Bought the Chord Qutest. Love it. Hate the power supply.

There was something weird about the power supply being deliberately current limited due to the battery charging requirements. 

So long as the batteries are charged, you can swap to a high current supply.

I've had a Chord Qutest for about 3 years now...  Get a Furman power conditioner with Linear Filtering Technology (LiFT)... Plug your DAC, streamer, network switch, router and modem into it... Problem solved...

Particularly if it’s in a component described as incredible. Did you perhaps choose this term inappropriately?

It’s not inappropriate. Incredible is used in the context of the system. Any incredible sounding component can be improved. A $10 power cord can sound incredible and that goes the same for a $100 DAC, if you get my drift.

To the OP - the reason I avoid most Chord DACs is they can’t take a full fledged power cord. I have the Chord QBD76 which sounds awesome. I have a good power cord attached to it which took it to another level.

Good luck.

I have a Qutest and use an Sbooster linear power supply with the Ultra Mk II in line plug in which Sbooster recommends for the Qutest. But even a basic iFi power supply will provide cleaner, quieter power than the stock SMPS. 

Rob obviously knows how to engineer DAC's. Doesn't mean we can't think for ourselves, do what makes sense to us and share our experiences. Or ask one another questions.

I think the quality of the Qutest bears tweeking and upgrading. In fact I feed mine through an Mscaler that I picked up here second hand. This is not Chord's recommended way to move up their product chain, but I am very happy with the result and it is my end game DAC. 

Cheers, and enjoy your Qutest!

i would agree with the above comment

the qutest is engineered to a relatively low price point, no doubt the power filtering is not as extensive nor advanced as the hugo tt2 or dave models well up the chain

also concur with the m scaler being a significant sonic upgrade for the qutest (as well as other dacs, chord and otherwise)... you pay dearly for the upgrade though, making it an obstacle for some, to be sure... but the step up in sound is real, and significant