[Neo Zuko]

It depends upon what you mean by perfectly neutral  - after all, nobody has heard the perfect DAC/amp that is completely transparent.

Fortunately, I have at least the Dave that can act as the reference - and in terms of tonal balance it is similar to Dave with the white filter.

But like you I can't stand any form of hardness or brightness - I like to listen for 12 hours at a stretch, and I can't cope with any aggression or listening fatigue at all; but then I also can't cope if its not transparent either.

So IMHO assuming the HP or speakers are not cold or hard sounding - Hugo 2 can't fix that - you will be fine. You also have the 16 FS filter option too, which will make it sound less incisive - and that is intended for too hard HP.

Rob 

Awesome answer sir, makes me want to save up for a Hugo 2 first.

For my first headphones, as I'm starting over from scratch, I want something better than my old Oppo PM-3 headphones (which I used with the Oppo HA-2 before I sold both items). I was thinking of Focal Elear or MrSpeakers Ether Flow. Or just Noble Kaiser Encore IEMs. Nothing over 2 grand or so to start for headphones.

I assume the Hugo 2 plays well with IEMs with that super low noise floor you mentioned earlier. That's always an issue to look out for.

One time I bought some NHT speakers and a NAD amp and I got my first lesson in bad equipment matches. A more detailed sound then I had before at the time but also strident and cold. The new at the time NHT metal dome tweeter was better than the old NHT silk one - technically - but it ruined the ability to want to hear it for long periods. Sound like what you described sound wise. Had a pair of Von S. VR-1 speakers after the NHTs and the VR-1 plus NAD combo was much more sweet and improved, at the time almost heaven in a $1000 bookstand if you can go without bass. Of course now I look for far more sophisticated amps and well rounded speakers to start with.

 

[flyte3333]

When I saw this comment I thought - it's gonna make no difference ground connected/not connected.
 
But what the heck, the morning is young, its quiet in the house, maybe it will sound different to expectations - and that is always exciting.
 
Then I remembered the lap-top had to be completely isolated from other connections, so disconnect everything, and re-boot.
 
Started the depth listening test - struggled to hear any consistent change - sometimes better grounded, sometimes better not. But then I thought it sounds pretty flat overall - and I realized cross-feed was off. Turned cross-feed on - immediately got a huge change in depth - actually more than double the perception of depth with cross-feed on (max blue).
 
Repeated the depth test, again no consistent difference - so too with the noise floor mod test.
 
So using a battery powered source again does mean you can have a grounded connection and no need for galvanic isolation. But again - as always - YMWV (or more accurately YM may V!)
 
Rob 

 


Amazing Rob.

So for the Hugo 2 for desktop listening, you're saying that you can leave it on the charger and listen to USB from a laptop that's unplugged from the wall and have no need for galvanic isolation in between Hugo2 and laptop?

There's no performance benefit to adding galvanic isolation in between Hugo 2 and your laptop on batteries, for your system? And I'm guessing your laptop doesn't have some special audiophile sound card with all linear ultra low noise regulators for the USB output.

Fortunately I won't need to buy anything else to test this in my own system (apart from the Hugo 2 of course!) but this sounds amazing.

 

[Rob Watts]

Yes my tests with the MSI lap-top - a very powerful 4K display 32GB i7 machine - suggest that so long as the it is run on batteries you don't need galvanic isolation. But even with the lap-top powered via the mains, its not a huge change too.
 
It's going to be interesting to read other peoples experiences soon!

 

[flyte3333]

Yes my tests with the MSI lap-top - a very powerful 4K display 32GB i7 machine - suggest that so long as the it is run on batteries you don't need galvanic isolation. But even with the lap-top powered via the mains, its not a huge change too.


 


It's going to be interesting to read other peoples experiences soon!

 


That's crazy (in a good way). You must be filtering the hell out of the bad stuff coming into the Hugo 2 (and obviously filtering it all well)

 

[Hooster]

So, can we please close this subject and the next person who mentions galvanic isolation gets banished from the thread?

 

[jmills8]

So, can we please close this subject and the next person who mentions galvanic isolation gets banished from the thread?

As was mentioned, one can BLOCK those members.

 

[flyte3333]

So, can we please close this subject and the next person who mentions galvanic isolation gets banished from the thread?

 


I'm happy to share my results of galvanic isolation (with and without) with Rob, as he mentioned too. He's the designer and he's interested in this stuff and so am I. If you're not feel free to block me mate

 

[halloweenman]

When I saw this comment I thought - it's gonna make no difference ground connected/not connected.

But what the heck, the morning is young, its quiet in the house, maybe it will sound different to expectations - and that is always exciting.

Then I remembered the lap-top had to be completely isolated from other connections, so disconnect everything, and re-boot.

Started the depth listening test - struggled to hear any consistent change - sometimes better grounded, sometimes better not. But then I thought it sounds pretty flat overall - and I realized cross-feed was off. Turned cross-feed on - immediately got a huge change in depth - actually more than double the perception of depth with cross-feed on (max blue).

Repeated the depth test, again no consistent difference - so too with the noise floor mod test.

So using a battery powered source again does mean you can have a grounded connection and no need for galvanic isolation. But again - as always - YMWV (or more accurately YM may V!)

Rob 

Wow, thank you, just the result I was hoping for

 

[paul2qute]

G ga galv galva ....erm was wondering when the battery goes flat on the original Hugo it was a bit of a pain to get on charge and be able to use right away,is the hugo 2 any better in this regard?I'm sure I've got a charger for the hugo that I bought from Chord that I don't use,I got it so I could use the hugo in two fix places in the house, one in bedroom and one in lounge, if I find it I'll let you know, whoever wants one that lives in the UK and I like you, PM me and I'll send it to you,don't want no money for it.I'll have a look this weekend for it

 

[dnnaudio]

Hi Rob, how would you compare the tonal balance of Hugo II in white setting compared to Hugo I. You did mention the tonal balance is similar to Dave, but I dont have access to this. One thing I really like with Hugo is the clarity and incisiveness of highs, will this character change or soften?

 

[514077]

  So, can we please close this subject and the next person who mentions galvanic isolation gets banished from the thread?

I won't miss it.  Done to death.

 

[Rob Watts]

Not so easy to answer - Hugo 2 is certainly more incisive than Hugo 1, with a lot more transparency; but it is also fundamentally more refined and smoother too - how these two differing qualities come out will depend upon your music - on some tracks you will notice it sounding much more refined and warm; on other tracks you will hear better speed, more power and impact - that initial crack as a stick hits a wood block is much easier to perceive for example.
 
Technically, the reasons for the improved warmth is down to lower noise floor modulation and overall lower distortion; the improvement in transparency, notably depth and detail resolution is down to the better noise shaping and internal truncation; and the ability to perceive sharp transients (crack as stick hits wood block) is down to improvements on the WTA, notably running at 256 FS. So in this case the timing uncertainty due to sampling has been reduced, and this allows one to perceive rapidly changing sounds.
 
Rob 

 

[flyte3333]

  Not so easy to answer - Hugo 2 is certainly more incisive than Hugo 1, with a lot more transparency; but it is also fundamentally more refined and smoother too - how these two differing qualities come out will depend upon your music - on some tracks you will notice it sounding much more refined and warm; on other tracks you will hear better speed, more power and impact - that initial crack as a stick hits a wood block is much easier to perceive for example.
 
Technically, the reasons for the improved warmth is down to lower noise floor modulation and overall lower distortion; the improvement in transparency, notably depth and detail resolution is down to the better noise shaping and internal truncation; and the ability to perceive sharp transients (crack as stick hits wood block) is down to improvements on the WTA, notably running at 256 FS. So in this case the timing uncertainty due to sampling has been reduced, and this allows one to perceive rapidly changing sounds.
 
Rob 

 
Hi Rob, for Cross Feed in the Hugo 2 are you using Bauer Stereo to Binaural implementation? If so, what cut-ff frequency and cross-feed level? I use it in Roon with my Mojo at the moment (700Hz, 4.5dB)
 
I'll obviously leave it to the Hugo 2 when I get it.

 

[Paul Bjernklo]

Apart from USB and optical i am thinking to use the Hugo 2 3.5mm input jack as input from my Sky TV box. There does not seem to be any adapters included with the Hugo 2. Does anyone have any suggestions where to either find a 3.5mm to normal coax "digital" adapter? If not does anyone know where to buy a 4m or 5m long 3.5mm to coax digital cable. I have tried amazon uk but not really found any. Suggestions please...

 

[Rob Watts]

 

  Not so easy to answer - Hugo 2 is certainly more incisive than Hugo 1, with a lot more transparency; but it is also fundamentally more refined and smoother too - how these two differing qualities come out will depend upon your music - on some tracks you will notice it sounding much more refined and warm; on other tracks you will hear better speed, more power and impact - that initial crack as a stick hits a wood block is much easier to perceive for example.
 
Technically, the reasons for the improved warmth is down to lower noise floor modulation and overall lower distortion; the improvement in transparency, notably depth and detail resolution is down to the better noise shaping and internal truncation; and the ability to perceive sharp transients (crack as stick hits wood block) is down to improvements on the WTA, notably running at 256 FS. So in this case the timing uncertainty due to sampling has been reduced, and this allows one to perceive rapidly changing sounds.
 
Rob 

 
Hi Rob, for Cross Feed in the Hugo 2 are you using Bauer Stereo to Binaural implementation? If so, what cut-ff frequency and cross-feed level? I use it in Roon with my Mojo at the moment (700Hz, 4.5dB)
 
I'll obviously leave it to the Hugo 2 when I get it.

700 Hz 4.5 dB is the blue (Max) setting. Green is Chu Moy's 700 Hz 6dB and red is Jan Meier's 650 Hz 9.5 dB (Min). The IIR DSP is done at 705/768 kHz via two dedicated DSP cores.