User Manual
DSP. This creates a phase shift that is different for micro signals compared to
large signals” and further that “The oating point nature of conventional 64 bit
DSP means that it innately suffers from noise oor modulation”.
Watts has dened the specs required to achieve fully transparent EQ
with DSP and they are both ambitious and mind boggling for the technically
challenged so I won’t go into them, but will repeat that “small signal accuracy
– needs to reproduce -301dB perfectly.” Which seems like a big number but
is apparently what it takes to offer the degree of equalisation provided by Mojo
2. Another large number is the 705/768kHz required to ensure effective noise
shaping, which means that low level signals do not get lost in the noise oor.
It’s complex stuff for anything let alone a portable DAC but Chord
Electronics and Rob Watts appear to delight in cramming as much bleeding
edge tech into their components as possible. The claim is that it runs “the
world’s rst lossless DSP”, and allows a wider volume range than the rst Mojo
of 126dB, so broad that it uses different coloured indicators to let you know
whether you are in the high or low range, the change being made at -46dB
which is slightly above the halfway point in output. There are of course more
volume steps than colours available to indicate them so each colour represents
a range of output levels with the maximum voltage being a substantial 5.3V.
Headphone users might be interested to know that power output is 90mW into
300 Ohms and 600mW into 30 Ohms.
The four tone settings can be adjusted
by plus or minus 9dB in 1dB steps and on top
of this there are four crossfeed settings albeit
one of them is ‘off’. Again the ‘polychromatic
polycarbonate control spheres’ change
colour to indicate the setting. Don’t lose the
manual! Actually as the full manual is a PDF
this isn’t really an issue.
Adjusting these settings requires a good
memory and/or a user manual because you
access them by pressing the menu button
the requisite number of times to access a
particular function then adjust that parameter
with the volume buttons. For instance ‘menu’
button and ‘-’ volume allows brightness
adjustment, or with the ‘+’ button to adjust
crossfeed. Press the ‘menu’ button again for
the 20Hz bass peak and again for the 125Hz
bass shelf; it takes ve presses to get to the
20kHz treble peak setting and the sixth press
locks the controls. So absolutely no chance
of confusion! It’s not all counting however, the
menu button also changes colour to indicate
what you are changing so that incompetent
reviewers stand a chance of getting things
right. In fairness, I’m not sure how Chord
Electronics would make this easier without
a display and that would raise the price and
potentially cut its performance.
The Mojo 2 adds a USB C input to the
micro USB (retained for Poly), on top of the
minijack coax and Toslink array found on the
rst Mojo. It also matches the double minijack
outputs at the other end of the compact
case. These analogue outputs have been
upgraded by eliminating coupling capacitors
and incorporating a DC coupled output with a
digital DC servo, a move claimed to deliver a
more neutral tonal balance (if you don’t ddle
with the EQ that is).
Charging is via a second micro USB with
battery status indicated by the power button,
“Chord Electronics and Rob Watts appear to delight in cramming as
much bleeding edge tech into their components as possible.”
EQUIPMENT REVIEW / CHORD MOJO 2
Reproduced from HI-FI+ Issue 205 www.hifiplus.com