The Chord Mojo 2 is 2022's BEST DAC

👉🏻 This episode is brought to you by AudioQuest:

🎥 Camera: Olaf von Voss
🎬 Editor: John Darko
🕺🏻 Motion GFX: John Darko
💰 Ad segment: Jana Dagdagan

🛋 My listening room in 2022:

👉🏻 As seen in this video...

Chord Mojo 2

Chord Mojo 2 'review'

Podcast: Rob Watts on the Chord Mojo 2

Short Lightning to USB-C cable

WiiM Mini (US$99)

AudioQuest Carbon digital coax cable

Zu Audio Event digital coax cable

#DAC #Bestof2022 #hifi

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[somedude]

Wtf at micro usb. Automatic no purchase. So extremely tightass for something so very expensive

[robertkirkpatrick]

I realize it's great but $700 for portability I don't need, a battery I don't want and a micro usb power port? Pass. Remove the battery., make it less portable thus lowering price and give it external power and I'll bite.

[scottdevitte]

"It has a tremendous talent with layer separation" Did it go to Julliard?

[asotomayor]

Get rid of the Micro-USB and you got yourself a new customer Chord

[AliArghavan]

The USB-C port looks like an afterthought. It's hosted in a plastic off center bit. They should've just moved to USB-C only on both Mojo and Poly.

[sidwilson]

Sadly I am red green colour blind and memorising all these colour adjustments is rally difficult. I bought one …. But couldn’t use those, over complicated colour button combinations. Got to agree, even in default it sounds brilliant. Thanks for you amazing reviews that help all of us decide what products to buy. 😀

[corndog]

No matter if on the go with headphones, or a part my desktop setup at home, music listening is so sublime now. I adore mine. Purchased it for $680 back in February in the states.

[tommccarthy]

Just FYI, the Chord goes for $775 usd, which changes the cost equation in the US when compared with the Node ($599 usd).

[erikk]

Am I missing something? In Canada at least, just the Mojo 2 costs night onto twice as much as the Node, at street prices. $935 cdn for the Chord vs $499 for the Node. Streamer on top of that for the Chord. It's a dramatic price difference.

[handcoding]

For $800, I’d be much more inclined to pick up the Denafrips Ares II?

[klaymoon]

I live in U.S. and I did not buy Mojo 2 because its retail price is about 40% over U.K. It takes less than $10 for the international shipping and custom included. To me, it made no sense what-so-ever to pay such a premium.

[AS-nzci]

I wonder if anybody else has compared Mojo (1) with Mojo 2. This would be very intriguing for me. Mojo has become my beloved object, for many years now, for listening to music with my different earphones, especially during my travels. When I learned that Mojo2 arrived, I was excited to hear, how it could be even better. However, eventually, I decided to keep the original Mojo.
The comparisons were made after I gave Mojo 2 at least 250 hours of run-in time. Mojo2 has somewhat more detail than Mojo(1) and a tighter bass. However, I was disturbed from the first sessions on that I could not do long hours of listening. I sensed some fatigue after a while. Moreover, the music did not give the same kind of satisfaction I got from Mojo(1). Later on, I realized, this was the result of a certain overemphasis of the leading edges of notes. When you're listening to the piano, the strokes are not expressions of strength and excitement, but more like hammering on your head! This never happens when you're listening to a live piano performance. When the emphasis is not on the FLOW of the music, but on single notes, the inner dynamic and the "drama" of the music vanishes. Emotionally, I was not being moved so deeply, like I was with the same music on Mojo (1).

[wp]

I've never liked this brand design 🙈

[dantealighieri]

I seem to be one of the minority that actually prefers the Mojo 1. The newer model has more linear bass, a deeper soundstage and more detail - along with all the DSP etc - but I felt like the original just had more magic and sense of excitement about the music. For me the Mojo2 was more 'correct' but a bit boring ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[zrogon]

Especially considering that this little bugger is one third of the price of the qutest and it's completely indistinguishible from it on a high end setup. NO difference. None. Zero. Zip. Nada...

[rdoogie]

I replaced my Qutest with a HugoTT2 and (later) MScaler. I eventually sold my Qutest and acquired a Mojo2 with Poly for powering headphones while out and about (office, travel, etc.). What a great product, I LOVE the sound of the Mojo2 and am very pleased with the drive of the headphone amp.

[SpenceW]

Jana says, “This video is sponsored by Audioquest”
John says (something like), “The Chord Mojo 2 easily beats USB/dingle DACs like those from Audioquest…”
Awks? 🤔🫣

[tallpaull]

I think some of the best buy DACs of 2022: Topping E50, Topping D30 Pro, SMSL DO200, SMSL M500 MK2 (or MK3), SMSL SU-9n, iFi Zen Signature V2, iFi Zen Dac V2, Geshelli Labs J2, Khadas Tone 2 and Denafrips Ares 2, Schiit Modi+ Schiit Modius 2 and Schiit Modi Multibit 2. Maybe the new Topping E70 Velvet is worth a look too.

[dejonghechristophe]

It's very nice DAC but I think for the price, they could have done a little effort on the design which looks quite cheap plastic game coming from China... Anyway, thank you so much for sharing your experience which is always very interesting.

[goodboid]

The Qudelix 5K does all this, for a fraction of the price. Plus it has a fantastic app that has a lovely granular parametric EQ built-in. Can't speak to the sound comparison to the Chord Mojo. but my desktop DAC is an RME Adi2Pro, and the Qudelix is no slouch in comparison.