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The NHT loudspeakers were auditioned in my dedicated listening room with the following ancillary equipment: VTL 225W Deluxe monoblock power amplifiers, Esoteric D-10 and D-2 digital processors, a Theta DSPro Basic digital processor, and the Electronic Visionary Systems Stepped Attenuator, a passive control unit. The analog front end was a VPI HW-19 Jr. turntable with an AudioQuest PT-5 tonearm and Sumiko Boron cartridge. A new outboard phono preamp made by Precision Audio allowed me to use the passive control unit for both CD and LP playback.

Speaker…

Not so in Tokyo, where commuters, tourists, and shoppers moving through the Shinjuku or Shibuya subway stations will find it almost impossible to ignore Sony's latest advertising campaign, which colorfully announces a new range of affordable portable audio players (né Walkmans). Inside, banners suspended from the cars' ceilings promote Panasonic's latest headphones and shoebox-sized stereo system. Many of the bigger…

Okay—I learned that I should try to resist the allure of a pretty face.

Okay, I confess: I have never been able to resist the allure of a pretty face. Which is why, when I first clapped eyes on the Mojo D/A headphone amplifier from English company Chord Electronics, at an event hosted by Manhattan retailer Stereo Exchange (see photo a few paragraphs below), I had to borrow a sample for review.

Yes, at $599, the Mojo—the name is short for Mobile Joy—is a little more expensive than some similar…

Description: D/A headphone amplifier. Data inputs: USB Micro B 2.0 port, S/PDIF on TosLink optical, coaxial on 3.5mm jack. Charging port: USB Micro B 2.0. Outputs: two 3.5mm headphone jacks. Resolution: 24 bits on TosLink, 32 bits on other inputs. Maximum sample rate: 192kHz on S/PDIF, 768kHz and DSD256 on USB, 384kHz on coaxial. Maximum output power at 1kHz: 35mW into 600 ohms, 720mW into 8 ohms. Output impedance: 0.075 ohm. THD+N: 0.00017% at 3V. Dynamic range: 125dB. Power: internal battery. Charging: 5V, 1A via USB bus. Supplied accessory: charging cable.…

Digital Sources: MacBook Pro laptop computer running Pure Music 2.0 for PCM files, Audirvana 1.5.12 for DSD files; iPad 2 with Apple camera connection kit; Astell&Kern AK100 portable player.
Headphone Amplifiers: Apogee Groove, Aurender Flow.
Headphones: Audeze LCD-X, AudioQuest NightHawk, Sennheiser HD600, Ultimate Ears 18 Pro.—John Atkinson

I measured the Chord Mojo with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"). The Mojo's battery was fully charged at the start of the measurements. The data sources were USB from my 2012 MacBook Pro running on battery power, using Pure Music 2.0 to play the files, and S/PDIF on TosLink from the SYS2722. Macintosh's USB Prober utility reported the Mojo's product string as "Mojo" from "Chord Electronics Ltd," and confirmed that its USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. Apple's AudioMIDI utility…

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