The Qutest DAC is designed to improve system sound quality, instantly. It is the latest evolution of our most affordable ‘standalone’ DAC, in other words, one that does not contain a built-in headphone amplifier, like the Mojo 2 and Hugo 2.

The Qutest is What Hi-Fi?’s ‘Best DAC’ 2023 £1,000+ and a What Hi-Fi? ‘Best DAC’ winner every year its inception (2018-2022). It is a proven class-leader and is based on our award-winning proprietary FPGA technology giving it unrivalled technical and sonic performance.

Perfectly equipped to bring the benefits our 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.

The What Hi-Fi? ‘Best DAC’ 2023/24 Qutest is the definitive small audiophile DA convertor.

‘Plays with Audirvāna’ hardware products are certified to play music from Audirvāna software over USB or network with the best level of integration and audio performance.

Materials: Precision machined aluminium casing with polycarbonate  buttons and glass viewing portal. Available only in Jett Black.

Device power supply: 5v 2amp Micro USB

Tap length filter: 49,152 – 10 element Pulse Array design

Connectivity (input): USB Type B (White): 44.1kHz to 768kHz – 16bit to 32bit

2x BNC Coax (Red): 44.1kHz – 384kHz – 16bit to 32bit

1x Dual data mode input (using both BNC coax inputs together): 44.1kHz to 768kHz – 16bit to 32bit

Optical (Green): 44.1kHz to 96kHz – 16bit to 24bit

Connectivity (output): 1x stereo pair of RCA (Left and Right)

PCM support: 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, 352.8kHz, 384kHz, 717.6kHz, and 768kHz. 16 – 32bit

DSD support: Native playback supported. DSD64 (Single) to DSD512 (Octa-DSD)

Variable output: Fixed, but selectable between 3v (blue), 2v (green), and 1v (red) via dual press of ‘Filter’ + ‘Input’ upon startup

Driver support: Driverless with Mac OS X and Linux, driver required for Windows OS

Digital designer: Rob Watts

Mechanical designer: John Franks

Country of manufacture: England

Key Features

Chord Custom FPGA DAC

49,152 Taps

4x Selectable Filters

Selectable Output Voltage

768kHz USB Type B Input

96kHz Optical Input

USB Galvanic Isolation

2x 384kHz BNC Coax Input

1x 768kHz Dual Data Mode Input

1x Stereo RCA Outputs

Supports up to 768kHz PCM

Native DSD 512 (8x) Capable

Solid Aluminium Chassis

Roon tested

Included Accessories

Qutest user manual

Safety instructions

Drawstring bag

5V 2A Switching Micro USB power supply

Type-A USB to Type-B USB cable