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Comparing Chord Qutest Dac with the Built in Dac in Lumin T3 Streamer

  • My system is as follows:
  • 1. Martin Logan 11A impression speakers. 
  • 2. Conrad Johnson Power Amplifier Classic 62   
  • 3. Rogue Pre-amp     
  • 4. Lumin U2 mini streamer 
  • 5. Chord Qutest Dac

Seeking to upgrade by replacing the Lumin U2 mini streamer and the Chord Qutest Dac with the Lumin T3 streamer.  I would use the DAC that is built into the Lumin T-3 streamer. 

Would this be an upgrade? I short, does the Dac in the T3 sound better than the Chord Qutest Dac. Would appreciate any advice. Thank you. 

 

 

 

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tubeguy76
146 posts
 

@verdantaudio 

I have a Qutest and I was looking at the Weiss 204 earlier today as I'm looking for a DAC with balanced outputs.  I haven't heard any Weiss DACs before but I'm curious after reading many positive reviews for what that's worth.  How does the Qutest compare in your experience?  I'm using an iFi Zen Stream with Roon for now.  Looking for a new streamer as well.

verdantaudio's avatar
verdantaudio
1,469 posts
 

@tubeguy76 the DAC 204 is the better all around DAC.  Chord is amazing between the speakers.  The Qutest has great depth of image and strong detail.  That said, it lacks the image width and height of the DAC 204.  The 204 is close to as good in terms of depth and will be very close in terms of detail.  Tonally they are similar.  The Qutest might have a hair more musicality while the 204 is maybe a bit more neutral.  This should not be a huge surprise since the 204 is more than 2x the price of the Qutest.  If it wasn’t a big step up, why 2x the price.  If this was a comparison to the TT2, the convo would be reversed about how it is better all around than the 204.  
 

Regarding streamer, if you are running Roon, the most important thing you can do is split the duties of player and server into two devices.  Roon core needs a very high powered processor to handle that bit of software.  Between managing the volatility of the web, local libraries and DSP functionality, big processor important.  The player did or any device that is “Roon Ready” is just doing simple decompression and getting data ready for the DAC.  This requires a much lower powered processor.  High power here introduces noise.  A Nuc running rock, a small green computer, Roon nucleus, etc… paired with just about any endpoint will outperform all the single devices I have heard running Roon at this price level.  

tubeguy76
146 posts
 

@verdantaudio 

Those are the main reasons why I like the Qutest, the depth and detail without being harsh or fatiguing.  But, more width and height is also what I'm after so it seems the 204 may fit the bill.  

With Roon, I'm using a Mac Mini as a dedicated Roon core and it is doing a fine job but I don't have anything to compare it to.  The iFi Zen works great as an end point.

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