Digital Processor Reviews

However, Ms. Podger's violin sounded a bit reedier than I was used to, as did Giuliano Carmignola's instrument in his performance of Bach's Violin Concerto in E with Concerto Köln (16/44.1 ALAC file, from Archiv 0289 479 2695 5), which sounded too thin. And when I played the Queen Live at Wembley '86 CD (Hollywood Records HR-61104-2)—triggered by publicity for the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which was being heavily promoted when I was preparing this review—Freddie Mercury's voice in "Bohemian Rhapsody" was, through the Chord's Incisive Neutral filter and for want of a better word, incisive. I changed to the Incisive Neutral HF roll-off filter, then the Warm filter, and finally the Warm HF roll-off filter. The differences between these filters were subtle—"warm" and "HF roll-off" seemed exaggerated labeling—but the Warm HF roll-off filter was a touch more effective in rendering this admittedly aggressive-sounding recording acceptable.

Roger Taylor's drums on "We Will Rock You" from Live at Wembley '86, however, lost some of the essential sense of drive they'd had with the Incisive Neutral filter, and I settled on the Warm filter for my everyday listening. This filter brought out the best on the Mike Garson Trio's live Wild Out West, Volume One album (16/44.1 ALAC files ripped from CD, BluePort). Listening to the trio's imaginative arrangement of Miles Davis's "Nardis," I was transported back to 2006, to Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. This filter also worked well with historic recordings. I have been working my way through The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records, Volume 1 (1917–1927) (Third Man Records) and after "Nardis" finished, Roon served up "Mr. Crump Don't Like It" by the Beale Street Sheiks (24/44.1, 320kbps MP3 file, transcribed from what was probably an acoustically recorded 78.) Yes, the surface noise on this recording is as loud as the two-stepping acoustic guitar and you can hear both the noise and guitar duck when the voice enters, but with the Qutest and its Warm filter this 90-year-old track sounded more compelling than I was expecting.

Having enjoyed living with the Qutest for some weeks, it was time to see how it matched up against some other good-sounding DACs.

Comparing
I used the Chord with its Warm filter for all the following tests. The first comparisons I performed were with PS Audio's PerfectWave DirectStream, which costs $6899 when fitted with the network bridge card. I had bought the PS Audio to be my long-term reference DAC. Roon's ability to stream the same music to more than one DAC—the PS Audio via the network, the Chord via USB—was a boon here. Listening to the Queen CD with levels matched at 1kHz, the PS Audio smoothed over the aggressive edges of Freddie Mercury's vocals without obscuring any of the detail. Guitarist Brian May's power chords at the start of "We Will Rock You" were better differentiated from the drums with the DirectStream DAC and the kick drum and bass guitar spoke with somewhat greater authority, as did Darek Oles' double bass on Wild Out West, Volume One. The leading edges of the bass's notes were a tad better defined with the Chord, however.

Overall, a win on points to the PS Audio, but of course, it ought to sound better than the Chord, given that it costs more than three times as much. I therefore reached for our review sample of the original Mytek Brooklyn, which Jim Austin reviewed in November 2016. The Brooklyn cost $100 more than the Qutest (footnote 4) but includes a phono preamp, volume control, and headphone output, as well as offering MQA decoding. For the comparisons I set the Brooklyn's reconstruction filter to MPh (Minimum Phase), which I felt dealt most gracefully with the overcooked Queen album. Even so, the Mytek's balance was slightly more forward than the Chord's, which meant it sounded a little louder despite the levels being matched.

Other than that, the two processors sounded very similar, though if I have to swear to it, the Brooklyn's low frequencies were a little leaner. The sound on Vladimir Ashkenazy's performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto 2, with Bernard Haitink conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra (16/44.1 ALAC file ripped from CD, London 414 475-2) was typically mid-1980s Decca—vivid in the highs, powerful in the lows—but perhaps slightly warmer overall on the Chord. Peculiarly, I could reduce this difference between the two processors by inverting the Brooklyn's polarity, even though my measurements had indicated that both the Chord and the Mytek preserve absolute phase. The piano now sounded equally forceful, though with the Angela Hewitt Mozart concerto, there was a touch more air around the piano with the Chord.

It was a close-run thing with the Chord and Mytek processors. Next up was iFi Audio's Pro iDSD D/A processor ($2499), which Herb Reichert reviews elsewhere in this issue. The Pro iDSD is similar to the Mytek Brooklyn in that it has a volume control and headphone output, and will decode MQA data. It also has three different output modes, and a bewildering number of choices of reconstruction filter—to keep things manageable, I stuck with HR's preferred Bit Perfect non-oversampling mode and the Tube+ output.

Playing the Mike Garson Trio's "Nardis," with the Roon Nucleus+ server feeding both DACs data via USB and with levels matched using pink noise, the left-hand register of the piano was warmer-sounding on the iDSD. Yet the Qutest had somewhat better low-frequency definition, my Fender bass guitar on the channel ID tracks on Editor's Choice (CD, Stereophile STPH016-2) having a better balance between the leading edges of the notes I played and the body of the tone. This was also apparent on Van Morrison and Roger Waters' "Comfortably Numb" (24/44.1, 320kbps AAC file, from Van Morrison at the Movies—Soundtrack Hits, EMI), though the Chord did better at untangling the dense mix, this probably not helped by the AAC encoding. (I have no idea how a lossy version of this song ended up in my library—probably an iTunes purchase when I didn't want to buy the entire CD.)

Turning to a hi-rez file, Beck's "Heart Is a Drum" (24/96 ALAC file from Morning Phase, Capitol/HDtracks 3764975), the iFi offered a palpable midrange, but over-warm lows; the Chord's bass was tighter and deeper, but Beck's voice sounded less rounded. To ensure that I wasn't unduly influenced by Herb's review, or just hearing what I expected from the iDSD's tubes, I paused playback on Roon for both DACs and switched rapidly between the inputs on the Ayre EX-8 integrated amplifier until I had lost track of what was selected. I then started the file playing again and tried to identify which DAC was playing. Warm lows, palpable mids? Must be the iFi Pro iDSD. And it was. Repeated the procedure: tight, deep bass guitar, somewhat drier rendition of Beck's voice—it was indeed the Chord Qutest.

Frankly, however, I could live with either of these DACs. With messy, congested mixes like the Van Morrison "Comfortably Numb," I would take the Chord with its Incisive Neutral filter; with sparse arrangements dominated by a vocal, like David Ackles' classic "The Road to Cairo" from David Ackles (16/44.1 ALAC file, ripped from CD, Elektra), I would go for the iFi in its direct (Bit-Perfect) mode and the Tube+ output. Horses for courses.

Concluding
You can read in this issue's "As We See It" that there is a dichotomy between D/A processors that sound superb because they're faithful to the digital data they decode, and those that sound superb because they tell lies. Chord's Qutest is firmly in the former camp, especially with its Incisive Neutral filter, and for that, designer Rob Watts is to be commended.

As I wrote of Chord's Hugo TT D/A headphone amplifier in November 2015, the Qutest is an "extraordinarily well-engineered component." However, the important distinction is that while the Hugo TT costs $4795, the Qutest costs only $1895. Yes, it lacks a volume control, remote handset, Bluetooth capability, balanced outputs, MQA decoding, and a headphone jack—but it offers close to the state of the measured digital art ca 2019, and it sounds simply superb. It may not quite reach the sonic heights offered either by Chord's DAVE or by PS Audio's DirectStream DAC, but at less than one-sixth the price of the former and less than one-third the price of the latter, it can be strongly recommended.

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Footnote 4: The original Brooklyn DAC has been replaced by the Brooklyn DAC+, which costs $2195—see Jim Austin's April 2018 Follow-Up—which I have not yet auditioned.