Chord Electronics Qutest DAC, Black

Full Description

2025 Best DAC over £500

2024 Best DAC over £700

2023 Best DAC over £1000

2022 Best DAC £500-£1500

2018-2021 Best DAC £500-£1200

"the Qutest occupies the gap in the pecking order between the Chord Mojo 2 and Chord Hugo 2 as the DAC that lesser rivals look up to at this price mark."

Best Product DAC 2019-2020

"If you want a big, dramatic sound from a compact DAC, this is the one."

AV Forums 2018
Editor's Choice
Best Digital Hi-Fi Product £1000 & Over

"The Qutest might well classify as the most affordable piece of high end equipment you can currently buy. The level of performance that it offers is truly outstanding - nothing less than a perfectly accurate window onto the material you play through it. It supports every format you will need, manages to be a piece of Chord equipment without being bonkers and it carries a price tag that makes many rivals look a little bit foolish. This is a genuine bargain."

Qutest is Chord Electronics ‘pure’ DAC (it does not contain headphone amplification or rechargeable batteries like some of its range stablemates) and is designed to improve sound quality in the home. It is the latest evolution and most affordable standalone DAC, the multi-award-winning 2Qute, which it directly replaces.

Qutest is based on the award-winning proprietary FPGA technology developed for the class-leading Hugo 2 DAC/headphone amp, giving it proven class-leading technical and sonic performance. Perfectly equipped to bring the benefits of digital technology to a wide range of connected devices, it features a galvanically isolated USB-B, optical and coaxial digital input, giving an instant performance upgrade, plus the ability to modernise ageing digital source components.

The Qutest chassis is all-new, too. It has significantly greater mass than its predecessor and has been precision-machined from solid aircraft-grade aluminium billet. The Qutest PCB nestles within a shallow cavity in the solid aluminium chassis, giving the circuit board greater protection within the casework and additional isolation from external vibration compared to previous designs.

Qutest offers Hugo 2’s proprietary user-selectable frequency-shaping filters and input selection controls, available via two fascia-mounted spheres, introducing useful flexibility. It also features RCA analogue outputs for connection to integrated amplifiers, preamps and headphone amps, plus high-resolution dual-data digital inputs for connection to future Chord Electronics products. A further new feature is a user-selectable output voltage available in 1, 2 and 3V RMS outputs for flexible connectivity with a wide range of partnering devices.

Package Contents:

• 1.5m 5v 2a Switching Micro USB Power Supply
• 2m Type A to Type B USB Cable
• Qutest Owners Overview Manual
• Raw Silk Drawstring Bag

Technical Specifications

General Specifications