Article: Chord Electronics Qutest DAC Review

[ecwl]

I'm still kind of mystified by this review. I feel like I have to bring over my Chord Hugo 2 to my friend's place to test it against his Chord Qutest some day. Because in the mean time... my understanding is that Hugo 2 and Qutest only have two differences:

1) The power supply (which according to Rob Watts the designer is not just the battery vs SMPS but includes all the DC filtering and regulation after the battery/SMPS) 

2) Second-order analog noise shaper (which was designed to prevent high frequency distortion when driving low impedance headphones with Hugo 2, which Qutest should not need)

I guess it is possible that Qutest's power supply is not as good as Hugo 2 leading to the audible difference but then the offline battery should have improved the performance, especially when Rob Watts the designer has said that he is not convinced that Qutest needs a better SMPS/LPS/battery supply and he also does not think that Qutest needs a second order noise shaper. I, however, suspect that Hugo 2 can provide more power than Qutest by the nature of its power supply design though.

The only logical explanation I can come up with is that either the preamplifier is demanding more power from Qutest compared to Hugo 2 or the preamplifier has a lower impedance than expected for most DACs. But I'll have to arrange a test myself to check this out. It's possible that Hugo 2 is simply a better DAC than Qutest.

[ecwl]

17 hours ago, rossb said:

However, I agree with the conclusion in this review. I think the Hugo 2 sounds noticeably better than the Qutest. I actually think that the Hugo 2 is the best sounding of all the Chord DACs. DAVE sounds thin. TT2 sounds small and hard. Qutest has a slightly astringent sound. And the Blu 2/M Scaler is massively overrated. 

I think it is always interesting in terms of how differently we feel about different products and how audio component synergy affects sound. I own Blu2, DAVE and Hugo 2 and I definitely would not say Blu2 is overrated or Hugo 2 is the best sounding. But I think as long as people are enjoying the DACs that they currently own and they think it's the best one for their system, kudos.

However, it does make it hard for people who don't have access to these DACs for audition to decide which ones to buy.

[ecwl]

13 minutes ago, Chris66 said:

I bought a Chord Qutest based on the generally positive reviews and then it broke after 9 months.

Now this is a premium product yet my retailer, Peter Tyson UK, believes 6 weeks+ is an acceptable amount of time for my DAC to be repaired. Three times I’ve been told “Mitch at Chord has been emailed” and yet nothing. I’m based in the UK and generally prefer to buy UK made products, bummer

Feel let down, disappointed and a little embarrassed.

Bummer. I hope you were enjoying your DAC at least. Before Matt became the general manager, I used to take my broken Chord products to my dealer and at the same time, email Matt at Chord directly to see what’s going on. They used to respond quite quickly, even if they can’t do the repair right away. With worldwide supply chain issues, I can see why there might be delays in the repair

 

It may be worthwhile to email Chord yourself by using the Contact Us link on their webpage. My suspicion is that it might not get your Qutest repaired faster but at least you get an update as to what’s going on.