[maserluv]

I Can't WAIT for your REVIEW Man!!!

Lucky Chap!

Regards Wayne

I'll be able to test the Hugo2 with the Mojo and the DAVE when the Hugo2 arrives for the Canadian tour. Should be interesting comparing the filters on the Hugo2 to the actual devices.

 

[joeexp]

   
Yes, great idea,, they could start by comparing Mojo vs Hugo. I suggest they check them with all permutations, such as PC, Mac, hard drive running, hard drive off, solid state hard drive, dedicated music server from brand a, b, c...z, DAP from brand X, Y and Z, cable from various manufacturers, extra power supply from brand a, b or c, data purifiers and reclockers, singly and daisy chained, jitterbug, etc. etc. Who knows, the Mojo might even sound better than Hugo in 5% of the permutations while Hugo sounds better, in different ways in the other 95%... 
 
Once that is finished check the others. Once that is finished your conclusions will be useless since by then the products will be obsolete
 
Seriously, I would check these things myself in my own system and that would be useful to me. How they compare in someone else's setup isn't really going to help me a whole lot. 
 
This reminds me of a magazine review of a certain obscure amplifier. According to the reviewer it generally sounded average and was overpriced (of course he said this in a very polite and obscure way since this was a mainstream magazine that relies on advertising), but when you use a certain turntable with a certain tonearm and a certain cartridge that was adjusted just so and a particular phono preamplifier, then the thing was worthy of recommendation... Completely useless information...  

And then do the some comparison again at various stages of intoxication. Just for laughs and giggles..

 

[uzi2]

  I'll be able to test the Hugo2 with the Mojo and the DAVE when the Hugo2 arrives for the Canadian tour. Should be interesting comparing the filters on the Hugo2 to the actual devices.

You may like to beg, borrow or steal an original Hugo to complete the line-up as I know you haven't heard it...
I'm a bit far away to supply mine for the test.

 

[doraymon]

 
You may like to beg, borrow or steal an original Hugo to complete the line-up as I know you haven't heard it...
I'm a bit far away to supply mine for the test.

Yes, yes, the Hugo too! 

 

[AndrewH13]

 
You may like to beg, borrow or steal an original Hugo to complete the line-up as I know you haven't heard it...
I'm a bit far away to supply mine for the test.

​Was just going to suggest the same thing! Chord need to lend you one Craig!
 
I remember back to when I suggested your name for what I thought was a Stateside TT tour. And it turned out to be Mojo

 

[514077]

 

  I'll be able to test the Hugo2 with the Mojo and the DAVE when the Hugo2 arrives for the Canadian tour. Should be interesting comparing the filters on the Hugo2 to the actual devices.

You may like to beg, borrow or steal an original Hugo to complete the line-up as I know you haven't heard it...
I'm a bit far away to supply mine for the test.

I'll contact Craig about supplying mine, if he likes.  I'll be comparing with the Hugo, and it would be interesting to have another trusted pair of ears doing the same.

 

[x RELIC x]

I'll contact Craig about supplying mine, if he likes.  I'll be comparing with the Hugo, and it would be interesting to have another trusted pair of ears doing the same.

And I didn't even have to beg!

If we could work this out I would be grateful. Thanks!

 

[howdy]

Is there anyone sponsoring the USA Tour?

Bueller-

 

[514077]

 

I'll contact Craig about supplying mine, if he likes.  I'll be comparing with the Hugo, and it would be interesting to have another trusted pair of ears doing the same.

And I didn't even have to beg!

If we could work this out I would be grateful. Thanks!

Excellent.  We'll PM about it as the tour gets closer and set things up.

 

[canali]

One thing I am trying to determine is if the new hugo2 can also play SACDs?

 

[jmills8]

One thing I am trying to determine is if the new hugo2 can also play SACDs?

X5III does.

 

[halloweenman]

Question for Rob W. I've placed an order for Hugo 2, very excited! I use a battery powered Macbook (new generation, completely silent, energy efficient, no fans, spinnning drives, etc) as source, nothing else connected. I'm a little concerned about lack of galvanic isolation on Hugo 2 USB input so considering buying Intona USB isolator. Would there be any benefit (or disadvantages!) in using Intona USB given that I'm just running battery powered laptop? Or am I worrying too much? Thanks for your advice.

 

[Knipester]

I'm also very excited about my hugo2 arriving, just counting down the days.
 
My previous Hugo 1 has never caused me any problems running it from my auralic aries via a tellurium Q USB cable so I'm not expecting the hugo2 to cause me any problems either. 
 
I did buy an OLIMEX  USB-ISO  just in case however I would rather not have my quality TQ USB cable running into the £35 Olimex then out via cheap USB cable as it kind of defeats the object of having a quality USB cable. 
 
My chord mojo works fine with my MacBook 12" which has 128gb SSD storage.

 

[Rob Watts]

Question for Rob W. I've placed an order for Hugo 2, very excited! I use a battery powered Macbook (new generation, completely silent, energy efficient, no fans, spinnning drives, etc) as source, nothing else connected. I'm a little concerned about lack of galvanic isolation on Hugo 2 USB input so considering buying Intona USB isolator. Would there be any benefit (or disadvantages!) in using Intona USB given that I'm just running battery powered laptop? Or am I worrying too much? Thanks for your advice.

Before replying I thought I would actually try out the two inputs - USB against optical - using my standard test tracks. This was with no charger on Hugo 2, and a modern Win 10 lap-top that was mains powered, but listening on headphones only - so there is no possibility of ground loops.
 
My lap-top (MSI) has optical out too, so I could compare optical to USB from the same source. The benefit of optical is it is completely galvanically isolated.
 
Comparing optical to USB, I struggled to hear any difference at all. Which was unusual, as USB normally sounds a tad bit brighter, but I could here no change in instrument separation, timbre or timing. Its possible that depth was a tiny bit better with optical, but that impression was only once on 4 switch-overs.  
 
So I thought maybe today was a bad day for listening, and tried listening between the initial version and my production version, which has production code. Immediately I could hear better depth, instrument separation and focus, and a less splashy SQ on difficult tracks, which are the SQ improvements I have wrought recently (with better measurements too).
 
So my conclusions are - don't bother with galvanic isolation when using headphones and modern lap-tops. It should help when using Hugo 2 as a DAC into a power amp though - I will try this out later.
 
So why is it less sensitive on the inputs than before? Well I think that is down to a number of things. For one, USB ground and VBUS is completely RF filtered now, and each digital input has its own PSU separately RF filtered, including the USB decoder. The DAC section is much more immune to noise than before, and much better isolated - I am getting crazy levels of measured cross-talk from one ch to the next - the separation is an astonishing 144 dB (I had to check this measurement figure a number of times with different units as I didn't believe the numbers), and that's a testament to the ground and power supply isolation and DAC noise immunity that I have put into Hugo 2. Also modern lap-tops are much more power efficient than before, so create less noise.
 
Oh and I have issued production code to Chord earlier this week, and the production units will be on show for the first time at Can-Jam Singapore.
 
Rob 

 

[Miksu]

Rob, Chord?  Will the Hugo 2 USB input require an active 5Vbus (flashing) to become activated, remain activated? 

 

Would like to know that too. If power is connected you would benefit from clean USB power line, otherwise not?