Cambridge CXN vs Chord Mojo/Poly - which music streamer is best?

[insider9]

Without reading WHF article take a guess...

 

[Vladimir]

The louder one. I'm guessing Chord.

 

[insider9]

It isn't just how loud Chord is. I've compared it with a few other dacs, volume matched and in the right system it can be an awesome. It is certainly a very good value at £399.

 

[Vladimir]

It isn't just how loud Chord is. I've compared it with a few other dacs, volume matched and in the right system it can be an awesome. It is certainly a very good value at £399.

How did you volume match them and did you use an ABX protocol?

 

[rainsoothe]

I don't doubt it sounds good, but the complete lack of functionality of the Chord (it's supposed to be a mobile item after all) is a complete turn-off for me.

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

I’d ask what is the system to form this taste as i doubt much in it at respective prices.

 

[insider9]

It isn't just how loud Chord is. I've compared it with a few other dacs, volume matched and in the right system it can be an awesome. It is certainly a very good value at £399.

How did you volume match them and did you use an ABX protocol?

Calibrated mic. It was over a period of about a month. I've described it to DDC I'll find it tomorrow.

 

[insider9]

From a thread a while back, since I'm not going to type this much again. Copied the whole reply.

Sure, level matched conditions to within under 1dB at 1kHz with Umik-1 calibrated mic.

DAC chips compared were AKM4440 (Minidsp OpendrcDA8), ESS9006 (Yamaha WXC-50), TDA-1543 (I think, NOS DAC TeraDak). I'm writing from memory so apologies if any of the DAC chips are slightly off. And of course Chord Mojo woth it's FPGA chip.

Other equipment used:

- speakers Red Rose Classic, Jamo Concert 7, Epos M15.2

- amps Roksan L3, Naim 5i-2

- headphones AKG K712 and briefly Shure SRH1540

Observations as an owner of all of the above equipemnt with a couple of week loan of TeraDak.

Initial observations were that there wasn't much different but the more I listened the more I appreciated how ultimately big the differences were. Mojo sounded very good indeed. Ultimately it was between Mojo and AKM4440. At this point I need to say that AKM4440 stayed and Mojo went. Particularly because I can use room correction with AKM chip being part of my Minidsp as well as overall tonal balance being more neutral (or however I set it to). For comparisons below I didn't use any DSP.

Mojo in my eyes (ears) good timing, well detailed and really nice resolution. Really liked how it handles layer upon layer of music. But its particular strength was its bass were notes were very well pronounced and precisely timed. Seemed as if it had more attack then most (AKM was on par). Overall tonal balance was rich sounding with very good timbre but on the warm side. Especially mid to upper bass and lower midrange felt exagerated and this is what ultimately made me sell it. Particularly didn't suit my AKG K712 which have a lift in that region. Combo felt somewhat congested and not neutral enough. Soundstage was nicely organised with air between instruments but it wasn't night and day difference. Shure headphones sounded really rich and lush with it. Not critical level neutral but natural and fun.

Via speakers paired really well with Naim + Epos, did equally well with Red Rose but unfortunately Naim didn't have enough grunt for these speakers. Pairing it as Jamos (again Naim could only go to a certain level before running out of juice) was interesting depending on the amp. With Naim it sounded too warm, female vocals sounded nasal, saxophone reed was hear very well and you could easily tell shimmer of Zildjan cymbals. But the timbre was over the top even though it was fairly detailed. On the end of Roksan it sounded almost right, warm and rich but the detail was somewhat lost (down to amp no doubt). Not sure why this is as Roksan is ultimately warmer of the two.

So I ended up selling it with a though of getting either 2Qute or Hugo after my amplification was changed to better suit my speakers. Now this was done I'm perfectly happy with Red Rose being driver by Densen B-110 with Minidsp and it's AKM4440 dac. The difference is rather staggering but I'd rather leave that for another thread.

 

[Vladimir]

It isn't just how loud Chord is. I've compared it with a few other dacs, volume matched and in the right system it can be an awesome. It is certainly a very good value at £399.

How did you volume match them and did you use an ABX protocol?

Calibrated mic. It was over a period of about a month. I've described it to DDC I'll find it tomorrow.

So no double blind test, just sighted evaluation?

 

[davedotco]

It isn't just how loud Chord is. I've compared it with a few other dacs, volume matched and in the right system it can be an awesome. It is certainly a very good value at £399.

How did you volume match them and did you use an ABX protocol?

Calibrated mic. It was over a period of about a month. I've described it to DDC I'll find it tomorrow.

So no double blind test, just sighted evaluation?

You are over egging this, we are not looking for any kind of doctoral thesis here.

It has been my experience that when comparing dacs (amps too) level matching is the really big deal. The 'night and day' differences largely dissapear and this in itself is a very sobering experience for the listener, requiring some thought and likely change of views.

With this in mind, we can take the evaluations as reasonably sensible, expectation/confirmation bias will still be present in sighted tests but it gives us a good idea of how Insider9 uses and appreciates his setup.

Overall a very interesting post, still subjective of course but quite informative.

Edited for lost content.

 

[CnoEvil]

If I'm comparing 2 amps that I really like, the louder one often sounds better.

If I'm comparing 2 amps, one of which I don't like....turning it up just makes it sound worse, by increasing the volume of a sound I already dislike.

 

[Vladimir]

It isn't just how loud Chord is. I've compared it with a few other dacs, volume matched and in the right system it can be an awesome. It is certainly a very good value at £399.

How did you volume match them and did you use an ABX protocol?

Calibrated mic. It was over a period of about a month. I've described it to DDC I'll find it tomorrow.

So no double blind test, just sighted evaluation?

You are over egging this, we are not looking for any kind of doctoral thesis here.

It has been my experience that when comparing dacs (amps too) level matching is the really big deal. The 'night and day' differences largely dissapear and this in itself is a very sobering experience for the listener, requiring some thought and likely change of views.

With this in mind, we can take the evaluations as reasonably sensible, expectation/confirmation bias will still be present in sighted tests but it gives us a good idea of how Insider9 uses and appreciates his setup.

Overall a very interesting post, still subjective of course but quite informative.

Edited for lost content.

I'm of the belief with digital just matching 1dB with a room acoustics microphone is insufficient. There's been many more rigorous tests with ABX on forums like Hydrogen audio etc. where the differences between dacs were too minute to be reliably discerned.