And while those familiar with Chord’s most affordable product will see from this review’s accompanying images that the aesthetic hasn’t exactly been overhauled for the sequel, significant progress has been made elsewhere to protect its position as the pinnacle of portable DACs.
The fittingly named Mojo 2 is the long-anticipated, re-engineered replacement to the 2015-released original, which burst onto the scene as a real benchmark-setting game-changer in the then-fledgling world of portable DACs. Given there's no Bluetooth connectivity or headphone amp on-board, the Qutest’s sole purpose is to be the digital-to-analogue bridge between your digital source and amplifier. The Qutest boasts Chord's trademark colour-denoting buttons which tell you which source it's drawing on: they glow white for USB-Type-B (capable of accepting 32-bit/768kHz PCM/DSD512) yellow for the first BNC coaxial and red for the second (24-bit/384kHz) and green for the optical (24-bit/192kHz/DSD64). But when it does you're in for a treat: songs are imbued with a great sense of scope, and there's warmth and texture in abundance. The DAC delivers a crisp, clean and concise sound, with Chord's now familiar neutral tonal balance.Īs with all decent hi-fi gear, it'll take a bit of running in time before the Qutest really starts to sing. It's the product that lesser rivals look up to at this price point. Chord continues to light up the premium market for DACs and the Qutest is the proof.