In the past, I’ve always used coaxial… this is the first time I’ve used optical.
With coaxial and iFi iPower (or normal switch plug that came with Qutest), I could hear some background noise from the speakers as I turned the volume up to full (nothing playing). A bit less when using the power bank and now with the optical and power bank it is complete silence.
At some point, I would’ve to try the Signature Tuned Aray RCA to see how they compare with the HiLine. I was going to demo them but I’m more than happy at the moment. At some point I will and I’ll see if I can grab a Chord Signature Digital to try at the same time.
I have just tried turning up the volume of my XS2 with nothing playing and it is completely quiet from the speakers.
I am using the normal plug that came with the qutest.
I did have hum/hiss isues from the speakers due to a signal ground issue between the Nait XS2 and my Qutest.
The qutest has no earth connection in its power plug as other naim sources do. So with an electrical coaxial connection a ground loop isolator should be used in between connection from Naim Amp to Chord Qutest.
I resolved this issue by signal grounding my Nait XS2 directly.
This is not the Naim ideal way of doing this, but works to great effect.
So i do not need to galvanically isolate the qutest from my Nait XS2 using toslink or a power bank or ground loop isolator.
Senders and receivers in audio gear were the weak link in days of old ,with the Toshiba link Optical cable…Before and after the cable’ not the glass optical cable itself. As it does not suffer from any of the coaxial digital cable issues ,or any other interconnect for that matter with an electrical connection ’ that being with radio frequency interference and the multitude of interferences that can affect audio reproduction.
In recent years though I think sending to toslink and receiving after toslink is electrically much quieter " less jitter and other electrical issues ". Advances in electronics.
So I Guess that the guys at Chord have developed their own high quality send/receive tech before the cable and it will be the best it can be. I have a Qutest and run PCM from my Sony telly… I listen to Spotify 'Radio Paradise nd You Tube… I like what Toslink does.
Really good USB cable is the key to using USB on the QUTEST and a Music Server as computers are the way to noisy and struggle with the 386khz demand … Use a printer cable and the noise transmitted is terrible in my experience SOME WHITE NOISE very audible. Was talking to Ed selly at Chord who told me a decent music server is needed and computer way too noisy 'although a better quality audio USB cable has helped in my case with the computer. My next move to make the best use of the DAC will be an Innuous server of some description… the optical output is very good ’ dont get me wrong and negates electrical interference ,'but the USB has more potential if you are willing to spend money on a very good front end… I have an Ausioquest Coffee running out of my computer at the moment and the noise transmitted to the DAC is no longer there and the sound betters the optical out by some margin in my view… Just a little info …
Or get an Allo USBridge Signature with Nirvana PSU as transport – and leave your music somewhere else on your network (your current computer, or a NAS, for instance). Keeping different functions (DAC, transport, and music storage) separate might make it easier/cheaper to update the system when technologies or streaming services progress.
I like to re create the energy of a live rock concert at home, and my kit Naim/Dynaudio speakers, and Chord Dac does (to a large degree) do that for me.
Plus with Tidal I listen to a lot of rock bands anyway…
I didn’t think one needs to explain their choice of music on this forum?
Adds massively to cost compared to what? Whilst I understand people not liking the styling, it is (subject to provision of suitable capacity micro SD card) a combined store/renderer and online streaming service player . It seems to me to be a potentially attractive (practically and aurally if not visually) solution, with the added benefit of portability, being able to take your entire music collection with you anywhere if the 2go is used with a Hugo, the Ugo converting it to be usable with another DAC like Dave.
I’ve no idea what it is like in practice, but if I was in the market for a neat solution that by at least some accounts offers excellent sound quality I’d certainly want to hear it.
Like all Chord products if you ask me,fugly. It’s limited to 2ghz wireless as well which is really short sighted given how oversaturated that band is in most homes. The mojos version of this has had nothing but issues with wireless connectivity, I imagine this will to.
I’ve owned and used a Chord Mojo + Poly for some time now and also have a Hugo 2 but not any of the Chord “go” add-ons to be clear.
The 2go Streamer module has a lot of similarities to the Poly from a design and usability perspective, it’s a little more refined though with more features in particular an RJ-45 Jack for Ethernet connectivity which the Poly lacks.
I spent a very long time (think years here) wanting to love it, the Mojo I enjoyed using over USB to a MacBook Pro when at work and the Poly felt like a “ticks all the right boxes” add on.
It’s fair to say the user experience was pretty poor overall and only once they enabled Roon on the Poly was it anywhere near a nice user experience. The Wi-Fi was also very flaky on it for a long time, it’s mostly ok now thankfully.
Compared to my NDX2 which is doing similar things the software and user experience compared to the Mojo/Poly is significantly better and far more stable overall.
I was quite tempted to get a 2go for my Hugo 2, then I remembered the headaches with the Poly and put my wallet back in my pocket.
Using it with Roon is pretty good to be fair and I use it a lot sat in bed with headphones late at night, it just felt like the software and supporting apps were something of an after thought and as an owner/user I definately felt more like a beta tester for a nice idea than someone owning something which was finished and refined. There’s also no overlooking the fact 2go and 2yu is expensive for what it is and what it is capable of doing, even my Mojo/Poly was about £1000 at the time I got it a few years back and with hindsight, I probably should have stuck with an Astell & Kern or Sony PMP.
I too had a Poly on my Mojo when it first came out - for a day. I tried streaming wirelessly to it from iTunes and was so frustrated by the drop outs that I immediately sold it.
I think I am ready to attempt a more sustained move to streaming from CD, albeit using Roon and micro SSD storage this time rather than streaming from iTunes.
The Hugo 2/2Go is probably the best match for my system (32.5/hc/250 ATC HTS7) but since I already have a Mojo I thought giving the Poly another chance would be a lower risk way to restart the adventure initially.
Has Chord made updates/improvements to the Poly since it was first released?
It’s a lot better now, once the Version 2 software came out for it and they added support for Roon and a noticable improvement in the Wi-Fi stability it became a quite useable device. Also has embedded radio streaming support in the Chord GoFigure app as well which I do use a fair bit. It now has two modes of playback, Roon and Everything Else, or UPnP as most folks know it.
I still find the UPnP and SD Card playback a bit clunky, why they can’t just add the support for that in the GoFigure App I don’t fully understand.
I thought they may eventually get round to enabling it but that still isn’t the case. I have used both Glider and 8Player Pro apps on iOS/iPhone. I find Glider the most consistent and use the MDP interface on the Poly. 8Player looks like a DLNA app from 15 years ago, with odd navigation and Media icons.
Roon in contrast finds the Poly, and controls it flawlessly, so basically my feeling has always been Chord stuck to the mantra of taps are taps and we make amazing hardware but suck at building an app to control them, so go spend money elsewhere and use Roon and stop whinging.
For a long time it was rubbish at doing anything and I defaulted to just using the Mojo as a USB DAC for my laptop. Once they brought out the Version 2 software for it and enabled Roon most importantly, everything seemed to “just work” in line with my previous experiences of using Roon to control various equipment.
Playback from SD Card requires a 3rd Party app, you’re on your own basically as all the Chord GoFigure app does is let you change the settings on the Poly and it does have a player of sorts but it’s hardly user friendly, which given my day job is developing consumer electronics for a living is saying something, I’m happy tinkering and using Beta code on occasion but it always felt like the Poly was a good idea poorly implimented. It’s always felt like Chord assumed consumers would be so “blown away” by the ability of the Mojo DAC they’d find a way to make it work somehow with the Poly.
When it works it’s great and is the product I bought it to be but my experience with the Mojo/Poly was sufficiently frustrating that it’s put me off doing it all again with the Hugo 2 2go add on, they are quite similar “under the hood” so I’ve no reason to expect it’ll be significantly better than what I found with the Poly.
