New Mojo Mystique X

“Taste is first and foremost distaste, disgust and visceral intolerance of the taste of others.”
― Pierre Bourdieu

This thread makes me wonder how much of our experience of hifi is affected by non-musical factors, including intangibles that go to audiophile identity. Some call this pride of ownership, which is distinct but very much related. Why are some audiophiles drawn to boutique manufacturers with whom they can have a direct relationship? Or even larger companies that have a distinct identity (Naim, to name a classic example).

These affiliations can veer into the (overly) emotional/tribal, as if I'm watching a Celtics fan yelling at a Lakers fan for having the audacity to be born in L.A. (e.g., folks who vehemently defend a certain brand...your hifi isn't, or shouldn't be, your identity, man. Let's face it, it's usually men who are like this). Not saying Mojo owners in this thread have been like that, but there's been a little flavor of defensiveness. A certain disappointment or at least disbelief that someone might have different taste.

Mojo, in this thread and on the website, have laid out their mission statement -- what they value in a good DAC. It's an attractive philosophy and one that many, including myself, share. I don't know if they execute well on the philosophy, but I like the philosophy. So when I hear a DAC built by someone that shares my approach to hifi...does that make me more inclined to like it? Because it's validation, an affirmation of my identity as an audiophile -- I'm a music-first audiophile, not one of those folks obsessed with gear, etc.

@longinc Thx for the comments. I haven't heard anyone describe a BorderPatrol DAC or a totaldac as analytical before....you're off your rocker. I'm kidding to make a point. I had a very different experience from yours but again, it all goes to how subjective sonic impressions are, and how precarious system-matching can be.

@lemonhaze for sure (happy to help). if you have more questions, feel free to post here or send me a message. One point you made about "fixation with details" - respectfully, I take a slightly different view on that. I actually think "details" and a resolving system are great things. I think that if you can extract as much details from the source (assuming it’s a decent recording) and those details are conveyed with the "right timing and coherence", the "details" sound enjoyable and better conveys the intent of the musician(s) and you are able to better follow the nuances and tune of the music. (btw, i am not referring to hearing the side chatter in a live jazz bar recording - that type of detail can be a little distracting at least to me:) ) An analogy I like to think of is, if details were all that bad, then most people won’t likely enjoy a live performance. when we sit in front of a group of musicians we hear all the details in their glory (we hear the interplay between the musicians, the energy each musician is bringing into the musical mix, the timbral accuracy/richness of instruments/voices etc). Anyways, my 2 cents, but take it with a grain of salt since we all hear differently.

@metaldetektor i think you grossly misinterpreted/misread my comments about the BorderPatrol (BP) and TotalDac DACs. You haven’t heard anyone describe them as analytical and I didn’t describe them as analytical. They are far from "analytical". In fact, I would say quite the opposite. Quoting from my previous post "Although these previous DAC’s had moments of "pop" and "excitement", but in the back of mind, those moments always felt exaggerated." - this is not a suggestion of the DACs being analytical. What I was saying is that they try to convey "emotion"/"drama" but at times in an exaggerated way (at least to my ears) especially the TotalDac. Not saying good or bad, and for some music lovers/audiophiles this exaggerated drama is awesome (no judgement there). The BP smooths over the digital edge and conveys a sense of "analog smoothness" at some expense of good details, imho. Perhaps you might have inferred "analytical" when I wrote "When I added the EVO into the setup, I (finally) started to enjoy and listen and move to the music, and stopped thinking about and analyzing the sound." - this again was not to suggest the other DACs were analytical, what i was hoping to convey, was that with the EVO getting "timing", "coherence" and "timbre" so right that I just enjoyed the music and I didn’t have to fall back to analyzing the usual audiophile attributes to "justify" the purchase.

Your point about buying for a variety of reasons. I agree with that. And, in this hobby i think that’s even more pronounced for the simple logistical reality that we can’t just "walk into a Best Buy" and audition all of these products at the same time (and not everyone has the time or opportunity to attend an audio show) and to make a purchase decision based solely on which sounds best to us. So we make a purchase decision that includes other factors (e.g. the designer’s approach, what reviews say, the brand has "Mojo" in it - kidding on this last one) . But where I disagree with you is the suggestion of "defensiveness" coming from owners on this thread. You have past/current owners offering their (positive/negative) opinions. And for the negative, i think the designer is entitled to respond to explain his design and voicing philosophy - in fact, given we buy for a variety of reasons, i actually appreciate a strong POV from the designer. Then you have the other posts, from posters who have NOT heard the product and are making assertions about the product, I would expect its quite natural for those who have heard the product to "jump on" those posts to offer a counter opinion based on their experience(s) of the product or to ask for more context from the poster. On one hand, you celebrate the diverse views of this thread/forum, but you are quick to "label" some of these responses as "owner defensiveness". Aren’t you (perhaps inadvertently) curbing diverse voices by negatively labeling some of these owner responses?

Photos of our new 100% machined chassis are now up on our website:

https://www.mojo-audio.com/mystique-evo-pro-21-d-a-converter/

Our next gen EVO63 will use a similar chassis.

Later today I’ll post a spread sheet to address any questions some of you may have as to the differences between the Mystique X and the X SE.
I understand how it can be a bit confusing.

I want to thank you Branisalv for pointing out that there was some confusion as to the differences between the X and X SE models.

I was considering a spread sheet to clear things up but opted for highlighting the bullet pointed features list already at the bottom of the X SE product page.

I added "UPGRADED:" in front of each item which was upgraded compared to the entry-level X model.

Another thing to note is there are upgrade options on the X model. Each of those come standard on the X SE model as well as a few things you can only get with the X SE model.

For future reference Branislav, if you want know the differences between different models, go to the bullet point features list at the bottom of each product page.

Easy peasy.

For those who falsely stated that our DACs have a high noise floor, I suggest you don’t embarrass yourself any further.

Between the discrete AC input filtering, LC choke-input power supplies, massive 4-pole main capacitors, and 16X Belleson SPX ultralow-noise ultrahigh-dynamic discrete regulators, our noise floor and the speed of our power supplies are among the lowest and fastest in the industry. Well below -127dB and 0 to full current output in less than 10uS.

For those of you who don’t know what -127dB means, you would have to play your music at a volume 127dB above the noise floor in your room to hear it. And that would be a volume which would cause permanent hearing loss.

Similarly, the comments about "slow...syrupy...smoothed over details" and the like are exactly the opposite. Our DACs are so much faster and more detailed than most they allow the harmonic structure to perfectly align and the voices and instruments to blend and interact.

I could see how all of those never before heard harmonics and spacial cues could appear to be noise or slow and syrupy sound on a system which is not capable of reproducing them. And how a person would need a larger than life sounding DAC to bring a bit of life to a lifeless system.

Interesting how all the people who criticized the Mojo Audio sound listen to electronic rather than acoustic music. I’ve never read any comments on how violins or piano or horns sound off in some way. Only electronic music.

My guess is those guys don’t realize how many "voicing" decisions they made when they set up their system and that they were compensating for the harsher, harder, more digititus sound from former larger than life sounding DACs.

Think about it: if a system is voiced to sound tonally balanced with a DAC that has a larger than life sound, then wouldn’t it sound relatively slow or syrupy if you replaced that DAC with one that sounded natural and neutral?

And for those of you who don’t want to learn something and Google things like "amorphous core chokes" or "Silicon Carbide Shottky diodes" or the dozens of other highly specific technical terms I use in the descriptions of our products, I have an easy solution. Simply assume that if I made a point to mention it, that it is notably better and more expensive than what most of our competitors are using.

Of course I could always do what most of our competitors do and sell cheap parts that are not worth mentioning in a fancy chassis and then put total BS in my marketing rhetoric to confuse and sway the uneducated consumer :^P

But I’ve always found the educated consumer is my best customer.

Folks, I’ve been enjoying this thread and everyone’s descriptions of what they hope for from a DAC.

Unfortunately this statement below from Benjamin is not really correct:

Harmonic coherency is the mathematical alignment of all frequencies. When a note is struck it has harmonics at twice the frequency and half the amplitude going up to infinity. Alignment of the bass, mid, and high frequency harmonics is essential for music to have an organic character.

Yes indeed, instruments produce harmonics at APPROXIMATE multiples of the fundamental, but rarely exactly. These differences are a part of what differentiates the sound of various instruments. For example, in stringed instruments the stiffness of the strings causes the harmonics to be slightly off of perfect multiples. This is called “inharmonicity” and makes music interesting.

If a DAC forces the harmonics to be exact multiples of the fundamental, the music will be homogenized and lack true realistic character.

Therefore a DAC that accurately recreates the true sound of the instruments, will allow your ears to detect those subtle differences, and your ability to identify the individual instruments. This is part of what I interpret to be the “layers” we hear in well reproduced music, and this is a big part of what I enjoy about listening to music. Being able to differentiate these nuances is not "special effects" and not "attractive distortion."

I hope Benjamin’s DACs do not force harmonics to be exact multiples of fundamentals, but if they do that would NOT be a good thing for accurate reproduction.