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Hi All,
A little background. I purchased a Chord Qutest in late 2018 and it worked famously for my needs until mid 2020 when it failed with a motor-boating sound and diminished volume no matter the input selection. I contacted Chord UK and they asked me to send it to George Meyer repair in California for which, Chord authorized and paid for the repair work. The main board was replaced and the unit returned to me.
I then ran the Qutest (it's powered on 24/7/365 unless we're gone for extended periods or thunder storms are eminent then the whole system is unplugged from mains power) until Oct 2024 when the same issue arose (motor-boating and diminished volume no matter the input selection) so I contacted George Meyer once again and sent it in for repair. Same diagnosis, main board needed to be replaced. This time it cost me just under $800 all in.
This got me to thinking..."what am I doing to this thing?"...over heating, maybe.? It had been sitting atop my cable TV box on the top of my gear rack and noticed that it does get a little warm, not hot by any means. So, when this second repaired effort came back, I relocated the Qutest adjacent to the cable TV box and elevated it on two of those HVAC cork/rubber isolation squares (standing on edge) to raise the Qutest so it had 2" of air beneath it. That solved any kind of heat issues and the Qutest ran at room temperature since Oct 2024....until just recently.
Today I went to listen to some tunes and found that once again the Qutest is exhibiting that "motor-boating and diminished volume no matter the input selection" behavior. I'm baffled. Do I send it back in for a third, $800 repair? Do I go buy a different Qutest (because I really love the sound and flexibility it brings to the system as a whole between adjustable gain, adjustable EQ curves and the input type options) or do I throw in the towel and go find something else that will be it's equal to my ears and connection needs?
I can't really justify spending more than $2500 on a DAC at this point. Wondering what to do...
Your thoughts?
Thanks,
Mike
A little background. I purchased a Chord Qutest in late 2018 and it worked famously for my needs until mid 2020 when it failed with a motor-boating sound and diminished volume no matter the input selection. I contacted Chord UK and they asked me to send it to George Meyer repair in California for which, Chord authorized and paid for the repair work. The main board was replaced and the unit returned to me.
I then ran the Qutest (it's powered on 24/7/365 unless we're gone for extended periods or thunder storms are eminent then the whole system is unplugged from mains power) until Oct 2024 when the same issue arose (motor-boating and diminished volume no matter the input selection) so I contacted George Meyer once again and sent it in for repair. Same diagnosis, main board needed to be replaced. This time it cost me just under $800 all in.
This got me to thinking..."what am I doing to this thing?"...over heating, maybe.? It had been sitting atop my cable TV box on the top of my gear rack and noticed that it does get a little warm, not hot by any means. So, when this second repaired effort came back, I relocated the Qutest adjacent to the cable TV box and elevated it on two of those HVAC cork/rubber isolation squares (standing on edge) to raise the Qutest so it had 2" of air beneath it. That solved any kind of heat issues and the Qutest ran at room temperature since Oct 2024....until just recently.
Today I went to listen to some tunes and found that once again the Qutest is exhibiting that "motor-boating and diminished volume no matter the input selection" behavior. I'm baffled. Do I send it back in for a third, $800 repair? Do I go buy a different Qutest (because I really love the sound and flexibility it brings to the system as a whole between adjustable gain, adjustable EQ curves and the input type options) or do I throw in the towel and go find something else that will be it's equal to my ears and connection needs?
I can't really justify spending more than $2500 on a DAC at this point. Wondering what to do...
Your thoughts?
Thanks,
Mike
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