Hi Everyone.
Benjamin here: owner of Mojo Audio and designer of the Mystique series of DACs.
I wanted to clear up a few things and respond to some of the questions that were asked.
First of all, the difference between our Mystique v1, v2, v3, and EVO:
The v1 and v2 use the same chassis and very similar ciruits. The big difference is the v1 had a direct-coupled output stage from the 18-bit AD1865 DAC chip’s voltage output with no external parts and the v2 uses the current output of the AD1865 with a discrete output stage that has two op amp stages per channel. The same output stage circuit used in our v3 and EVO.
In later versions of the v2, such as the v2+, v2SE, and our current v2X, the output stage uses the same discrete Sparkos op amps, Vishay TX2575 "Nude" resistors, and foil and film caps as our v3. Quite an improvement.
Our new v2X uses an XMOS USB input module that not only makes it more compatible with more operating systems, it also improves performance quite a bit as well.
Our v3 and EVO use nearly identical circuits to the v2 but with the 20-bit AD1862, better signal path modules and parts, better shielding, better grounding, better mechanical resonance, and 5X LC choke-input power supplies vs the 2X capacitive input power supplies that are used in our v1 and v2 DACs.
Our EVO is basically the same circuit as our v3, but with upgrades to the USB input, S/PDIF input, analog output, shielding, grounding, and mechanical resonance. And where as the v3 has two circuit boards (PSU and signal) with one .25" thick ferrous shielding barrier between them the EVO has three circuit boards (PSU, digital, and analog) and has a second .25" thick ferrous shielding barrier between the digital and analog boards.
Sound quality wise the entry-level EVO Basic sounds better in all ways than our v3.
The EVO is also divided into three versions: Basic, B4B, and Pro. B4B stands for "Bang for the Buck" and is our recommendation to most of our customers. With each upgraded version there are "freebies" in terms of upgrade options, so it pays to buy the entry-level B4B over a Basic with all the upgrades, and it pays to buy the entry-level Pro vs a B4B with all the upgrades.
And of course the EVO is engineered to be upgraded at any time in the future with better digital and analog signal path part options, advanced shielding material options, advanced anti-resonance options, better wiring and connector options, better AC filter options, and significantly better power supply options.
We’re already planning entirely new digital, analog, and PSU boards for the future with significant performance upgrades. And all of those boards will fit in our current EVO chassis.
The big performance upgrade would be to upgrade the chokes in the analog power supplies to the Lundahl or Lundahl amorphous core. That is where the "magic" comes from. It would be nice if some of you guys who upgraded your v3 or EVO with the Lundahl chokes could chime in and describe what you are hearing.
Of course both the analog signal path upgrade and Lundahl chokes in the analog section are included in the B4B, along with a few freebee upgrades.
We often get v2s traded in that will show up on the Specials page of our website. We rarely get any v3s traded in. When we get a v3 traded in it is usually pre-sold before we even post it on our Special’s page.
When we get trade ins we bench test them and adjust the trim pots for DC offset and MSB at the zero crossing (DAC chip linearity). Few companies who use the same DAC chips and op amps use these fine tune circuits even though they are on the data sheets of all the R-2R DAC chips and op amps we use. Something to think about.
When we resell used gear it comes with our standard 45-day no-risk audition, 90-day full-value upgrade, infinite trade in options, and a 2-year factory warranty. Our new gear comes with all the same return and upgrade options plus a 5-year warranty.
We usually resell our trade ins for what we pay our custom for them...sort of a discount to our loyal customers. We’ve been offering customers $3,500-$4,500 trade in on v3 DACs depending on version and condition. At $3,500-$4,500 we have a long waiting list to buy a used v3 from us.
So if anyone has a v3 DAC in good condition they want to sell for $2,600 no need to spend $$$ on a listing...I’ll be happy to buy it from you, recondition it, and resell it for $3,500 :^)
The most important thing to remember is the DAC can only give you what you feed it from your digital source. We get customers all the time who have a modest transport or server/streamer and want to buy one of the more expensive versions of our EVO: big waste of $$$. You want to use a digital source that is proportional to your DAC or all your DAC is going to reveal are the flaws in your digital source.
Remember when you could buy a CDP or a transport and DAC and the transports cost roughly the same price as the matching DAC? So we don’t suggest buying anything more expensive than our EVO Basic unless if you have a transport or server that costs over $5K. We would strongly recommend upgrading your digital source first.
And our advanced shielding and anti-resonance options will make very little improvement unless your entire system is of a high enough performance and is using similar shielding and anti-resonant products. So rather than buying a set of Stillpoints Ultra II feet for your EVO we might suggest you spend a similar amount of $$$ to buy Stillpoints Ultra Minis for your entire system if you don’t already have something equivalent.
BTW, we are about to run a few specials with freebees thrown in on our EVO between now and the first of the year. If you want to know about those specials sign up for our e-newsletter. They won’t be advertised anywhere else.
FYI, on January 1st we’re planning on raising the price of our EVO by $500 to compensate for rising parts costs. So it would really pay to purchase one before December 31st.
I hope you all found this helpful.
Feel free to call me if you have any more questions.
