Emotion first
Mojo is cute. Smooth aluminum body, rough luminous balls in neatly milled recesses, engraved logo on the beveled sidewall. It is clear that they made it not just functional, but also deliberately cool. It is pleasant to hold in your hands and is convenient to use.
In addition to Mojo, you can buy many accessories. This includes a set of cables for connecting the device with everything possible (only the cable for Apple devices is sold separately), and a variety of cases. Chord tried to build its own ecosystem around Mojo, releasing, in addition to accessories, functionality extension modules like Poly - and I think the company succeeded.
The case on the Mojo snaps into place with a juicy click.
The device is powered by its own battery, which lasts for 8-10 hours. For communication with a PC, an additional set of cables includes a USB cable that branches into two MicroUSBs - one for transmitting an audio signal, the other for recharging. For my laptop, which has only one USB port, this cable was perfect. The power input hisses a little, and the battery heats up significantly both during charging and during operation.
There are three inputs for audio signals - in addition to MicroUSB, there is coaxial SPDIF and optical. Outputs include two 3.5 mm jacks that support line-out mode with a voltage of 2.9 V. In the standard state, Mojo outputs 2 V.
750 dollars (actual price in Russia versus 600 initially announced by the distributor) for a device with a plan size slightly wider than a credit card and about 2 cm thick - is this a lot or a little? And how much should such a device generally cost? Probably, taking into account the portable specifics, a slightly lower price tag suggests itself, although today you will no longer surprise anyone with the high cost of small devices. On the other hand, this is the cheapest DAC made in UK, which is also of interest. In addition, its manufacturer is not an unknown home-made manufacturer, but Chord Electronics, known for its high-end devices for the right price. Design and ergonomics
I will not bore those present with a description of the technical side of the matter; there is a lot of information about Mojo on the Internet; I will only tell you about my impressions of the device. The device is packaged in a small box with a seal-sticker. Inside there is only Mojo and a short tail of the USB - micro-USB cable, that's all. No manual, no charger, nothing else at all. Hmm... modest, although maybe this is exactly what an ultra-budget device should look like (by the standards of a top British manufacturer). As mentioned above, the device is very small. Well, not like a credit card, but just a couple of centimeters wider, no more. The thickness is the same couple of centimeters. Unexpectedly heavy (photos from the Internet are deceptive, the body is not plastic, and both halves are milled from solid pieces of aluminum). On one side it has entrances, on the other there are exits. There are three inputs - coaxial SPDIF, optical, USB. Since the device is really very small, full-size inputs and outputs do not physically fit, and it relies only on “micro” (with the exception of the optical input - that is full-size). So, on one side we have a 3.5 mm SPDIF jack input, a micro-USB input, a separate charging connector - also micro-USB and an optical input. On the other hand, there are two headphone outputs, also for 3.5 mm jacks. On one of the faces there are three buttons, one for power, a little further from the other two (volume control). These buttons are made in the form of rotating transparent balls and at the same time serve as indicators of operating modes. The power button displays the sampling rate of the input signal - convenient! In addition, it does not light up if a signal has not been captured. The volume buttons show the actual output level. Getting used to the color scheme is easy; after a few minutes of working with the device, everything becomes clear and looks logical.
Due to the structural features of the analog (output) stage of this DAC, it does not have a separate “full-fledged” amplifier as such, however, its adjustable output is capable of driving most of the headphones on the market, except the most demanding ones.
For details, I refer you to the developer's comments; I am not strong in electronics, and, accordingly, I cannot describe these features to you. There is a linear output mode, implemented by simultaneously pressing all three buttons when turning on, and which, due to the above, is made only conditionally, for convenience, and essentially does not differ in anything from the mode of operation of the device as a headphone amplifier, it’s just that in this case the voltage the output is 2.9 V (one of the generally accepted standard values). By lowering the “volume” by 4 clicks, we get another standard value of 2.0 V. The DAC operates for approximately 10 hours from the built-in battery. It takes approximately 5 hours to charge from any charge capable of providing a current of 1 A. You can charge the device separately, or together with listening (charging time will increase). There is an LED indicator under the charging connector that goes off when the device is fully charged. The same indicator shows the battery charge level when the device is not operating from the mains. It changes as the battery drains from blue to green to orange to red (a very logical choice of colors in my opinion). 10 minutes before shutdown, the red indicator starts flashing. A separate charging socket means a lot, in my opinion. You can charge and listen at the same time - that's understandable. But something else is more important: when listening from a smartphone, the device, being a slave USB device, nevertheless does not take energy from the smartphone’s battery, since all power manipulations occur through a separate micro-USB connector for charging. In general, in terms of thoughtfulness, Mojo deserves the highest rating, I have nothing to complain about, everything was done perfectly. I can't think of anything I could add to the existing design. Sound quality
Ergonomics and design are, of course, good, but what about the sound quality? Since I'm not a particular fan of sound through headphones, I personally was only interested in Mojo in DAC mode. Moreover, it somehow happened that I’m a little keen on testing DACs. Mojo was the 34th (thirty-fourth) DAC that I was able to get acquainted with in just over three years. I listened to the vast majority of them on my home system (with the exception of a couple of devices that I listened to on other but familiar systems). When you start testing such a cheap DAC like Mojo (let’s not forget that by the manufacturer’s standards this is generally price nonsense), you inevitably expect to hear a typical set or part of a set of standard “jambs” of devices of the “up to $1500” family, somehow: lack of body in midrange instruments and vocals, in other words, skinny sound; lack of cohesion, “fluidity”, in common parlance “melody”; synthetic touch on timbres, rustic, schematic sound; poor intonation; poor rhythm support; low dynamics, sluggish sound. Few of the cheap DACs are devoid of any of the above shortcomings to some extent, so I began the Mojo test with a fair amount of irony. Not just a DAC from the “entry level” price niche, but also a portable gadget that looks like a toy. As a source, I used my Tinycore stationary and Colorfly C4 Pro portable player. The SPDIF input was used. Surprisingly, even despite the frankly inexpensive SPDIF cable from the First Cable Company (the only jack-RCA cable that was quickly found within one-day availability), the DAC demonstrated a sound free from virtually all of the above troubles. The “features” I found, by and large, cannot be called shortcomings, and, of course, I will talk about them below. But first, about the advantages. First of all, I would like to note the fact that the device is very attentive to the completion of each note. Even when new notes have already begun to play, he will never “throw away” the one that has almost sounded in order to show the new portion in all its glory. He will finish the note and put a “semantic point”. This looks especially advantageous on vocals; the performance acquires meaning, confidence and naturalness, “vitality”. Next, what is immediately noticeable and immediately sets this DAC apart from similar ones, or even much more expensive ones, is very, very accurate pitch tracking (our English comrades call this pitch accuracy). It would seem, what difference does it make, well, even the cheapest DAC from Chinese eBay is not false. But no, just such things are the prerogative of very well-made DACs (read: very expensive) and give that same subconscious feeling of “class” that is not so easy to describe from a formal point of view. If you have two devices, one of which is accurate in pitch and plays every note (that is, not the aftersound, but the note), and the second one does not, you will quickly characterize the second one as “careless”, and as a result, not sounding natural enough.
The device has excellent coherence, perfectly combines all the instruments into a meaningful whole, and ultimately conveys the message of the composition well.
I would characterize its sound as neutral, with a slight bias towards a dark and slightly “warm” sound. But generally speaking, this is a very arbitrary division, since it is extremely sensitive to the quality of the source and remarkably conveys the difference between them, at least as far as SPDIF is concerned. For example, through it the features of both my Tinycore and C4 Pro were completely clearly audible, although it would seem that both sources supplied a bit-perfect stream to the SPDIF input through the same cable. I read several reviews about the supposedly insufficient “musicality” of the device. Comrades, what can I say, either we understand “musicality” differently, or blame your sources, Mojo is easily able to show all their shortcomings, it is like a transparent lens made of high-quality glass. The device produces a lot of details, details, and has excellent articulation. At the same time, it never collapses into a “clinically detailed” sound, and produces exactly the music - melodiously and seamlessly, in a general flow, in which, nevertheless, you can calmly consider all the available details. I would like to note the excellent bass - low, detailed, detailed. True, since my system is configured with my standard DAC, which is quite modest in bass, sometimes the Mojo was a little overkill, and my acoustics produced a sound that was a little heavy, but it’s not the Mojo’s fault, it’s just that my Spendors are a little cramped in the room. Do I have any complaints? In general, it’s not exactly a serious complaint, but I would like to note a couple of points. The device perfectly conveys the physicality of the instruments in the middle and bass, but the high frequencies sometimes sound too transparent and sparse, sometimes too “silver”, although at the same time the very moments of attacks and details like touching a cymbal with a stick are presented frighteningly realistically. But then, as a rule, there is a little lack of aggression and “dirt.” I don’t know for sure, this is a feature of my system (more precisely, the interaction of the device with my system), sometimes the bass is a little “torn off” from the main line. I'm not sure, again, that this is Mojo's fault, since I didn't notice anything like that with headphones. Despite the fact that Mojo plays very detailed and accurately, conveys all the “roughness” of timbres, all the slightest “peaks” of sound, it does it as if they were growing out of some generally “smooth” surface. In other words, the situation looks a little strange, on the one hand he seems to be playing smoothly, but on the other hand he seems to be giving out all the required “clues” without hiding. As a result, many recordings often sound like high-cuts, although they probably shouldn’t. I can’t say that this is somehow annoying or a drawback, but I noted it as a feature. And the last “moment”. Mojo has good timbral resolution, but sometimes, when the “middle” becomes a little crowded from the surging sounds of different instruments, it has a habit of “hiding” the vocals a little. At the same time, the vocals themselves are perfectly audible, but do not seem to be clearly leading the lead part. Sometimes even this may be on topic, but sometimes you want to bring the vocals a little closer to the listener. But this is so, nothing more than a matter of taste. Conclusion
In the end, I will say that the DAC directly amazed me: in several important points, it ranks in the big league, while it does not have any obvious flaws inherent in such cheap DACs, and its “features” can easily be attributed to the system or the taste of the tester . It’s a paradoxical situation—headfighters are grumbling that the device is too expensive. It seems that there are some other small tsapo-usi that are even one and a half times cheaper and seem to be even capable of reproducing some sounds. I will say that as a stationary DAC it is obscenely cheap for its qualities. The trouble is that few people will install such a box purely as a stationary DAC in a large system, and in vain - even on the power cable they will be able to save (whatever, a power cable of such a cost as the Mojo is not uncommon even for modest devices in stationary systems) . For some reason, here (unlike abroad) Mojo still can’t get enough of it, they crumple from one foot to the other, although there are strange Chinese animals with a price tag two or three times that of Mojo (I won’t specify exactly what, so as not to upset owners) is quite in use. In the end what? My best recommendations. Don't pass by! No, they don’t hear... PS Oh, yes, headphones. Right, I forgot. I also listened with headphones. I’m not a fan, but my son is interested (in fact, this is his box). I liked everything about the headphones! VE Monk, Grado PS500, Audio-technica W5000. But for some reason, the combination of C4 Pro - Mojo - Grado GR8 was especially touching. They take you right to the soul, dogs.
Source:
www.soundex.ru
The second emotion
The Mojo and smartphone design is unnecessarily bulky for my lifestyle. A quarter of a brick is added to the shovel, which not only has considerable mass, but is also thick and heats up. I only have pockets capable of accommodating such a structure in my fur coat, and the fur coat is only suitable for frost, which we only have for three months a year—they didn’t agree ideologically, in general. You can, of course, take headphones with a long wire, attach them to the Mojo, and throw the Mojo and smartphone into your backpack, but then even changing the volume will become a quest, just like switching tracks. But for trips, where both the smartphone and Mojo can be placed on a folding table or on the next seat, this design is quite suitable.
On top of that, Mojo turned out to be capricious: it didn’t like the MicroUSB connector of my two-year-old Moto X Force and it constantly crunched. With another smartphone, the old Moto X of the first generation with a less tortured connector, there was no crunching. However, I did not notice this behavior on other external DACs with Moto X Force; apparently, Mojo is very demanding. Well, for the sake of the test I had to dust off my old mobile phone.
So in my case, the portable scenario for using Mojo was not the main one: I turned it on more often at home, because a high-quality DAC will never hurt a laptop.
Chord Electronics Mojo - owner reviews
Chokparov Kirill
Pros:
- excellent weight and size for portable use and at the same time a super option for use while working at a computer in the office and with a tablet. - a noticeable improvement in sound quality compared to the sound through a standard 3.5mm headphone port, so I listen to both music from the iPhone and watch movies on the iPad via Mojo. — about sound — a separate topic, described in the comments. - excellent workmanship. It's very nice to pick up a gadget. Piece of art. - pleasant volume switching. In general, using the gadget is a pleasure. - nice, original appearance. I divided the comment into 2 parts. Part 1. So, a few months ago, my journey into the world of HiFi music began when I bought some high-end headphones. I started using them with iPhone SE, Google Play and was overall pleased. In general, I adore music and have been doing it since childhood; I have successfully performed at international music competitions. It became clear that I could get significantly better sound from my headphones and it was tempting. I started researching how best to do this. I went and listened to HiFi equipment. Since I work all day in an office on a computer, I needed an option that would suit me during this main time. In addition, I wanted to be able to easily take it home on weekends and take it with me on vacation to enjoy good music. I started with HiFi players, Fiio X5 III, AK70 Mk 2, and eventually came to the iBasso DX200 - yes, this player won me over in some way. The sound was good, the set was excellent. However, the weight, slightly buggy software, and the inability to drive 240 Ohm headphones made this option questionable. Next I went into portable DACs/headphone amplifiers. And the first one I went to listen to was Chord Mojo. I took some music with me, they gave me a laptop - and what would you think - I practically did not hear any difference. Naturally, I didn’t take it. However, I thought “how is this possible” - in reviews it is praised to the skies, but here it is.
Minuses:
- this is not a drawback: in order to hear all the beauty of the music produced, you will need fairly high-class headphones, for example, Meze 99, M&D ME05 class earplugs, preferably Shure 535 and higher. Plus music with proven high resolution quality. — is it heating up? Well, yes. It does not bother me. - separate slot for power? Yes. This is done specifically to achieve maximum sound quality. I like this approach. — a slightly non-standard connection to the iPhone. You will need 2 cables - the one included in the kit, plus the Apple Lightning to Usb Camera Adapter. The player can be connected via optical or coaxial. By the way, the use of 2 wires allows you to extend the connection between the source and Mojo, as a result, Mojo calmly lies nearby on the sofa or on the road in a bag, and all control is carried out via the iPhone/player. — for active portable use, however, the Mojo+iPhone combination via a wire is not very convenient. It is better to either use a separate HiFi player, or supplement Mojo with Poly. - the biggest question: even on the specialized Mojo forum, people admit that they cannot hear the difference between the 16/44.1 kHz format and the 24/192 kHz format in a blind test - although the difference in disk space is huge. I have not compared these formats, however, I can compare them with 24/96 kHz - this is a “game of nuances”, the difference is minimal, you may not even hear it. For me, the biggest audible difference is the switch from 3.5mm to Lightning and USB with Mojo. — in general, after listening to good HiFi music, I think this is more for people who “don’t breathe smoothly” towards music. If you are satisfied with Google Play and the like, use it calmly. If you go to the “other side”, you will buy cool ears, you will not have enough downloaded music from the network, since the quality there is untested and low, and buying proven high-resolution music costs a lot. For myself, I realized that buying would cost a pretty penny, so I only buy my favorite albums in high quality, and for the rest I chose HiFi streaming.
Review:
Part 2. Next time I prepared more thoroughly. I bought 2 of my favorite albums from HDTracks in 24-bit/44.1 kHz and 24-bit/96 kHz. And it was on them that I listened to the iBasso DX200 - the sound impressed me. Then I looked at the iFi micro iDSD DAC/amplifier and others. And now, nevertheless, in front of me is Mojo. I compare it to these albums and the same music from Google Play that I listened to with pleasure yesterday. Here are my impressions. On the 24/96 album the difference from Google Play is clearly audible. Music adds energy, nuances, volume, detail - everything that makes music beautiful. This is all in the Shure 535 headphones; in the M&D ME05, of course, the nuances are heard less noticeably. There is a difference between Google Play and 24/44.1. If we compare Google Play and Tidal with its 16/44.1 (1411.2 kbps - CD quality) - there is also some improvement, it’s more pleasant to listen to, the sound is cleaner. Which portable source should I use for Mojo? For now, I will use my iPhone SE - from its Lightning connector you can capture a digital stream of up to 24/192 and DSD using Onkyo HF Player and Lightning to USB Camera Adapter. This option is very good because for relatively little money you get sound that is perhaps better than that of AK KANN. At the same time, you can also use the highest impedance headphones. The Mojo carries a digital signal, and it is important and sufficient that its resolution is sufficient for your albums. For expensive players, their built-in amplifiers and DACs cost money, are inferior in these components to Mojo and will not be used. To compare how different sources transmit a digital signal, use a computer, it produces the “best” digital signal. In comparison, everything is clear who transmits the number and how. In the future I will probably use Poly as a source. For PC and Mac there are players (software) VOX and others. However, if you get carried away thoroughly, then Mojo officials recommend JRiver. Someone recommends Amarra. Well, the most important thing is to listen and trust your hearing.
Emotion three
For Windows and Mojo, friendship doesn't start right away. It would seem that I connected it to a laptop with a ten and I see that the ten independently installs something there. I installed it and happily informed me about it in the sidebar, saying that now I’m friends with the Chord Mojo device. No less joyfully, I plugged Phonon SMB-02 headphones into Mojo, having first turned down the volume, turned on foobar2000 and poked at the first track I came across. The track began to play with an eerie distorted ringing in the left ear, greeting the right with silence.
The strap, the elastic bands in the upper right corner and the MicroUSB cables rolled up in circles look like an angry face.
This moment was cured by installing drivers from the official Chord website, but I still managed to get scared - what if I broke or burned something, and Phonon is no longer sold in Russia , and I only have one USB on my laptop, and it’s a pity for Mojo... Moral: there’s no such thing as extra firewood.
Chord Mojo and Right Mark Audio Analyzer. What do the measurements say?
The most unusual portable DAC in the world, Chord Mojo, is also equipped with a headphone amplifier developed by Chord Electronics. What is the use of Robert Watts' digital-to-analog conversion algorithms implemented in a set of programmable FPGAs? What is the secret of the Mojo headphone amplifier?
Interested in measurement results? Read the summary of the publication on the website ohm-image.net translated into Russian. Do you want to read about sound quality? Wait for our next publication, where the same author will tell you exactly this!
The website ohm-image.net was created by famous photographer Nathan Wright, whose studio is located in Tokyo. N. Wright is seriously interested in high-quality sound and is one of the authors of the headfonia portal. Before conducting detailed testing of the Chord Mojo headphone amplifier/DAC, N. Wright published the results of measurements of a mobile device produced by the English company Chord Electronics.
We present excerpts from the description of the Chord Mojo measurement results and the results themselves in graphical and tabular form.
“I call Chord Mojo an alien from another planet. In a good way. Here's why..." "Look at the signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range measurements. Not at its maximum output level (that is, for the most positive measurements, conditions are not really optimal) Chord Mojo easily competes with the most expensive portable players. If necessary, Mojo can easily win. Unimaginable power reserves. Unprecedentedly low levels of distortion, both harmonic and intermodulation. Three ball-eyes. Good stranger."
“The amplifier in the Mojo is not just powerful. He's super powerful. It was necessary to carry out measurements at two levels of input sensitivity: + 6 dB (that is, at 90% of the maximum output level) and + 18 dB (100%). The first level corresponds to the maximum output on my Astell&Kern AK380 and Onkyo DP-X1 players, the second - to the maximum of my desktop amplifier. In the first case, the parameters are similar, some are better, some are worse. At the maximum level, all parameters are much better.” “Honestly, your iPhone 6 and Mojo are now the maximum level of quality in mass-produced portable audio equipment. Want to try a more exotic digital source? Yes, as much as you like. Personally, I'm not sure which would be better, but it's your choice." “Now to the measurements. Rightmark Audio Analyzer software, the measuring station includes:
Chord Mojo (source), Lynx Studio HILO LT-TB (ADC), 27″ iMac (computer), 1.5-meter Hosa Pro 3.5mm to two XLRs (cable). Load:
NL - no load (xx)
SM2 - Earsonics SM2 headphones
ES7 – Audio Technica ES7 headphones
DT880 - Beyerdynamic DT880/600″ headphones.
Click on spoilers to see tables and graphs
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Emotion Four
A lot of bass. The Japanese Phonon SMB-02 headphones themselves are distinguished primarily by their bright, ringing top end; their character cannot be called bassy. The headphones have an on-ear format, although they look large; The ear pads rustle at the slightest movement, but the design is comfortable, you can sit in them for a couple of hours without any problems - the sound, despite the fact that it is bright, is still captivating and not annoying.
With Mojo they got bass. No, not just bass, but with a capital B. And okay, if there was just a lot of it, so much so that it would drown out everything, dominate other frequencies and turn the sound into something like a VAZ classic with the “Dolbit normalno” sticker. No, Mojo plays like a well-trained, but lifestyle system.
Cellos and double basses become plump, biting and receive more after-sounds, filling the composition with thickness. Simultaneously with the swelling of the low-frequency region, its resolution also improves - not just a sharp blow is heard, but a distinct knocking sound of the contact of the stick and the plastic.
This low-frequency presentation has been preserved on all the headphones I have and fits perfectly, for example, into calm, slightly oppressive electronic music, like the track “Surgeon” from Infected Mushroom, where a measured, lazy and enveloping rumbling follows through the entire composition, on top of which other samples are already collected . In stoner and trip-hop, a delicately swollen bass also came into place, adding tangibility to the melodies.
Two headphone outputs add splitter functionality to Mojo
They didn’t spare the cogs
The inputs are all collected on one side, the outputs are on the opposite
But not just the bass. Vocals with Phonon's Mojo became a little clearer and livelier, and the sonority for which these headphones are famous subsided a little: with this set, the tinnitus-provoking beginning of Buckethead's "King James" sounded the safest. In some compositions it was possible not only to make out the text into individual syllables, but also to hear the vocalist swallowing saliva before the next line. There was more air and volume in the tracks; the hysterical saxophones and brass received the necessary space. At the same time, the entire jumble of instruments does not collapse into cacophonous noise, but remains organized, distinguishable, and controlled noise.
An interesting and opposite effect appeared on the same Infected Mushroom: some tracks turned into chamber, collected ones - as if all the hefty speakers screaming with samples, together with me and the guitarist with a combo, were shoved into a chamber measuring 3x3x3 m. The usual pseudo-technological crunch in the right channel in the track " Supermoon” by 65daysofstatic crawled somewhere into the middle, and the creak superimposed on the composition in the left channel also moved closer to the center of the stage.
Mojo works special magic with DSD. Both Hidden Orchestra and GoGo Penguin, performed by him, turned into very detailed, integral, vivid stories. The PCM versions of the albums could not boast of such clarity and clarity.
Well, it should be noted that Mojo is also a very expensive headphone splitter. With it, you can easily watch a movie together from a laptop on a plane; the battery should be enough for a flight from Moscow to Hong Kong. There is no delay when watching videos.
Chord Mojo. Author's review by Yuri Volobuev (Soundex forum moderator)
Introduction of 750 dollars (actual price in Russia versus 600 initially announced by the distributor) for a device with a plan size slightly wider than a credit card and about 2 cm thick - is this a lot or a little? And how much should such a device generally cost? Probably, taking into account the portable specifics, a slightly lower price tag suggests itself, although today you will no longer surprise anyone with the high cost of small devices. On the other hand, this is the cheapest DAC made in UK, which is also of interest. In addition, its manufacturer is not an unknown home-made manufacturer, but Chord Electronics, known for its high-end devices for the right price.
Design and ergonomics
I will not bore those present with a description of the technical side of the matter; there is a lot of information about Mojo on the Internet; I will only tell you about my impressions of the device. The device is packaged in a small box with a seal-sticker. Inside there is only Mojo and a short tail of the USB - micro-USB cable, that's all. No manual, no charger, nothing else at all. Hmm... modest, although maybe this is exactly what an ultra-budget device should look like (by the standards of a top British manufacturer). As mentioned above, the device is very small. Well, not like a credit card, but just a couple of centimeters wider, no more. The thickness is the same couple of centimeters. Unexpectedly heavy (photos from the Internet are deceptive, the body is not plastic, and both halves are milled from solid pieces of aluminum).
On one side it has entrances, on the other there are exits. There are three inputs - coaxial SPDIF, optical, USB. Since the device is really very small, full-size inputs and outputs do not physically fit, and it relies only on “micro” (with the exception of the optical input - that is full-size). So, on one side we have a 3.5 mm SPDIF jack input, a micro-USB input, a separate charging connector - also micro-USB and an optical input. On the other hand, there are two headphone outputs, also for 3.5 mm jacks. On one of the faces there are three buttons, one for power, a little further from the other two (volume control). These buttons are made in the form of rotating transparent balls and at the same time serve as indicators of operating modes. The power button displays the sampling rate of the input signal - convenient! In addition, it does not light up if a signal has not been captured. The volume buttons show the actual output level. Getting used to the color scheme is easy; after a few minutes of working with the device, everything becomes clear and looks logical. Due to the structural features of the analog (output) stage of this DAC, it does not have a separate “full-fledged” amplifier as such, however, its adjustable output is capable of driving most of the headphones on the market, except the most demanding ones. For details, I refer you to the developer's comments; I am not strong in electronics, and, accordingly, I cannot describe these features to you. There is a linear output mode, implemented by simultaneously pressing all three buttons when turning on, and which, due to the above, is made only conditionally, for convenience, and essentially does not differ in anything from the mode of operation of the device as a headphone amplifier, it’s just that in this case the voltage the output is 2.9 V (one of the generally accepted standard values). By lowering the “volume” by 4 clicks we get another standard value of 2.0 V.
The DAC operates for approximately 10 hours on the built-in battery. It takes approximately 5 hours to charge from any charge capable of providing a current of 1 A. You can charge the device separately, or together with listening (charging time will increase). There is an LED indicator under the charging connector that goes off when the device is fully charged. The same indicator shows the battery charge level when the device is not operating from the mains. It changes as the battery drains from blue to green to orange to red (a very logical choice of colors in my opinion). 10 minutes before shutdown, the red indicator starts flashing. A separate charging socket means a lot, in my opinion. You can charge and listen at the same time - that's understandable. But something else is more important: when listening from a smartphone, the device, being a slave USB device, nevertheless does not take energy from the smartphone’s battery, since all power manipulations occur through a separate micro-USB connector for charging. In general, in terms of thoughtfulness, Mojo deserves the highest rating, I have nothing to complain about, everything was done perfectly. I can't think of anything I could add to the existing design.
Sound quality
Ergonomics and design are, of course, good, but what about the sound quality? Since I'm not a particular fan of sound through headphones, I personally was only interested in Mojo in DAC mode. Moreover, it somehow happened that I’m a little keen on testing DACs. Mojo was the 34th (thirty-fourth) DAC that I was able to get acquainted with in just over three years. I listened to the vast majority of them on my home system (with the exception of a couple of devices that I listened to on other but familiar systems). When you start testing such a cheap DAC like Mojo (let’s not forget that by the manufacturer’s standards this is generally price nonsense), you inevitably expect to hear a typical set or part of a set of standard “jambs” of devices of the “up to $1500” family, somehow: lack of body in midrange instruments and vocals, in other words, skinny sound; lack of cohesion, “fluidity”, in common parlance “melody”; synthetic touch on timbres, rustic, schematic sound; poor intonation; poor rhythm support; low dynamics, sluggish sound. Few of the cheap DACs are devoid of any of the above shortcomings to some extent, so I began the Mojo test with a fair amount of irony. Not just a DAC from the “entry level” price niche, but also a portable gadget that looks like a toy. As a source, I used my Tinycore stationary and Colorfly C4 Pro portable player. The SPDIF input was used. Surprisingly, even despite the frankly inexpensive SPDIF cable from the First Cable Company (the only jack-RCA cable that was quickly found within one-day availability), the DAC demonstrated a sound free from virtually all of the above troubles. The “features” I found, by and large, cannot be called shortcomings, and, of course, I will talk about them below. But first, about the advantages. First of all, I would like to note the fact that the device is very attentive to the completion of each note. Even when new notes have already begun to play, he will never “throw away” the one that has almost sounded in order to show the new portion in all its glory. He will finish the note and put a “semantic point”. This looks especially advantageous on vocals; the performance acquires meaning, confidence and naturalness, “vitality”. Next, what is immediately noticeable and immediately sets this DAC apart from similar ones, or even much more expensive ones, is very, very accurate pitch tracking (our English comrades call this pitch accuracy). It would seem, what difference does it make, well, even the cheapest DAC from Chinese eBay is not false. But no, just such things are the prerogative of very well-made DACs (read: very expensive) and give that same subconscious feeling of “class” that is not so easy to describe from a formal point of view. If you have two devices, one of which is accurate in pitch and plays every note (that is, not the aftersound, but the note), and the second one does not, you will quickly characterize the second one as “careless”, and as a result, not sounding natural enough.
The device has excellent coherence, perfectly combines all the instruments into a meaningful whole, and ultimately conveys the message of the composition well. I would characterize its sound as neutral, with a slight bias towards a dark and slightly “warm” sound. But generally speaking, this is a very arbitrary division, since it is extremely sensitive to the quality of the source and remarkably conveys the difference between them, at least as far as SPDIF is concerned. For example, through it the features of both my Tinycore and C4 Pro were completely clearly audible, although it would seem that both sources supplied a bit-perfect stream to the SPDIF input through the same cable. I read several reviews about the supposedly insufficient “musicality” of the device. Comrades, what can I say, either we understand “musicality” differently, or blame your sources, Mojo is easily able to show all their shortcomings, it is like a transparent lens made of high-quality glass. The device produces a lot of details, details, and has excellent articulation. At the same time, it never collapses into a “clinically detailed” sound, and produces exactly the music - melodiously and seamlessly, in a general flow, in which, nevertheless, you can calmly consider all the available details. I would like to note the excellent bass - low, detailed, detailed. True, since my system is configured with my standard DAC, which is quite modest in bass, sometimes the Mojo was a little overkill, and my acoustics produced a sound that was a little heavy, but it’s not the Mojo’s fault, it’s just that my Spendors are a little cramped in the room. Do I have any complaints? In general, it’s not exactly a serious complaint, but I would like to note a couple of points. The device perfectly conveys the physicality of the instruments in the middle and bass, but the high frequencies sometimes sound too transparent and sparse, sometimes too “silver”, although at the same time the very moments of attacks and details like touching a cymbal with a stick are presented frighteningly realistically. But then, as a rule, there is a little lack of aggression and “dirt.”
I don’t know for sure, this is a feature of my system (more precisely, the interaction of the device with my system), sometimes the bass is a little “torn off” from the main line. I'm not sure, again, that this is Mojo's fault, since I didn't notice anything like that with headphones. Despite the fact that Mojo plays very detailed and accurately, conveys all the “roughness” of timbres, all the slightest “peaks” of sound, it does it as if they were growing out of some generally “smooth” surface. In other words, the situation looks a little strange, on the one hand he seems to be playing smoothly, but on the other hand he seems to be giving out all the required “clues” without hiding. As a result, many recordings often sound like high-cuts, although they probably shouldn’t. I can’t say that this is somehow annoying or a drawback, but I noted it as a feature. And the last “moment”. Mojo has good timbral resolution, but sometimes, when the “middle” becomes a little crowded from the surging sounds of different instruments, it has a habit of “hiding” the vocals a little. At the same time, the vocals themselves are perfectly audible, but do not seem to be clearly leading the lead part. Sometimes even this may be on topic, but sometimes you want to bring the vocals a little closer to the listener. But this is so, nothing more than a matter of taste.
Conclusion In the end, I will say that the DAC directly amazed me: in several important points it is in the big league, while it does not have any obvious shortcomings inherent in such cheap DACs, and its “features” can easily be attributed to the system or taste tester. It’s a paradoxical situation—headfighters are grumbling that the device is too expensive. It seems that there are some other small tsapo-usi that are even one and a half times cheaper and seem to be even capable of reproducing some sounds. I will say that as a stationary DAC it is obscenely cheap for its qualities. The trouble is that few people will install such a box purely as a stationary DAC in a large system, and in vain - even on the power cable they will be able to save (whatever, a power cable of such a cost as the Mojo is not uncommon even for modest devices in stationary systems) . For some reason, here (unlike abroad) Mojo still can’t get enough of it, they crumple from one foot to the other, although there are strange Chinese animals with a price tag two or three times that of Mojo (I won’t specify exactly what, so as not to upset owners) is quite in use. In the end what? My best recommendations. Don't pass by! No, they don’t hear... PS Oh, yes, headphones. Right, I forgot. I also listened with headphones. I’m not a fan, but my son is interested (in fact, this is his box). I liked everything about the headphones! VE Monk, Grado PS500, Audio-technica W5000. But for some reason, the combination of C4 Pro - Mojo - Grado GR8 was especially touching. They take you right to the soul, dogs. Read the original review on soundex
Emotion as a conclusion
Mojo is suitable as a bait to attract teenagers to the world of audiophile. Yes, this probably sounds blasphemous, and I'm not saying that bass is the destiny of puberty, but we once had a thread in which people discussed ways to lure new blood into the camp of audiophiles, and I believe that Mojo is for the young the generation that rocks super-bass will have a great impact. Because the juicy, clear and controlled low-frequency range is accompanied by good detail, the ability to tame the features of headphones and compositions, and a comfortable and voluminous presentation. After Mojo, listening to some beats or white headphones will simply be painful. Isn't this a plus?
Bass, of course, is not only needed by Scryptonite and Eljay. In symphonic compositions, due to the noble string hum, filled with after-sounds and notes extended to the end, Mojo creates an excellent effect of grandiosity and scale, which Phonon overheads themselves could not provide. The jazzy GoGo Penguin and the math rock 65daysofstatic had plump but crisp lows paired with air at the top and intelligibility that added desperation and life to the tracks.
Another question is that I found it inconvenient to use Mojo as a portable device, but as a stationary DAC/amplifier it pumped up the sound of a laptop worse than Xzibit.
Mojo TECHNOLOGY: warm tube sound in your pocket
The market for portable hi-rez devices - be it Neil Young's long-suffering player
) Pono or a device called a “headphone amplifier” raises a lot of questions for a simple music lover. And the most important of them is “why?” Let's be honest: most of us are ready to sacrifice sound quality in favor of the mobility of the device that reproduces it. We are all accustomed to compromise options like mp3 - 320 kb/s, sounding “almost like a CD” or headphones with some tricky hi-boost mode that can shout above the rumbling subway train. However, with the advent of special headphone amplifiers, which are in fact high-quality mobile DACs, it has become possible to listen to music in high definition both at home and on the street.
One such device is the Mojo
from the British manufacturer of hi-end equipment
Chord Electronics
(if you know their Chord Hugo device, then Mojo is its budget version). The device is an aluminum box with three controls, capable of playing files with sampling rates up to 768 kHz (in PCM mode) without distortion. Let us remind you that a standard CD file is digitized in the 44.1 kHz mode, which in practice means: the digital signal is converted to analog with a conversion frequency of 44,100 times per second. Most DACs built into players are capable of reproducing audio files digitized to standard 16 bits at a sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz. There are several reasons for this - firstly, such data takes up less space (and the issue of player capacity was relevant 5 years ago), secondly, installing more expensive DACs immediately increases the cost of the device, thirdly, there is no point in a more expensive DAC, if you listen to music on low-impedance headphones. These three points are the main arguments of the audiophile consumer in favor of compromises with sound on the street.
But let's take a closer look at all three aspects. The first is the amount of memory. Today's devices like Cowon, iRiver or Apple have built-in memory up to 256 Gb, i.e. they are capable of storing an average of 500 albums in lossless formats like Flac or Wav. Thus, the inevitability of compression in mp3 no longer looks so inevitable. Let's move on - the limitations of built-in DACs. You can, of course, make a player with filling from a company like Ayre, but it will turn out to be a super-player Pono from Neil Young, costing 10 thousand dollars for a device about which no one understood why it was needed. Given the obvious high cost of the device, this is simply inconvenient. Firstly, if you buy a hi-rez player, but at home you most likely have hi-end equipment. You have to create 2 music libraries - for the home and for the street. If you have an amplifier and acoustics, Mojo can be used as a DAC for home (for this there is coaxial SPDIF, optics and USB inputs) and as a headphone amplifier outdoors. In this case, the class of the portable device does not matter at all. The built-in “digitalizer” of your player is not used, the battery of the smartphone/player is not wasted on this - all the chemistry happens inside a small (the size of an external battery) box from Chord Electronics.
The third point is headphones. This is the most “thin” place. If you plug three-kopeck Chinese drops into Mojo, then what you hear will most likely sound like a regular mp3, if not worse. But, if you use high-impedance headphones like Beyerdynamic or good quality headphones, you can hear all the nuances of hi-res quality or, at least, feel the difference. When paired with closed-back models, Mojo eliminates all compromises in portable audio.
To summarize:
— With the Mojo headphone amplifier, the class of your device doesn't matter. A large amount of memory, good sources (wav, flac formats, DSD high-res) and decent headphones give you audiophile sound outside the home - the smartphone no longer dies due to constant listening to music, Mojo has its own battery - Mojo can act as a general DAC and for a home hi-end system and for portable sound - you are no longer limited to CD quality (16 bit, 44.1 kHz), but can listen to music in the quality and dynamics with which it was recorded in the studio.
You can find out detailed information about the device, technical specifications and price from the distributors of the Chord brand in Russia - Next Hi-Fi.
