DAC Roundup Pt 2: Chord TT2 + M Scaler & Amp Pairings 

Three years later and I still find your DAC roundup relevant. Great job!

I felt that this was a fair and comprehensive review of DACs and amp pairings.

Another excellent review. It's almost like you know what's our minds and you answer and make the comparisons for us.

Really appreciate you reviewing all of these at once. In my opinion it's the most objective way to understand subtle differences in the products. I hope you continue to do more comparisons like this.

Finally the second part is there. Thanks for the review! Listening to you on my RME ADI-2 DAC... ;)

been waiting for this review all i can say is yes , yes, and yes give me more thanks

I just got an RME DAC this weekend and I love it! It really opened my eyes to how bad my main soundcard sounded and now my mixes sound great!

Oh man! You really nailed it! These videos are worth watching year after year for reference purpose! Hope to see you doing more tube amps shootout in the future, which not many people are doing!

Absolutely one of the best and most in-depth reviews I watched - and I watched MANY. Thanks for the the work and I hope you will continue supplying us audio nerds with more "food". 🙌

Wow, what clarity of thought and expression of ideas into tangible and relatable meaning. I’ve never heard audio gear being talked about which conveys a more descriptive sense of the experience of listening to it. I’m more excited to hear you talk about gear than I am to listening to it myself! Subscribed 👌.

I really appreciate the effort put into this and all the comparisons you made. I have to go back and re-watch the first part now as I'm definitely interested in some new gear.

Just discovered your channel through your two part DAC roundup. You're a great communicator with a discerning ear, and your abiding love of the hobby really shines through. Thanks for sharing who you are and what you're hearing - it's a beautiful thing.

Been waiting for this all year! Fantastic review. Happy New Year and much success to you in 2021.

Thanks for the plug, MFG, and great video! Glad you found the M-Scaler content helpful. I totally agree with you that the M-Scaler really makes the most sense with the TT2 or Dave. For me, using it with the Qutest is a stepping stone to one of those others. One thing I'd add is that the THX789 is a bit of a trade-off with the TT2. It might come across preferable in some ways on early listens but you're losing out on fine details and soundstage depth. I'm actually yet to find an amp that's as transparent and resolving as the TT2 amp. It's one of the rare occasions where an in-built amp actually IS better than a separate.

Great job! Thanks for all the work you put into these comparisons (part 1 & 2). I watch a lot of hi-fi videos and these were some of the best most helpful. Thanks!

Been waiting for this one!! Thanks a bunch and a very happy 2021 to you. You have provided thoughts and combinations I have been curious about and hence appreciate the effort.

Very nice presentation in both parts. A good mix of tech with touchy-feely analysis. Thank you!

Wow! Another excellent, detailed review. Keep doin ya thang boi 🤙🏼

Oh, yeah! You’re da man! Thanks again for taking time to make this kind of head to head comparison!

Really looking forward to more reviews! Very professionally done, great presentation, talk, details, all the comparisons, very well done!

This is one of the best reviews. This roundup gives perspectives to the singular reviews. Thanks.

Thanks for all of the work you put into this, very much appreciated and enjoyed! I've been DAC window shopping for a while now wondering if it's time to try something other than my Gumby but I recently landed on just chilling out and enjoying what I have.

Great video! I had been waiting for part 2 and it didn't disappoint. 🙂

Quite an undertaking reviewing all of these units! Your hard work is appreciated my dude.

That was a lot of stuff ! Can’t imagine how much effort went into this. Awesome!

SO informative. This has helped me see well into the sonic possibilities within certain price points. Such a comprehensive overview, needed to rewatch some sections. And the second coming of Jeebus 😂👍🏼👌🏼

Refreshingly neutral, packed with useful insights, really adding depth to discussion of DACs and pairings. Great series. Thanks.

Wow, Thank you, very detailed and enlightening. Appreciate your enthusiasm, love of the hobby and knowledge. Went with the Bifrost 2 and loving it so far. Running to an ancient Harman Kardon Citation 22 amp and Ohm Walsh Speakers in a fairly large room. Perfection.

Thanks for the load of work that you put in great video and Don’t forget the Lampizator Amber 3(tubes)

great review/comparo!! Incredible job!

Best review, ever on RU-vid! Thank you!

Thanks for comparing all these DACs. I'm very happy with my system which includes Chord M Scaler, Qutest, and a Burson Soloist 3X headphone amp. The Qutest and Burson together are a lot more affordable than The Chord TT2, and I prefer the features of the Burson, such as a balanced headphone output and its excellent performance as a pre-amp.

Really enjoyed part 1&2 of these DAC reviews. Thanks for the honest opinions/comparisons. I think I'll subscribe to your channel now. Thanks.

Terrific work, and absolutely agree with your summary at the end. Great video! 👍 🔥 💥

Thanks so much for taking the time. Great presentation . Great video . Go Jebus!

great review, very useful and tons of information

👍💪Totally awesome review I’ve never seen so many Dac‘s reviewed at one time💪👍

Thanks for a great review…I am now looking for an upgraded amp downstream…love my Chord Stack!

Respect and gratitude for your effort

This was a really insightful video. Thank you!!

God bless u for this my bro! Excellent work.

As in the first part thanks for the effort involved here. You make great reviews. I have Chord 2qute and enjoy the Chord sound. I demoed the Qutest and TT2. For sure the TT2 brings a little more to the party, over the Qutest, but you really have to pay to get those small but clear improvements. So I would say you are bang on with your thoughts. Hearing such detailed comparison between different DACs in one test is perfect. I don't think I even want a new DAC currently, but enjoy watching manufacturers different ways of solving the same puzzle.

Fantastic! Thank you for this.

Super glad I found this channel. Really enjoy your very natural approach to sharing your thoughts and findings. Curious how the Hugo 2 compares to the rest of the Chord stuff now!

This was a excellent roundup of dacs. Appreciate trying all the combos and even the expensive chord tt. When you get into that territory I would consider the dcs Bartok and the mula dac darko did a review for. That's a excellent hifi quote to remind us all to not take this all to serious.

Thanks for the detailed info on the DAC and AMP pairings.

PS: I forgot to mention their top of the line comes with a gorgeous headphone stage and balanced outs I will b trying soon!

thanks for the review. more power to your channel

You’re the man dude! Great content and format. Darko who??!

Great review of f a wide selection of Dacs. Thanks !

The THX 789 being a better amp than the TT2 - now that's a bombshell! Btw, I've listened to the TT2 + MScaler an an audio show, next to the Hugo and the dCS Bartok, both of which are supposed to be a class above, and the TT2 + MScaler sounded overwhelmingly better. The Hugo and the Bartok sounded academically clean and disciplined but the TT2 combo made music become alive and makes you fall in love with the music it plays. It is by a margin the best headphone listening experience I have ever had. Thanks for the review!

I paired my Chord Qutest with Topping A90, sounded really good on my Sennheiser 660s. It scaled up my 660s, heard more detail, soundstage got a little bigger, never felt fatigued from long listening, the Sennheiser veil just disappeared. The Topping A90 also drove my DIY Purifi power amp and Klipsch RP600M into new heights, Hayley Williams acoustic version of "Ignorance" makes me stand up and sing with her . Yes! Klipsch do makes you feel you are in a pop or rock concert, even though the specs on the low end of the spectrum don't go that low, the bass just felt right and appropriate for the speaker size.

Great review man! I wish you could review highend daps and portable dacamp too.

Another great one! Thank you!

Brilliant, super useful!!! Thx!!!

Thanks. I found this round up really useful. I am currently using a chord mojo in my system, it sounds good but it a bit of a pain though as it's aimed at mobile use. I have been debating whether to move up to the qutest. Then the denefrips reviews started! Well after your round up I'm going to stick with the chord as I have quite a revealing open system. Thanks again.

Great reviews! Listening to you on my RME. I'm also a watch guy too and can't stop trying to guess what you are wearing on the sweet Nato strap 👍

Loved part 1 and part 2. Skipped to end of part two. MFG picks bifrost 2 below 1k...awesome.

Fantastic review, really informative with very common sense conclusions. I have owned a D90 for a while and partly thanks to this review I have recently bought an Ares II. While I have immediately formed an emotional connection with the Ares II, I don't think I could own it as my only DAC; it is a perfect yin to my D90's yang, though (A90 amp). Switching between them (especially for certain genres) makes me continue appreciating them both for what they offer. I have never heard the Bifrost 2 but going by your description I can see why it would be the best DAC to own if one were to only have one (as most people surely do). In my case, I feel that if I were to sell both of mine and buy a Bifrost 2 I'd probably end up missing either of the two "extremes", so instead of chasing "perfection" I'll settle for switching between the two DACs for different genres of music. For now. ;-)

Very impressive analysis!

I use the Qutest in combination with the V280 to drive my HD800S. I loved your description of the DAC/amp combo as a "gentle giant" because that is exactly what I was looking for and what I've been hearing since I got the combo. I've since added a black dragon cable to make the HD800S sound even more gentle and fuller. What I now have is like an HD600 with incredible soundstage, realism, and depth, i.e. perfection to my ears.

Best dac review ever

I really like the closing comment, ‘it all sounds fake but just pick the fake you like’. That couldn’t be truer! The original sound that was recorded has gone when the recording was made, whats left is the recording and our music reproduction machines. These are all basically effects on what the original sound was, however in that original recording is something that gets us near what happened that day. The many ways it can be reproduced audibly bring elements of what exactly happened that day. This is why I love vinyl as well, it’s totally different to digital and portrays in a totally different way which captures elements that only vinyl can do over digital. Of course both mediums are great and as you say just enjoy what you like.

Excellent work!

Great job midfi ! Thanks for the video

Try to get the doge 7, it has tubes in the output too. Respect to you, you covered pretty much almost all the scenarios and combinations! Subscribed, as I think you will be my go to reviewer once Thomas shut down his channel.

Exellent review! Very actually

Great review, thanks!

Very nice review. Appreciate it! Currently own the chord 2Qute and THX 887.. Will probably pick up a Bitfrost 2 and Jotunheim 2 for some different warmer musical experiences!

excellent analysis.

I’ll just have to be satisfied with the D90 because the wife would look at those two little boxes that say Chord on them and say, “we could’ve remodeled the bathroom for that kind of money”. 😩 Great review. That took a lot of time and effort on your part.

Great comparison man!!! Thank u

You do good reviews! I had the Hugo TT2 on loan and it sounds great. Most unfortunately, I did not take the MScaler. This combo is on my radar 😈

Thanks for the great review and work. It was good how you managed to outline the sonic qualities of each unit and component suggestions. I have found getting the right amount of detail, ambience and musicality is the fun part of digital playback and adding a cheap tube preamp can work really well. Thanks again

Thank you for your opinion!!

This is the second video I watched on your channel (obviously Part 1 was the first). I like your style of presentation and it's clear you put a lot of time into it. I have Denafrips Pontus II 12-1 which I absolutely adore and have been very curious about the Qutest for just the reasons you mentioned (Hype, Rob Watts interviews, the detail retrieval, I essentially the bought the whole Chord magic pixie dust lock stock and barrel. Same thing happened to me on the Ares, but I just opted for the next tier to make sure the hype = the sound. Anyway, you've convinced me to wait and save for the $10k stack. I was ready to order a Qutest just to see for myself, but I am afraid it might be just a lateral move from the Pontus. Now I am certain that if I do buy a chord, it will be the Hugo TT2 followed up quickly with an M-Scaler.

Awesome review

Good work, man.

Magnificent review! Why? Because no one else does these wholistic reviews. Everything is about the whole experience with pairings. This could be YOUR special niche. Bravo!

The new jotunheim with bifrost 2 stack is the pair I'm most excited about right now. 😁

Great work! I wish you had also compared the output stage of the RME ADI-2 DAC FS (ie: use it as a DAC + Preamp & not just as a standalone DAC) to others.

Love the quote at 20.55

D90 + DSD256 upsampling for me, very nice imo.

Once again, great review! Regarding DACs with tube based outputs...I still have a 10 year old hot rodded Eastern Electric Minimax tube DAC (original version) that easily held its own against Chord Mojo, Yulong DA8, Ciunas and a few other DACs that I tried at the time. I eventually gave up on wanting to replace it figuring I'd need to spend a fortune to be able to hear a noticeable difference. Maybe I'm ready to take a chance on one of the DACs in your comparative. Just can't make up my mind on which one. Most likely not the Topping with its razor sharp detail. Been around too long for that type of sound.

I read Holo May R2R dacs are good too but the Denafrips Ares II is a good value I might try it! Thanks😊

The Chord TT2 and MScaler can be found new at way under list price if you look.

Thank you for the informative review. I just bought a Bluesound Node 2i as streamer. As you get questions of comparisons a lot, the chances of you comparing that internal DAC to an external one are slim. So let me ask this question: would you either go with a good streamer first and then maybe use an external DAC for that streamer, or should I setup my laptop as streaming device and use an external DAC? My hifi system level is up for some good quality (using Diapason Ademantes ii speakers, Synthesis tube amplifier). Im considering either a Chord Mojo or Qutest, and im using tidal as software. Thank you for your response in advance. Regards, Dennis

Thank you for your excellent and very helpful review. I own one of the reviewed dacs - ADI-2 - with Accuphase e470. This couple works quite well but I want to try something which can give me more natural sound with more body and warmth. I am trying to make my choice between a few R2R dacs. And one of the latest product in this field attracts my attention more that the others considering its characteristics and price value - Musician Pegasus which is a kind of daughter of Denafrips. If you have a chance to listen to this dac, I hope, you will share your thoughts about it. No doubt, many your followers and other audiofiles will appreciate that. Thanks again for your work.

Excellent job! On DACs: I don’t understand why bother if there are Chord DACs...

Musicality, Emotional Content, Engaging, Life Like Seductively Alluring or Highly Resolving, Detail Centric, Sensory Overload, In Your Face! Why not the Best of Both worlds! Go down the Rabbit Hole and Chase Ultra HiEnd Audio components to the Complete Point of Madness! It's all the same on every level, does it Pleasure you or not! Don't worry, be Happy!

The TT2 is on another level. And it better be for the better part of $5k. Lots of competition at that price point as well.

Great Review ! Just wondering if someone can help? can i connect the RME ADI-2 DAC to a sub woofer while connected to active speakers ? So if im using the XLR's outs to the active speakers and the RCA out to the sub woofer ? if this possible? Can this be done ?

so i have the d90 mqa and just got the singxer su2. the improvement is pretty dramatic after connecting su2 to d90 via hdmi/is2. wonder how this combo would compare against chord.

loved the quote you mentioned, here's my quote: "Real Audiophiles belong to the church of the ladder dac saints."

Damn man you are a godsend! Personally I listen to a huge variety of music, but I have audiophile tendencies. I have a questyle CMA400i I bought as an upgrade to my TEAC-ifi ican SE combo, but I ended up going back to the TEAC. Even though the questyle is 2~3x the price I just don't like it better. The TEAC DAC uses a burrbrown chip, and the questyle a AKM4490. The 4490 sounds less dynamic, less bass swing, while still throwing in lots of fun high treble and pinpoint stereo detail. The major TEAC's downfall is the slight harshness in busy parts, but other than that the signature sounds really nice and rich. Especially big crescendo parts just sound more swinging and fun on the TEAC. I'm probably going to pull the trigger on a 2nd hand Qutest. If that doesn't work out, i'll grab an ifi idsd black label.

I think my next DAC is probably going to be R2R or multibit. I'd like to have something to contrast with my Benchmark DAC3B. I have a friend with a D90, and for the price it's pretty fantastic, but I think I'm a little more interested in trying something different. Appreciate the comparison, it helps me understand a bit about the different technologies.

I have a Yamaha as1100 paired with Polk LSiM 705. A lot of music can sound too forward and I’m looking for a good DAC with maybe more warmth and laid back sound to help. Any suggestions on DAC pairing?

Amen on that last thought

oh finally out!

Great work as always, insane amount of information and probably the only guy "crazy" enough to make such big product roundups and comparisons. Kudos to you sir :) I have a Bifrost 2, Focal Solo 6be & an SVS SB-2000pro. Would a Freya + help with making a bigger 3D image while retaining the exceptional imaging & good enough soundstage I have right now?