@Fernando_Pereira Sounds like Chords are not only (IMHO) extremely ugly but also very badly engineered then.
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You forgot overpriced
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Doesnāt that go without saying for pretty much any āaudiophileā brand?
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They come with these lovely multi-color LEDs.
brilliant idea, nevertheless I would like have a cleaner (less wiring) setupā¦ Just watched the new Orange Pi 5 with M.2 NVME slot for SSD. overkilled?
Not sure what you are referring to, I didnāt discuss any Chord gear on this threadā¦
Person you were replying to was complaining about getting noise into his Chords over USB, and you suggested using some USB trinkets. Which help (if at all) only on very badly designed DACs.
Mmmm, yeah, something like that.
They almost (almost) make dāAgostino gear look attractive.
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I donāt know about āvery badly designed,ā Iām familiar with a wide range of DACs and their robustness to electrically noisy USB inputs is not well correlated with their other qualities.
Depends on how you look at itā¦ DACās job is taking the input (the ādigitalā part of it) and producing analog representation of the ādigitsā. If it is badly affected by whatever noise is inherent to anything that has moving electrons in it, I would say that it is badly designed. Especially when there are many DACs (often priced at a fraction of what those with other qualities are) that have no problem with it. Really, it has been a solved problem for many years now and can be handled by any competent engineer.
Itās like arguing whether some beautiful Italian sports car that spends 50% of the time in the repair shop is designed well or notā¦ Sure, itās nice to look at, and drives nice, but making a reasonably dependable vehicle isnāt exactly black magic either, and being driveable is carās primary purposeā¦
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@Fernando_Pereira I was reading USB output electrical noise on Rpi 4
As I mentioned earlier in my post (as OP) that I am getting a RPi 4 to setup 7" touch screen network streamer (side by side with my CXN V2) , I hope the USB output of RPi 4 is cleaner than Intel NUC (as my previous hissing issue). worse case, I will have my iFi iPurifier 3 installed at the external DAC (D90) USB input fed from RPi4. So I need not and not intend to buy HAT on the RPi4.
What do you think Fernando? Thanks
Iād start with Pi 4 direct USB to DAC, and only change anything if you notice any noise. Pi 4s are pretty good in my experience. Iād not consider a HAT for the Pi4 with a modern DAC like the D90. Itās unlikely that the HAT conversion from internal I2S to S/PDIF will be noticeably better in any respect than what goes on inside the D90 going from USB to I2S.
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Right and thanks. Thatās align with my thought too as I see the RPi4 Ethernet port and USB port are now separately processed compare to RPi3, USB output 3.0 or 2.0 should be less noisy, some said USB 2.0 (480bit/s) could be better ?
Do make all your judgments only on appearance ? 
No, but if it is that ugly, itād better be extraordinarily good and well-made.
Which they are not.
What is your experience with Qutest that you donāt like them technically ?
Qutest specifically isnāt bad. At 1/10th the price it would be a a pretty good deal, apart from having that Chord look and ergonomics (or lack thereof). At $2K+ it isnāt, when you can get a better looking (granted, thatās subjective) complete system for that money) that sounds (objectively) indistinguishable.
And if it needs a USB filter to work well, then itās also badly designed.
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What a nonsense analysis 