Warszawa
pfm Member
I compared them many moons ago and the TT won out. It sounded more punchy and dynamic IIRC. As I recall, the QBD76 is a pain in the arse ergonomically unless you can place it on top of the rack.
The Chord DAC bandwagon
- Thread starter beammeup
- Start date
Suffolk Tony
Aim low, achieve your goals, avoid disappointment.
There's the QBD76, and the QBD76HDSD. I had the latter, but having never heard the former I can't comment on the difference. However, in my system I compared Hugo Mk I, TT, and Dave against the QBD. After extensive listening my order of preference was Dave, QBD, Hugo, TT. The difference between Dave & QBD was relatively small - I ended up borrowing Dave three times from my ever-helpful dealer, Signals, before I was convinced the extra outlay was worth it.
joe9407
actress/activist
Having faffed around with DACs, my advice is to figure out if you prefer transparency or a warmer, more euphonic sound. If you want a transparent DAC, there are many around that will do the job for not much dough. (A Topping D10 at $80 sounded more or less the same as my Hugo 2. It was an eye-opening experience.) I now have an RME ADI-2 and it does the job well.
If you want a warmer-sounding DAC, then you'll have to do some auditioning or buy a few s/h and compare and contrast. I'm afraid that in this case you'll have to spend more to get a device that measures worse than cheaper DACs, but is more to your taste.
eastone
pfm Member
Nope, me too. I practically had an allergic reaction to the Qutest, Completely synthetic sounding to my ears. Perhaps the pricier DACs are better, but they're so ugly I'll never find out
eastone
pfm Member
This mirrors my feeling with the Qutest, it was 'better' at everything than the DAC I had at the time, but completely unconvincing. I was always aware of it...
Try a Metrum. As good or better, resolution-wise, but effortless and natural.
beammeup
pfm Member
A second hand Metrum Octave perhaps? Do you own a Metrum?
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
Now that’s interesting! It says something about the engineering of the QBD HDSD. There’s not many in circulation on the S/h market which possibly has an explanation. I see it has pairs of BNC and AES inputs but I found nothing about dual data capability in the manual ( got excited for a moment that it might have taken an m-scaler).
eastone
pfm Member
I got a second hand Musette recently and knew within 24h that I had to get one of the current line up, which have the latest iteration of their in-house FPGA chip. So I’ve sold the Musette and ordered an Amethyst.
From what I’ve read the Octave suffered a bit at the frequency extremes but the newer models have overcome that. The Musette had startling detail and control in the lower registers.
Any system I have used a Chord DAC in has always sounded better when the DAC was configured like this:
pic by Rob Moores, on Flickr
pic by Rob Moores, on FlickrI tried a mojo but it sounded no better to my ears than a cheap Chinese USB powered ESS DAC I was using at the time, in fact I still have that lying around somewhere!
I found the UI of the mojo a bit daft as well so it didn't last long.
I have a qbd76HDSD and I have often felt lost / left behind after investing in the top of the range DAC at the time and then looking on as the "Taps" count was started with the launch of various mojo/ Hugo / TT/ DAVE dac's.
I never had the pleasure of listening to all the new alternatives but I value your opinion regarding the order of merit of the various DACS.
Suffolk Tony
Aim low, achieve your goals, avoid disappointment.
No, the QBD can't accept the scaler (I don't think it was even a gleam in Mr Watts' eye when he designed it), & you need drivers for a Mac as well as a PC. IIRC, the USB isn't isolated either, but it's easy enough to achieve this, should you want to use that input. Very quirky indeed, but who cares when it's up and running so well? Here's the QBD and DAVE side by side during my many home trials -
Snufkin
pfm Member
No, the QBD can't accept the scaler (I don't think it was even a gleam in Mr Watts' eye when he designed it), & you need drivers for a Mac as well as a PC. IIRC, the USB isn't isolated either, but it's easy enough to achieve this, should you want to use that input. Very quirky indeed, but who cares when it's up and running so well? Here's the QBD and DAVE side by side during my many home trials -
I know almost nothing about Chord and probably less about DAC’s but I love the ‘Jules Verne’ look those devices have.
mikechadwick
pfm Member
Switched off?Any system I have used a Chord DAC in has always sounded better when the DAC was configured like this:
mikechadwick
pfm Member
From my own experience a TT2/ Focal Utopia combo sounds really good. There seems to be a synergy between the two which emphasises the strengths and plays down the weaknesses of each component. YMMV of course.
Switched off and ideally not plugged in
. It was intended a little bit of humour. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy either of the Chord DAC's I owned. As you say though it is subjective and I could certainly see why it would be right for someone else.
System balance is essential too as you have pointed out.
Glad you enjoy yours.
Fretbuzz
pfm Member
The 2Qute has brought to me a weird (good) new dimensionality and palpable (believable) presence to digital. The same qualities that had always just separated digital from analogue in my set up. Also found it with the Mojo before, just less so. Haven't heard any higher end ones.
What’s interesting is how some find pretty much the opposite with them – sounding more digital.
There’s a front-to-back depth and imaging with the 2Qute that previous DACs/CDPs lacked. This might help my own set up as the speakers are tucked away in the corners, which is bound (I’d guess) to inhibit image depth. Could also be why some seem to find the Chords a bit ‘in your face’, as in too pushed forward if they already had that image depth. Again just a guess. I’ve had it before when auditioning speakers – some were too projective and it felt uncomfortable.
As above - subjective, and system-dependent, etc.
Previous digital used was mainly Quad Artera Play (used just as DAC towards the end), Audio Note One 1x, Rega DAC, and Cambridge 840C. All very nice in their own way.
What’s interesting is how some find pretty much the opposite with them – sounding more digital.
There’s a front-to-back depth and imaging with the 2Qute that previous DACs/CDPs lacked. This might help my own set up as the speakers are tucked away in the corners, which is bound (I’d guess) to inhibit image depth. Could also be why some seem to find the Chords a bit ‘in your face’, as in too pushed forward if they already had that image depth. Again just a guess. I’ve had it before when auditioning speakers – some were too projective and it felt uncomfortable.
As above - subjective, and system-dependent, etc.
Previous digital used was mainly Quad Artera Play (used just as DAC towards the end), Audio Note One 1x, Rega DAC, and Cambridge 840C. All very nice in their own way.
Suffolk Tony
Aim low, achieve your goals, avoid disappointment.
So why did you buy them?
Because I got them for prices I knew I could move them on for no loss. I wanted to try them because of their universal praise.