Anybody here upgrade from Chord Qutest DAC"


Chord Qutest is a strong contender, especially with linear power supply, but I’m curious about greener pastures, or at least different-colored pastures. Think my system is good enough to notice: ear 868l pre, pass xa30.8, omega alnico Xrs speakers. Streaming only.

Anybody here upgrade from chord qutest with other chord dacs or different brands altogether? What improved, what was lost?
redwoodaudio

Showing 1 response by frozentundra

@redwoodaudio 

I have a Qutest and almost sent it back when I first tried it.
The standard plug & play was too detailed for me !    Lol
I like DSD ( sacd ) Sound profiles in general 

I also tried a Playback Designs Merlot DSD dacThe best dac I’ve been around, period 
it was there with the Qutest  

Anyway , Roon has a upsampling dsp, similar to the Chord 1Mm device , but all software .

I played with all the dsp things and settled on the 2x DSD upsample 

it was pretty close to the Merlot when done 

try the Roon thing first and see how you like it !

jeff