[I.Greyhound Fan]

My son bought a Chord Qutest last week and I thought that I would post a review.  My son lives with us and his system consists of a Cary SI-300.2d integrated amp with built in DAC that retailed for $6K, Wharfedale Evo 4.4 speakers and a Rythmik F12se sub.  Music players are Audirvana and Bug Head.  The DAC in the Cary is very good.  It has good detail, slam with a transparent and wide soundstage but when we compared it to my Luxman DAC it was lacking a little musicality and decay so my son wanted a new DAC.  So after reading the many excellent reviews on the Chord he bit the bullet and bought one used that had about 10 hours on it for $1200.

This DAC needs break in. At first its sound stage was a bit narrow.  The music sounded a bit congested. Vocals and horns were peaky, piercing and shouty on many recordings.  After about 10 hours it sounded a little better but it took about 70 hours of continuous play for things to really smooth out.  The sound stage opened up and is wide, deep and tall.  Music sounded a little congested at first and now there was very good space between instruments.  The midrange smoothed and the piercing peaky vocals and horns disappeared.  I suspect that it will undergo further changes as some people report that it is fully broke in at about 150 hours.

So how does it sound?  The DAC is very neutral and natural sounding.  It is very musical. There are 4 filters where you can roll off the extreme high frequencies and also add  a bit of low end warmth.  We found that the changes were subtle but noticeable.  We preferred the neutral with or without the high frequency roll off depending upon the usb cable used. It  was usb cable sensitive and I will talk about that later.  The DAC is detailed but not at the extremes.  Resolution is very good.  The DAC has a meaty midrange but is transparent at the same time.  Vocals and horns have great texture.  The DAC images very well. Vocals are right in the middle of the sound stage.  Leading edges of guitar sound natural.  Piano sounded full, textured and had excellent decay.  Bass has good slam and is tight with no muddiness or boom.  Cymbals are silky smooth without fatigue and sibilants were contained. Now bear in mind that the Evo speakers use a very smooth AMT tweeter.  The background is black with no audible background noise. 

Overall, I feel that the Qutest is worth the money.  It is galvanically isolated, it sounds great and I could not find any faults with it.  Is it the best DAC  that I have heard, no.  But it sounds better than some DAC's costing a few thousand more.  It does lack XLR outputs.  There are no ethernet ports.  The power cable uses mini usb which I really don't like because I have found them fragile on other gear that I have owned.  I wish mini and micro usb would go away.

I would like to point out that we did not use the stock power supply because the seller forgot to include it and is mailing it out.  It is 5v 2.3a.  We used a Teradak U9 LPS which is 5v 1a for the usb out.  We also tried a cheap cell phone charger at 5v 1a.  It sounded best with the Teradak.  There was more weight and depth to the music vs the cell phone charger.  The usb cables used were an Audioquest Carbon and an Oyaide Neo Class A+.  Each cable sounded different.  The Oyaide sounded the best with great musicality and neutrality.  The AQ cable sounded way flatter like the life was sucked out of the music.  It was warmer, darker and a bit veiled which was surprising  because it sounds nothing like that with the Cary's stock DAC and it sounds better than the Oyaide in that situation.  This just supports my prior findings on a usb cable shootout that usb cables can sound different with different DAC's.

We did introduce a Regen into the mix. We used the Teradak for the Regen and DAC as it has 2 outputs.  The Regen with the Teradak improved the sound.  It was a little smoother and took the last bit of brightness out  of the Oyaide cable.  It also improved the sound of the AQ Carbon adding some musicality and removing the veiled sound.  We also tried the Regen with its stock power supply and prefered the Teradak.  The teradak added more detail for sure and sounded better than the stock power supply.

I will post our findings with the stock Chord power supply if we hear a difference.

Larry

[Jon L]

bought one used that had about 10 hours on it for $1200.

That's a great deal.  Qutest really is holding its value, unfortunate for me looking for a second unit. 
I once ran everything in the front end off native batteries, e.g. PC server, usb-to-spdif converter, and Qutest, but that was way too much of a hassle, and my current solution of a good LPS on Qutest and server, and battery on usb-to-spdif converter turned out to be a nice sonic result.  IME, Qutest sounds quite a bit better from its BNC spdif input over USB..

v0912201035 by drjlo2, on Flickr

[I.Greyhound Fan]

All those batteries would be a hassle.  Interesting that that the BNC sounds the best.  We have a Schiit Eiter usb to spdif converter that we can try.  The Teradak LPS really sounds good with both the Regen and Qutest.  Unfortunately it gets fairly hot when running  both the regen and dac off of it.  If he decides to keep it I may buy him an Ifi Power 2 or the IpowerX to use with it.  When my son bought the Qutest he was also considering the Yggdrasil.  And now there are 3 versions to complicate things.  I had the OG Yggy in my system about 2-3 years ago and it sounded very good with a lot of air, transparency and detail with a hint of warmth.  I think the Qutest has more punch but that was on different systems.

[Jon L]

may buy him an Ifi Power 2 or the IpowerX to use with it. 

I have a bunch of original iFi PS and Chord stock smps.  With Qutest, Allo Shanti LPS is the way to go.  it even has dual outputs (5.2V/3A, 5.2V/1.2A).  Just cut short the ridiculously too-long DC cable leads for better results.
https://www.allo.com/sparky/shanti.html

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I have a bunch of original iFi PS and Chord stock smps.  With Qutest, Allo Shanti LPS is the way to go.  it even has dual outputs (5.2V/3A, 5.2V/1.2A).  Just cut short the ridiculously too-long DC cable leads for better results.
https://www.allo.com/sparky/shanti.html

Thanks, will look into that.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Update on the Qutest.  We finally received the stock power supply and it is clearly not as good at the Teradak U9 LPS.  It sounded slightly blurred or muddy in comparison.  It had less detail for sure.

Now the problem that we have is that the Teradak is being used to power the Regen and the Qutest which is causing the Teradak to run hot.  I am not sure if it was meant to use the 9v out via barrel connector and the 5v usb out at the same time.

I may try the Allo Shanti or a Teradak DC 30 as the U9 is not available any more.   Other options are the ifi power x or the ifi power 2.

Opinions are more than welcome.

[beeah]

You are wise not to judge it too harshly at this stage.  My new unit sounded much different - not in a good way - than the dealer’s loaner.  That did change, and it is now the DAC I originally purchased. 

The dealer threw in the SBooster to demo as well, but I didn’t give it much of a shake as I knew I’d wind up with an aftermarket LPS that would likely fall between the stock Switcher and the SBooster in terms of impact on the sound; my Qutest would ultimately sound better than stock, but I might have a case of sour grapes if I got too attached to what the SBooster brought to the party.  I built Pete Millett’s DIY USB LPS board and am very happy with it, though I wish it had two more outputs (I’m looking at you, Shanti!) and I can literally read by the white LED power indicator.  I have also recently replaced my dime-a-dozen USB cable with a Ghent power-only cable between the DAC and Millett that’s much shorter and has 20 gauge conductors.  I’ve not gone back and tried the cheapo cable to try to discern the difference, if any, the Ghent introduces, but I’m certain it did no harm.

I see that you’re using the Regen, and that it made the DAC sound better, but it’s not clear how much better.  I am using an iFi SPDIF iPurifier, and even though it’s not the latest Mk II version its effect is nothing short of jaw-dropping.  It’s not as obvious with my typical fare of jazz and avant improvised music, but with well recorded and engineered recordings (Beck’s The Information and Vampire Weekend’s debut, for example) I’m hearing details I’ve never heard (cliche, I know, but it’s true), and the delineation between and pinpoint location of instruments is stunning.  The soundstage has become more three dimensional as well.  I’m now a firm believer in DDCs, and I’ve read that the Denafrips Hermes has an even bigger effect and transforms - yet retains the character of - the Qutest.  It’s not a question of whether I’ll buy one, but how soon.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Beeah

The Regen cleans up the sound a little bit by itself but when you add a good power supply like the Teradak, it takes it to another level with a blacker background, better detail and resolution which leads to more air and transparency.  It seemed to add more punch.  I would say that the Regen is worth it if you use it with a better power supply, the results are that noticeable.

We tried an AQ Jitterbug and it does add more clarity especially when paired with the Regen but with certain usb cables it made the music sound artificial for lack of a better term.

I have looked at the Ghent cables and figure that I would try one of his cables with a barrel connector to mini usb.  They are cheap enough.

The ifi power gear looks interesting but how they market their gear is very confusing. There seems to be a lot of redundancy and non specific information on what some of the power gear is for or what it does.  Even their dac's are very confusing.  They have one of the worst web sites.

One more thing regarding the Qutest is that we found it very sensitive to USB cable changes. My son has an AQ carbon which sounds fabulous with the built in DAC in the Cary but terrible with the Qutest.  It sounds veiled or muffled.  The Oyaide Neo Class A+ sounds detailed but a little too bright.  I gave him my Wire World Starlight Red 7 cable to use and it was a nice compromise when paired with the Regen.  My Luxman DAC is also very sensitive to usb cable changes.  We might try one of Ghents usb cables.

We  have about 90 to  100 hours on the Qutest.  I have read that it continues to improve until the 150 hour mark. You certainly can't pass judgement on this dac until at least 75 hours of play time. I suspect my son will keep it.  He was also looking at the Yggy but got such a great deal on the Qutest.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I just bought and inserted the ifi iPower X 5v 3a power supply and it makes a nice difference.  It is way better than the stock Power Supply and sounds about the same as the Teradak U9 LPS.  It is well worth the upgrade.  It gives a blacker background, crisper guitar plucks and removes the veil of the stock power supply.  It is ridiculous that Chord does pair the Qutest with a better PS.  Maybe they are afraid of it taking sales away from its more expensive DAC's or maybe they are trying to keep it at a price point.  But the improvement in sound is not subtle.