Six DAC Comparison

@mitch2 Thank you Mitch for the review.  I appreciate all the time you have put into  reviewing these DAC's 

@no_regrets - Interesting idea but I am not confident in my ability to create a YouTube video that would accurately exhibit what I am hearing.  I have listened to some of those YouTube audio equipment review videos and I doubt what I heard was close to how it sounded in the poster’s room.

The other thing is, the units I have here now certainly do not sound night and day different from each other (IMO) and, particularly with the three Mojo Audio models, the differences I hear are nuanced rather than overtly obvious.  They are all good sounding DACs but, at least in the price range of the DACs I have been listening to, the state of digital audio industry seems to be progressing more incrementally than monumentally.  It is sort of like stepping half the distance to a wall, the closer you get to the wall, the smaller the steps.  The steps involved in improving digital audio seemed to have been bigger ten years ago.

The Aries Cerat Helene brings some attributes to the party that I like hearing, and that I might describe as the Mojo Audio house sound on steroids, taking the good stuff I hear from Benjamin’s latest DACs and adding just a little bit more.  I have no idea of what specific design choices result in what I am hearing from the Helene but the suspects might include the multiple DAC chips, tube rectified power supply, double re-clocking Super Clock technology, tube output stage, expensive transformers, general overbuilt construction, or all of it together.  In this case, paying a lot more seems to bring an improvement but, the additional cost is high considering you can get close with one of the Mojo Audio DACs, including the Z NC that, with the current sale pricing, is just over half the list price of the Helene.  I have no idea what further improvements beyond the Helene could be heard from DACs at even higher prices of $30K+ like the dCS Rossini APEX, EMM Labs DV2i, Totaldac d1-sublime, MSB Premier, or others, because I haven’t heard any of them.

Quite the in-depth review from @mitch2. Well done, Sir. 

I remain enamored with my new Z NC after maybe 80hrs of critical listening. It’s a very nice step up from my previous X’24 NC. The sounds are beautiful.

I’ve arranged to demo a Z Quantum soon. How can I ignore the possibility of more? I am as guilty as anyone of seemingly endless curiosity about “more”. I have mixed feelings about this problem that many of us share. My therapist would certainly disapprove. 

@mitch2  - Thank you for your reply!  No worries about not wanting to do the videos... I understand.  

I appreciate you sharing your add'l thoughts.  I especially liked your analogy of  stepping "half the distance to the wall".

Thanks again for your efforts and describing both the similarities and differences between all the various dac's in this thread.

Wishing you a very Happy Holiday Season,

Don

Mojo Audio Mystique Z Q DAC

I have spent days now going back and forth listening to the Mystique Z NC and the Mystique Z Q DACs by Mojo Audio. As discussed in my review of the Mojo Audio Mystique Z NC, my set-up allows me to switch instantaneously between the two DACs by pushing just one button on my remote, which changes my preamp input. Since both Mojo Audio DACs have the same output voltage, there was no level matching or other shenanigans required, just push the one button to switch back and forth between the two DACs, on the fly.

As much as I wanted to report here that I found the Mystique Z Q to be a runaway winner compared to the Z NC, it didn’t quite work out that way. The two DACs sounded quite similar to me, which should not be particularly surprising since the Mystique Z NC and Mystique Z Q are the exact same DAC, except that the Z Q contains Bybee Quantum Purifiers installed in strategic locations. My understanding is that Bybee AC purifiers replace the medical grade AC input filter, and Bybee "Gold Slipstream Quantum Purifiers" are located between the output stage and the output connectors.

The good news is that, during my focused listening, I did perceive improvements resulting from the Bybee purifiers in the Z Q. I heard the Mystique Z Q to be overall a little bit smoother (more relaxed) and more organically textured than the Z NC. I heard better defined bass texture and smoother high frequencies, i.e., more shimmer than splash on cymbals. These types of improvements indicate the Bybee’s must be lowering the noise floor and improving resolution. Benjamin told me, in addition to what I heard, he also finds the Z Q to have a more effortless, faster, and less restricted transient quality, and I would not argue.

In my system, the Mystique Z NC sounded great so this is not a case of fixing or substantially upgrading the Z NC, but rather refining and improving an already very good sounding product. While I heard the improvements described above, the two DACs sounded close enough that without the ability to perform a sighted direct A/B comparison I may have struggled to identify which of them were playing. My previous experience with adding Bybee purifiers to AC components and speakers indicates I may be less sensitive to hearing the effects of Bybee products than some other listeners. In this case, I believe the Bybee’s are having a positive but subtle effect, at least to my ears. I have heard from others that the Bybee’s are likely to improve over time, so the sound of the Z Q should only get better.

I will not make value decisions for others but, between the two, I would choose the Mystique Z Q and know that I have the best DAC currently manufactured by Mojo Audio, even if the sound quality of their second-best DAC is close to the flagship. Of course, others may choose differently. The good news is that either way, you end up with a really nice sounding DAC and the best of the Mojo Audio DACs I have heard.