This is a review and detailed measurements of CHORD Qutest DAC. It is on kind short-term loan from Gig Harbor Audio. I previously tested a the older generation, Chrodette and 2Qute DACs so naturally members were curious how the current product line performs. The retail price of the Qutest is USD $1895.
As I have noted before, CHORD uses a custom implemented DAC instead of using an existing DAC chip. The design sports very long tap filters as to better approximate an ideal low pass filter required for all digital to analog converters.
The unit is similar to older generation but feels a lot more hefty. It has the new iconic bubble light controls of other CHORD products:
Regular readers of the forum know that I am not a fan of this interface. While it is less confusing to use than some of the other CHORD products, I still can't fathom spending so much money on a DAC and then trying to decipher colors of LEDs which by the way don't match the manual. What is said to be white color for example seems bluish to me.
I had to get into the obscure settings for changing the output level to 2 volts as the default is oddly 3 volts as with the rest of the line I tested.
Another issue is lack of balanced output. In this price category, that is a mandatory feature and one that can come in very handy to remove ground loops.
Anyway, let's see how Qutest DAC does on the bench.
Measurements
Per above, I set the output to 2 volts so that it better compares with other DACs tested. Performance is essentially the same as 3 volts (Chord actually rates the unit at 2.5 volts):
This is exceptional performance. We only have a second harmonic and nothing else to the right of our 1 kHz tone. There are some mains related noise on the left which would have been absent if we had balanced output. Fortunately they are not an audible concern.
Needless to say this type of performance puts the CHORD Qutest at the top of the class of DACs tested:
Let's look at intermodulation distortion:
Very clean although not much different than the much cheaper Topping DX3 Pro I leave in there for reference.
Dynamic range is very good just the same:
There is exceptional rejection of jitter and spurious tones other than aforementioned power supply leaks:
Linearity is textbook perfect too, indicating accurate reproduction to 20 bits (limit of measurement):
Distortion versus frequency is very well behaved as compared to the $100 Khadas Tone Board:
For those of you who like the 32-tone test, here is the outcome of that:
The noise floor rises at low frequencies (relative to Khadas Tone board for example). Otherwise, the rest of the distortion products are all comfortably low.
There are four filter settings, crudely documented in the manual as such:
I tested a couple of them using square wave but it was not revealing of any differences:
So I resorted to zoomed frequency response tests, first at 44.1 kHz:
We see a pair of them having rolled off high frequency response and a pair without that. I doubt whatever Rob Watts is saying about differences on the overlapping ones to be audible.
The outcome did not change at higher sample rate of 192 kHz:
Full Nyquist bandwidth of 96 kHz is not maintained but this is fine and common.
Conclusions
From pure performance point of view, the CHORD Qutest nails all the tests I threw at it, garnering the top spot in DACs I have tested. On that front it should get a recommendation from me but I am hesitant to do so for a DAC costing so much but not having balanced outputs. If that is not a bother to you and you can afford it, the CHORD Qutest will provide exceptional performance and transparency to your audio system.
The CHORD Qutest shows that boutique/custom need not come with the heap of distortion as many others I have tested do. On that front, designer Rob Watts needs to be congratulated by not sacrificing measured performance for some unverified audiophile notion. Then again, I wonder how good of a DAC Rob could design using an off-the-shelf DAC chip. Likely would be just as good and cost a lot less....
-------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Have you priced prime quality steaks lately? I have and it costs a lot for me to have it a few nights a week. So please consider donating using:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or
upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).
As I have noted before, CHORD uses a custom implemented DAC instead of using an existing DAC chip. The design sports very long tap filters as to better approximate an ideal low pass filter required for all digital to analog converters.
The unit is similar to older generation but feels a lot more hefty. It has the new iconic bubble light controls of other CHORD products:
Regular readers of the forum know that I am not a fan of this interface. While it is less confusing to use than some of the other CHORD products, I still can't fathom spending so much money on a DAC and then trying to decipher colors of LEDs which by the way don't match the manual. What is said to be white color for example seems bluish to me.
I had to get into the obscure settings for changing the output level to 2 volts as the default is oddly 3 volts as with the rest of the line I tested.
Another issue is lack of balanced output. In this price category, that is a mandatory feature and one that can come in very handy to remove ground loops.
Anyway, let's see how Qutest DAC does on the bench.
Measurements
Per above, I set the output to 2 volts so that it better compares with other DACs tested. Performance is essentially the same as 3 volts (Chord actually rates the unit at 2.5 volts):
This is exceptional performance. We only have a second harmonic and nothing else to the right of our 1 kHz tone. There are some mains related noise on the left which would have been absent if we had balanced output. Fortunately they are not an audible concern.
Needless to say this type of performance puts the CHORD Qutest at the top of the class of DACs tested:
Let's look at intermodulation distortion:
Very clean although not much different than the much cheaper Topping DX3 Pro I leave in there for reference.
Dynamic range is very good just the same:
There is exceptional rejection of jitter and spurious tones other than aforementioned power supply leaks:
Linearity is textbook perfect too, indicating accurate reproduction to 20 bits (limit of measurement):
Distortion versus frequency is very well behaved as compared to the $100 Khadas Tone Board:
For those of you who like the 32-tone test, here is the outcome of that:
The noise floor rises at low frequencies (relative to Khadas Tone board for example). Otherwise, the rest of the distortion products are all comfortably low.
There are four filter settings, crudely documented in the manual as such:
I tested a couple of them using square wave but it was not revealing of any differences:
So I resorted to zoomed frequency response tests, first at 44.1 kHz:
We see a pair of them having rolled off high frequency response and a pair without that. I doubt whatever Rob Watts is saying about differences on the overlapping ones to be audible.
The outcome did not change at higher sample rate of 192 kHz:
Full Nyquist bandwidth of 96 kHz is not maintained but this is fine and common.
Conclusions
From pure performance point of view, the CHORD Qutest nails all the tests I threw at it, garnering the top spot in DACs I have tested. On that front it should get a recommendation from me but I am hesitant to do so for a DAC costing so much but not having balanced outputs. If that is not a bother to you and you can afford it, the CHORD Qutest will provide exceptional performance and transparency to your audio system.
The CHORD Qutest shows that boutique/custom need not come with the heap of distortion as many others I have tested do. On that front, designer Rob Watts needs to be congratulated by not sacrificing measured performance for some unverified audiophile notion. Then again, I wonder how good of a DAC Rob could design using an off-the-shelf DAC chip. Likely would be just as good and cost a lot less....
-------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Have you priced prime quality steaks lately? I have and it costs a lot for me to have it a few nights a week. So please consider donating using:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or
upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).
and while the SNR is really quite beautiful on this DAC I also don't understand how it does not have XLR output.
