Review: Chord Electronics Qutest – Size doesn’t matter

Chord Electronics Qutest

 

Sound

If you have read my Hugo2 review from last year, or any other review in which it makes an appearence, you know how highly I put it. I love how it sounds and how well it performs with all my headphones and in ears. So when Chord announced the Qutest and said it was built with the same technology as the Hugo2, I was very intrigued.

The Hugo2 has always double-acted as my office DAC/Amp at main chain d/a converter at home. Ever since the Qutest has stepped foot into my Vienna apartment, the Hugo2 stays at the office during the work-week. Everything now has to go through Qutest before it gets released as analogue signal to my tube amplifier. My CD transport is connected to one of the coaxial inputs, my OpenSUSE powered PC spits bit-perfect audio into the USB B input and on occasions I had one of my DAPs sending an optical signal to the Qutest.

As I mentioned a few paragraphs earlier, I like to colour the sound after the d/a conversion step with my amplifiers. I like to bring a clear sound to my tube amplifiers. That is why the Qutest has been used mainly with the white filter, which is the pure reference filter. With this one in use there is a massive amount of details going through the RCA outputs.

Where the Qutest shines the most to me is the placement and separation of instruments. It paints a clean and clear, high resolution picture with impeccable imaging. The sound stage is both deep and wide as well as nicely airy. This comes especially to life when listening to live recordings, where you can really feel the you are in the room with the performer.

Chord Electronics Qutest

Chord Electronics Qutest

The Qutest’s bass is dynamic, realistic and in no way overbloated or overdriven. It has wonderful texture and resolution, reaches deep into sub-bass regions and comes in with a good natural body.
The midrange is neutral and very transparent, with incredible resolution and a harmonic transition from top to bottom. Depending on the filter you have set it varies from neutral to slight warmth, but it will always keep its resolution and transparency. Treble is the one part where I often see people turning away from Hugo2, but to me it’s just about right. Qutest’s high notes are, depending on filter setting, also clear and shimmering, yet never harsh to me. Yes, they do enjoy a slightly forward sound, but they are not too bright in my opinion. They are at an organic degree, even with the white reference filter. If you can’t get warm with the reference setting, maybe one of the HF roll-off filters will do the trick for you. They do make the treble slightly less bright and softer. That’s the beauty of the Chord filters, they adjust the signature well.

Overall the sound of Qutest to me is pretty linear and balanced with a slightly more forward treble tuning to bring out that massive amount of details. As mentioned before, the filters do a trick in my opinion and there is noticeable alteration. You can have a more reference tuning with slightly softer treble (green filter), you can add a hint of warmth to the tuning with the orange filter and also get warmth with less bright highs (red). It works well and I suggest to give them a good listen before you decide which one you want to bring into your audio chain.

Amplifiers

At first I had my Qutest integrated in my main chain and hooked it up to my stereo integrated tube amplifier, which drives a pair of bookshelf speakers. Later on I switched to headphone listening with the Qutest, for this I had it connected to two amplifiers – the Lyr 3 by Schiit Audio and The Element by JDS Labs. The former is a hybrid, class A amplifier and the latter a transistor only amp. Both have their distinctive sound and pair nicely with the Chord DAC. I have used the same Audioquest Mackenzie interconnect cable as with my integrated amplifier.

Schiit Audio – Lyr 3

The Lyr 3 is a high powered tube amp that uses a single Tung-Sol 6SN7. I really like the Schiit as it is a pretty flexible amplifier that drives all my headphones and in-ears well. Of course it has a tendency to hiss with my custom monitors, especially the overly sensitive ones, but some, like the Empire Ears Legend X, truly shine on it.

Chord Electronics Qutest

Chord Electronics Qutest

With the Lyr 3 in amp only mode and the Tung-Sol tube installed, the Qutest pairing becomes harmonic and warmer mids, with lush appearance and great body. Bass is keeping its dynamism and natural presentation. It reaches fairly deep with excellent texture and resolution. The high notes are slightly warmed up and less forward, yet the entire sound still enjoys high resolution and rendering with near perfect imaging. The sound stage is wonderfully spread in width and depth with great layering and air.

JDS Labs – The Element

The Element is one of my favourite solid state amplifiers for its really good price to performance ratio. It has a dynamic and engaging sound. When paired with the Qutest you get a punchy bass with toe tapping factor. Instruments appear in good distance in front of you, while not achieving the „in the room“ kind of appearance you get with other gear. The Element-Qutest pair-up has great instrumental separation and imaging, reaches in decent width and depth out of your head and creates a good sound stage. At times I found the pairing a bit fatiguing with its almost sterile top end. Though that can be slightly changed with the filter settings. To me the Qutest still is best paired with a lusher more harmonic amplifier.

Comparisons and Conclusion on Page 4

4.4/5 - (218 votes)
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedin

A daytime code monkey with a passion for audio and his kids, Linus tends to look at gear with a technical approach, trying to understand why certain things sound the way they do. When there is no music around, Linus goes the extra mile and annoys the hell out of his colleagues with low level beatboxing.

16 Comments

  • Reply July 13, 2018

    Chris K

    Chord products are insanely overpriced and overhyped. Build quality has always been sub-par too.

    • Reply July 13, 2018

      Linus

      Hi Chris,

      thanks for your comment.
      While I don’t agree with you, everyone’s entitled to his/her opinion and I completely respect yours.
      As you can read in the review, I feel different than you on this. I have seen a few high-priced electronics and must say, the Qutest (to me) is of great build quality, can’t say that about others I have encountered in my non-Headfonia-life. Also I liked the sound of it, a lot.

      Anyways, enjoy your weekend.

      • Reply August 26, 2019

        Milvin T Torrevillas

        A good complete review of this product, although I must agree to it being overpriced. But, through this linus review of the Qutest, I am somewhat intrigued and excited to see what this DAC can really bring to the table, for recording and audiophile purposes left open for this sole purpose. Excellent review linus and Chord Electronic bravo! For continuing to push the technological and artistic envelope for random glimpses of what’s to come.

  • Reply July 15, 2018

    Charley C

    Hi Linus. GREAT review! The Qutest is on my short-list to upgrade my Oppo Sonica DAC in my home office. My only concern is, I go straight from my Oppo DAC (has volume control) to my amplifier, so I would need some preamp/volume control in-between the Qutest and my amp. I’m not too excited about having to introduce a pre-amp into the audio chain (adding noise). My setup is an iMac OS X running Roon, to my Oppo DAC to my amp (Crown XLS1502) to SVS Ultra Bookshelves. Also, going from Oppo DAC to an SVS SB-2000 subwoofer. Any thoughts/suggestions on the best way to replace my Oppo DAC with the Qutest? Thanks !!

  • Reply July 15, 2018

    Linus

    Hi Charley,

    thank you so much for your comment.

    I assume you have a power amplifier, right?

    If that’s the case you will need an additional pre-amplifier to use volume control with Qutest, as it is a standalone DAC. I think there are many good choices out there for each budget. If you have a decent HiFi dealer near you it might be best to drop by and see what they can recommend.

    Of course you can also just jump to the Hugo2 and put it in desktop mode (needs to be connected to the power outlet for 24hrs). You gain a few additional features with it too.

    • Reply July 16, 2018

      Charley C

      Thanks, Linus. The Hugo 2 is the conclusion I came to, also. Don’t really “need” a portable DAC, but it’s probably the best solution for my needs. The Hugo 2 TT is also about to be released. However, I think the price tag is a little more than I want to invest. Thanks for the reply!

      • Reply July 16, 2018

        Linus

        No problem Charley, happy to help.

        The Hugo2 is one of the best products I own, hands down. I also think it would be the logical solution for your situation. The Hugo2 TT certainly is also very interesting, but I can’t comment on it. All I know is that it will be available this Autumn/Fall.
        If you can, give Hugo2 a try.

  • Reply July 30, 2018

    Jin

    Hi Linus,
    I totally agree with you for the review. I have both H2 and Qutest, the Qutest just arrived a week ago because I just quit the headphone world and go into hifi 2CH. The H2 sound more natural to me, more organic while the Qutest sounds bright. I also prepared an AQ diamond USB cable for the Qutest. When pairing I found the qutest is just too bright, really bright, thought it would sound the same as H2.

    Sooo, what’s your opinion about H2 and Dave. I prefer neutral sound, not the bright sound, if I say the Qutest is bright, what you would say about the Dave.

    Thanks!

    • Reply July 30, 2018

      Linus

      Hi Jin,

      thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.

      How I wish I could chime in on the Dave. Haven’t had many chances to listen to it yet, and I am strongly against listening impressions from shows with gear I am not familiar with… Hope you’ll understand.

      Cheers,
      L

  • Reply August 9, 2018

    Shahriman

    Better than my Chord MOJO and iFi NANO iDSD. But not better than many good desktop R2R DACs.

    • Reply August 10, 2018

      Linus

      Hi Shahriman,

      thanks for your comment.

      R2R DACs are indeed very nice, I’m glad you have your personal favourite. I wish more manufacturers wouldn’t go the “lazy” way and do some special designs, just like Chord with their unique FPGA coded DACs. R2R, discreet and non oversampling DACs should be more highlighted in this industry in my opinion. I guess they faded away when people started craving numbers instead of sound…

  • Reply December 25, 2018

    Lindsay

    Thought I’d drop a note here…. after several years of searching for a DAC to mate to my Pioneer Elite PD-75 CD player followed by Sugden AU41 pre-amp & AU41 Amp hooked up to Paradigm Studio Monitor speakers. I settled for the Chord Qutest as I was very impressed with its build and sound. I purchased it as an early Christmas present for myself and have had it setup for 10 days burning in. At first I noticed the detail and enhanced the soundstage and warmth. In the last couple days I’ve notice fuller bass Exhibiting benefits of ongoing burn-in time. This was a huge upgrade coming from a 1 bit DAC built into the PD-75. I am sincerely enjoying the digital side of my equipment now.

  • Reply May 1, 2019

    gareth

    I’m currently enjoying mine after reading your review and a few others. But I have to say the Hugo 2 has a great sound but as others have said the build quality really wasn’t where it should of been for the price, at least the demo unit that borrowed wasn’t. Split line didn’t meet up ( could see the lights through the seam line) buttons rattled about, and the roller volume felt like a messy roller mouse from the 90/00 ( could actually see this posing a real problem in few years for a lot people). Certainly not what I would expect for the price. As I say though sounded great.

    However the Qutest has none of these problems and sounds great through a class A Sugden with Klipsch Heritage Heresy 3.

  • Reply August 9, 2019

    Harry

    Not so many listeners can’t or won’t pay that much for a DAC. If every DAC would play even near like that, the music would be different. I have the Qutest together with the much more expensive M-Scaler, and the play great together. I tested some ohters lower price solution, but none of them was satisfying. Now I hope both tools will play the next 20 years.

  • Reply August 29, 2019

    Brian

    Thank you Linus for comprehensive review of Chord Qutest.
    On my wish list for desktop solution component.
    Read elsewhere on internet that Qutest is available in silver finish as well as black.
    Think person who said it’s available in sliver finish is misinformed.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.