Chord Mojo 2 by Rob Watts - Canjam NYC 2022 Seminars

Seminar by Rob Watts of Chord Electronics
canjamglobal.com/
0:00 Intro
24:48 Mojo 2

[@permortenkjl4281]

I bought it yesterday and I have been listening to music with the Mojo 2 for eight hours straight, and I can't wait to come home and play the songs I'm looking forward to hear! It is amazing, how I don't experience any listening fatigue at all. Thank you Rob Watts for the incredible Mojo 2 :)

[@dilbyjones]

Thanks so much for reposting.

[@1046C]

Amazing and captivating share, thank you so much.

[@evshrug]

Excited for this one…

[@GavinHodgson]

Thanks for posting - great presentation by Rob

[@r423sdex]

Great ! He does make the odd wild claim.

[@klaymoon1]

One of the few people in the industry who actually understands DAC and who can actually build a better DAC. 99% of the other players neither understand it nor can design a darn thing. They just buy from others and play a few variation until they find something pleasing to their ears. Most of good products for those people happens accidentely and many times they have a wrong understanding why their variation A was better than variation B. At the end of the day, most people does not understand a darn thing. Kudos to Rob!!

[@BogdanWeiss]

The situation is a lot more nuanced - your oversimplification doesn't help. If/when you design a piece of electronics & you deal with the myriad of issues & balancing acts involved, design, production, QA, marketing... & a lot of your competitors basically lying through their teeth & there is no level playing field..... Then you're dealing with stupid consumers who wave their iphone & expect you to jump & their ignorance is cultivated & encouraged..... It's a tough game in a crowded market - look at Resonnesce Labs - there was nothing shabby about their designs & performance - yet the company folded

[@klaymoon1]

@@BogdanWeiss cut the crap. It’s no secret many consumer audio brands has very little training in electronic engineering. Never paid an attention to that company you are referring to. But I know people who runs audio shops making DACs who have no clue whatsoever. When a good schematic is provided like AKM, they can barely pull it out. When the schematic is poor like ESS, they cannot pull out a sh*t until someone else pulls out then copy. Of course, my comments are oversimplified. I am not publishing a dissertation here. This is a f**king youtube comment section.

[@campersruincod6134]

Like most things in life. Rob Watts IQ is vastly higher than other digital audio engineers. He actually understands the concept from top to bottom and how to achieve accuracy, realistic audio reproduction.

[@dasninjastix]

I was skeptical of the device, especially for the price but I've been floored by good it sounds and how well the EQ performs. Not sure the crossfeed is for me yet, but the combination of the Mojo 2 and the Stellia has me thinking I'm just going to sell most of my collection. I've heard it takes a bit to adjust to the difference between a Chord device and your standard delta sigma but it sounded preferable to me pretty immediately. It doesn't quite sync up so nicely with my Aeon Noire; I prefer that on other sources but my Stellia, Aeolus, Sundara, and 6XX all experience greater depth of presentation, more texture in the sound, and being able to add bass or air without withdrawing or quieting or blunting the Mids is phenomenal.

[@MisterChibs]

wow! Thanks for your thoughts. Have the Stellia myself and looking into getting one of these.

[@dasninjastix]

@@MisterChibsI'm sure you'll love it, but I probably should have mentioned I've pad swapped my Stellia to Dekoni LTD because regardless of how plush and nice looking the stock pads are they're just too shallow for my ears. But damn.. I had hits and misses with most of the stuff I'd listen to with the Stellia, attributing it to recording quality but with the Mojo 2 everything sounds amazing, and by that I mean specifically holographic or 3D or non-flat or textured or whatever audiophile term you want to use degrees of depths in the vocals, the instruments, and distances presented in the bass resonance. With ZMF releasing the Atrium and me wanting to own a biocellulose headphone I'm legit just gonna consider selling half my stuff.

[@badooombapbap]

While i can't articulate it as well as you I've had a similar experience. After a solid day of auditioning the mojo2/poly and comparing it to my my 2go/hugo2 setup I was a convert to the little brother. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

[@keithb5612]

Do you know how the Mojo2 audio compares to the RME ADI2 DAC FS unit? Cheers.

[@shanek1248]

for the aeon noire what is youre favourite stuff to run it off? looking for something thats musical and easy going with the treble 😅

[@zenboy863]

I bought one, and decided to keep it. I trialed it against the Oppo Sonica + THX AAA 789 and a Pro-ject Pre Box S2 Digital. I prefer it for both headphones and powered speakers rather then either of these dac's.

[@JudgeFredd]

Very interesting information about the product

[@wojciechczupta9185]

nice thing about DSD is it will solve your room modes issues. you can't enjoy good dac if your room kicks +30dB at 35Hz with slow decay. I wander what he would say about Dirac

[@BarnabyBarry]

I also saw Bob Watts in Los Angeles (Irvine) in his seminar about listening and I listened to the Mojo 2 and it is the best buy

[@r423sdex]

If you want a mobile dac . Otherwise it's definitely not.

[@DavidTheScientist]

@@r423sdex I suspect at that price point, you'd struggle to find anything better, mobile or otherwise.

[@chrisparker5895]

What loudspeaker would go well with the chord mojo 2?

[@ibassnote]

I will demo a mojo 2 as soon as my local store can get them back in stock. I’ve never heard anyone so throughly knowledgeable about DAC design. Quite shocking really.

[@Stephenwongdirectimaging]

U also try out ifi Xdsd. ..just compare this 2 model . Import is u hear by ur self to decide

[@Cypeq]

You are really shocked that a person who's a very succesful designer of the hifi equipment knows all about it. Now I'm shocked.

[@jonasDoguedeBordeaux]

ROB WATTS I'm glad he is still making dacs he used to design the DPA DELTEC dacs of the 90's great dacs that souned great back then. I have never heard his chord gear.I modify a lot of dacs and they all sound different budget dacs sound horrible compared to a decent dac budget dacs need lots of mods to them to catch up.

[@lextr3110]

is the audio latency fixed so that 2 mojo 2 units would be totally synched from input to output... is there a way to set it a fixed latency manually.. what is the average audio latency

[@dougleydorite]

Yeah.. if someone wanted to watch a music video on their phone and send it BT through the Poly, how far off sync would it be?

[@slutbecky7519]

My mojo 1 with poly sounds great!

[@msmiller57]

I have both. Amazing products.

[@florianinside5666]

Hi, do you have any experience using a Sennheiser HD600 on the Mojo2?

[@andrewlittleboy8532]

Summer 2020 in the UK was glorious, very hot especially for Spring!

[@markdoherty2750]

I currently am using the Entech Numbercruncher 205.3 and the Roksan Kandy CD as a transport. May I enquire as to the sonic improvements I might get if I am to upgrade to the Chord Mojo 2 Or Qutest - would it be worth the money do you think?

[@xnoreq]

Rob Watts said he published his research, yet a search did not turn up any publications by him in famous audio journals. I guess he "publishing research" he didn't mean publishing a peer-reviewed paper in a reputable journal but instead copying some pdf to his website?

[@Cypeq]

He's a snakeoil pedler.

[@ilcomendante]

33:23 💯

[@81Treez]

Kinda hard to reproduce live music with something recorded in a studio.

[@nikokomac3185]

Chord mojo 2 best device ever...give it mojo 3 with more power and Bluetooth and will be perfect ...mojo 2 amazing

[@dougleydorite]

What kind of sound quality can one expect from the Poly? Is it that much worse than wired?

[@ikidakimasu]

Shouldn’t be, because poly works with Wi-Fi

[@user-xz6ko8xd4d]

Actually Poly and mojo2 a perfect partner as a portable streamer Dac unit with the ability to use on expensive Hi Fi System 👌

[@GundamGunpla]

Can You help me? What is better? Topping DX3 Pro or combo Topping E30 + Topping L30?

[@dagnisnierlins188]

Technically e30+l30 would be better, Dx3 Pro has Bluetooth and would need only 1 power supply. If you can afford go for topping dx5 or topping e50+l50

[@GundamGunpla]

@@dagnisnierlins188 Have money only like Dx3 Pro+ other way is too much. Anyway in future i can buy Topping L30 for this Dx3? I heard there is not much difference between Dx3Pro+ and combo E30+L30?

[@dagnisnierlins188]

@@GundamGunpla definitely go for topping dx3 pro+, dac in it is better than e30, but amp is slightly worse than l30(only when using low impedence headphones 32ohm and below and less power). There is dx3 Pro and dx3 pro+, so don't accidentally buy the older dx3 Pro. And of course later if needed can buy more powerful/better amp.

[@GundamGunpla]

@@dagnisnierlins188 Okay, that sounds cool for me :) So in the future i can buy just AMP and that's it! :D

[@dagnisnierlins188]

@@GundamGunpla yup, by the way, what headphones you are using?

[@banginghats2]

Very interesting talk. I'm looking forward to seeing the look on the face of an objectivist when I mention 301 db!

[@Cypeq]

That will be wide eyes of bewilderment and then loudest laugh you've ever heard.

[@MrTwangstaable]

There must be a process to getting those -301 db transients time correct. What one will have to do is isolate the listening window samples at -301 db in the using a method that will filter without coloration or take the added coloration in to account, amplify that signal for audition. Fix the timing issue, reassemble or stream with the experimental realignment algo, then audition the difference against the non realigned stream. At this point if you perceive the desired effect of greater depth, you have a winner!

[@Cypeq]

Yes we'll hire gang of bats to work in our micro confabulator transient optimization array.

[@MrTwangstaable]

@@Cypeq Hahaha, I just got a mojo2 a few days ago, he team of bats are onto something :)

[@log791]

I had the Mojo 2 for a few days before I sent it back. The main reason was the 'white noise blast' which unfortunately happened in my configuration as well - after I experienced it, I read on the net that it happened to others, too. But I neither was satisfied with its sound. While its timing was practically perfect, and also small dynamic nuances created a very involving presentation, it was so much _upfront_ that I was not able to listen to it on a headphone. Everything sounded in the very middle of my head. When I tried it as a DAC in my hifi chain, it was a little better, but still much more upfront than my other two DACs. Now I'm looking for a DAC with the Mojo 2's timing and dynamic abilities, but with a more laid-back presentation.

[@MCMTL]

I got a doozy for you guys. I've owned a CHORD Mojo for years now. I've asked the experienced staff at three reputable hifi shops where to find a smaller Coax to fit in the input on the Mojo (3.5mm size) and no one seems to be able to find that cable. And guess what? It's not included in CHORD Mojo's adapter kit. What the hell is going on? Can someone please help me solve this mystery? Thanks in advance. Marc in Montreal

[@robertburghardt8070]

I got that cable from amazon.. A 3.5mm coax cable is nothing special..

[@Cypeq]

It is pretty rare pc soundcards used it along with similarly rare optical jack. Just smaller factor things.

[@original12310]

I agree, I cannot find it either. Amazon or whatever other site.

[@MCMTL]

@original12310 I'm told it's a simple adapter but hifi shops here don't carry it.

[@original12310]

@@MCMTL In one of my boxes at home, I found a mono jack to mono jack cable that seems to fit the bill, I don't know where it's from. I guess it's not a 75 ohms coax cable, but the sound is fine to me. I use it to connect an old iBasso DX50 to the Mojo 2. I would not go for a replacement that'd be a "normal" coax cable (with RCA) + adapter, it doesn't seem normal to do have to do that, especially with a 500€ DAC/amp...

[@alexh5343]

I never heard any Chord products until recently at an Audio Show. I had a chance to directly compare the TT2, Hugo2 and Mojo2. The TT2 had a huge soundstage but sounded too clinical for my tastes. The Mojo2 was quite engaging but much darker sounding and muffled. The Hugo2 was a revelation for me, excellent soundstage, detailed and quite musical. I plan to acquire one.

[@dr.zoidberg4313]

I found the TT2 a little clinical as well coming from the H2. But it all depends on synergy I guess.

[@BogdanWeiss]

How were you listening ? speakers or headphones ?

[@alexh5343]

@@BogdanWeiss It was with headphones, at the Chord booth they had Crosszone CZ-1 headphones.

[@BogdanWeiss]

@@alexh5343 Headphones don't image - I know this is a portable DAC, but a subjective evaluation without the use of loudspeakers is highly limited & not that meaningful IMO

[@alexh5343]

@@BogdanWeiss The demo at the booth was with headphones as headphones amps, not DAC-only. With their particular setup synergy wise the sound was stellar and well-balanced with the Hugo 2. With the Mojo 2 and Hugo TT 2 it was far from great.

[@msmiller57]

This Dude is an absolute genius! Love his products and scientific rationale for accurate sound reproduction. The data will set you free!

[@andrewlittleboy8532]

I've never heard a Chord DAC I like, I've had two and sold both of them. Personal opinion i guess.

[@palefaced1]

So much hate in the comments. I was a huge skeptic on many chord products until I started listening to them. Idk about all the math he is talking about, but they make truly great products that sound amazing.

[@dante19890]

we expected more advancement in 7 years Rob for mojo 2

[@Grooverski]

Great. I shared this clip on my vinyl thread to show that digital conversion isn’t easy. And lazy digital with poor hygiene is rather unpleasant experience.

[@coardcreatif]

All this information and still using Micro USB.

[@vitalyparhomenko7817]

Because they will sell you mojo 3 ;)

[@Another_Audiophile]

I feel 70% of what he is talking about is more about the recording itself rather the dac

[@MikhailKulkov]

I have Mojo1 and listened to Mojo2, it is really better (for me), much more detailed bass and much more natural sound on live acoustic records. But once I listened to one DAC built on AD1862 chip and was shoked with its dynamic, depth, resolution and naturality. Both Mojos compared to it sound like built-in soundcard in my notebook. Going to buy it.

[@magicmulder]

I bought a Mojo 1 but ended up preferring my existing DAC (Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Mk3) for its warmer sound and more natural vocals. Not that the Mojo isn’t great, it just wasn’t the improvement I had hoped for. Sold it and bought a tube preamp for the money. :)

[@vaksilvaksil9939]

Which dac you meant (one dac AD1862)

[@MikhailKulkov]

@@vaksilvaksil9939 Myst DAC1862OCU

[@adissabovic]

35:25 "....I've done tests before, I've heard noise floor at minus four hundred dB..." dafuque's he talking about 😆

[@MrTwangstaable]

In such a situation one would need to do a couple of things, he should have elaborated on it, or somebody should have asked. What one will have to do is isolate the listening window samples at -301 db in the using a method that will filter without coloration or take the added coloration in to account, amplify that signal for audition. Fix the timing issue, reassemble or stream with the experimental realignment algo, then audition the difference against the non realigned stream. At this point if you perceive the desired effect of greater depth, you have a winner! I can't understand how people could assume the worst without knowing more, this man obviously knows what he's talking about. The state of the world is rather pathetic.

[@adissabovic]

@@MrTwangstaable Dude, don't you have to amplify the noise of -400 dB in order to her it? And once you've amplified it, it's no longer at -400 dB. So get help. You and him both. And world's 1A ok, don't worry about it...

[@MrTwangstaable]

@@adissabovic There's a scientific process for such things, you wanna analyse something outside our normal range, get a microscope on it, what's so hard to understand?

[@MrTwangstaable]

@@adissabovic get help? really, calm down and perhaps think about things a little more. world is 1A OK, fuck no, do you even know what's going on in this world, the world is fucked.

[@adissabovic]

@MrTwangstaable Analyze all you want, but -400 dB is as irrelevant as it gets. Even -120 you can discount...

[@rikhouben1019]

2:39 I very much doubt this. A designer of a good DAC/amp should want it to not sound at all. A DAC should convert digital to analog without any alteration to the signal. An amplifier should only change the amplitude of the signal. Most (good) designers do set this as their goal when designing a DAC/amp. Seems that at Chord they don't. All the more reason not to bey from them.

[@briancampbell7712]

Ron Popeil...sell anything🙄😵‍💫🤣He could sell a cake your grandmother baked over 6 months ago😂Pure hype! will try to sell this snake oil Qutest I purchased

[@Vamp898]

All this DAC stuff is way to complicated for me, that is why I use Full Digital Amps :D No DAC is best DAC

[@kurt120032002]

I got Quest 4 days ago as an upgrade to Pre Box S2 digital, and was very disappointed. Everything is soft and sound has no texture no presence. In my best chain where I play DSD the experience is even worse. I am now back to Pre Box S2 Digital and 1400 € down. Not going to touch Chord again.

[@drbyoutube2154]

This doesn't sound right. Could you talk about the other parts of your setup such as power quality, amp and headphones.

[@kurt120032002]

@@drbyoutube2154 I use a Pro-Ject S2 ultra streamer, playing DSD, in to Qtest, and I got 3 headphone amps: BaseX A-100, Rebel Amp and WA6-se, and for headphones I use DT880 - 600Ohms, HD600 and Arya. Playing normal Apple music is passable if you are not playing aggressive music, but when you actually play hi rez file, the entire library suffers from photo effect. It is like good quality photo of a painting. you got all the information, even the distance from camera to the painting, the texture of paint is gone. on top of that you need to factor in the poor dsd support, the ocasional cut-off sound becasue DoP procesing is too much for the chip, and you will be left with a sub-par experience. The dac is afraid to not ever offend anyone that is boring. This dac with the amp is perfect of PC duty. That its job. Put any headphone and will sound good for hours. Sorry, but If this is a 1400 euro Chord experience, I do not trust them to upgrade to another of their product.

[@bunkerbusterexplore]

Try the Oticon More 1. That’s the answer to your issue. Problem solved.

[@ensignofindustry1033]

Idk, but I’m buyin’ whatever this guy’s selling.

[@SilverJoystix]

I changed my mind and deleted my previous comment. This is simply too expensive for what you get. I do appreciate the presentation though.

[@r423sdex]

301dB,😂😂😂🤣😭👍

[@slutbecky7519]

I’ve no idea about the tech but I love my mojo, Hugo and chordette. Why can’t you Engineers who criticise him come up with a better product. Oh yo fucking can’t ! If you do please contact me and I will buy it from you! I await your reply’s products and price for me to purchase this FUTURE PRODUCT.

[@MrTwangstaable]

They don't have the imagination to put themselves in his shoes, most don't have the ability to understand there is a procedure to testing/audition at this level of detail.

[@georgestephenopolous5508]

claims to hear differential at -300 dB or less but makes noisy products because "you can't hear it" this guy is a better salesman than engineer no matter what anyone says

[@kkjrees]

I bet your American

[@SkywhiteChannel]

@@kkjrees I bet you don’t understand his point.

[@phototristan]

Chord doesn’t make noisy products.

[@stephenrussell6074]

If that is what you think then you didn’t listen what he said was not that he could hear noise at -300dB he said he could hear the change in soundstage which he then determined happened due to an effect in signal timing at -300dB with a timing change of greater than 10 nanoseconds and this was due to the brains ability to determine distance and direction of sound. Which is an essential survival attribute and so honed over thousands of generations. Our appreciation and capabilities within music are much younger skills that have little impact on our survival although it has been known for those that can generate such music to have an advantage in procreation.

[@briancampbell7712]

Snake oil salesman...my Chord Qutest s...ks...small little chip board...sound is way better using just iPhone Bluetooth to Vincent 737...

[@MichaelBruceTaos]

EQ on a 64bit computer degrades the sound.. No explanation. It's bullshit statements like this that make me never buy this brand.

[@muffinviking]

timestamp?

[@ilcomendante]

@@muffinviking 34:50 ish Pay no attention to the comment, it must be hard being both stupid and stubborn.

[@borodinskyful]

The wiindows soundstack doeesn't operate at 64 bit even if its running on a 64 bit processor... the way he made his comment was missleading and not surprising that a difference is audible

[@MichaelBruceTaos]

@@borodinskyful Ridiculous. You don't need 64 bits to do EQ properly. I hate this snake oil bullshit.

[@xnoreq]

Any kind of processing degrades the sound technically, even if you're still lightyears away from audibility. ;) Yeah, I also hate such snakeoil salesmen.

[@ronsoffer7995]

The way he peddles this BS with a straight face in front of a room full of people is borderline sociopathic. (Maybe not borderline)

[@briancampbell7712]

I've owned the Chord Qutest almost two month's and it's minimalist and minimalist sound quality...No lie, my iPhone DAC through Bluetooth sounds leaps above this Qutest...this is NOT better than my Vincent 737 amps built in DAC...I feel like I purchased snake oil at a very high cost...common sense should have told me not to purchase it...size does matter...the Gustard R26 that I just order should give me a real quality sound...this watts guy comes across as a Bernie Madoff or Jim Baker...they brain wash the weak for personal gain...🤷🏻‍♂️...makes me not even respect audio reviewers that praise this🤪...and so glad I didn't purchase the Chord M-Scaler and waste more money...there are honest reviews of that showing it also as snake oil...take a look at the reviews of the Denifrips Pontus ll and Gustard R26 and A26...compare the insides of those compared to a bubble gum machine small board with colored lights on the Chord🙄...this is a pure case of where you don't get what you pay for...🤣🤪

[@jasonkillsformomy]

One hour of snake oil.

[@jgrw]

Can you explain why?