Anybody here upgrade from Chord Qutest DAC"

@redwoodaudio 

I have a Qutest and almost sent it back when I first tried it.
The standard plug & play was too detailed for me !    Lol
I like DSD ( sacd ) Sound profiles in general 

I also tried a Playback Designs Merlot DSD dacThe best dac I’ve been around, period 
it was there with the Qutest  

Anyway , Roon has a upsampling dsp, similar to the Chord 1Mm device , but all software .

I played with all the dsp things and settled on the 2x DSD upsample 

it was pretty close to the Merlot when done 

try the Roon thing first and see how you like it !

jeff 

Thanks very much. I'll try roon upsampling and hqplayer upsampling with the qutest. I've never played a dsd track before. 

If you are ready to go down the rabbit hole, see this paper which describes the WTA algorithm and its effects on the reconstruction of analogue from digital signals...  https://www.moon-audio.com/content/pdf/chord/chord-tech-profile-hifi-critic.pdf

Also, note that the Qutest and TT2 convert DSD back to PCM internally...  Upsampling to DSD just breaks small signals, which some may like or dislike depending on your ear/brain/system/room...

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. 

I upgraded from the Qutest to a Hugo TT2 and then I went back to the Qutest. The Hugo sounded very smooth and light and airy, with it's vocals more forward. It was soft and light sounding compared to the Qutest. I preferred the Qutest as it seemed to have more meat on the bone with a richer sound with slightly more impact. I guess it comes down to your system and personal taste.