Chord MOJO Just Got One Hell Of An Upgrade
When Chord Electronics announced the MOJO in 2015, a portable, go-anywhere amp and DAC for your smartphone with practically unrivalled sound quality, everyone took notice. Chord has now moved the goalposts further, yet again.
Thanks to the CES, Las Vegas press releases being pushed through, "Chord Electronics has unveiled Poly, a revolutionary new network module which is set to introduce high-res wireless streaming, SD card and network music playback to Mojo, with both smartphone control and playback £499".
The Poly is a plug'n'play module that partners with MOJO, enabling high-res wireless network music playback, streaming and local SD card playback. Removing the wired link between a phone and the MOJO, Chord says "it allows a world of content to be decoded and played back using Chord’s proprietary DAC technology."
Poly is based on a condensed high-level PC, with data server, DLNA receiver, Wi-Fi hub, Bluetooth module and SD card (using MPD) functionality, and highly sophisticated software. Poly acts as a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth hub and can access music in a number of ways including streaming over Wi-Fi, network storage devices (NAS) and collections stored on SD cards using Mail Player Daemon.
One scenario could even see multiple Mojo/Poly combo's used throughout the home to provide a multi-room streaming playback solution.
Like the Hugo 2 announced today, Poly is compatible with the latest high-resolution-audio file types and supports PCM files up to 768kHz resolution and DSD64 to DSD512 (Octa-DSD).
Here's the kicker! Poly can be controlled with a wide range of music playback apps for both Android and iOS devices, with AirPlay offering additional compatibility and intuitive operation with enabled devices. But where things get interesting is that Poly, according to Chord, integrates with Roon and is Roon Ready. This is a big plus particularly if you did want to build upon a multi-room solution as mentioned prior. Readers with a keen eye will note however, at the time of writing, Chord still remains absent from Roon's listed "partners".
The Chord Electronics MOJO was already a remarkable product earning StereoNET's Outstanding Value award and Best In Class - Portable Amp/DAC awards in 2015. The new addition to the MOJO in the form of Poly just takes MOJO to a whole new level.
Chord Electronics Poly will be available "early 2017" and will sell in the U.K for £499. Local distributor, Radiance Audio Visual has not yet confirmed local pricing.
For the full features and specifications visit the Chord UK page.
Marc Rushton
StereoNET’s Founder and Publisher was born in England and raised on British Hi-Fi before moving to Australia. He developed an early love of music and playing bass guitar before discovering the studio and the other side of the mixing desk. After writing for print magazines, Marc saw the future in digital publishing and founded the first version of StereoNET in 1999.
Posted in: Headphones
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