Chord Qutest

[seeteeyou]

Dual BNC coaxial inputs for Blu Mk. 2 and other M-Scaler products in the future, that's gonna be a winner.

 

[seeteeyou]

14 minutes ago, Norton said:

Just noticed the power input is on micro USB, I wonder if this has any significance?  

 

Some owners managed to fry Hugo and 2Qute by connecting them to wrong power supplies with voltages other than 12V.

 

It's a piece of cake to eliminate that possibility by replacing the usual 5.5-mm DC power input with micro USB.

 

Now we're just trying to find out if Qutest were consuming more than 1.1A @ 5V continuously or otherwise. We can't match two units of LPS-1 ourselves to provide 11 watts if 5.5 watts weren't good enough.

[seeteeyou]

LPS-1 @ 7V followed by a LT3045 or two (7V→6V→5V) would fit the bill then

 

http://www.usaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1172&start=2160#p6837

[seeteeyou]

1 minute ago, jos said:

This means that my Supra USB cable wth an adapter/connector to micro USB is good enough?

 

Only 0.5A from a single USB 2.0 ports if that were connected to a computer of some sort, we'll need some kinda batteries or linear PSU etc. for 1.0A or above.

 

LPS-1 is good for 1.1A so we're good to go

 

[seeteeyou]

@ElviaCaprice, they're almost always cheap stuff that could be made by pretty much everyone and hopefully Mouser would ship to Costa Rica

 

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2789

https://www.mouser.com/productdetail/adafruit/2789?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvI6uSdB0AenUUOc1uEPRu5r52gePO%2bd2g%3D

 

For those of us in US could easily find them on Amazon etc.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Conwork-2-Pack-Jacket-Adapter-Cellphone/dp/B01G6EBGWO

 

Hugo 2 does have that "Desktop Mode" after it's connected to the wall for more than 24 hours, though we'll need either SR4 or SR7 if LPS-1 @ 1.1A weren't good enough because of extra features.

[seeteeyou]

I haven't seen any kinda "decent" micro USB connectors other than the ones from Hirose

 

https://www.hirose.com/product/en/products/ZX/

https://www.mouser.com/ds/2/185/ZX_catalog-1066377.pdf#page=8

 

Since StarQuad cables have 4 wires to begin with, I really dunno what to do when micro USB would only need pin #1 for +5V and pin #5 for ground respectively

 

[seeteeyou]

Something like this with LPS-1 @ 7V should work (7V→6V→5V) just fine, we'll simply replace one end with those micro USB connectors from Hirose

 

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/30634-the-true-experimental-tweak-thread/?page=122&tab=comments#comment-730773

On 10/18/2017 at 3:11 AM, Cornan said:

 

 

I have made two versions with LT3045s with following output voltage:

 

1. For Aqvox switch. 6v & 5v. Powered with 7v.

2. For ISO Regen. 8v & 7v. Powered with 9v.

 

Cables used are from Canare 4S6 cables (just the double wires).

 

I hope that helps! ?

 

[seeteeyou]

15 minutes ago, ElviaCaprice said:

Are you finding that those  LT3045's make a difference??   

Why not just a direct 5V from the LPS-1?

 

Not sure yet, though it really doesn't hurt to give that a shot at $26 a piece with free international shipping.

 

Since both 2Qute and Quetest should share a very similar / identical USB input chip from Atmel, what if I were paying someone else to modify that clock with one tap from sCLK-EX?

 

 

I'm aware that even @romaz didn't try that with his Hugo 2 but nobody knows what would happen until we've done that. Since the warranty is already over and done with, it's gonna be fine to get rid of that micro USB input and simply hardwire the StarQuad DC cable afterwards.

[seeteeyou]

First of all, 2Qute couldn't even support DSD256 in the first place and therefore not exactly sure about what you're talking about

 

https://chordelectronics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2Qute-User-Manual.pdf#page=3

 

Read what other owners went through and most likely you're outta luck, even SOtM sMS-200 wasn't going anywhere

 

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based/310578-chord-2qute-dop-challenge-16.html#post5257684

http://www.raspyfi.com/forum/raspyfi-install-and-troubleshooting/no-sound-from-usb-chord-dac/

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/dsd-playback-through-chord-mojo/17860

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/doubt-about-native-dsd/33016

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/native-dsd-chord-hugo-2/35777

 

Neither Sonore nor Chord seemed to be interested in getting anything done

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-qutest-dac-official-thread.869417/page-98#post-14255566

 

Basically we could "try" to patch the file quirks.c by adding a line for DACs from Chord, though there's no guarantee that native DSD would work

 

https://github.com/RoPieee/ropieee-kernel/blob/master/kernel-usb-native-dsd-quirks.patch

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/sound/usb/quirks.c

case USB_ID(0x245F, 0x0815): /* Chord DAVE/Hugo 2/Qutest/Hugo TT 2 */

Those values were taken from the driver, just check the file cdh768.inf

 

https://chordelectronics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Windows-10-768KHz-driver.zip

[OEM.ntamd64]
%USBSPDIFDesc%=USBSPDIF_Inst,USB\VID_245f&PID_0815

 

[seeteeyou]

Sometimes we just really dunno whether we're supposed to take them seriously or not

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-dave.766517/page-735#post-14204373

Quote

The Toslink cable supplied with the Dave goes from the convertor to the Dave. All upsampling is turned off, so it’s just plain vanilla Red Book into the Dave. It sounds glorious and much better than BNC Blu 2 to Dave. I’m afraid the interface between the RFI generated by the BLU 2 and Dave’s ground plane is a major issue for me.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hugo-m-scaler-by-chord-electronics-the-official-thread.885042/page-505#post-15078744

Quote

Its all due to RFI radiated from the CCA impinging on the DAC. I have several weeks of testing with RF isolation chambers that prove when a digital chain is prevented from radiating to a DAC, all the problems associated with digital sources / transports / cables / psu's / etc go away. As you would expect: toslink from CCA or the most expensive streamer is the exact same. It sounds different / worse / thinner because the CCA radiates more/different RFI. Yes, this effect makes its way across the two meter distance to your DAC and gets inside it via the connectors and chassis edges that act like antennae. This fact may shock many on this forum. Welcome to high end digital audio.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hugo-m-scaler-by-chord-electronics-the-official-thread.885042/page-681#post-15486222

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I’ve used the TOSLINK output of HMS (max 192/176) into my Esoteric K-01X with great results.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hugo-m-scaler-by-chord-electronics-the-official-thread.885042/page-847#post-16189804

Quote

Listening now to new Lifatec Optical Toslink cable with my Utopia headphones with the TT2/ M-Scaler. I don’t think it’s premature to say it’s better than my Nordost Blue Heaven USB with jitterbug. More clarity, definitely “smoother” and total blackness between songs; I thought I’d. need some time to compare but it’s that obvious. I’m really a fan now!

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hugo-m-scaler-by-chord-electronics-the-official-thread.885042/page-857#post-16206374

Quote

I’ve also since moved to a Toslink connection which has added yet another level of smoothness and musicality. My Romanian friend also added an M-Scaler and optical and is confidently claiming it is an end game combination, so I STILL get mocked, but hey, I’m happy! IMHO the TT2/M-Scaler with the adjustments I’ve made is my version of “end game” for now.

 

Esoteric K-01X should cost $20,000 back then, go figure.

 

And then they're paying for 16FS-capable BLU MKII / HMS while using its Toslink output @ either 1FS or 4FS, really?

 

OTOH, maybe at most dozens of audiophiles got the opportunity to be stunned by the performance of SAEC OPC-X11 and we just don't realize the true potential of Toslink yet.