Well I said the Mojo is not un-musical but relative to some of the competition I need to revisit the meaning of this statement. So I kept on listening to music via the Mojo - and listening and listening. The balance of bass did not improve sadly and in fact 'appeared' to worsen in the sense that once I got over being impressed by the separation and detail I increasingly found the presentation tiring and ultimately a little too slow and Hi - Fi.
I still wanted a portable solution so had also bought the Fiio x3 sg on recommendation. Well the Fiio certainly shed some qualitative light on the Mojo's failings. The Fiio is certainly a little over warm for my tastes (this is all getting a bit Goldilocks) but undoubtedly sets the music straight as far as cohesive rhythmic presentation is concerned - and is therefore both engaging and non tiring over time. At present I only have an old pair of Grado 60's to check out the headphone output on both devices. I was barely getting through a track with the Mojo but with the Fiio X3 sg found that I was actually enjoying music. It flows so much better both through a very good Hi Fi set up and more basic cans and clearly has the better dynamic range - at least in the lower registers which are presented as tuneful and with reasonable grip.
My 11 year old son who is a musician and records as a singer with an internationally recognised symphony orchestra put it best. He said:
1. The Fiio costs £159 compared to £399 for the Mojo.
2. It's smaller.
3. It requires less wasteful fiddling around with computers.
4. It simply sounds better.
Well there you have it - for us at least, another well touted but ultimately unsatisfying piece of Hi - res flummery bites the dust.
Does anyone have a good recommendation for good cans or in ears to go with the Fiio?
Still wish Rega would design a portable hi -res player dac amp.