I would like to contribute my experience with a Dac I recently purchased. I had a few Dac’s over the years with my 2 channel audio systems, all sounded good but just slightly different to my ears. When I got involved with headphone listening using my Mac Mini and iTunes, I purchased a Schiit Modi 2 and used a set of Hifiman HE400i’s. At the time I thought, this sounded pretty darn good but eventually I wanted to step up to a better Dac..You all know the feeling.. So a year ago I decided on a Schiit Bifrost Multibit with the latest USB Gen 5 upgrade.
I was really enjoying my desktop system for a while until one day I was hearing some static and narrowed it down to the Bifrost. The service department at Schiit turned out to be one disaster after another, I was so disgusted I finally got rid of it and found myself Dacless..
I started to do some research and gravitated towards a Chord Dac.. There were plenty of great reviews on line for the Chord Dac’s but they are no doubt inexpensive compared to the Bifrost I was use to. I decided on the small but mighty Chord Qutest Dac which if I purchased used would be within the price that I wanted to pay just in case I didn’t like it… the waiting payed off, one became available within a couple of weeks on the used market..
I set the Qutest up in my system and listened to some music and thought, it sounded pretty good. After a good warm up by the next day and after a few listening sessions I realized that I never heard a Dac quite like it.. While the Bifrost sounded clean it sounded sterile by comparison.. I started to notice better depth and separation from the Chord, it also has a more musical presentation with plenty of detail and a natural sound quality. The music sounded unstrained more like listening to vinyl, yep vinyl…. My Hifiman HE400i’s took on a totally different sound signature, it was like listening to a different set of headphones.. I’ve also been listening to my Beyerdynamic T1.2’s with the same excellent results..
I have to say I’ve never been this impressed with any Dac I’ve used over the years until now.. The Chord is with out a doubt the best investment in sound quality I’ve made with my desktop system so far. I should mention a thank you to Schiit’s service department for pissing me off and letting me find my way to greener pastures..
Jerry