Chord "Mojo"

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Judeus, Oct 12, 2015.

  1. Warrior

    Warrior RIP 2021

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    Really? Is it because of the value? Do you feel Modi Multibit gets close in performance to the Yggdrasil?
     
  2. music4mhell

    music4mhell New

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    I am going to buy Poly once it's available in my country :)
    It's cheaper than other network streamers and it can be used with any USB dac...!
     
  3. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Is that true? Can it be used with any USB DAC?
     
  4. Cellist88

    Cellist88 Friend

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    Lol only with mojo I think
     
  5. music4mhell

    music4mhell New

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    Yes i asked this on Headfi and John Franks confirmed that it will work with any DAC... if you want i can share the post link !!
     
  6. obsidyen

    obsidyen New

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    Yes, it will work with any usb dac, it has a simple usb connection. However with Mojo, it looks more elegant as they're designed to be together.
     
  7. Chris1967

    Chris1967 Friend

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    It is getting a little tiresome to hear the same people running down Chord and the Mojo again and again.

    This product none of you have heard, nor handled and used, and there is no such product available from another company as yet.

    Ok the price is quite steep, i do agree.

    I suggest you chill out a bit until it is confirmed if this is a shit product. Bitching about it beforehand doesn't help anyone.
     
  8. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    If it really can be used with any USB DAC, that changes the value proposition. It's still overpriced but I'm sure used units will pop up.
     
  9. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    No, it really isn't cheaper at all. A Raspberry Pi running MPD, with a decent spdif hat and a Modi Multibit is about half the price of the combo and will sound a great deal better- and it's easier to add more storage to it, also.

    It's the Mojo, it will sound like the Mojo- hopefully like the Mojo from a clean transport. The backend won't have a "sound" unless it's broken to f**k and back. That seems like a really odd thing to say.

    I'm going to stick my neck out and say that a lot of the people in this thread have heard the Mojo, both on its own and through proper amps, thanks.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2017
  10. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Uhhh do you need it to be portableish? Or is that just an added benefit?

    1. Other than slight differences in tuning, with my theta data iii feeding coax I wouldn't be able to distinguish between Yggdrasil and Gungnir Multibit reliably.

    2. With the theta data iii feeding them, I prefer gungnir with speakers but modi multibit is close enough and the tuning is more pleasing with some headphone and amp combos.

    I'm glad I own both but if I was just getting into it I'd stick with the modi multibit unless I needed the features of the gungnir.
     
  11. Warrior

    Warrior RIP 2021

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    Thank you for your honest feedback. I'm fairly certain that I won't hear much difference between the dacs, but my problem is knowing that I could have something "better"...that will always been in the back if my brain. Stupid, I know, but true.
     
  12. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    The Modi Multibit is small, cheap, sounds great with a clean source- and if you ever decide to upgrade, will sell very easily. It's hard to go wrong.

    Honestly, it's slightly hilarious how good it is, and how little Schiit sell it for- anyone else would probably be selling the damned thing for $800+. You can't lose, on this one.
     
  13. Warrior

    Warrior RIP 2021

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    I should order one, at the very so I get an idea of what a real dac sounds like.
     
  14. Chris1967

    Chris1967 Friend

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    I think about the sound of the Mojo many things have been said i hope we all agree that it sounds very decent. (i think it sounds absolutely fantastic) It is a matter of taste if a lot in here prefer the GO (i personally didn't like the sound of the previous GO75), or others prefer the Mojo. I was never nasty about the GO.

    On your first comment i do agree (i use Rpi2 linearPS / NAS as music server) but the Poly is portable around the house and can be used on the go so there is a difference which might be helpful to a lot of people that need this function (or think they do). I for one would like to have wireless access to my NAS music files and not be confined to the PC on the desk.

    The wireless server/streamer function is very nice and even better because it is portable and battery operated.

    If someone doesn't have already a Mojo and loves it, i would agree there are other DAP type alternatives to consider.

    Now about the sound... i think we have established that the Mojo (and any DAC or digital interface) sound different through its inputs the USB input being the weaker one (although it doesn't sound that bad as some of you present here). Therefore the addition of the Poly (although the connectivity to the Mojo is not exactly clear to me) might present an influence to the sound (hopefully to the better). This is undeniable. So i am not sure how you consider the Poly neutral or soundless unless broken in the connection chain. Bluetooth connectivity is very interesting also as to how good (or bad) it may sound. Surely though it is very handy to have.

    In any event my experience with all the Chord products have been more or less positive, the price being the factor that influenced me to consider buying or not any product and to what acoustic value i give to each component. That is why i didn't consider getting the Hugo. It doesn't sound bad at all though ( i know it is on Marvey's shit list but i do like it none the less).
     
  15. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    I'm not sure that we do all agree that.

    It sounds OK, for a portable DAC. That's as far as it goes. As soon as you plop it onto a desktop with a more demanding chain, it is rapidly outclassed by much cheaper DACs, in a way that is pretty obvious. With a clean transport, It sounds like a slightly rolled-off D/S DAC with a nice-ish filter- but its resolving ability is somewhat limited.

    I use and enjoy my Mojo regularly, I'm probably one of the most positive people about it here, much to the irritation of people like @zerodeefex. However, I'm not going to kid myself that there aren't better portable sources, nor do I use it on the desktop any more. I didn't come here to have my purchases validated- I came here to get the best sound within my budget, so don't need as much of a refuge in wooly or magical thinking.

    No, it is not undeniable. That's not how logic works.

    A bad input makes the Mojo sound bad. A clean one stops it being hampered by its input. Once you give it a pretty clean feed, that's it, game over. It sounds how it's going to sound, bit perfect with close to no analogue electrical noise is the win condition there. At that point, if that sound is good enough for you, then great. However, it's not going to start sounding like a Yggdrasil or a Holo DAC by means of swapping in more exotic transports. Unless you're secretly hoping for some upstream DSP and think that's desirable, it's really unclear by what means you expect this improvement to materialise.
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2017
  16. Chris1967

    Chris1967 Friend

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    Well simply we disagree.

    I haven't heard anything better at 450 euros, i am no fan boy and very experienced in hiend gear. You assume things that i didn't say, mean or don't know.

    You probably don't need the Poly, and i might get it after i review it if i can get a hold of it here in Greece.

    So there no worries \/
     
  17. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    I'm just going to leave this here as a warning to future races.
     
  18. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    I am, like @Kattefjaes, one of those people that don't think Mojo sounds quite as bad as some people say. At the time I bought it it was the best sounding portable DAC I'd heard. Initially I felt it compared well even next to, say, Bifrost MB. However, the longer I've owned it and the more things I've compared it to the more the shine (and effects of hype) has waned.

    For desktop use it's out-performed by Modi MB ... and by a larger margin than I first thought, for less than half the price.

    Inside a year I've gone from being an enthusiastic recommender of Mojo to someone that thinks it has its place, but is also aware of its shortfalls ... and those were things I'd managed to miss, or not hear, until they were pointed out by others. It also has a number of ergonomic and operational issues ... including the worst USB input implementation I've come across (I actually think it's faulty, not just weak) and unacceptable (for a phone-targeted product) susceptibility to EMI/RFI.
     
  19. joeexp

    joeexp Don't ship this man FD-X1 ever

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    Let's not turn SBAF into HF...

    Yikes!


    :eek:
     
  20. mscott58

    mscott58 Friend

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    Personally I've been more than pleased with my Mojo, but that's because I'm using it in a way I find to be it's best use-case. Specifically I use it as part of a portable stack and 1) feed it optically out of a beater AK100 (getting around the USB implementation issues), 2) don't pair it with my smartphone (getting away from EMI issues), and 3) feed it into a portable amp - the CV5 (as I don't love the Mojo's "amp" section). Yeah, it's got issues, and there's no way I'd use it on my desktop, but I'm happy with the Mojo for this very specific application. Someday hope to find a DAP that matches the SQ for me that my stack does (fully aware that it's more of a "brick" than a highly portable setup). Have heard rumblings about the Sony NW-WM1Z, and hope to try it out soon, and maybe some year my fully tricked-out Geek Wave will actually show up. Cheers
     

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