Six DAC Comparison

Hi,

I've had the Mojo Evo Pro for a long time, and although when I got it I thought it would be my endgame DAC (haha, right), over time I developed a little bit of a frustration with it. It was dense and thick and lush while also detailed. But...I developed the feeling that there was still something there between me and the music. One last remaining thin veil, if you will. 

I've always been a little bit of a detail/treble-head, and I decided it was probably my declining hearing now that I'm 52. I just couldn't pick up all the detail that I had loved so much before. Ah well, age sucks. 

Then, a couple weeks ago, I got my Mystique Z Quantum, and it kinda blew my mind. My first thought was, this thing is FAST. It's hard to explain to people how a DAC can be fast or slow, but I hope people here at least can understand. For a moment on that first day, I thought to myself, Did I turn up the playback speed by a few percent somehow? 

It also brought an incredible level of DETAIL. I had thought that my days of wallowing in glorious amounts of detail were behind me, but there it was again. (That does make me wonder, what would this DAC have sounded like before my hearing started to decline? Alas I'll never know.) But it's not fatiguing. I can (and do) listen for hours. Actually, that's not quite true: on the first day I thought it was just a little harsh. I was ready to borrow a solid state amp from a friend of mine so I could burn it in 24 hours a day until it smoothed out. But, the next day, I didn't feel like that at all. Yeah, it will certainly smooth out somewhat over the next few hundred hours or so, but now I don't feel like I need to rush that process. I enjoy it immensely as it is, and I will enjoy the process of it breaking in over time. I think my brain/auditory system just wasn't accustomed to receiving that much information, and it needed a night's sleep to get used to it. 

In the end, the Mystique Z just feels like that last remaining veil between me and the music has been lifted. Now it's right there. Nothing in between. In the past whenever I've upgraded something in my system I've enjoyed the process of going back and listening to all my favorites, to hear a better, improved interpretation of the recording. That is true to some extent with the Z, but it doesn't feel like a "better interpretation," it just feels like how the music was meant to sound all along. My system just wasn't capable of putting out that sound. Now it is. 

In the end, while the Evo Pro had a certain signature (the lushness and depth, at the expense of what I realize now was a little sluggishness), the Mystique Z doesn't really have a signature at all. Somewhere Benjamin Zwickel said that it's more "emotional" than his previous models, but I don't actually think that's true. It's neither "emotional" nor "clinical." It's just a perfectly polished lens onto the sound. 

@zachawry - I am glad you are enjoying your Mystique ZQ, and I am not surprised!  Leave it powered up and you should hear the same great sound whenever you decide to play your system.

I’ve had my Mystique ZQ for around a month with 40-50hrs critical listening. I’m very happy with it. Starting with the very familiar Mystique sound I had with my X’24 NC I stepped up to a Z NC and immediately heard the difference in definition and space and articulation especially in the natural reverb and harmonics of acoustic instruments. I’d quantify that as a 5% step up for me toward nirvana in my system and room. Going from the Z NC to ZQ gave me another 5% of the magic wand. 
 

Of particular note is that I can clearly discern fine musical details and have full range enjoyment at lower volumes with the Z line. Briefly, I hooked my X NC back up and immediately heard the loss. I’m set for quite a while now. No doubt Benjamin will improve the flux capacitor again soon and we’ll all wonder about “more”. It’s a very tough cycle. 

@zachawry 

Funny how we all use different adjectives to mean the same thing.

What Zach is calling "sluggish" as opposed to "fast" is what gives the music more correct time and tune.

And that "correctness" as you put it is what my ear is calling "emotional expression."

So we're actually saying the same thing with different words. 

@mfisher702 

We upgraded the flux capacitors with unobtainium in our Z so I wouldn't be expecting there to be any real change until we incorporate dark matter. 

But seriously...

Our plan for 2026 is a new chassis for all of our products, both our Mystique Z DACs and our new Illuminati v5 power supplies. 

Sad to say the local machine shop we've been using has gotten progressively more unreliable and more expensive over the years so we're going back to a chassis company we used from the East Coast.

The only reason we stopped using this company back in 2012 was they had a fire in their factory and were unable to make chassis for about a year. By then we had local shops doing our chassis for us.

One big difference will be silver and black anodized face plates.

We won't be able to have the machined 3D "Mystique" on these anodized face plates but they will be a nice fine even grained anodized aluminum finish like many other manufacturers use. 

We're still debating on if we want to do a laser etched or printed "Mystique" on the face plate. We'll have to see what the prototypes look like.

Any opinions out there as to Mojo moving away from our current face plates and moving toward silver and black anodized face plates?

Our next DAC project, ETA 2027, will be a fully balanced, dual mono, class A, preamp DAC.

This will be a joint project between Mojo Audio and Staccato.

Staccato is going to adapt the stepped attenuator, input selection, and remote control logic circuit, from their BU-1 integrated amplifier to one of our DACs.

And we're hoping that they'll design and manufacture a 100% discrete output stage for us rather than us using a half a dozen of their class A op amp modules.

We're the US distributor for Staccato and we'll be exhibiting with Staccato at AXPONA in April (room #360).

So Jakub and I will have plenty of time to flesh out this project :^)

I've just finished reading through this thread and decided to make an Audiogon account to thank @mitch2 and @fuzzbutt17 for the really invaluable posts and to be notified when there are new posts here.

Also, since @fuzzbutt17 is looking for opinions on new face plates, I figured I'd throw in my thoughts. The thing I don't like about the look of the current Mojo DACs is the large "Mystique" in papyrus font on the face plate, so this seems like a great opportunity to move to a cleaner design. I quite like the more minimalist design of Merason and Schiit DACs, so I would vote for "Mystique" to either be smaller and in a cleaner font on the front, or just not have anything at all on the face plate and have Mystique only on the back. Silver and black anodized on its own looks very nice.

My current DAC is the Merason Frerot with the Pow1 LPS. When I upgrade, it'll either be to a Merason Reuss or Mojo Mystique Y (barring any new Mojo models). This is for a desktop headphone setup so I care a bit more about aesthetics since it's on my desk staring back at me haha. If Mojo were to create a stripped down version of the Mystique Z Q with just a USB input like the Y, and with a new chassis, it would make my upgrade choice a no brainer.