Chord Mojo 2: power output and what it will drive

The Chord Mojo 2 is a portable amplifier at $650. It delivers 564 mW into 32Ω and 90 mW into 300Ω, which ranks it 101 of 280 for raw power among the sources in this database.

Measured at 100 dB SPL it has comfortable headroom on 553 of the 567 dynamic and planar headphones catalogued here, enough but not generous on 12, only marginal on 1 and not enough power for 1. Power is published at 30Ω, 300Ω; the rest of the table is derived from those figures.

The manufacturer publishes 600 mW into 30Ω, 90 mW into 300Ω. The rest of the table is worked out from those.

Derived rows hold output voltage steady, as an amplifier does (method).

Source: chordelectronics.co.uk, chordelectronics.co.uk.

Easiest to hardest to drive, with headroom at a 100 dB SPL peak.

At 2.7 µV of output noise, here is where that noise lands in the five most revealing in-ears in the database.

This one hisses. With the most sensitive in-ears in the database its own noise lands around 30 dB SPL, which you will hear between tracks and in quiet passages.

At 0.06Ω output impedance this source satisfies the one-eighth rule with every headphone in the database, down to the 3Ω in-ears. Nothing here will have its frequency response shaped by the source.

Check any pair.

Of the 280 sources here, 10 do everything the Chord Mojo 2 does as a headphone output: reach 100 dB on every headphone it reaches, stay inside the one-eighth rule wherever it does and stay under the audible-hiss threshold wherever it does. The cheapest of them is the Schiit Magni Unity at $119, against this one’s $650 — $531 less, and a desktop amplifier rather than a portable amplifier.

This counts the headphone output only; inputs, converters, the volume control and the build are outside it.

Compared with its closest rivals: vs Chord Hugo 2 · vs FiiO Q15 · vs FiiO Q7 · vs iFi xDSD Gryphon · vs Shanling H7.

Compare any two or match your own headphones. Every Chord source here.