#Digital mp3 player with optical output upgrade#
#Digital mp3 player with optical output full#
#Digital mp3 player with optical output portable#
#Digital mp3 player with optical output Bluetooth#
#Digital mp3 player with optical output plus#

And while those familiar with Chord’s most affordable product will see from the accompanying image that the aesthetic hasn’t exactly been overhauled for the sequel, significant progress has been made elsewhere to protect its position as the pinnacle of portable DACs.

#Digital mp3 player with optical output portable#

The fittingly named Mojo 2 is the long-anticipated, re-engineered replacement to the 2015-released original Mojo, which burst onto the scene as a real benchmark-setting game-changer in the then-fledgling world of portable DACs/headphone amps.

#Digital mp3 player with optical output full#

Read our full iFi Zen DAC V2 review The best portable DAC The Zen Air DAC is even more affordable, but we're yet to put that one through its paces.

#Digital mp3 player with optical output upgrade#

Offering a significant upgrade over computer sound quality in an era where people need it most, the Zen DAC V2 is another feather in the cap for iFi’s budget Zen series. At the other end is another Pentaconn balanced output, which sits alongside the more conventional 6.3mm socket.

#Digital mp3 player with optical output plus#

This budget DAC, which can be USB or mains powered (though a mains adapter doesn’t come in the box), is excellent in both the features and performance department for the money.Īt one end is a USB Type B input, plus RCA line-level and 4.4mm Pentaconn balanced outputs. The output of the Zen DAC can be switched between fixed and variable, meaning the iFi can operate as a digital preamp if you so wish. The payoff is another success, as the DAC's What Hi-Fi? Award-winning status demonstrates.

It’s what iFi has done with its budget home DAC and headphone amp offering, with the original Zen DAC now making way for a ‘V2’ model that offers improvements in terms of processing, MQA decoding and circuitry. But at the same time we realise that in a competitive industry such as hi-fi, making the best even better off your own back isn’t necessarily a bad idea. The ‘if it ain’t broke…’ saying isn’t lost on us. Read our full Chord Qutest review The best budget DAC The Qutest boasts Chord's trademark colour-denoting buttons which tell you which source it's drawing on: they glow white for USB-Type-B (capable of accepting 32-bit/768kHz PCM/DSD512) yellow for the first BNC coaxial and red for the second (24-bit/384kHz) and green for the optical (24-bit/192kHz/DSD64). But when it does you're in for a treat: songs are imbued with a great sense of scope, and there's warmth and texture in abundance. The multi-award-winning DAC delivers a crisp, clean and concise sound, with Chord's now familiar neutral tonal balance.Īs with all decent hi-fi gear, it'll take a bit of running in time before the Qutest really starts to sing. It's the product that lesser rivals look up to at this price point.

#Digital mp3 player with optical output Bluetooth#

Given there's no Bluetooth connectivity or headphone amplifier onboard, the Qutest’s sole purpose is to be the digital-to-analogue bridge between your digital source and amplifier.

So, if you want to hear your digital hi-fi, desktop or portable audio system really sing, invest in the best. After all, something sub-optimal – like those built-in DAC chips or a poor-performing external DAC – will prevent you from getting the most out of your set-up. We pride ourselves on testing a large segment of the market, which allows us to confidently pick the very best DACs across every budget and for every use case. It is the latter we are focusing on here, as they're dedicated to the digital-to-analogue conversion cause and therefore tend to be superior to the DAC chips found inside everyday do-it-all devices like those mentioned above. So they play an instrumental part in making digital music worthwhile for many of us.Īs digital audio is now dominating our music listening habits as streaming and internet radio grow in popularity, DACs too have become more ubiquitous, both in their integration in hi-fi products and the number of external DACs available. Indeed, without a DAC your digital music collection is nothing but a sizeable collection of “0s and 1s” that makes sense only within the digital domain.