CHORD POLY/MOJO
Some of the best things in life come in pairs that complement each other perfectly – fish and chips, for example, or wine and cheese.
You can add to that list the Chord Mojo and Chord Poly, a DAC and network streaming solution we could describe as a match made in hi-fi heaven.
If you already own the What Hi-fi? Award-winning Chord Mojo DAC (£400), adding the dedicated Poly streaming module will bring to your Mojo the likes of DLNA, Airplay, Bluetooth and microsd card playback.
The Poly is designed to work exclusively with the Mojo, and cannot be used with any other DAC, but this pairing brings a network streaming solution that’s a force to be reckoned with.
Disconnected from the Mojo, the Poly is about the size of a typical vintage cigarette lighter. When the two are attached, their combined size is closer to that of a small hipflask.
So considering music streamers such as the £799 Cambridge CXN (see p35) have full-width chassis, text displays and the like, you may initially feel shortchanged by the Poly in your palm.
Portability plus compatibility
It’s certainly portable – which, of course, is one of the Poly’s main selling points, and it integrates nicely into the Mojo’s design, slotting into its counterpart’s digital connections.
Those familiar with the Mojo will probably be quite fond of its colourful buttons, which denote power and the sampling rate of the playback file. That still applies when the Poly is connected – so if you stream a 44k.1khz song from your NAS drive over wi-fi, for example, the buttons will glow red. If it’s a 192khz file, they turn blue.
The Poly has a couple of more low-key and functional lights of its own, which denote Mojo pairing, battery life and set-up status.
Twin jacks
At the Mojo’s output end, the twin 3.5mm jacks are ideal for most headphones. To connect to a system, you’ll need a 3.5mm-to-rca cable.
Streaming over Airplay and Bluetooth is simple, and Chord’s Gofigure app (IOS and Android) means you can set-up wi-fi networks and manage settings from your smartphone.
The app is also a gateway to facilitating Bluetooth set-up and playback, enabling Roon operation when using the Poly as an endpoint. It doesn’t take on musicstreaming duties, though, so users will still have to rely on a third-party DLNA server app. We opt for the Androidfriendly Bubbleupnp app on a Google Pixel 3a XL phone. As a streaming app is the basic usability experience of most music streamers, Chord’s omission here is a shame, although some integration of Tidal and Qobuz is possible within the Gofigure app.
There is also an unlimited-capacity microsd card slot for DLNA and local playback, and you can also play music via Roon software on a PC or Mac, enabling Mqa-file streaming and an alternative means of Tidal access.
The Poly doesn’t alter the Mojo’s vast file support, as it’s also capable of handling PCM files (up to a staggering 768khz) as well as DSD256.
Usability is somewhat more laborious than it could be with one does-it-all app, but that niggle seems much less significant once you hear the music. Compared with the Cambridge CXN, the Chord combo is clearly more articulate and rhythmically adept, as becomes clear when we play Biffy Clyro’s Wave Upon Wave Upon Wave. The Mojo and Poly don’t duck out of the meaty riffs, and the guitar thrusts and tripping drum have the desired impact.
The Poly/mojo pairing may not offer quite the expanse of the bigger-sounding CXN, nor perhaps the space upon its stage, but it has plenty of scope and is acutely adept with dynmics . Thelonious Monk’s Locomotive is a mass of jazz, and the Chords capture the arrangement’s density without sounding claustrophobic. We plug our B&W P5 headphones into the Mojo and play Slowdive’s Sugar For The Pill from Tidal over Bluetooth. Take them out of the equation by plugging headphones directly into the smartphone and the performance isn’t anywhere near as clear, solid or detailed.
In short, this duo sounds fantastic. But the Poly is still lacking its own streaming app, as well as a mains-powered option and accessibility to physical inputs. Because of these omissions, Chord’s Poly and Mojo won’t be for everyone.