Chord - Qutest

This is the best and only DAC that you'll ever need. The sound is extremely clean. Soundstage is huge and it looks beautiful. It is built like a tank and is quite heavy over 700 gms. It has no ventilation holes and is dust proof. So maintenance is easy. When I first opened the box, my first reaction was wow. The box looks so awesome and the qutest looks even better!

I pair the Qutest with Schiit Magni 3 for listening through headphones (Hifiman Ananda, HD 800, HD 598SE, ATH M50x). This combo sounds awesome. You can clearly hear the difference between high quality flac and mp3 which is expected from a good DAC. I earlier would use dragonfly black and now I never seem to use it after listening to the Qutest. Of house dragonfly black is better for portable listening on the go.

I also paired the Qutest with my studio monitors Yamaha HS8 through a hardware volume controller and the sound can just blow your mind. Extremely clear sound.

Be aware that there can be pops and crackles if you listen to flac 192 khz and above on windows 10. This is not a problem of Qutest, but an issue in the way Windows processes USB audio. You can use Foobar2000 with ASIO driver to reduce the pops and crackles. However, with high bit rates like 24 bit 192 khz and above, there may still be ocassional pops. I prefer using Ubuntu linux with Audacious audio player where there is no such issue of pops or crackling. You need to make sure you select USB in the audio output option of Audacious for best sound quality.

Definitely recommended if you are willing to spend for stunning audio quality.

Thanks to headphonezone received the within 24hrs of placing the order. Its been a week with the DAC 3 days with me and 4 days with a friend (so that I could get an unbiased review). Initially I was skeptical of the purchase as the price is 1.2L (which was way above my budget) and the combined price of my speaker + amp is 60K . This DAC has replaced my current CA Azur Dacmagic. Look wise awesome (specially the lights), sonically terrific. The sound is very smooth and non-fatiguing. Could clearly spot the difference with the previous DAC. My friend also noticed the same difference with a higher end amplifier+speaker combo.
Definitely a recommended buy.

One of the best DACS I have ever heard, period. The soundstage is sublime, I listened to Coke Studio for about 2 hours straight with a Massdrop THX AAA 789 and HD800S, bliss, heavenly, felt like I was in the middle and the sound was all around me, definitely a big yes from my side.

It’s soundstage full of very crisp yet clean and concise. I dare not forget to mention it’s explicitly detailed instrumentation they fills the space between my klipsh floor standing speakers.

Qutest offers brilliant resolution. Sweet texture and nuance cling to the wheeling cymbal, double bass and crisp vocals.

The four filters are almost the same. While they don’t make the world of difference, they’re worth experimenting with and I realised they for a person with a keen ear they do. To my ears they did not make much of a difference but to my daughter’s ears they did. She could make out the changes from warmness to coolness and a neutral feel. Guess age is catching up with me.

Over the past few days, I have been running this continuously and can make out that this needs a bit of running in. So don’t judge it right out of the box.

The music I have been playing is Amber Rubarth and boy or boy... this little thing bring best of her recordings especially the chesky produced ones. One can feel the room in which the recording was done. Then I moved onto the jazz kemerata by Carlos Franzetti and it was brilliant. Subsequently played retrospective by Christy baron am I must say this does an awesome Job. After listening to a lot of vocals and jazz, I moved to check how it plays a bit more complex music like the ones by Brian Eno and david bowie. It’s brought out the best of their work. Lastly, I must mentioned the sound track of Thir thin red line by Hans Zimmer man. This starts off with a very low bass and while a lot of people may not agree to me adding a sub woofer to a stereo set up, But I do have a small KEF active one in the loop. The qutest did a brilliant job here too.

The spacing, staging and separation that it provides is worth every rupee spent on this little one with a huge heart!

I must also mentioned that this is my first purchase from headphone zone and the team work is worth a mention. Prompt and on time delivery.

Thank you Raghav and team. Good work guys and keep it up awesome work.

Before the Qutest, Chord Mojo was my DAC of choice for my Adam Audio F7 active speakers. So yes, Qutest is a massive upgrade to the Mojo for a speaker setup.

In a pithy phrase - silky smooth. Qutest has no harshness (white filter) - I’ve heard 80s rock and pop on Spotify and it never sounded so smooth. Vocals stand out with clarity and intelligibility. Old Hindi songs (often poorly recorded) are now enticing.

The other standout is bass. Bass lines are clear and my room’s impact has decreased. It reflects better the source material and my speakers’ character.

If you don’t like digital music and feel disconnected to its soul, get the Qutest.

(Chain - Allo Usbridge Signature to Qutest to Adam Audio F7s)

Introducing Qutest into the audio chain just opened up the soundstage. Instruments came alive. Vocals/mid-range sounds very warm. The bass sounds tight and the high’s are very balanced and not harsh/bright. I highly recommend this DAC to all audio enthusiast. My setup involves JRiver MC 27 —[USB ASIO]—> Qutest —[RCA]—> Emotiva_PT-100 —[RCA]—> Emotiva_XPA-DR2 —> Klipsch_RP8000F. I appreciate the “creative” Home Audition offer from Headphone Zone. This allowed me to experiment w/ the Qutest before placing the order.

Chord - Qutest

seriously impressive

Chord - Qutest