From what I gather, probably best option is a separate streamer with good apps and stable functionality. I like this product which also acts as your music server.
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This has turned into the most ridiculous thread. John Atkinson reviewed the Qutest ($1,895) in Stereophile against the DSD DAC ($6,895), the Hugo TT ($4,795), the Mytek Brooklyn DAC ($2,195) and the iFi Pro DSD ($2,499). His review was pretty spot-on in terms of what you get for your money, using the same Digital sources.
Basically, the Qutest is a designed to give you the Chord FPGA processor power in the smallest most stripped down form factor possible. It is a Hugo with the battery power supply, headphone amp and other stuff removed. In the end it is a single card about 12cm x 4cm in an aluminium case. You could probably fit a few dozen of them in the case of a DSjr of DSDsr. The FPGA chip alone costs about £100 plus VAT wholesale and the whole unit with electronics, case, 5v power supply, manufactured and dealer mark-up sells for £1,000 plus VAT.
So for what it is and what it sounds like, it is a small miracle. When PS Audio brings out a FPGA DAC for under $2,000 then a valid comparison can be made. Atkinson compared it to the DSD Snr because it is his reference DAC, not because he was expecting it to be as good. The fact it came close, and was better in one or two aspects, is extraordinary.
The Qutest compares favourably with the Mytec Brooklyn DAC, which is at a similar price level and has by all accounts been hugely popular and a massive seller.
The Qutest can easily be improved with an external power supply and a clean digital source, but the irony will be that there external power supply will be bigger than the DAC, defeating the object.
Chord make a range of DACs for different uses and different budgets, some specifically aimed at being portable or as headphone DACs. They all have one thing in common, being Chord’s proprietary processing sitting in an FPGA chip. I have a Mojo, an amazing little battery powered headphone DAC.
PS Audio’s product line is completely different, all their units are for static use and the lower priced Stellar DAC does not use the proprietary FPGA-based DAC processor, instead it uses a 32-bit ESS DAC.
If there are any valid comparisons, it would be DSD Sr v. Chord Dave.
Even DSD Jr v Hugo TT2 is probably invalid. They may be similar prices, but the Hugo is designed very much for headphone use (it has 3 headphone sockets), whereas the DSD jr does not have a headphone socket at all. Do PSA make anything that works with headphones?
I have one and it is superb. It has an ultra low noise usb output (with a dedicated linear power supply) that would probably improve the sound from any DAC. Lawrence and I were discussing his Auralic G1, which has the same design and sonic result, and costs about the same. Both are in high demand and have long waiting lists.
The Innuos has never had a glitch. I use it with Roon, but you can load you favourite uPnP software as well.
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The paths to the Sr’s inputs are wide and many. I was simply addressing the stated concern about the Bridge II being “buggy”.
Have fun with your quest.
Regards.
Much depends on how you’re feeding the Bridge and your network. I would say that for the majority of owners the Bridge works pretty flawlessly.
I know I harp on this a lot but what we read in forums is usually the outliers: both good and bad. When people get excited about what they hear or distressed because something isn’t working as expected, or when help’s needed, we share on the forums.
If you get a product, hook it up and it just works there’s little reason to post on the forums.
Some of the issues we read about in Bridge II problems concern DSD and switching between DSD and PCM where we hear a small tick and pop. I can tell you that on my system, using MConnect to stream Tidal or Qobuz, the Bridge II performs without
any hitch whatsoever.
Other mileages may vary.
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powerfreq, Very informative post as well as stevensegal’s, clarifying PSA/Chord differences for perspective buyers. Terry Ellis, PursuitPerfectSystem on Youtube goes to great length explaining the Chord sound to be a more “forward into the room” sound stage presentation. Ted and Rob Watts voice their products differently, It’s up to end users to decide which fits their system. Like you I was looking for a desktop Dac to run my PASS HPA-1 headphone amp now that I have the BHK Pre headphone amp in main system. Moon Audio said the Cutest over the SGCD. Several years ago when researching Dacs, my PSA dealer spent hours on the phone talking PSA PWD and it’s sound signature in relation to my system, you just can’t buy that kind of help or information when spending thousands on upgrading a legacy system. He helped me understand my legacy B&W’s would match well with PSA Dac/Amps. Fast forward to the present, when I inserted the BHK Pre between DSD Sr and M700s the synergistic coherency became so apparent it cemented my belief once again that I have little use for brand comparison shoot outs, it’s a matter of synergy, and that if not careful, one may find themselves light of pocket, or worse, musically unsatisfied and on Audiogon to boot… 
There’s a ton of great info in the thread, I just wanted to address the DSJ discontinuation.
First, we will 100% continue to service it, and also update it. When Ted creates a new FW for the DS Sr., he’ll also include an update for the DSJ.
And second, if you go for the DSJ and decide to upgrade at some point, we’ll always offer great trade-in credit towards anything else down the road.
Keep us posted on which way you decide to go!
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Thanks, one last question, the Bridge 2 issues, were they on both Jr and Sr devices, or only on Jr?
Both Jr & Sr. The loud pops are untenable but can be fixed by rolling back the update. The dsd ticks more minor yet annoying and there is no fix.
When I bought the DSJ I thought I was getting a sort of built in UltraRendu in the form of the Bridge II. My main issue with the Bridge II is that it doesn’t sound as good as USB, especially with the Matrix. The Bridge has turned into a sort of heat producing toaster that I wish could be removed from the DSJ. But that’s just my experience, many others love it.
So, if you have an UltraRendu, or other streamers and feed it via USB, then none of these issues will be noticed, right?
The issues I mentioned are all Bridge II related. If you don’t use a Bridge II, you will not have those particular issues. While I have no first hand experience with an UltraRendu, thus take my suggestion with a grain of salt, based on reading countless threads, I’d go in the the uR direction instead of the B2 at that price point. Or jump up to the Aurender or Melco level…
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Hi Paul, I’m hard wired, and have a strong network. Using Roon which is PS Audio partner. Bridge ii 3.6.17 was a disaster for me, and after rolling back to 3.5.1 its better. I’ve found from personal experience using an external endpoint works better, so that’s what I do now. If I were buying a DS SR, I’d buy it without Bridge ii. I’m optimistic Octave will be an improvement.
Thanks for weighing in Paul.
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I am using a Sonore microrendu with an I2s converter (Sonore Ultradigital). I have no issues using that combination with the DSjr.
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re: PS, Schiit, Chord:
My two cents is that a PS with a shit cord is better than a Schiit with a PS cord. ; )
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Badbeef: succinct…I like it!
Broderic: thanks for adding to the ever expanding list of company’s I need to find time researching!
I didn’t mean to start a thread and run away, but other priorities took over this week. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to reply, I appreciate your time and thoughts.
Regarding price, Stevensegal: I’m in Canada; the Chord Hugo 2 runs ~$3200 but I don’t need the headphone amp since I have the GCD, so in stepped the Qutest as an option from Chord. The Yggdrasil costs ~$3300 after currency exchange, and I happened across an Easter sale that put the Directstream Jr. at ~$3300 as well. That sale has gone (unless they’ve brought it back for orthodox Easter which I believe is this weekend!) and I didn’t jump on it, so the Jr. is back out of my price range again.
Anyway, I’ve heard the GCD at home and the Directsteam Sr. at Axpona, I own a Schiit Modi Multibit, and heard The Gungnir and Yggdrasil at Axpona, but I hadn’t properly heard a Chord DAC. So in the interest of first hand experience, I bought the Qutest and have been listening to it for the past 4 days.
My initial impression is that I love the level of detail it provides and the way it renders individual instruments, but I prefer the overall presentation provided by the Stellar GCD. If I could get the detail level of the Qutest with the presentation (soundstage, “big-ness”) of the GCD in one DAC, I’d be a happy man. Did I just describe Directsream Sr??
I intend to use Schiit’s 15 day evaluation period to listen to an Yggdrasil at home in the next week or so. If people here are interested in what I find out about the Yggdrasil and Qutest in relation to the SGCD I’ll post them here. If not, I’ll post them elsewhere on the net in the hopes that my experiences can help someone else in their research.
Thanks again for the replies.
I think the detail you hear is an inherent quality of the Chord approach to DACs - they all have that and it gets better the further you go up the range.
It is a completely different approach to most other DACs - watch some of Rob Watt’s videos on Youtube where he describes it. I won’t pretend I fully understand it but there is an article here which talks about it. Much as I like the sound it still seems to have that inherent “harshness” (for want of a better word) that all PCM based DACs generally seem to have for me.
I understand it doesn’t bother other people so much and you can compensate for it by using warmer components (which is what I do with my Mojo and did with the Qutest).
I think if you compare something like the DAVE (with the proviso it is a while since I heard it), then I think it would still be a bit more detailed than the Directstream DAC as well as giving a brighter sound, but the DSDac has more of an effortless musicality to it.
Not sure how else to describe it unless I resort to the old cliche of it sounds more “analogue” to me. I think this is down to influence of converting everything to DSD Audio and the characteristic filter artefacts of PCM being moved out of the audible range. It is the same kind of character that I noticed when I first tried SACDs as a teenager.
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Curious to know, WHICH DAC did you end up with and why?
Stellar DAC has a headphone jack as well as the BHK Pre
Very interesting discussion! I have both PS audio DAC and Chord Qutest (and Mojo for my the second system). When you add good Linear PS to Qutest, you will be very surprised with the level of sound.
Now I prefer Chord… Especially when you try Tellurium Q cables. This is the best cable producer, what I could tested. Excellent phase response. DSD in native form is superior through Qutest. Boxes are ATC.
Hi abeiklou, I ended up buying the Yggdrasil.
With the DS Jr. I took too long to make a decision and the special Easter pricing that initially brought it into my price range was no longer available. So the Jr. wasn’t an option for me anymore. I then went ahead and bought both the Yggy and Qutest to test in my system at the same time (both had trial periods available).
As far as detail retrieval goes, the Qutest was clearly ahead of the Yggdrasil; but the presentation was pretty in-your-face, like “here’s the detail…look at it”. This was cool for a while, but the novelty eventually wore off.
The Yggdrasil wasn’t too far behind in detail. Once I heard something new in a piece of music on the Qutest, I could switch over to the Yggdrasil and find that same thing, but it just wasn’t as present or forward (loud) in the presentation.
The final decision for me really came down to this: the Yggdrasil got my toe tapping and the Qutest didn’t, it was just a bit sterile. For me, I preferred the groove and emotional engagement that the Yggy brought to my system so that’s the one I kept.
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