AK Jr or Mojo with transport

A question for you who have heard the AK Jr and Mojo: a friend of mine, recently infected with the quality audio bug, lost his AK 100 in an unfortunate drowning incident. He has asked my advice regarding replacement and is considering the AK Jr. I have seen nothing but praise for the Chord Mojo and was wondering if a Mojo with say a Fiio x3 as transport stack would be superior to the AK Jr. He usually uses Shure 846's and is just trying out some full size cans, but is not sure if he will pursue them; the flexibility of the Mojo will be taken into consideration.

Any advice is appreciated as there are no local opportunities to audition the Mojo.

 

Which fiio X3? I have the OG, it stacks well, sounds great, but God damn that UI, it sucks. I'd imagine the newer one would work much better, but don't know as I don't own it. I have the Fiio X1, which is a similar UI as the new X3, but still not the best.

The Jr looks to be better, but I hear it can be sluggish. You may want to check out the new AK70. Looks very nice and I hear it's nowhere near as sluggish as the Jr.

Sorry, I may have misread what you were asking, but leaving that info anyway. I'm not sure how the stack would compare to the Jr. Jr is well received though, as is the Mojo.

The bigger question would be, does he really want to carry a stack around? It gets old real quick, even a small one like mojo X3.

I am guessing, but I'd imagine the Mojo does sound better than the AK Jr. I can't say for sure, perhaps others hear have heard both and can offer their advice. According to hype-fi, mojo can't be beat by anything in its price range and slightly above.

I have the Mojo, and I like it a lot. I haven't used it though because stacking flat out sucks. It's come to the point that the difference I hear is negligible, especially when out and above about.

If he is getting into cans, the added power of the Mojo will come in handy. For the se846, not much is needed, and be careful of hiss. IIRC, people have reported hiss with mojo and the 8's.

 

I use an X3 with Chord Hugo; I compared the Mojo and the Mojo is better value for money. I've not tried the AK Jr in a while but it sure has that angular-accurate AK sound, perhaps you your friend likes this since his 846/AK100 pairing seems a bit merciless for treble. I'd go for the X3/Mojo pairing myself.

Be aware that the 2nd gen X3 shares the coax out socket with the line-out, so you need a special cable to be made up for connecting to the Mojo more than likely, unless you want to use the adaptor Fiio includes with a full size coax cable.

 

Yes, you need a special cable. Has 3 rings going into Fiio and standard on other side.

 

How much is your friend's budget? Can't recommend A&K Jr or Mojo + anything without knowing how much he's willing to spend first.

 

Chord Mojo is fantastic. It is notoriously bad for EMI issues though so won't stack well with anything that has a transmitter.

 

Not entirely true. I have no issues with mine. I believe one of the problems is when a cell phone goes to below 4g speeds it seems to pick up the noise much easier.

I stack it with my Fiio X7, lgv10, and S7 edge, no issues here. Not saying they don't exist, I know they do, just not on all cases.

 

Really? I had horrible EMI issues with my Note 5. So much so that the dealer let me return the Mojo when I brought it in to demonstrate the interference. It was noticeable even when the Mojo and Note 5 were separated by 1.5 feet. And this was in 4G, 3G, and 2G. I actually could hear the differences in transmissions between 4G, 3G, and 2G based on the EMI produced.

 

Really? Odd... Weird how it is so different across the board. On HF, there were members experiencing issues, but it seemed like it happened most of the time when their phones were less than 4g. Your situation is definitely worse, with the phone being 1.5 feet away, that's pretty damn bad. I'm not normally one to say this, but maybe a faulty unit?

Regardless, I have no issues with mine at all fortunately.

 

Yeah, it may have been faulty. Could also be it's more susceptible to the frequency bands we use in NZ.

 

That could be true as well, didn't think that. Like every other American, I think everyone is in the USA. Lol.

 

I've auditioned, at length, the entire AK line at this point.

Also, I own an original AK120, which I use a transport with the Mojo.

Mojo obliterates them all in terms of both DAC and amp performance.

Even the much-vaunted 380-Cu and amp (with "Louis Armstrong" approved case) falls short of the Mojo.

I'll take an AQ DFR with my iPhone over any of the AK players at this point, at least into my SE846, which the AK units fair especially poorly with.

 

Thanks for the advice- went Mojo with transport!