The only reason to invest in a high calibre DAC like this is to extract more detail from your digital recordings - and there's no question that the Qutest succeeds in that regard as it lifted a veil on David Bowie's Diamond Dogs (a Japanese SHM-CD release).ĭuring the opening of Future Legend, just before the band crash in the album's title track, we found ourselves able to isolate hubbub in the faux crowd that we've not pinpointed before in umpteen listens. Once powered, the Qutest goes through a short initialization routine, and then you're good to go. Thankfully, despite its high-end aspirations, there's really not much involved in setting up. The brightness of its LEDs can be altered between 'high' and 'low' by pressing the 'filter' and 'input' buttons simultaneously just as well, as in a dark room it's as festive as a Christmas tree. Input selection is also color coded, with the polycarbonate input selection button glowing white for USB, yellow and red for the two BNC coaxials, and green for optical. This rainbow interface may look fun but it's not particularly intuitive. Red indicates 44.1kHz PCM data, with colors cycling as the sample rate rises. Up top is a glass porthole with a color coded sample rate indicator. Rather compact, the Qutest measures a convenient 41 x 160 x 72mm (H/W/D) and features a beautiful brushed aluminium case, with characteristic Infinity Stone-style LED selectors. It's expensive, certainly, but as it mirrors tech found in the brand's step-up Hugo 2 which sells for twice as much, it can genuinely be construed as one of the best bargains in high-end audio. The Qutest can be found at the higher end of the DAC market, and as part of Chord's Hugo range is a direct replacement for the 2Cute. This is because the company doesn't buy off-the-shelf solutions it designs its own from the ground up. UK Hi-Fi outfit Chord Electronics is renowned for its innovative DACs. The majority sound perfectly adequate, but there can be big sonic gains to be had when using a standalone DAC purpose built to restore digital music to something akin to its original analogue waveform. While DACs are commonplace - you'll find them in any digital audio device with an analogue output - most aren't up to the challenge of procuring the best audio.

If you want to make the most of your digital music collection, it makes sense to invest in a decent DAC (Digital Analogue Converter).

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