Qutest With The Mcru Power Supply What Hi Fi Forum

I’m looking for experience-based opinions here on which linear power supplies Agoners have found to provide the greatest benefit when used with Chord Qutest DAC. I have personal experience with upgraded MCRU and Swagman Labs supplies in different applications, and have been quite happy. Here are the models I am currently considering: My budget is under $500. If you swear by other lps products you’ve used with the Qutest DAC, I would be interested to hear about it. I have several different PCs on hand to try with a new lps.

FWIW, I tried a 5v ifi XPOWER switching supply I have on hand, and it sounds awful with the Qutest, but sounds very good in other applications, including with a Chord Mojo2. I had success employing a 5v Ifi iPower Elite with a Chord Qutest, which is Ifi's top of the line switch mode power supply. Zerozone on alipay, Kingrex,or with more dosh Keces or Teddy Pardo. Sure, but in such a case if protection circuitry has blown, and the supplied PSU is operating fine and its protection circuitry hasn’t blown… then that would indicate a different non compliant power source... I know other manufacturers do this, and many many years ago I had personal experience of that with Sharp Electronics. I seem to remember the first time I had my Hugo repaired by Chord (the internal power regulator looked like it failed … but it was the internal batteries, before we knew they needed...

I tried the 3v output. The source is an Innuos Zen running Lyrion (Logitech) Music Server. I tried first with the Innuos player setup to apply no volume gain (through LMS settings). At first I used the Chord power supply and later swapped it for the MCRU power supply. The sound had more detail and was a little bit lighter in the bass, more noticeably so with the MCRU supply. The difference brought about by the filter settings were more obvious to me with the 3v output.

I have no way of ensuring the sound level was consistent with what I had previously with the 1v output (when I had the volume on the preamp turned up higher). I went into the LMS settings and set the player volume gain to album gain and tried again. The results were reduced in detail then and smoother than I heard before. I think Chord’s fixed gain ratios of 1/3 and 2/3 give a better opportunity to preserve details than the variable digital attenuation of track gain or album gain. Plus, I suspect Rob Watts can expand 16 bit or 24 bit samples up to 32 bits before applying digital attenuation in the FPGA in order to preserve details. In LMS, volume gain takes in 16 bits and puts out 16 bits with attenuation and has a higher possibility of losing LSBs resulting in a loss of details.

In quiet passages, digital attenuation could introduce quantisation errors but the designer should be able to avoid this in DSP. My long-time Chord dealer reached out and Chord told them it was fine. You keep using stock PSU’s if that is what makes you comfortable. Others are not required to. I think it’s important to understand the most optimal gain staging of each system and to cater to what sounds best for each use case. The FPGA-DSP volume attenuation is a handy tool to find what works best.

Indeed, I remember advising this many years ago with the arrival of the original Hugo. The ‘turquoise’ level setting appeared optimum for the 252 and 552 NACs. However digital attenuation works here because of the bespoke design of the DSP in the FPGA and proprietary multi element pulse array digital to analogue converters in the Chord products. Such methods are not going to be necessarily transparent when using off the shelf components however, hence why Naim with their products, don’t recommend digital attenuation for best performance. I see that the Chord Qutest gets pretty good reviews, but I can't get over the fact they sell a high-end DAC with a SWITCHING power supply. It has got to sound better with a good linear power supply, or perhaps one of the iFi switching supplies that have noise cancellation.

So has anyone used a better power supply with the Qutest and can you tell me what supply you used, where you got it, how you hooked it into micro USB, and the resulting... I'm particularly interested in linear power supplies. There are a number of suppliers, pretty inexpensive ones from China and then more expensive ones elsewhere. Also let me describe my taste and could someone familiar with the Qutest check whether I might like it? I mainly listen to classical. I like musical involvement and of the many factors that go into musical involvement, I think dynamics (micro and macro) is the most important.

I don't mind if it's a little warm and pretty, which is better than being clinical. A natural, not artificial, sense of resolution is good. I use the word "resolution" rather than "detail" because there are so many ways a DAC can hype or etch detail in a way that's unnatural, but "resolution" implies that you can pick out... I realize that stunning resolution is mostly found in much more expensive products, so I am happy with something less, but not muddy or smeared. It’s head and shoulders above all other DACs I have listened to at home - I just didn’t want to follow the trend - I mean so many ‘audiophiles’ own a Qutest so I... Well I can’t do that now can I.

Within the limits of my budget the Qutest is the Greatest. Damn - I’m now with the audiophile masses. But I can’t help what I hear. You will probably want a linear power supply for it soon There’s nothing at all wrong with following a crowd if they’re all heading in the direction you want to go Cosmetically and functionally perfect DAC.

Very open and detailed sounding without being over analytic. The MCRU power supply takes it's performance uo to the level of the Chord Qutest DAC. Well looked after and maintained. Comes with original box with USB cable and USB drive containing firmware.

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