You don’t have to spend a lot of money, start with a quality hat on the existing Pi and a good power supply and that may be all you need. But you will certainly get more the higher up you go with the source. Just mentioning since you’ve already got a Pi set up.
The chain looks like it well put together, didn’t you you were a fellow DW owner. I had a pair and enjoyed them. They certainly have the fun personality of the Mojo DAC.
My plan was to grab a Pi2AES hat but they’re discontinued. Hopefully I will find one on the used market or an alternative. Some new cables are in my future now that I’m happy with the overall chain. Need to find a better power cord than my generic one for the EVO first lol
I really love the DWs for their fun and engaging qualities
I’m happy for you with the Mojo, the more I’ve read about it the more I feel as if that’s my next step DAC at some point.
Something I’ve been thinking about with this is voltage output of dacs and their associated amp pairings
Does anyone know the output voltage of the mojo dacs? I think it’s a better match into my bigger ben in this case
I dont know the exact rating but i think you could probably find that or get it from Mojo easily.
I feel like i have tended to like “hotter dacs” but i do know, if not for anything but convenience, a lower rating is better for some as even those here have issues with things being too loud or amp volume controls lacking usability or nuance.
Spending the day listening to my Mystique V2 SE in my two channel… and I already miss my WEISS. LOL
I know now that the signature is exactly what I’m looking for but it pales in comparison to the Weiss in both stage presence and detail both micro and macro. It is very organic and I’m enjoying the additional body in the tonality. It really is where I want to go from a signature standpoint but I need to know; Is an upscale Mystique Evo or X going to give me back what I’m missing from the Weiss 502?
@zachzach how’s your long term experience with the Evo Pro 21?
@M0N where do you think the EVO Pro 21 stands from a technical capability when compared to the Weiss? I realize that I don’t want to go backwards and the dCS made the Weiss sounds like a next tier up DAC. I’m hoping it will have the same level of synergy withe the EVO Pro or XSE. The V2SE simply does not cut it.
Similar level to the weiss on it’s own, and I think with the DCS it will really take advantage of that to where it might actually scale more (at least it did from my experience imo)
It’s been great living with the EVO Pro 21 so far! Admittedly I’ve been spinning more vinyl as I had a huge haul of LPs from a recent trip. In this setup, I am using a Rogue Sphinx v3 as a phono which means I have also routed my other sources through that amp for ease of switching. I think I actually prefer the EVO going direct to my main amp…maybe it’s just placebo but I think its sounds better to my ears that way. It less strained and the separation is more pronounced. The tone has remained consistent since day 1 with the stage opening up a bit more over the first few weeks.
I think I was fortunate to find a dac that aligned well with my preferences when I dove into the deeper end of the higher tier dac pool.
I hope the perfect dac for you is a mojo with the bad papyrus font.
I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. But it’s looking more and more as that will be the case.
Get ready to rationalize.
The older style case with the papyrus font was “the” case Ben designed for the EVO. Apparently it took two years as part of the design process as it’s an integral part to start with and takes to the additional noise shielding/dampening better. The reason for the switch was… you guessed it, supply side issues in a Covid world. So yeah, rationalizing already cause you just know what’s coming. 
It also moved to automated manufacturing with the new case. When i was talking with him he said tge X line was long in the works but long term plan was to reqork thr evo pro to be their totl
Yeah even on the reviews and interviews about the X it feels like the X was a happy little accident for them that the improvements to reduce cost and reduce the expense of the casing and weight turned out to be so good especially with the noise reduction and reworked PS that it’s quieter than the EVO and apparently that’s made it more dynamic and revealing still.
I guess the ideal of buying into the EVO is that they should be able to upgrade that whenever the rework happens.
It came down to unknown comparisons. There were few people who had the chance to have both the X and EVO side by side so I went for a conservative choice with the EVO Pro 21.
I’m sure people are quite happy with their X series units but I wanted a sure thing. Form factor could be a consideration since they are quite different in that regard. As far as noise, I’ve have not had an issue thus far. I think other pieces in my chain probably have a higher noise floor so I’m not really seeing the EVOs impact yet with all of it together
I got lucky with the all black look. I believe it was Benjamin’s personal unit he listed as a demo
New and demo products manufactured by Mojo Audio, regardless of who sells them,
come with a transferrable 5-year factory warranty.
I did not know this, nice.
You’ve cursed me. I’m going to have to figure out something so I can live it with. More details shortly.
How do I describe this DAC? The easy way would simply be to point people to @M0N 's Shit list where it sits in the Holy Shit DAC category. His description there is a 100% accurate but it’s not as easy as that. This DAC defies the standards of description at least for someone like me.
It’s made my system the best it’s ever sounded, yes indeed. Some of that is due to it being fed from a very capable source and through a very capable AES cable. Being a guy who’s never been called indecisive, I knew based on conversations and reading that this was the DAC for me. The Weiss although eye opening was not where I wanted to go as the sound of my chain. I say it was eye opening however, because it showed me what a DAC could do and I never wanted to go backwards from that baseline in my system again.
The Mojo is a capable DAC, it’s not technical but it has detail and high end extension. It’s not expansive of stage presence but it has a great stage presentation. The depth of the stage, the instruments in front are more up front the instruments in the rear are further to the rear. It’s not as precise in placement where every instrument is well defined and placed in the stage as the Weiss. It’s not as wide as say at the Lampizator Amber 3 (but then again that felt exaggerated) but the Mojo has stage width. This is the closest I’ve come to feeling the music being tangible and alive in my current system, feeling like I’m in a room where the music is being played rather than a realistic presentation of music being rendered in my room. It’s just not very DAC like, it sound real but there’s a hint of not reality that’s very fun, very musical and very enjoyable, euphonic may be the best way to describe it. It’s like the bit of smoke in a video game that makes things a little hazy but in doing so it enhances the sense of realism.
It’s also surprisingly the first time I’ve “upgraded” but have skipped over less songs. It’s because of the way the DAC plays music for you. That’s it! That’s what this DAC is doing. It’s taking your music and playing it for you in its own style. It doesn’t feel at all like the Weiss, that real true to life sound that’s little clean and direct and you could almost touch it. Here, there’s a little bit of “embellishment” with the Mojo that makes it sound like a performance rather than a piece of equipment that decodes ones and zeros for you.
I’ve taken a massive step up with the combination of the dCS bridge and the Mojo EVO 21 B4B+. The plus is there for a reason, because this is not a PRO as it lacks the Amorphous core chokes in the analog PSUs, the Lundahl ferrous core chokes in the digital PSUs and the advanced shielding. That’s about a $2.5K upgrade when new. It’s got every other optional upgrade though some of the upgrades that were available to the PRO even, so it’s an odd duck. I like the fact that I have two years of guarantee left on it as well.
I wound up getting a real good price, $5100 all in, including shipping. I think the fact that it sat for sale for a month, and the guy really wanted to be rid of it. So for that price, I think I got a steal and I got a set of four Stillpoint feet in the deal as well, so that’s a plus.
That’s it for now, I can’t say anything other than it’s better for me, it’s a richer, certainly warmer sound signature than the Weiss, but it’s much more up front with more meat to the sound. Where I would not call the Weiss lean, this has more weight.
The Weiss is science, the Mojo is magic. It’s hard to describe.
BTW. the Omega’s have scaled to another level with the pairing. I can say with some assurance that I’m done. I’ll have more speakers, but I don’t think I’ll feel the urge to drastically change my chain again.
@Souldriver The Papyrus font is absolutely lovely. 
EDIT: one niggle though and it’s important to share. Maybe because it’s an old DAC technology, I’ve found that I needed to raise the amount of time in Roon when files of different formats/resolutions are played. I had to raise it to .5 second pause when switching otherwise some times the DAC just does not “lock” onto the different format stream. Raising it from 50 milliseconds to 500 milliseconds helped it a lot but it still gets wonky once in a while. Maybe I’ll have to set it to one second even.
Ha! I knew it. This DAC is very appropriate for your chain and especially those speakers. Congratulations and so very wonderful to watch a chain of synergy take place. 
I don’t think (never know for certain) that Mojo is in my future but your writing certainly makes me want to hear one!
Happy for you that you found the upgrades to get you so close to end game.
Enjoy it as much as possible and please continue sharing as you get to know your new chain more
… And please black out that font.
I didnt realise the Evos were so big. I keep seeing them (base models) for not too bad prices, but well i happy with the v2xa, and the big bois dont fit so easily with a bhc, which is probably where mine will eventually stay.
It’s a full chassis but what’s more surprising is how dammed heavy it is. The top of the case is cold rolled steel with a hammered finish and it’s thick and in one piece with only the back panel being part of the chassis. Extremely heavy and vibration resistant and and it’s supposed to have better noise rejection. I can see how this thing think would be expensive AF to make.
The other thing I’m happy about it that it’s got the 2021 series PCB which were an upgrade in construction over the 2020 PCB, stiffer and better noise rejection as well. The EVO is supposed to not be as quiet (noise floor) as other DACs in the price range, but I just don’t have the ears or the speakers to hear that. That’s actually one of the main step forward with the Mystique X series, 5 dB lower noise floor than the EVO.
I’ll listen this weekend with my headphones to see what more I can hear.
