Hi Jim,
I think you did the right thing, your ears your system.
M
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I would go coax, Mark Grant HDX1 digital cable RCA to BNC would work very well and not empty your wallet.
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I’ve pulled the trigger on a secondhand Qutest….read a load of reviews and what’s been said here….
I figured that if I don’t like it I can always flog it and not loose a load of dosh.
It also came with a bnc to phono lead so it was a plug and play….
The seller was a Naimer and reducing boxes….an Atom with headphones….
You can can always upgrade to Naim when you have got tired of the clinical sounding Chord 
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I had a similar experience not too long ago, I compared the Bluesound node with the iFi Zen Stream and the improvement in SQ was easily discernable, all across the board, music just came alive. I can’t sugar coat it, IME the node has no place in a high end audio kit.
I think the node, like an appletv or similar is there for functionality rather than the last word in audio. I would like to try one for funs.
Hi @c2photo ,
I think the Qutest is a remarkable DAC in that Chord played this with a remarkably straight bat. The power supply does make a difference. If you go for an SBooster then the Mk I + the Ultra II is very good.
I had the TT2 at home for a few months and while I proffered its sound I also found the Qutest more transparent.
As a DAC it will show up how it is fed.
I actually put my Qutest up for sale a couple of weeks ago, but withdrew it a week later - due to Roon.
I feed my Qutest with an M-Scaler which upscales very nicely, so what could extra upscaling give you? The answer = a lot.
I hadn’t realised how much I enjoyed what upscaling was giving me until I played an old playlist in which I heard an album at its raw 16/44.1, not too nice. This was a local album upscaled by Minimserver. This can’t process Qobuz …unlike Roon.
In Roon I have set up x4 upscaling into my dCS NB > Dual AES into M-Scaler > Qutest.
This is the BEST I have heard the Qutest …hence deciding to retain it.
Hope it works for you.
M
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So received the Qutest today and plugged it all in……
Just listened to it through headphones and my initial thoughts are is that there has been a huge uplift in SQ….very transparent and detailed and surprisingly smooth up top….really liking it at the moment…the DAC is only showing red so not sure how to get it up the colour scheme. Might have to fork out some more dosh to Tidal to get hifi + I think it’s called…
Anyway so far so good will check it through speakers later in the week….
Thanks for the advice and opinions……much appreciated.
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How are you finding the Chord Qutest alongside the Node2i?
Thinking of adding a s/hand Qutest to my system…
I think it’s great….switched from tidal to Quboz. I certainly have not regretted the purchase. I listen to it mainly through headphones.
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I have the same set up - currently on tidal basic. Did changing to qobuz allow you to move up the colour scheme on the qutest- and did you notice any change/improvement in sq?
Bw
Jonathan
Yes it does allow the colour scheme which is pretty cool…I’m on tidal hifi and tbh don’t notice a huge difference in Q’s favour. The tidal app is far better imo.
I can still get all the music on Q that I want so no issues there for me.
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Agree re tidal app vs qobuz having used both. It’s almost double the price for hifi I think which seems quite a significant hike from the basic level. I might give it a go and see how it sounds!
Overall I really love the node/qutest combo.
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The Qutest is a joy, but a node is going to hold it back, I used mine for a while with an iFi Zen Stream connected via USB and the combination was the face of VFM.
So you are upscaling in roon, into the upscaler which is then upscaling?
Yes, and no.
Roon itself changes the music I am hearing for the better. Upscaling within Roon has an influence. For instance War of the Worlds has issues in digital, in my main system, upscaling minimises the issues. But it also smoothes things a tad. So generally I am running without it, in my main system where my mscaler lives. Bottom line, you meed to play with it and make up your own mind.
The correct answer is yes and yes, if you like what you’re hearing there’s no argument with that, but when you enable Sample Rate Conversion on roon you also enable a digital filter, meaning you are applying two digital filters in series which is rather odd. I would rather let the M-Scaler do it’s thing.
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