Chord Mojo 2 is a great DAC, but with its portable size, lack of ports, and very poor ease of use, is it really the best for your stereo system?
Aside from reviewing this device, I will explain all the pros and cons of having this DAC as part of your stereo system because its main purpose is to be a mobile headphone DAC.
There is something to be said when a device meant to be a headphone DAC outperforms many bigger desktop DACs. The legacy of Chord cements them as DAC royalty, from the cheap Mojo 2 to the Cutest and Hugo, their DACs push the boundaries of what a DAC does.
Technical Explanation and Specs
From a standpoint of comparing to other DACs, it is important to know that it uses a homebrew DAC, the 4e Pulse Array, which is a bit shrouded in mystery. If you go for DACs in this price range, you will usually see ES Saber, Burr Brown, Wolfson, etc. These DAC chips have been in many audiophile gears across the market, and by getting familiar with them and learning more about their construction, we understand what chip and sound we get.
The 4e Pulse and Xilinx Artix are the Chord sound. Inside its aluminum casework, there is something called UHD DSP, a lossless digital signal processor meant to improve bit-perfect digital reproduction. It also comes with a 104-bit processor for better equalizing the dynamic response of your treble and bass. All this information indicates that the hardware inside brings better noiseless production, more faithful to the original.
Sound Quality
The sound is the star of the show—it is very lively. It makes any gear you attach to feel more alive and musical. There is a greater refinement in the presentation of every instrument. That is achieved by carefully updating the response this DAC exports from every musical bit it gets from its source. It organizes music in a way that gives enough room for every instrument to shine and present itself without feeling crowded on the sonic stage.
Incredible agility is something this DAC does so well—it is worth every penny. It is why the sound coming from speakers becomes more musical. The sound of cymbals, snare, and percussion feels alive. Guitar leads have a big range, expanding and coming directly to you while listening.
It is a joy to pair this DAC with something more neutral and similarly lively speakers, like an Audiolab or Music Fidelity amp with some Dalis or Q Acoustics. Imagine this lovely, energetic sound with a great sense of how it feels on the soundstage. A DAC's main purpose should be filtering as much noise as possible, organizing and preparing your sound for the amp and later in the chain speakers. If it does a good job, it helps your amp and speakers flourish and show their talent. It gives transparency, timing to instruments, and depth and shape, truly opening your sound. It is a great tool to help every gear you have at home sound better than before.
Listening Tests
Two albums I listened to test this DAC are Pink Floyd's "Animals" (the new 2022 mix) and The Flaming Lips' "The Soft Bulletin."
"Animals": The smooth instrumentation was boxed and cramped in the original. The new mix allows the sound to spread its wings and be more open. Every instrument has its space and weight without pushing each other. What this DAC does to the sound is incredible. It makes all the instruments pop out more, and the record sounds more upbeat and present, even a bit modern. Every solo of Gilmour's guitar sounds more near you with presence and dynamics. Wright's textures are more detailed, and the DAC blends them perfectly with the rest of the instrumentation. Waters' vocals have an ethereal feel but with presence and weight. None of them are fighting for time to shine; everyone is live and lovely as this album should always have sounded. The eternal majesty of this album still shines today.
"The Soft Bulletin": The production is very busy and complex, with a lot of texture, electronics, percussions, and details happening all at once. This record is a joy to listen to and has garage lo-fi aspects to its drums and guitar. It is a difficult record for DACs to organize correctly. The mayhem of colors, sonics, and bravado is very pleasingly organized by Chord. Its transparency helps pick out fine details and nuances without killing the album's childlike energy and curiosity. It did a good job.
Bad Side or Why this DAC might not be for you
Despite the excellent sound, the design, features, and ease of use are horrible. The Chord Mojo 2 can do 16/24 bit music and DSD up to 256, which is great, even though newer DACs can expand to 32 bit and DSD 512. However, the strength of a DAC is not just its sound; it is how it can equalize, filter, and shape the output to best fit your room.
Every amp and speaker has its own characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. Lowering treble or bass can sometimes be a savior. The ability to add filters and change the dynamic range of treble and bass was not a cure for ugly sound but it did help.
On the Chord Mojo 2, equalizing is shown as colors, with options for upper and lower treble, upper and lower bass, one for light, for spatial effects, etc. Adding or removing decibels is done with two or three buttons represented by various colors. It is impossible to remember all the combinations to perform equalizing, and there are no saved presets for quick applying. Even basic functions like seeing and changing the volume are impossible without a manual.
The output sockets of Chord Mojo 2 are very limited. If you want this to be your DAC/preamp for headphones, it is okay. But for your HiFi system, be prepared to buy specialized cables or extensions. I used Chinese extensions with my cables, which completely destroyed the sound until I found some good options from AudioQuest. However, it still creates more clutter and expenses if you want to use your old great cables. There is an alternative to buy 3.5mm jack-to-RCA cables, but I just do not want to do that.
For input, if you want to use coaxial cables, there is no socket for that. Mojo recommends USB or digital optical input. The device charges with mini USB, which creates a plethora of problems. One improvement from the previous version is the smart charging when your device is desktop-bound for a long time. When it is fully charged, it will send a smaller amount of energy rather than constantly charging. The previous generation had a big problem with the battery dying fast if the Mojo 2 was constantly charging. Even with this new technology, you should always be vigilant about your battery, as you don’t want to have an expensive paperweight.
Alternatives
There are cheaper DACs that do so much better than Chord Mojo. These DACs can be a better option for you as their features and usability are far greater than the Chord Mojo 2. Here are a few alternatives:
Ifi Zen DAC
iFi Zen DAC is now the gold standard for a cheap, all-around good DAC. It is equal to or better than many DACs in sub-1000 integrated amps. It organizes sound, making it clearer and more insightful. It can easily connect to your amp, but there is no hardware-level equalizer on this machine. You can always connect it via USB to your PC and use your PC as an equalizer, like with every other modern DAC. It has MQA, which the Chord Mojo 2 does not possess, so if you are a fan of Tidal, it could be a plus. It is one-third the price of Mojo 2 while delivering very organized and musical sound. However, it does not have the dynamic response or the verve and dynamics of Mojo 2.
Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200m
Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M is one of the more famous DACs in this price range, and the 100 series and above are among the best-selling DACs. It has everything: balanced and unbalanced connections, Bluetooth, and various digital connections. Seeing and reading current settings is far easier than on the Chord. From equalizers, it does not do Chord's shaving and adding, but it offers variants of low-pass and high-pass filters with a button click, making equalizing easy with filter buttons. Sound-wise, it is a balanced approach that gives a lot of transparency to the sound. It has a very characteristic smooth sound, slightly warm. It allows great separation of instruments and a bigger soundstage, even a bit better than Chord. But Chord's sound is livelier and punchier, with a bigger dynamic response, more detailed and treble-rich. It is priced similarly to Chord, so if you want a bigger soundstage and absolutely more features and connectivity, including MQA and DSD 512 to Chord's 256, you can go with DacMagic.
Topping D70 and D90
They are similarly priced as Chord but deliver outstanding sound.
Connection-wise, they have everything you need: balanced, unbalanced, digital optical, Bluetooth—whatever you need.
Feature-wise, there are plenty, as the colorful display allows all the information to be easily read and later manipulated.
They have advanced XCMOS processors inside, even using octa-core chips to process information.
They allow both native MQA and DSD processing for a clearer, noise-free signal to your amp.
There is also equalizing through filters, again filter passes of high and low, and watching the spectrum analyzer for insufficiencies on screen.
And the sound is really great. One of the biggest pluses is that it works so well with a large variety of amps. It unveils and gives light to so many small nuances in music, and separation in soundstage and instruments is really gorgeous.
As with many DACs, Chord has this natural tendency to be a leader, or a frontman. So it is more agile and dynamic sound, but it can sometimes uncover insufficiencies in the record or does not filter all the noise as well as Topping coming from cables and sources.
This is where Topping shines, as a more subdued DAC that approaches filter noises and organization of sound with more finesse, giving a great, pristine sound that allows your amp or speakers to give it dynamics as they please. And Topping comes with a remote control, something that neither Cambridge Audio nor Chord comes with.
Conclusion
The Mojo 2 is a great DAC. If you are interested in portability and as a great headphone preamp DAC, there is not much to fault at this price level. You get excellent sound, which is agile and transparent, which will be the heart and soul of every music you listen to.
But if you are interested in a DAC which can be a bridge from your source to your stereo hi-fi system and you want more features, ease of use, and easier equalizing and connecting, there are alternatives that might suit you far better. As they could be better integrated into your setup and bring more joy for ease of use.
So, you have to weigh if the sound quality of your stereo system is paramount, then you might go with Chord but be prepared for some troubles and shortcomings on its way to that great sound.
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