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Review and Measurements of CHORD Qutest DAC

GMG

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Hi @amirm,
Could you please elaborate if the near perfect Jitter rejection was measured with the USB or BNC inputs?

Also, with such jitter performance would you say that a USB reclocker such as the Holo Audio Titanis would have any benefit?


Many Thanks
 
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DSJR

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What about all the other advertisers who DIDN'T get Product of the Year? (the loss of subsequent Ad revenue from them must add up to more than the winning bid by Chord)
I'm being cruel, but knowing what I know, I wonder if any of the 'team' deciding the products of the year really know what they're on about frankly.. This isn't the Australian arm of the mag which does seem to know, just a collection of journalists having some fun as they work their way up to 'What Car.' I mean, QED 'Silver Anniversary' speaker cable won WTF awards year after year after year and yet it was absolutely ghastly stuff (it's ghastliness was so repeatably audible in many systems and rooms it *must* be measurable in some way :D )
 

Ler0ck

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Does it?

There's no proof of that. Nothing measured nor heard in proper controlled listening tells us that would be the case.
Maybe you are right, when you spent a lot of money and expect a return must be better?. But how about a price in comparison?
 

Frank Dernie

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https://goldensound.audio/2022/03/14/chord-dave-measurements-with-mscaler/ from a review, I see that Dave isn’t better Qutest in measurement but I wonder what is a reason why dave sound better qutest?
When I compared DACs as soon as the levels were actually matched the differences I thought I heard were not there.
I could hear differences between some of the reconstruction filter choices on my dCS DAC but not between it with a normal filter and others.
Some reconstruction filters roil off early and some leave artefacts in the audible range, which could explain it.
 

Ler0ck

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When I compared DACs as soon as the levels were actually matched the differences I thought I heard were not there.
I could hear differences between some of the reconstruction filter choices on my dCS DAC but not between it with a normal filter and others.
Some reconstruction filters roil off early and some leave artefacts in the audible range, which could explain it.
So, I think we should use a diference instead of better?
 

RustyGates

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https://goldensound.audio/2022/03/14/chord-dave-measurements-with-mscaler/ from a review, I see that Dave isn’t better Qutest in measurement but I wonder what is a reason why dave sound better qutest?

Because those measurements were done very sh*tly maybe.

Rob has his own APx555 results, and you can see measurements on HiFi news, HiFi world and Stereophile (Rob also shows his results for a -90dB small signal 16 bit and 24 bit sine, because this seems to be a problem measured on the 2722)
 

Ler0ck

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Because those measurements were done very sh*tly maybe.

Rob has his own APx555 results, and you can see measurements on HiFi news, HiFi world and Stereophile (Rob also shows his results for a -90dB small signal 16 bit and 24 bit sine, because this seems to be a problem measured on the 2722)
I’m asking about dave va qutest mesurements result almost identical. If amir and golden sound measure skill not enough good, then…?
 

Jimbob54

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I’m asking about dave va qutest mesurements result almost identical. If amir and golden sound measure skill not enough good, then…?
It's almost as if beyond a certain point price outstrips meaningful engineering improvements...
 

Killingbeans

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If amir and golden sound measure skill not enough good, then…?

I wouldn't bet on it. A more likely explanation would be that the listening "tests" establishing an audible difference between the Dave and the Qutest were heavily biased.
 

geoffgjones

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Well, I have had the pleasure of listening to a lot of DACs, including Topping, Shitt, dCS, Khardis as well as the top end Chord DAVE. I also listened to their Mscaller. Qutest was either better, of in the case of DAVE as good as. Mscaller made no difference to my ears. You pays your money and you makes your choice! I am enjoying the Qutest.
 

ShiZo

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Wonder how the dac filters are on this thing
 

Jimbob54

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Wonder how the dac filters are on this thing
I would imagine technically excellent given the rest of the range.

Edit, it's in the review post....

1658345915250.png
 
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Womaz

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Does anyone using the Qutest hear a difference with the different filters?
I am not sure I can . I tried switching about a little between them all at first and could not really hear a difference ,
I used it on the white filter for 7 months and decided to switch it to the red filter as that’s probably the most different .
Again I was not sure I could hear any difference
I have had it on red filter for about a month or so now , so decided to switch back to the white …….I think I may now hear a difference . It is a small difference but I think I prefer the red filter .
I know and understand this may be my ears playing tricks on me
 

dananski

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Does anyone using the Qutest hear a difference with the different filters?
I am not sure I can . I tried switching about a little between them all at first and could not really hear a difference ,
I used it on the white filter for 7 months and decided to switch it to the red filter as that’s probably the most different .
Again I was not sure I could hear any difference
I have had it on red filter for about a month or so now , so decided to switch back to the white …….I think I may now hear a difference . It is a small difference but I think I prefer the red filter .
I know and understand this may be my ears playing tricks on me
I tried the Qutest for a few weeks and thought I heard a bit of a difference in the filters, mainly between white and red. The fact you have to cycle through four makes it hard to compare them. In the frequency response graph in this review you see white and orange are identical and green and red are identical, but these 'identical' pairs are not adjacent in the cycle so it's a bit hard to test for any subjective difference - seems quite convenient for Chord to have arranged them that way!

But the adjacent changes were noticeable. I didn't really appreciate any but white (claimed to be the most true to the source), unless there was something about the track that benefitted from the treble reduction on green/red, e.g. old recording. I think I found one track I thought I preferred orange for. If you like red, you might have more treble than you like coming from downstream components, so you might find green to your taste too.

However, bear in mind it's easy to think there's a difference when your entire room is lit up a different colour. The filters on my E50 seemed to have differences until I did a blind test and couldn't tell them apart. That's a choice of simply 1, 2 or 3, yet seeing the numbers evidently has some synesthetic influence on the sound.

And the fact that I liked, for example, the red glow in my room while listening to old jazz records... probably indicates some major influence on me that was nothing to do with the sound! I should've tried the blind test with the Qutest filters when I was demoing it - perhaps you could try that yourself.
 

wav3form

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Hey all... I just added a Qutest to my setup and I have it hooked up to my iFi Zen Stream via USB. Is there a universally preferred way to connect to the Qutest? As I do more research, I'm finding that some people prefer the BNC connection over the USB and optical. I can get a RCA to BNC cable to try out if it's worth the effort.
 

Killingbeans

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Is there a universally preferred way to connect to the Qutest?

Probably not. I bet it changes from person to person depending on which connector myths are prevalent in their heads.

If you filter out all of the reports based on anxiety you get: Doesn't matter. User whatever's most practical to you. In this case USB.
 
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