The Chord Electronics Qutest Digital to Analogue Convertor is a What Hi-Fi? Award-winning DAC with a performance that belies its compact dimensions. With DAC architecture based on our class-leading FPGA tech, Qutest offers unrivalled sound quality gains.
The Latest Evolution
The Qutest DAC is designed to improve system sound quality, instantly. It is the latest evolution of our most affordable โstandaloneโ DAC, in other words, one that does not contain a built-in headphone amplifier, like the Mojo 2 and Hugo 2.
The Chord Electronics Qutest is What Hi-Fi?โs โBest DACโ 2023 ยฃ1,000+ and a What Hi-Fi? โBest DACโ winner every year its inception (2018-2022). It is a proven class-leader and is based on our award-winning proprietary FPGA technology giving it unrivalled technical and sonic performance.
Isolated Digital Inputs
Perfectly equipped to bring the benefits our digital technology to a wide range of connected devices, it features a galvanically isolated USB-B, optical and coaxial digital input, giving an instant performance upgrade, plus the ability to modernise ageing digital source components.
Machined Aluminium Chassis
The Qutest Digital to Analogue Convertor chassis is all-new, too. It has significantly greater mass than its predecessor and has been precision-machined from solid aircraft-grade aluminium billet. The Qutest PCB nestles within a shallow cavity in the solid aluminium chassis, giving the circuit board greater protection within the casework and additional isolation from external vibration compared to previous designs.
Digital Filters
Chord Electronics Qutest offers Hugo 2โs proprietary user-selectable frequency-shaping filters and input selection controls, available via two fascia-mounted spheres, introducing useful flexibility. It also features RCA analogue outputs for connection to integrated amplifiers, preamps and headphone amps, plus high-resolution dual-data digital inputs for connection to future Chord Electronics products.
A further new feature is a user-selectable output voltage available in 1, 2 and 3V RMS outputs for flexible connectivity with a wide range of partnering devices.
Technical Specifications
- Materials: Precision machined aluminium casing with polycarbonate buttons and glass viewing portal. Available only in Jett Black.
- Device power supply: 5v 2amp Micro USB
- Tap length filter: 49,152 โ 10 element Pulse Array design
- Connectivity (input): USB Type B (White): 44.1kHz to 768kHz โ 16bit to 32bit
- 2x BNC Coax (Red): 44.1kHz โ 384kHz โ 16bit to 32bit
- 1x Dual data mode input (using both BNC coax inputs together): 44.1kHz to 768kHz โ 16bit to 32bit
- Optical (Green): 44.1kHz to 96kHz โ 16bit to 24bit
- Connectivity (output): 1x stereo pair of RCA (Left and Right)
- PCM support: 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 96kHz, 192kHz, 384kHz, and 768kHz. 16 โ 32bit
- DSD support: Native playback supported. DSD64 (Single) to DSD512 (Octa-DSD)
- Variable output: Fixed, but selectable between 3v (blue), 2v (green), and 1v (red) via dual press of โFilterโ + โInputโ upon startup
- Driver support: Driverless with Mac OS X and Linux, driver required for Windows OS
- Chipset: Chord Electronics custom coded Xilinx Artix 7 (XC7A15T) FPGA
- Tap-length: 49,152
- Pulse array: 10 element pulse array design
- Frequency response: 20Hz โ 20kHz +/- 0.2dB
- Output stage: Class A
- THD: <0.0001% 1kHz 3v RMS 300ฮฉ
- THD and noise at 3v RMS: 117dB at 1kHz 300ohms โAโ weighted (reference 2.5v)
- Noise 2.6 uV โAโ weighted: No measurable noise floor modulation
- Channel separation: 138dB at 1kHz 300ฮฉ
- Dimensions: 4.5cm (H) 16cm (W) 8.8cm (D)
- Weight: 770g
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