Welcome to the
Unofficial Rob Watts Wiki
Rob Watts is the legendary designer behind some of the most beloved products in the world of music lovers, including Chord's Mojo, Hugo, Qutest, Hugo TT2 and DAVE, and the Hugo M Scaler and Quartet. Over more than a decade, he has explained his thinking with rare generosity, in thousands of forum posts, talks and interviews. This wiki gathers it all in one place. Every statement comes complete with a link to the original source, so you can see more of what he was talking about in context.
Start with your product
- Hugo (original)Portable DAC49 answers
- Hugo 2Portable DAC62 answers
- Hugo TT2Desktop DAC61 answers
- DAVEDesktop DAC75 answers
- QutestDesktop DAC40 answers
- Mojo (original)Portable DAC31 answers
- Mojo 2Portable DAC57 answers
- Hugo M ScalerUpscaler54 answers
- Quartet M ScalerUpscaler22 answers
- Blu Mk2CD transport / upscaler16 answers
Common questions
- What do the colored indicators mean (volume, sample rate, charging), and is a volume color the same level across Chord DACs?
- Which filter setting should I use on Hugo 2, TT2 or Qutest, and what does the HF filter do?
- What does crossfeed do, which setting should I use, and why didn't the original Mojo have it?
- Which input sounds best on a Chord DAC (optical, coax, USB or BNC), and why does Rob prefer optical when it is said to have more jitter?
- Can I use Hugo, Mojo or Mojo 2 while it is charging, and is it OK to leave it plugged in all the time?
- Do I need the Chord driver on Windows, should I use ASIO or WASAPI, and will my DAC work with Mac, Linux, Android or an iPhone?
- How does desktop mode work on Hugo 2 and Mojo 2, and will Mojo 2 drain on the shelf?
- Is my Chord DAC powerful enough for my headphones?
The debates
What he has said on the long running arguments, dated, including where his view changed.
- Do digital cables (USB, coax, glass or plastic optical) make a sonic difference, and if so through what mechanism?Yes, Watts says digital cables can change the sound, but in his DACs through RF noise, not jitter: in a podcast recorded in October 2025…
- Do Chord DACs decode MQA, and what does Rob think of it?Watts says his DACs do not decode MQA, by his choice.
- Should I upsample in software (HQPlayer, PGGB or my player) before a Chord DAC, and can it match an M Scaler?No. From 2014 to 2024 Watts's advice to owners of his DACs and of the M Scaler is to send bit perfect data and let the Chord filter do the upsampling.
- Does hi-res audio sound better than CD, and should I buy the 96k or the 44.1k release?From 2018 to 2023 Watts repeatedly advised buying the release closest to the original: if the master is 96k, buy the 96k, because he says the…
- Do Chord DACs need burn-in or warm-up?From 2014 to 2022 he said his designs have little or no hardware break-in and put improvement heard over weeks down mainly to the listener…
- Do measurements tell you how good a DAC sounds, and is Rob an objectivist or a subjectivist?Watts has said from 2015 to 2026 that measurements are necessary but do not tell you how good a DAC sounds: in March 2023 he put it as "They tell…
- If the data reaching the DAC is bit perfect, can the source (laptop, phone, streamer, CD transport or network gear) still change the sound?Yes, in Watts's account, but by one route. From 2014 to 2024 he said his DACs remove source jitter, so with bit-perfect data a source can change…
- Will a USB purifier, JitterBug or USB isolator improve my DAVE, TT2 or Hugo?It depends on the product and the date. For the original Hugo in 2014, Watts said isolating USB from a noisy PC helped: an Olimex isolator on the…
- Isn't pre-ringing bad? Why doesn't Chord offer minimum-phase, apodizing or NOS filters, and are NOS DACs really bit perfect?No, in his view, for a DAC's interpolation filter: since 2014 Watts has opposed the industry's emphasis on filters without pre-ringing, and from…
- Why does tap length matter, and why a million taps?Watts's reasoning, stated consistently since 2014, is that sampling theory says an infinite-tap FIR filter with a sinc (Whittaker-Shannon)…