Chord Mojo 2

'Mobile Joy'is ineven more lavish supply in this re-engineered sequel to Chord's game-changing portable DAC

DAC/headphone amp ₹44,990

Few real-world (read: not ludicrously expensive) products can be considered real game-changers in hi-fi, but in 2015 the Chord Mojo burst onto the then-fledgling portable DAC/headphone amplifier scene as one of them, flag in hand and ready to claim territory. The palm-sized device justified its elongated name ('Mobile Joy'), pushing the parameters of what was possible for compact, on-the-go sound quality in the this price domain - so much so that it set the performance benchmark at its level, largely uncontested, right up until it was discontinued in late 2021.

The fittingly named Mojo 2 is the long-anticipated, re-engineered replacement. And while those familiar with Chord's most affordable products will see from this review's accompanying images that the aesthetic hasn't exactly been overhauled for the sequel, significant progress has been made elsewhere to protect its position as the pinnacle of portable DACs.

Sky-high promise

The headline development lies inside the alumii casework and is what Chord is calling the 'UHD DSP', supposedly the world's first lossless digital signal processor. We're seeing the word 'lossless' more than ever in today's digital-savvy world as more software and hardware companies strive towards bit-perfect reproduction of digital music, and here the sky-high promise is customisable digital-to-analog conversion without degrading sound quality.