Review and Measurements of Chord Mojo DAC and Amp

[derp1n]

custom DAC implemented in an ASIC (custom integrated circuit)

FPGA, not ASIC.

 

[Kyle / MrHeeHo]

I own one and am a happy owner (I picked it because of its size, much more travel friendly than the Black Label) of one but in an ideal world the Mojo would have gotten a revision by now that fixes its issues. Rob Watts/Chord made the Hugo 2 because there were so many issues with the Hugo. The Mojo is definitely a case where they could and have the knowhow to easily make an improved product but it sells so well they don't feel the need to.

 

[derp1n]

After the disaster that is the Chord Poly, I'm not sure they do have the know-how.

 

[amirm]

FPGA, not ASIC.

Ah, no wonder it is expensive and uses more power. I will correct the original review. Thanks.

 

[xineis]

After the disaster that is the Chord Poly, I'm not sure they do have the know-how.

What disaster?

 

[derp1n]

What disaster?

It's a $750 USD piece of crap. The issues with the hardware, software, and broken promises are multitudinous. Probably Chord's most embarrassing product.

 

[cjfrbw]

Three pages and no death threats from HeadFi.Org yet?

 

[Jorj]

I also have a Mojo and like it just fine. Good noise floor. It drives HD6xx's to uncomfortable levels just fine, IMO. I got it used for a bit over $300, so I figure it's worth that, maybe.

I'm way more excited about this....Monolith THX AAA 789 Portable DAC Amp....AKM 4493 DAC, the apparently excellent THX AAA amp section, and just for fun, some Dirac DSP! I have mine on the way.

 

[amirm]

I'm way more excited about this....Monolith THX AAA 789 Portable DAC Amp....AKM 4493 DAC, the apparently excellent THX AAA amp section, and just for fun, some Dirac DSP! I have mine on the way.

Mine is coming too although I may be on the road when it arrives. Would be very interesting to compare the two!

 

[Jorj]

@amirm I wonder if you thought to test the dual headphone outputs. It's not a common feature these days, and I'm curious if having two different loads present have any interesting effects.

 

[amirm]

@amirm I wonder if you thought to test the dual headphone outputs. It's not a common feature these days, and I'm curious if having two different loads present have any interesting effects.

I have not tested it specifically. I assume they are just in parallel with each other. By accident I had my dummy load connected to one and headphone to the other and seemed to work fine.

 

[Thomas Savage]

While this would fit @Frank Dernie mandate for bad engineering practice and seemingly amirs too , Rob Watts has set himself a technical challenge that sustains his intrest and managed to harness this to achieve great success.

It’s a indulgence , it’s got little to do with real performance but it’s not Rob Watts who’s at fault here or indeed any of the other audio designers who have similarly indulgent mo’s. It’s our fault for affirming this behaviour by buying these products, you really can’t blame Watts, he stumbled onto a winning formula so good for him.

You make a product to fit demand and Rob has managed to keep himself interested technically at the same time in a world where many of the problems are solved already.

 

[Wombat]

While this would fit @Frank Dernie mandate for bad engineering practice and seemingly amirs too , Rob Watts has set himself a technical challenge that sustains his intrest and managed to harness this to achieve great success.

It’s a indulgence , it’s got little to do with real performance but it’s not Rob Watts who’s at fault here or indeed any of the other audio designers who have similarly indulgent mo’s. It’s our fault for affirming this behaviour by buying these products, you really can’t blame Watts, he stumbled onto a winning formula so good for him.

You make a product to fit demand and Rob has managed to keep himself interested technically at the same time in a world where many of the problems are solved already.

People kept buying Alfa Romeos even when their excessive susceptibility to the tin-termite was well known. Marketing hitting a bulls-eye on the target consumer.

 

[Blumlein 88]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QhJo_Rh8sQsItFvJ1g-MnNlg9pBR6oja/view

HiFi Critic article by Keith Howard about the Chord reasoning behind its filters and so many taps. All part of the marketing baby.

Watts says the Mojo has zero noise floor modulation, and other DACs have a huge amount of it. I guess he forgot about not just modulation of the noise floor by the signal, but modulation of the device by noise. OOOPS!

 

[JJB70]

I wouldn't quite put Chord in the same category of Schiit. Rob Watts indulges in the same sort of snake oil hyperbole as much of the rest of the industry, aided and abetted by magazine reviewers and web fans, but he is also clearly a very intelligent guy who does have a lot of technical capability (and despite the battery issues I'm not aware of their products being a potential electrocution hazard in the way some of Schiit's have been). And while I don't like his snake oil mystery stuff he isn't quite in the same class as that guy at Schiit who seems incapable of any other than nasty ad hominem attacks.

 

[Merkurio]

Great job @amirm

Thanks for the review, much anticipated!

 

[urfaust]

Thanks for the review. Can we expect any difference with SPDIF? i can almost certainly remember Rob Watts stating from somewhere it was the better option for the Mojo.

Edit: Found the quote

I am getting rather different sound from coax and USB inputs with the latter sounding better, what’s the reason for this?
It’s complicated and depends upon a number of factors - principally the amount of RF noise injected into the Mojo, and the amount of correlated noise that gets in. It will depend upon the source device as to which sounds best. My preference is optical, as this has the smoothest sound quality and best depth, as it does not suffer from both of the aforementioned problems.

http://www.the-ear.net/how-to/rob-watts-chord-mojo-tech

 

[graz_lag]

People kept buying Alfa Romeos even when their excessive susceptibility to the tin-termite was well known. Marketing hitting a bulls-eye on the target consumer.

We are livestock in the marketing people backyards, they work hard to feed us with the best high-quality feed ...

 

[derp1n]

Maybe it needs 40 ferrite beads on the USB cable. Or Watts could've just engineered it correctly so this isn't an issue.

 

[graz_lag]

Maybe it needs 40 ferrite beads on the USB cable. Or Watts could've just engineered it correctly so this isn't an issue.

Hoping not !
They would be trying to sell you one small package of the Chords' snake oil ferrite clamps for the price of a million clamps from RS Components ...