After setting up Roon I searched for the best way to use Roon and be sort of mobile with my Sennheiser HD 660 S. With mobile I mean having high quality audio that I can move around the house with relative ease. I started out with my iPhone connected to the Chord Mojo. This was not very convenient. The Roon app on iPhone crashes a lot. Moving around a phone connected with two cables to a DAC was quite inconvenient.
On Chord Electronics’ site I saw their Poly, a streaming attachment to their Mojo DAC, is Roon ready. At €599 it is not exactly cheap, but it seemed like just the solution I needed.
So I ordered it and waited… I ordered it at wifimedia.eu and they didn’t have one in stock. Which is fine, it happens, you cannot have every product on the shelf. Unfortunately it was sent to me through DHL, which in my country isn’t exactly trustworthy. I stayed at home all day on a Saturday and they did not show up and then told me on their tracking site I was not at home that day.
When it finally came on Monday. I had to wait another six hours for it to be charged. I then plugged it into the Mojo and set it up through a bit of a clumsy app over bluetooth. I set it to Roon mode, added it to Roon and that was that.
My first impression was that the music now sounded a lot better than when I had the Mojo connected to my phone. Tighter, more balanced, voices sounded more lively and instruments more real. I did have an issue with playing DSD. It stuttered. Not quite sure what I can do about that or what was the cause.
I am not sure how battery life will be. I do not think I will get the play time as advertised by Chord. Time will tell if charging takes too long. The Poly manual states you can charge will listening, but that charging will be slow. I also wonder about how much heat will accumulate playing and charging at the same time.
If you get the Poly also get a case, because dust can get in between where the two connect and it will make sure the Poly and Mojo stay connected. That will set you back another 90 to 100 euros…