Chord Qutest : The Best High End DAC

The Qutest DAC is designed to improve system sound quality instantly. It is the latest evolution of our most affordable ‘standalone’ DAC in other words one that does not contain a built-in headphone amplifier like the Mojo 2 and Hugo 2.

The Qutest is What Hi-Fi?’s ‘Best DAC’ 2023 £1000+ and a What Hi-Fi? ‘Best DAC’ winner every year its inception (2018-2022). It is a proven class-leader and is based on our award-winning proprietary FPGA technology giving it unrivalled technical and sonic performance.

Perfectly equipped to bring the benefits our digital technology to a wide range of connected devices it features a galvanically isolated USB-B optical and coaxial digital input giving an instant performance upgrade plus the ability to modernise ageing digital source components.

The Qutest chassis is all-new too. It has significantly greater mass than its predecessor and has been precision-machined from solid aircraft-grade aluminium billet. The Qutest PCB nestles within a shallow cavity in the solid aluminium chassis giving the circuit board greater protection within the casework and additional isolation from external vibration compared to previous designs.

Qutest offers Hugo 2’s proprietary user-selectable frequency-shaping filters and input selection controls available via two fascia-mounted spheres introducing useful flexibility. It also features RCA analogue outputs for connection to integrated amplifiers preamps and headphone amps plus high-resolution dual-data digital inputs for connection to future Chord Electronics products.

A further new feature is a user-selectable output voltage available in 1 2 and 3V RMS outputs for flexible connectivity with a wide range of partnering devices.

The What Hi-Fi? ‘Best DAC’ 2023/24 Qutest is the definitive small audiophile DA convertor.