Mojo Part Deux

I have bit of a sado-masochistic relationship with Chord gear.. I keep buying it, being annoyed, ditching it and coming back for more abuse - and I've just continued that cycle after getting rid of the Mojo 1, Chord Qutest; I got the Mojo 2. I thought I should drop some first impressions nuggets about it.

It still has that Chord sound; kinda like everything is passed through a compressor, where all the details are well audible but with a lack of nuance and volume gradation between them - although it's not as prominent this time as it was with the original Mojo - it sounds much better to me than the M1 which was kinda dsp'd, warm but still aggressive and digital sounding.

* It's more neutral, kinda referenced tuned, but with grounded bass/lower mids - there's fair bit of heft and power down low, doesn't sound like a sabre dac, (ie. wouldn't call it light and zippy)
* Bass is quite macho, tight, and ample too.
* Mids are a lot less crunchy and introverted vs original Mojo to me - much closer to the Chord Qutest, quite open.
* Quite a bit wider, with more depth and a generally more holographic soundstage.
* Treble is clean, not rolled off but also not annoying.
* Sounds less processed, smooth, and pure with very little grain.

* The amplification seems to be quite impressive to me - there's lack of grain and what seems like almost limitless power and control when pushing bass and lower mids (all the more impressive coming out of a tiny box). I've been using it with my HD800S and it's been a surprisingly enjoyable pairing, the Mojo moves the drivers rather well and there's a feeling of heft that many other solid state amps don't really manage.. almost class A sounding! I'm just surprised to hear this out of a tiny box

* Last but not least, it has an clean DSP eq built in (a first for Chord), which is a massive boon to me - I add sub bass to HD800/600 and tame some peaks, with Sony IERM7 I shave off some of their very high treble peak.. I just love this (I am also bit of a measurebator) and it gives me an option to tune the Mojo how I like, warm, neutral etc it's all possible especially as the amplification stage has the chops to push through the eq changes

but - it's still a Chord, and if you hate the Chord sound this won't change your mind. I've had it for couple of weeks now - and I'm enjoying it much more than I did the original Mojo or even the Qutest (to me this comes close to it but has bit more meat to the bones, and the excellent eq)
-keep in mind I'm still in the honeymoon period of another one of my sado-maso Chord relationships.. I expect next month I will be bitching about how I can't stand it's over detailed pulsing dsp wall of sound

 

What input are you using?

 

MacBook with Ifi iusb micro 3 (usb input)

I also used it directly out of my MacBook usb and it was still quite ok. I recall the original Mojo being more sensitive to input.

I do notice however that Mojo 2 does appreciate some warm up play time (about an hour) to sound a little more grounded and relaxed. Playing it cold it did give me a little harshness

 

I tried optical out from my Apogee Element- I don't hear much difference if any with optical vs ifi iusb micro usb. I also tried coax from m2tech hiface 2, again I couldn't really hear anything obviously worse or better vs the other inputs.

I think as long as you have reasonably good usb/spdif decrapifier it'll do the job.