Chord Qutest——>No difference

@jasonbourne71   Agreed that more voltage —> louder music —> more pleasing to the ear. But whatever the special sauce, I’ll take it. Regarding your DAC recommendation…I’m on a budget (bought my Qutest used). Thanks for the posts.

Oh no! I hope that’s not the case.

@ddude003 
@fuzztone 

Changing the variable line level voltage to 3v seems impactful - the music certainly is louder.  My wife likes the change; maybe I was expecting miracles? Thanks for your input.

Charlie

@theo 

Thanks Theo, I have an old Arcam C31 preamp (paired with Arcam P1 monos) so I need all the help I can get. At some point may upgrade to a Rogue Audio tube preamp but that’s down the line.

@theo 

See my previous comment.

@audphile1 Will do thanks.

@milo0812   I need to purchase 2 of these, the other so I can connect the Qutest to my old CD player.

@jjss49  What can I tell you, I didn’t hear the difference, and any improvement I hear now may be a function of loudness. My wife says the sound is bigger and fills the room. I agree, whatever the cause.

@audioguy85  LOL. I got the Qutest used for half price.

@jetter i ordered two!

@sudnh i ordered a couple of new digital cables (BNC to RCA terminated) coax cables that should arrive any day now. Let me break them in for a week or so and I’ll post my findings.

As I prefer a warm sound, I went with Arcam early on, though down the line I may swap out my preamp for tube-based Rogue Audio.

@jetter I considered your proposal but it’s just not feasible in my home.

@fuzztone @ddude003 @theo @jasonbourne71 @carlsbad2 @audphile1 @milo0812 @audioguy85 @sudnh @jetter 

Hello everyone, I arrived at the sound I desired, and thought I’d share my findings.
So to begin, the problem -from the outset- was power. Though I own a pair of 175W/channel (@8 ohms) Arcam P1 monoblocks, they aren’t enough.
As suggested, I toyed with Qutest’s 1-3 voltage settings but still was unsatisfied until…I integrated an external power supply! The LPS is set to 5v3amps, with the Qutest @ 2vRMS, and that resolved everything. The Qutest now has sufficient power to give the resolution & soundstage I expected.  My current preferred filter setting is warm with HF rolloff.
During all my tweaking, I also eliminated my Hydra 4 from the system, with the pre/amps now going directly into the wall, and everything else into my Furman power strip. I find this eliminated a dampening sound, making the audio experience cleaner & brighter.

Per @jetter ’s recommendation, I bought Cullen digital cables but am using my Chord USB until burn-in (using the free Tara Labs cascade burn-in recording).

A special thanks to @jetter btw who went above & beyond helping me get some curve balls sorted out.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Charlie