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Chord 2qute a good second hand buy?

reddish75

pfm Member
I've just received my Wiim pro and was excited to connect to a brand new Cambridge d200m but the sound from the Cambridge I don't like it just sounds dull! So I'm looking for a new Dac for around £500. There seems to be a plethora of chifi dacs around, any experience with these? Which leads me onto the Chord 2qute, would these be a good buy around 8 years after release? Reliability and sound quality wise?
 
I've just received my Wiim pro and was excited to connect to a brand new Cambridge d200m but the sound from the Cambridge I don't like it just sounds dull! So I'm looking for a new Dac for around £500. There seems to be a plethora of chifi dacs around, any experience with these? Which leads me onto the Chord 2qute, would these be a good buy around 8 years after release? Reliability and sound quality wise?

Entirely reliable in my experience and a good buy, certainly in the current market.
 
I have the 2qute and it is superb. I added an SBooster (tried an MCRU first and it was horrible) and it made a huge difference, in terms of less sibilance and more weight, making acoustic instruments very real. But it loses some of its dynamic punch, that can be retained with an iPower X psu (the stock psu was very bright to my ears). I also have the 200M on a different system. They are not night and day tonally, with the 200M having slightly more weight than the 2qute (on XPower though, so still more dynamic). But the quality of the sound is definitely a step up as expected. As long as the rest of your kit can make use of it.
But I wouldn't call the 200M dull - I deliberately use it in my second, more lively system for an EDM fix.
 
Happy with mine (with a Sean Jacobs DC2 LPSU), but is relegated to second system/headphones by an Audial S4.
 
Just be a little cautious about the 3V output on these - if, for example, you are running Naim olive or CB gear.

I replaced mine with a Qutest specifically because the latter has switchable output voltages.
 
I had both the 2qute and its replacement the Qutest.... both excellent and sonically I couldn't really tell them apart.
 
Basic question i know but it has to be asked, have you checked settings on CA and ruled out connecting cable ?
 
What about the output settings on the Wiim? It's set to 48/16 by default, maybe try playing with the settings?
 
It’s still as good a DAC as when it first came out and at current second hand prices good value. Changing inputs is a bit of a pain and the output of 3v may be too hot for some partnering equipment. If a bog standard DAC is your thing then it is poor value compared to say a Topping and for me comparing the ‘sound’ there won’t be much difference although long term enjoying music is much better (I have both a 2Qute and a Topping D10s which is used as USB to optical and also USB to analogue out of a Mac Mini for videos).
 
Leaving Rothwells aside, I’ve never had a problem with the 3v, and I have very high gain amplifiers and very sensitive speakers. Although I use a passive with the high gain power amp and headphones with the high gain preamp.
 
I had one on audition for a couple of weeks. When analysing the sound it seemed to do everything right but when it came to just listening to music it was a bit too sterile sounding for enjoyment when sitting between a Naim Core and a 552. I was never intended as anything but a temporary solution while I waited for the NDS replacement and I decided the somewhat lower resolution Rega DACr was enough as a stand in.
One thing I found surprising was just how much difference various digital cables made. Most of my listening was with a Chord Shawline but a Belden 4974R did let a bit of feeling get through.
 
They were being sold off for £500 new towards the end, so you should be able to get a s/h one for much less. Haven't looked mind...
 


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