Review and Measurements of CHORD Qutest DAC

[Veri]

Valves are less accurate, more distortion, but it's good distortion according to some.
https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/why-tubes-sound-better.htm

Why tubes are better:

They Glow
They Pretty.

 

[Frank Dernie]

You are 100% right and somewhat wrong. What are the measurements that count? What gives us our emotional bang for our buck? It might be out there and I haven't come across it, but the right psycho acoustic research could tell us which measurements are most important.

Valves are less accurate, more distortion, but it's good distortion according to some.

https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/why-tubes-sound-better.htm

There are NO measurements to tell you what will give more emotion for the buck because the equipment isn't in the "emotion" loop.
Emotion has NOTHING to do with equipment performance and so will never be quantified by any measurement of hardware.

A sound desk f*cking it up has NOTHING to do with equipment at all and everything to do with the cretin at the controls getting the sound balance and mix of the (probably too many for him to get his head round) inputs and playing about with special effects too much.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Valves are less accurate, more distortion, but it's good distortion according to some.

Well designed valve devices are indistinguishable from solid state on normal speaker loads.
On hard to drive speakers their high output impedance may alter the frequency response of the speaker so will sound different, and, if expensive enough, better.
There is nothing like high price and nice looks to make a bit of electronics seem to sound better.
Most have distortion levels below audibility.
I use one of my valve amps for nostalgia and looks with the lights down on a winter evening. Not for sound quality and certainly not in the futile quest for more emotion.

 

[Sam Spade]

Why tubes are better:

They Glow
They Pretty.

I have only owned one piece of valve equipment and it doesn't glow. The overall unit is pretty.

And I'm about to sell it because it doesn't have a headphone output and its SQ is just shaded by my new Burson conductor 3X ref. But it's probably the most beautiful thing I've ever owned in function and form plus it's #176/500.

I'd like to keep it but I upgrade my gear occasionally and do it properly and discovered headfi and carfi properly in the last 2 years.............. $$$$$

https://hometheaterreview.com/musical-fidelity-nu-vista-preamp-reviewed/

Ken Rockwell has a good take on valves and lotsa other things and he writes well. He hasn't convinced me to add glass components to my hifi. But what he writes makes sense.

 

[Sam Spade]

There are NO measurements to tell you what will give more emotion for the buck because the equipment isn't in the "emotion" loop.
Emotion has NOTHING to do with equipment performance and so will never be quantified by any measurement of hardware.

A sound desk f*cking it up has NOTHING to do with equipment at all and everything to do with the cretin at the controls getting the sound balance and mix of the (probably too many for him to get his head round) inputs and playing about with special effects too much.

I agree with much you say but some of this we're going to have to agree to disagree. I'll try and explain my position better in a future post. and I'll link to a writer that explains it much better than me. I hate to appeal to authority but one of my majors is psychology, the other ecology. Both fields where it is difficult to measure things compared to physics and chemistry. It's not so deterministic and you end up having to rely on statistics and probability. Using these tools properly you can absolutely take an acoustic parameter, or piece of equipment, and measure emotional response.

I should start a new thread.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I agree with much you say but some of this we're going to have to agree to disagree. I'll try and explain my position better in a future post. and I'll link to a writer that explains it much better than me. I hate to appeal to authority but one of my majors is psychology, the other ecology. Both fields where it is difficult to measure things compared to physics and chemistry. It's not so deterministic and you end up having to rely on statistics and probability. Using these tools properly you can absolutely take an acoustic parameter, or piece of equipment, and measure emotional response.

I should start a new thread.

I wait with interest.
I am aware of the emotional response to equipment that is reasuringly expensive, attractive looking and persuasively marketed and I am well aware that statistics is the only way to assess some sciences in the absence of any possibility for simple rigourous proof.

 

[Sam Spade]

I wait with interest.
I am aware of the emotional response to equipment that is reasuringly expensive, attractive looking and persuasively marketed and I am well aware that statistics is the only way to assess some sciences in the absence of any possibility for simple rigourous proof.

Double blind trials are rigorous proof. But the industry has no interest in or benefit justifying them. I have 4 different audeze headphones , shure 530SE and some very disappointing sennheisers. they give me different emotional satisfaction but im well aware it's not blind testing and placebo might be a factor

 

[Frank Dernie]

they give me different emotional satisfaction

Intriguing.
I have never found any piece of kit changed my emotional response to my recordings, speaker systems, car stereos, travelling headphone kit, all rely on the music itself for emotion - all that varies is the breadth of frequency response, distortion and loudness capability.
Better is always nice for me but more emotionally satisfying? Not noticed it in 50+ years.

 

[Sam Spade]

Intriguing.
I have never found any piece of kit changed my emotional response to my recordings, speaker systems, car stereos, travelling headphone kit, all rely on the music itself for emotion - all that varies is the breadth of frequency response, distortion and loudness capability.
Better is always nice for me but more emotionally satisfying? Not noticed it in 50+ years.

Well i hadn't contemplated differences in human reactions like this but it makes sense. You are absolutely right the music has to be right, have emotional value to one in the first place. Good music imperfectly reduced can be emotional.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Good music imperfectly reduced can be emotional.

Absolutely!
My musical tastes are very wide and some of the music I love is only available in old technically weak recordings but I get more emotional satisfaction from them than a lot of the sterile audiophile recordings heard at shows and demos!
This fabulous song was written by Geeshie Wiley who is something of an unknown but several people have recorded it.
This her singing it in the 1930s (I think)
I don't need a hifi for this to be emotional - in fact the audio shortcomings are less obvious on my laptop speakers than 'speakers or 'phones.
Edit this is the right one, youtube had moved on when I copied the link

 

[Deleted member 24508]

They all have much, much worse distortion than this DAC so again, the performance of this unit is lost on them.

Own Vincent pre / power MK amps, believe me the detail from the Chord Cutest is far from lost. Forget the figures and listen.

 

[VintageFlanker]

believe me

Why would we?

Forget the figures

Any reason for your membership, then? No pun intended. Seriously asking.

 

[BDWoody]

Own Vincent pre / power MK amps, believe me the detail from the Chord Cutest is far from lost. Forget the figures and listen.

Uh huh.

 

[Deleted member 24508]

Why would we?

Any reason for your membership, then? No pun intended. Seriously asking.

Measurements are fine they are however not the whole picture.

 

[Veri]

Measurements are fine they are however not the whole picture.

A cheap way out if you have nothing specific that could paint this "whole picture". If you've got nothing it's essentially magic particles doing their thing...

 

[Deleted member 24508]

Their are lots of audiophiles who love analogue, if you only look at measurements then this is crazy.

 

[DeepSpace57]

Why tubes are better:

They Glow
They Pretty.

nope, it has something like a liquid sound signature and providing holographic characteristics. That s why someone `saying, like ohh no differences! all things come from your mind, let's do an A/B testing` cannot do any A/B testing a proper tube amp/DAC with a proper solid-state amp/DAC. You can IMMEDİATELY (at the first second) notice the difference.

 

[Jimbob54]

nope, it has something like a liquid sound signature and providing holographic characteristics. That s why someone `saying, like ohh no differences! all things come from your mind, let's do an A/B testing` cannot do any A/B testing a proper tube amp/DAC with a proper solid-state amp/DAC. You can IMMEDİATELY (at the first second) notice the difference.

Its euphonic distortion. And if its audible, the question isnt whether its better or worse, its whether you want that sound adding to your chain or not. If transparency is your goal, they are terrible but doesnt stop anyone preferring that.

 

[DeepSpace57]

Its euphonic distortion. And if its audible, the question isnt whether its better or worse, its whether you want that sound adding to your chain or not. If transparency is your goal, they are terrible but doesnt stop anyone preferring that.

Wonderful comment ! I think to enough to have a properly-designed USB DAC/AMP like 9038s. It gives you everything about transparency. After listening it, i sold my amp (SINAD 117db) and DAC (SINAD 119db). No point to invest in DAC AMP combo/ stacks etc at all. However, the change of even tubes themselves on the same board speculate the sound I hear. A different tube sounds in a different way like natural equaliser, thicked sound with a buttery effect etc by still having a black background. I think people refer `tube magic` to this. And this exists!

All in all, no point to underestimate `tube lovers` saying like tubes glove and look pretty. So I mean thousand of the tube funs are not psychopath due to investing huge amount of money into just tube rolling. This happens for a reason.

 

[Jimbob54]

Wonderful comment ! I think to enough to have a properly-designed USB DAC/AMP like 9038s. It gives you everything about transparency. After listening it, i sold my amp (SINAD 117db) and DAC (SINAD 119db). No point to invest in DAC AMP combo/ stacks etc at all. However, even tubes themselves on the same board speculate the sound I hear. A different tube sounds in a different way like natural equaliser, thicked sound with a buttery effect etc by still having a black background. I think people refer `tube magic` to this. And this exists!

All in all, no point to underestimate `tube lovers` saying like tubes glove and look pretty. So I mean thousand of the tube funs are not psychopath at investing huge amount of money into just tube rolling. This happens for a reason.

Yes, but I think all people that claim to prefer tubes might be advised to do level matched unsighted testing before they invest too much. Some tube set ups may not bring anything (or as much as expected) to the table when you take the visual stimuli away.