Mojo Audio thread, Mystique / Deja Vu / Illuminati

Sovrce Gear
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I guess I will say my piece on the Basic Evo to the B4B upgrade since it’s been a week. The feeling is pretty mix right now because I am sad I had a malfunction in my audio chain and lost some of my vintage collection, but this DAC is pretty dang good and it’s one of my big source of enjoyment right now. I will keep it short:

Noticeable Differences In Upgrade:

  • Better Clarity
  • Soundstage sounds like it has been expanded (sounds like a bigger/deeper soundstage to me). Feel like the reverb hits better to me.
  • Able to notice the smaller details a lot easier without critical listening
  • Less bloated bass. I thought it was just the song choice or my headphone pads at first, but it was the DAC upgrade that causes less bloated bass and provides a cleaner bass compared to its previous model Basic Evo
  • Music is just overall more enjoyable (sorry, I don’t know how to describe it, but I just feel more joy listening to the B4B compared to the Basic in the same headphone setup. It could also just be my current mood that is making me feel this way.)

As you notice, I only listed positive traits. That is because the upgrade from Basic Evo to B4B is just the same DAC with the same sound signature, but better lol. I had a lot of changes in my audio chain so it was hard getting accustomed to my current audio chain again to know what equipment is improving what. The more I was testing out my new Vesper pad for my Onkyo A800, I was just thinking, dang this pad is really good, and totally forgot I even upgraded my DAC. Then it hit me, “oh it’s not the pad, this is what the upgraded DAC sounds like”. The B4B Evo has the same sound signature as the Basic, the only difference is that it’s just a better version. So, now I kind of understand why Ben always warns his customer that upgrading is just a diminished return. Ben is probably saying that because people will probably expect something drastically different, like a whole new sound signature. But in reality, his Evo upgrades are just the same sound signature, but better sounding and more enjoyable, which is hard to describe lol. You just got to hear it yourself the differences as hearing is believing.

I also see why you guys really like source equipment. Upgrading source equipment is probably the most satisfying thing in the audio hobby for me. It’s been 8 months and the Onkyo A800 is still my favorite. Upgrading DACs from the Pegasus to the Mojo Audio Mystique Evo Basic to the B4B Evo has always been a satisfying experience. Just being able to hear my favorite headphone just sound better is always a feels-good experience. After each DAC upgrade during the honeymoon phase with my favorite headphone the Onkyo A800, I always go, “(Deep inhale, exhale) phew… that was really good.”

Also, thank you person that shall not be named. I ask him on advice to help convince myself to just go with the Evo B4B over other DAC. The advice I came to conclusion is to go with something you know will love vs chasing something different that you “may” love. Of course, I could always venture into new territory and could be happier, but I rather go with the safer choice of going something I already know I love, but just getting a better version since we are talking about a couple of grand $$$$ choices. I just really enjoy the Mojo Audio house sound, more specifically, the Mystique Evo sound signature. It is just something you cannot put into words on why the Mystique Evo sound signature is so enjoyable. They say a picture says a thousand words, well the Mystique Evo sound will tell you the whole story of why this DAC is just so great.

My next goal is to hear my speaker setup on these, but just not in the mood right now. Super excited to hear speakers with these though since I feel like speakers was the best way for me to hear the improvements since my last DAC upgrade.

Here are the soundtracks I have mostly been listening to since last week. I say I have been really enjoying classical music on this, but every genre feels like a refreshing experience.

It’s my unfinished Testing Sound Track to use at CanJam (both have the same tracks, just one is pure classical):
https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/15625580
https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/15634277

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This place has a bunch of Mojo fanboys. :wink:

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I’d say you are one of the great pillars of the Mojo fanclub. Really enjoy your B4B to Pro Impressions. Enough to convince me to try to go for the final form of the Mystique Evo and go for the Pro upgrade. Bank hurting at the moment, but I know I got to hear the final version of the Mystique Evo one day. Adding that to my bucket list.

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You all have me wanting to go from X to X SE. I think one thing the v2xa did better was the micro detail. I am not sure if the micro was just more forward on the v2xa, or the X is just lacking/nlt the final version of the line that does that better.

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It the white text on the Evo line a sticker or something that can be removed. Ive seem both the b4b and pro with and without the text.

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It’s not a sticker. The text being there just depend on what type of chassis you have. It’s like printed on the chassis.

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Thanks. The text is overpowering. I thought it could be removed with some paint thinner or some other nasty chemicals and folks scrubbed it off.

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Someone mention in this thread or maybe another, don’t remember. But if you dislike the text, you could just put black tape over it and it will hide the text and blend in with the chassis so it isn’t noticeable at first glance.

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Wanted to give this topic a shout since I also have a Mystique EVO Pro 21 and am having some issues with the AES input. I recently picked up an Alpha USB and tried to get it fired up in my system but it doesn’t seem to pass the signal to my Pro.

I bypassed the Alpha and went straight into the Mojo via usb and it worked perfectly. I checked the Alpha USB is functioning by sending an AES signal to my soekris2541, also worked perfectly. My PC does recognize the Alpha USB as a device output in both situations. I used a boomslang AES cable for all of the above.

Could this be another instance of the Mojo being picky? Maybe I’m misunderstanding the differences between the AES type inputs? I was hoping since we had evidence that an Alpha USB was working on another members system I’d have good luck. Any help/advice would be appreciated!

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Hmm, not sure what’s going on here. I have an Alpha USB and a Mystique V3 and it’s worked perfectly for as long as I’ve owned the pairing. (I’ve ever had USB issues plugging directly into my laptop back when I first got the V3, but even that sorted itself out seemingly out of the blue.)

Also, my Mystique V3 has coax, USB, and optical inputs, so I unfortunately can’t speak to AES.

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I had some issues connecting the NS1 streamer to my Mystique Evo B4B 21 when I first got it. I noticed when using my EMM NS1 Streamer using the AES port, it wouldn’t play songs that were below 24bit 96kHz, even songs that were 24bit 48kHz or songs that are 16bit 44.1kHz. I have to upsample in Roon to something like the 176.4 kHz to make to be able to play the songs. After I upsample it, the red light at the front of the DAC goes away and I was able to use the streamer with the DAC like normal using via AES. I never had issues with the other ports, for some reason only giving issues in the AES input. My other devices like the Matrix DDC via AES don’t have issues. But when I check my sound settings for my PC, the lowest was 24 bit 44.1kHz.

You could try upsampling to see if it will play nice with the AES. I am not sure if we are talking about the same issue. My issue was that for some songs under 24bit 96kHz, the DAC wouldn’t play the songs and had a red light in front. It only had issues with my only network streamer via AES. If this is the issue you are having, I hope the above helps!

I had never had issues with the NS1 with the Basic Evo using via AES. I had to upsample for the first time for the B4B 21 when I was using the NS1 with the B4B 21 via AES.

Adding visuals, my Roon look like this now with the NS1 connected to the B4B 21:

image
image924×1496 58.7 KB

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Great context and suggestions from both of you, much appreciated!

I will try to up sample to see if that will at least get the signal through and report back.

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The issue I had was specific to a DCS Bridge, but my Alpha USB not only works but it’s a good fit for it IMO. I’d have to chalk it up to something weird but try all of the above suggestions.

Lastly my issue wasn’t AES per se, it was that AES wouldn’t work consistently with Hi-Res AES into the Mojo. 14/44 worked fine all the time. Anything Hi-Res would be hit or miss and I never got it resolved.

I’d also say that I’ve only gone AES into my Mojo because of a recommendation from @M0N here saying he preferred it so when I bought mine I dove straight to the high end of an AES cable but Coax according to Be is just as good unless you’ve got a very good cable which I do.

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Ah okay, I thought it was more of a generic AES issue.

It’s odd, I’m getting the red input error light for both coax and AES when my Alpha USB is connected via AES while the usb input is clear of errors. I’ve messaged Ben as well to hopefully get some clarity. I wish I had a coax device to test as an input but I don’t have one at the moment nor the cable. I know the Alpha is spdif and not coax RCA so a mismatch sadly. I’d like to keep a DDC in the chain since I’m running direct from a PC but we will see

I’d ideally like to use the boomslang cable since its partially the reason I made the purchase but its null if I cant get it to work.

I was initially just running it off Spotify to do a quick test but opened up my local library from foobar and it still wasn’t working.

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Out of curiosity is this an Alpha DDC issue, or a Mojo issue, or both?

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Weird issue, I’d have no idea, I’ve used that exact combo without issue on my setup. @zachzach you could get a simple bnc to rca adapter and a basic spdif rca cable to test (since the only difference between bnc spdif and coax spdif is the connector for the most part) and see if that changes anything. It’s hard to nail down where the issue might lie without being able to test spdif or test another dac

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Ben got back to me and this is his best guess right now-
“either the S/PDIF decoder chip is bad and neither input will work or that there is some format incompatibility with the USB to AES converter and our DAC.”

Going to order this tonight to hopefully troubleshoot over the weekend.
Alpha USB > spdif rca cable > BNC Male to RCA Female Adaptor > Mojo seem about right? The whole rca vs bnc vs spdif naming gets confusing for me

I did test the Alpha USB on another dac via AES and it worked perfectly. I think I just need to confirm by testing spdif now

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Should go alpha usb > bnc to rca adapter > rca spdif cable > mojo dac

Gotcha, hopefully you can figure out what’s going wrong then

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Small update-

I was able to test the spdif output of the Alpha usb to my EVO and it worked perfectly. I re-tested the AES output and discovered that if I place my hand over the Alpha USB case it will work for a few seconds then cut out to static.

I reached out to the seller to ask how they had it connected in their system for more details. Interesting findings so far. I plan to reach out to Berk and ask if I can/need to send the Alpha USB back for servicing- smaller size would be easier to manage than a dac issue but it is not under a warranty like the EVO.

Edit: Just retested Alpha with another dac and AES is fine there. I moved it further away front the EVO but still have to be in contact with it to work. If I’m in contact with the Alpha USB case now it will play music the entire time until I remove my hand. Not sure if this is a weird electrical interference with the Alpha or if its on the EVO side of things. Maybe I can help solve it through grounding. Really at a loss until I hear back from both manufacturers.

Really wish I had another AES source like a Pi2AES to test, but don’t have one currently

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Sounds like a ground problem on one of the two devices if you can fix it by touching the case.
You might want to try a different outlet, maybe a different AES cable.

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