Unless you did a blind test with matched levels of the NuPrime and Qutest your impressions are suspect to confirmation bias. The shiny new toy always gives greater joy than the old battered toy.
Finally Bought Chord Qutest
After two years of obsessing over my curiosity about what a new DAC would do, I pulled the trigger and bought a new Chord Qutest. Three days in since the lights came on. There has been a slight burn in transformation going on in depth and impact of bass. My expectations were irrationally high. (The price tag in part feeds that!) I'm from the poor side of the audiophile family. Honestly the improvements are more than even I expected. I'll spare you all the typical accolades but one stands out I should mention. By the way my previous DAC was the NUprime 9SE which retailed for a little over $1000. So no junk there. Timing. I heard reviewers speak of how "timing" seemed right. But I never really knew what it was. With the Nuprime DAC I felt the music wasn't settled and relaxing. The Chord DAC gives the calming sense everything is in its place. This in turn allows me to relax and enjoy the music like my early "phile" days. I guess this is what "timing" means. More detail for sure, and this ...very clear distinction in each aspect of the music, each instrument sits freely in its own space. It blew the borders off with depth, width, a real holographic world audibly before my ears. Fantastic (And I said I wasn't going to wax eloquent) Transformative really [Raven Integrated Amp, Klipsch Lascala II, SVS SB2000 sub, Audiolab CDT6000 transport, Mad Scientist interconnects, Tellurium Q Black II speaker cables]
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