I went with black for it's better staging and instrument separation😂 Just kidding, it was the colour they had in stock. I'd try to keep them matching if buying multiple parts. I wouldn't bet against someone identifying sonic differences between the colours though!

This has been my experience also, although I've not listened to many ESS based DACs. I've got a little Shanling M6 based on AKM and it is a very involving listen, especially at it's price point. I even preferred it to Mojo 2. (Sacrilege I know😂). It doesn't get a look in against Hugo 2 though!

It seems to me that many manufacturers in all sorts of fields run a product mill that rolls out "new" but much the same as last year's product continually. My feeling is that Chord are to be applauded for their approach to sparse but meaningful upgrades.

It's a good test of how much we enjoy our "system". By system, I mean everything in the chain from the original musician's performance and all the intangibles within that, to the listener's state of mind. In between these are the tangible elements of the recording and playback gear and of course...

Ah, don't you just love the internet😂 . The word "best" and or "better" could so easily be replaced with "preferred" or "my preference". Sonic tastes are not something easily calibrated. We all have different ears and different tastes, not to mention different PSU, amplification, transducers...

Does this happen when running Hugo 2 on a charger? If not, that would point to potential battery issues.

The light changes colour with sampling rate, not bit depth. Red is 44.1KHz, whatever bit depth you input. The colours change as you feed in other sampling rates, so orange at 48KHz green at 96KHz etc. Hope this helps!

Yes, I have not tried others as I am really happy with the sound. I did experiment with the pads and sonically, I prefer the felt. At the risk of being Head-fi executed for heresy, I spend all my listening time enjoying my music:)

Same here, it's a very synergistic pairing!

Just to check, the pads are only felt on the surface that contacts your head. The outside is leather. There should be two types, the all leather ones are slightly thicker and are tapered, so deeper at the rear than the front. The felt pads are a little less deep, felt on the surface that...

I thinks it's going to be down to a mixture of personal preference and partnering equipment to define which sounds better to you. Personally, I prefer the felt pads. They seem to have slightly less but slightly deeper, clearer bass with a little more resolution across the board. Also these...

Hmm, driver going off is going to be a return. The clanking seems to come from some stick/ slip in the hinge mechanisms.

The first thing that springs to mind is the question "is the headphone jack fully inserted?"

I have compared them and I'd say the difference is quite noticeable in the way the different devices render bass and lower mids, with decidedly more resolution of textures with the Hugo 2, vs relativity slightly fuller sounding but less textured and nuanced bass / lower mids from the Mojo 2...

I run white filter on files up to 48KHz, green on everything else. X-PHD off for most modern recordings and anywhere between red and blue on older recordings if I feel they need it. All very subjective!