Not sure how asking someone to demonstrate what they claim to hear leads to questioning the tools provided by the scientific method. I can jump 20' high. You can't prove I can't, and I won't demonstrate that I can, but I just can. Seems nutty, but not in the hi-fi world.

So, I think this is the point where we let you move on to other threads.

 

[Frank Dernie]

You'd think so based on measurement, I agree.

And, IME by listening.

All my points were and are about audibility, none whatsoever about measurement - though I do understand the measurements do confirm the laws of physics have not been repealed.

Having made music recordings since the 1960s on tape and digital I have been able to compare microphone feed with recording all that time.
No analogue recorder ever sounded like the microphone feed at either the frequency or dynamic range extremes.
.
The first digital recorder was good enough 30 years ago to be indistinguishable from the microphone feed, though I may not have been listening critically enough to notice tiny differences - the massive improvement over analogue was so audibly mind blowing.

I have never measured a digital recorder, though it was my job to do R&D on record players in the 1970s, I have listed to a lot of LPs and studied the experts knowledge base at Bruel and Kjaer back then. Nothing new other than marketing since then as far as I have seen.
I have done plenty of measurements on analogue kit - I am very experienced at its strengths and weaknesses both from measurement and decades of listening experience.
I have aligned as best as was feasible, a quite a few tape recorders.

If you think analogue sounds nicer than digital, fill your boots, it can sound really nice. An accurate reproduction of the microphone? No.

 

[Frank Dernie]

You do know that most recording studios have gone digital all the way?

Of course I do.
Back when I was still involved digital samples were being looked into for groove spacing and anti-pre echo tweaks by specialists (not me ) but not used yet for recording.

I only worked in audio during the 100% analogue era.

My listening experience with digital is only that - as a listener.

As a person looking into how to solve, or mainly to hide, shortcomings in audio I was working entirely in the analogue era.

Which is why I find relatively young people writing total bollox about analogue these days so exasperating.

 

[xaxxon]

Nice review. Once again demonstrating that the marketing department has a greater impact on sound perception than the engineers.

The real problem is when they’re both the same person. Happens far too often in the audio world. There is no solution because the person with the power to fix it doesn’t believe a problem exists.

 

[Leif]

There are unhappy owners out there with failed batteries just outside of warranty who had to pay Chord an obscene amount ($200 give or take) for replacement.

I own a Chord Mojo and I hate it. Yes it runs warm, if not hot, which reduces the lifetime of the battery and the electronics. With my iPhone I have to connect a stupid adapter cable dongle. And even worse, it always runs off the battery. Lithium ion are only good for about 500 charge cycles, so a regular user would wear out the battery in two years. Who in the world would design something so stupid?

Chord charge UK users £80 to replace the battery and return it by insured post, so £90 if you include sending it to them with insurance. That is £90 every two years, until they stop support. Mine died after two and a half years. I ’ve ordered a cheap battery to check if it is the battery or the circuitry that has failed.

Do the magazine reviews mention this serious design flaw? Nope. A non user replaceable battery with a short lifetime. You can’t even buy the correct battery and install it yourself. (I bought a cheapy, probably low quality and low capacity.)

And I completely agree with Amir regarding the user interface. It is horrible. Really horrible.

If it had simply sliders or rotary controls, and ran from user replaceable rechargeable NiMH cells, it would be good.

I think (some) magazines are staffed by little children who get off on the cool CNC machined casing, and techo marketing from Chord. It is almost as if the reviewers have no technical knowledge, no understanding of electronics. Yes I thought it looked great, and no I did not realise the internal battery has a short lifetime, and is not user replaceable. Isn’t that the point of reviews, the experts tell us the truth, warts and all? Or do they just go to nice manufacturer provided junkets, with tasty nibbles and wine on tap, and suck up the marketing spiel?

I paid £400 for this POS. Which lasted just over two years.

 

[AdamG]

I think (some) magazines are staffed by little children who get off on the cool CNC machined casing, and techo marketing from Chord

Simply put. They are paid reviewers. Paid indirectly or directly from the Manufacturers of the gear they review. Manufacturers don’t pay for bad reviews and the more lofty worded reviews get paid more. It’s not a secret. Salespeople poorly disguised as independent journalists/contractors.

 

[Jimster480]

Simply put. They are paid reviewers. Paid indirectly or directly from the Manufacturers of the gear they review. Manufacturers don’t pay for bad reviews and the more lofty worded reviews get paid more. It’s not a secret. Salespeople poorly disguised as independent journalists/contractors.

I agree, most of the "reviewers" are just paid shills. They are paid to repeat information given to them by the manufacturer and most don't have the capability of testing anything.
As a person who does reviews on products, I try my best to actually test the product and make some determinations about it; however since I don't have many items for long periods of time or it isn't practically possible for me to use the product every day for a long time; it is hard to learn about long term flaws. Some products I do keep and use every day and often do find their long term flaws and update the reviews for them.... but by then the time has already passed.
The world has become complicated with a constant flow of products and everyone being bombarded and onto the next thing so fast that few longevity reviews are done and product durability is barely tested. So therefore we live in a world of mostly throw-away stuff that is rapidly piling up in landfills and recyclers everywhere at a pace that is totally unsustainable for another half a century at the very most.

 

[Leif]

I will not get into a back-and -forth arguments on this.
"Test of time" in this case means, there are plenty of people willing to pay between 50/60 percent of the new price for DACs that are over 5 year old in design.
I suppose they are all stupid or under some kind of spell! They should all save their money and buy a new Topping.
I sold my Mojo with a new $20 Aliexpress battery (declared) on eBay for £225 (new £400), I now miss it, trying to buy one cheap with a bad battery for less than £180 is nigh impossible! Hugo2 goes consistently at over £1100 (new £1800).
Finding a Hugo TT2 for less than £2.5K has been impossible, I am still looking.
That is test of time.
Audible improvement is a subjective issue.

I bought my Chord Mojo on the strength of reviews, and I am sure most people do likewise. I used to buy WhatHiFi magazine when buying new audio gear, to find out what was good. In the case of a DAC it is very hard to compare competing products, to me they all sound the same, assuming a reasonable quality. And I do have decent headphones. Decent DAC chips can be bought for a mere £10 from the manufacturer. In my opinion most people when buying a product such as a DAC check out magazine and online reviews, check out the spec, look at photos of the product, and then sometimes try one out in a shop. Social media influencers are indeed influential.

I find it incredibly hard to compare products such as DACs where differences if any are subtle, and swapping between products takes a few seconds. I could not tell any difference between my Chord Mojo and the Apple DAC dongle, apart from maximum volume of course. I was pleased to see that the Apple DAC dongle measures extremely well, so perhaps I am not so dumb. My headphones all sound very different, the Sennheiser HD600 is nice, but the Audeze Sine sounds so much better.

And thank you for the battery recommendation, I had already ordered one, and it is on its way, but it’s nice to know it performs okay.

 

[raif71]

I bought mine 2nd hand and that was in 2020... still running. Now pairing it with my Sony NW-A105. Happy as a clam

 

[ahofer]

I could not tell any difference between my Chord Mojo and the Apple DAC dongle

Mind-blowing when you try this sort of thing, however likely the science suggests it is.

 

[Leif]

Mind-blowing when you try this sort of thing, however likely the science suggests it is.

Yes. I thought I was imagining it until I saw Amin’s measurements of each device, and similar comments from others in this thread. A large corporation can throw a lot of resources at a problem, to design a very good and small chip that can be mass produced for small money. Even if it cost £1,000,000 to design, they must have sold hundreds of millions of them, so the cost of R&D is easily covered at a modest unit price.

 

[ahofer]

Yes. I thought I was imagining it until I saw Amin’s measurements of each device, and similar comments from others in this thread. A large corporation can throw a lot of resources at a problem, to design a very good and small chip that can be mass produced for small money. Even if it cost £1,000,000 to design, they must have sold hundreds of millions of them, so the cost of R&D is easily covered at a modest unit price.

I'm used to DAC-on-a-chip, but amp-on-a-chip still boggles.

 

[Blashyrkh]

I have one since 2017/2018 and still working fine, but the battery doens't last more than 5/6 hours.
I am about to sell it, since I have used it mainly as desktop amp and don't need portability anymore, but would like to refresh the battery.

Is there a battery seller in Europe (Italy) that sells it at a reasonable price?

 

[Leif]

I have one since 2017/2018 and still working fine, but the battery doens't last more than 5/6 hours.
I am about to sell it, since I have used it mainly as desktop amp and don't need portability anymore, but would like to refresh the battery.

Is there a battery seller in Europe (Italy) that sells it at a reasonable price?

According to Chord, they do not sell batteries, you must send it to them. There is also a shop in South London that provides a battery replacement service. You could contact Chord and ask them if there is a shop in Italy. Chord quoted me about £80, and I believe that is without VAT, so the total cost to replace would be over £100 including shipping from my home. My view is that the price is extortionate, then again that is the business model of Chord.

I bought a battery from Aliexpress and installed it myself. Installation is easy enough, however the battery is an unknown. Capacity is okay, but you won't have the guarantee that the battery has the correct protection circuits. So when charging it is safest to place it in a metal tray in a garage or other area outside your home.

 

[oufloued]

I will not get into a back-and -forth arguments on this.
"Test of time" in this case means, there are plenty of people willing to pay between 50/60 percent of the new price for DACs that are over 5 year old in design.
I suppose they are all stupid or under some kind of spell! They should all save their money and buy a new Topping.
I sold my Mojo with a new $20 Aliexpress battery (declared) on eBay for £225 (new £400), I now miss it, trying to buy one cheap with a bad battery for less than £180 is nigh impossible! Hugo2 goes consistently at over £1100 (new £1800).
Finding a Hugo TT2 for less than £2.5K has been impossible, I am still looking.
That is test of time.
Audible improvement is a subjective issue.

well, i also like the mojo, which i got luckily at ebay.de for around 220,- €.
made me happy that's how it goes, sometimes, right?

but i was curious about the battery life.
after some months i noticed a decrease of sound quality, subjectively and i removed the battery. - but didnt replace it!
now i am powering it with smartphone charger or - with a slightly better feeling - by power bank. indeed, the full mojo sound is back
hopefully i am not killing it that way!? oO

(PS: i also got topping d10s, audiolab m-dac mini, and a fiio dongle … blind test ranking still ahead)

 

[Jimster480]

well, i also like the mojo, which i got luckily at ebay.de for around 220,- €.
made me happy that's how it goes, sometimes, right?

but i was curious about the battery life.
after some months i noticed a decrease of sound quality, subjectively and i removed the battery. - but didnt replace it!
now i am powering it with smartphone charger or - with a slightly better feeling - by power bank. indeed, the full mojo sound is back
hopefully i am not killing it that way!? oO

(PS: i also got topping d10s, audiolab m-dac mini, and a fiio dongle … blind test ranking still ahead)

Removing the battery should have no affect on the sound quality.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Removing the battery should have no affect on the sound quality.

Technically it should:
- the charge pump circuit on Mojo classic, is sufficient for charging, no more. its output is not clean enough. It relies on the battery itself for final smoothing.
- remember that the DAC side of all Chord products is single ended.
- The battery can supply current surges when required by the headphones, the charge circuit can not.
- on Mojo2 the PSU is upgraded because of the above since it has a desktop mode.
This has been discussed to death on Headfi. Some users have reported that taking the battery out does no harm, they'd been diing it for some time!
Scientificly, I can not see how that is possible.

 

[Blashyrkh]

Technically it should:
- the charge pump circuit on Mojo classic, is sufficient for charging, no more. its output is not clean enough. It relies on the battery itself for final smoothing.
- remember that the DAC side of all Chord products is single ended.
- The battery can supply current surges when required by the headphones, the charge circuit can not.
- on Mojo2 the PSU is upgraded because of the above since it has a desktop mode.
This has been discussed to death on Headfi. Some users have reported that taking the battery out does no harm, they'd been diing it for some time!
Scientificly, I can not see how that is possible.

So you suggest to keep the battery in even if used like desktop and replace it only when it dies?

they'd been diing it for some time!

What does it mean?

 

[Ken Tajalli]

So you suggest to keep the battery in even if used like desktop and replace it only when it dies?

Yes. or at least the largest capacitor you can fit inside.

What does it mean?

It's a typo!
.. doing it ....