[musicheaven]

lol, true that batteries aren't ideal. But all batteries are not created equal, nor are their power stage implementation (the chips ensuring a specific unchanging voltage is being sent to DAC or AMP or other). I could hear cleaner more transparent sound in the DX50 from switching batteries to a Samsung brand one for example (believe it or not).


 


The Chord Hugo uses two very good custom batteries (very low internal resistance), one to power the DAC and one to power the AMP. Splitting the two power stages is often seen on High end home DAC/AMPs. Also the Hugo uses multiple stages of high emd ultra low distortion voltage regulators to ensure exact amounts of power are going to every chip, whereas current DAPs simply use 1 or 2 regular voltage regulators to regulate the power from the single battery then use regular circuitry to split the power further (transistors etc).


 


Currently no DAP even comes close to the design and engineering of the Hugo.


 


Its impossible the Calyx will come close to the Hugo either (limited space), but hopefully Calyx will attempt to be a step above current DAPs. Although with no internal pictures we can't tell whats going on inside the Calyx, hopefully the Calyx isn't as hard to open as it looks.

 


You clearly know your stuff - very informative.

Going by what we DO know about the M, and also whatever you may (or may not!) know about the AK240, would you say the M is also in competition with the AK240? Or do you think the AK240 is still a step up again?

I know the M is targeting the AK100/120, iBasso DX90/100, and whichever HiFiMan-it-is level, but just wondered if, in the M, we might potentially have something which will also rival something that costs nearly three times as much?

It's clearly described on their website. Chord provides ample description of how the Hugo is built internally, in fact if you read the complete article you'll find a lot of good information on how they came about designing the Hugo.

Now If you are referring to Calyx M beating the Hugo, you need to compare apples with apples (no pun intended), Hugo is an amp/dac and not a player. Further more it's Dac technology is in a different league than the ESS or any other manufacturers hence why they charge so much for it, the R&D that went into it requires that else they would not be able to substantiate and fuel their research. In order to equal or surpass the Hugo DAC or even it's amp stage, it would have to be twice as big as it is now to contain the same circuitry performing at a similar level than Chord Hugo. It's not going to happen anytime soon. So Hugo is on a different level and can easily fetch the price it has, calyx M with its current technology seems to be rightly priced, although this is still something we need to test. D&A has made it clear that they won't release even at a high level the internal amp stage layout. You'll need to open it up and closely study its internals.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

It's clearly described on their website. Chord provides ample description of how the Hugo is built internally, in fact if you read the complete article you'll find a lot of good information on how they came about designing the Hugo.

Now If you are referring to Calyx M beating the Hugo, you need to compare apples with apples (no pun intended), Hugo is an amp/dac and not a player. Further more it's Dac technology is in a different league than the ESS or any other manufacturers hence why they charge so much for it, the R&D that went into it requires that else they would not be able to substantiate and fuel their research. In order to equal or surpass the Hugo DAC or even it's amp stage, it would have to be twice as big as it is now to contain the same circuitry performing at a similar level than Chord Hugo. It's not going to happen anytime soon. So Hugo is on a different level and can easily fetch the price it has, calyx M with its current technology seems to be rightly priced, although this is still something we need to test. D&A has made it clear that they won't release even at a high level the internal amp stage layout. You'll need to open it up and closely study its internals.

 
He was asking about how the Calyx M would compare to the AK240, not the Hugo. We can still compare the DAC and AMP in the Hugo to those in a DAP, but as a new reference point, even if they are at a totally different level in their design in the Hugo. New DAPs should be aiming to achieve Hugo level, it would not be impossible in a HM901 sized player, which has dual back to back PCBs doubling its PCB area, although getting the dual batteries in would be tough, but not impossible.
 
I have no idea how the Calyx compares to AK240, nor have I seen internal pictures of either. I personally don't think much of the AK240, mainly because it should be priced $1000 less. I would take the Calyx over it.

 

[musicheaven]

He was asking about how the Calyx M would compare to the AK240, not the Hugo. We can still compare the DAC and AMP in the Hugo to those in a DAP, but as a new reference point, even if they are at a totally different level in their design in the Hugo. New DAPs should be aiming to achieve Hugo level, it would not be impossible in a HM901 sized player, which has dual back to back PCBs doubling its PCB area, although getting the dual batteries in would be tough, but not impossible.

I am also curious about the two, not sure when we'll have an owner of both comparing them soon. As far as aiming to achieve the Hugo level, it would be sweet but for mass production, they'd have to have a cheaper design in order to drive the price down. What would be interesting is to have two companies cooperating with each other to provide the components and design and still make it affordable, that's pretty unlikely.

 

[Edwood]

Last I checked, the Hugo was not capable of playing music by itself. 

 

[musicheaven]

Last I checked, the Hugo was not capable of playing music by itself. 

Acute observation!

You deserve the price for the obvious but the way you said it, kudos

 

[greatbadir]

 
He was asking about how the Calyx M would compare to the AK240, not the Hugo. We can still compare the DAC and AMP in the Hugo to those in a DAP, but as a new reference point, even if they are at a totally different level in their design in the Hugo. New DAPs should be aiming to achieve Hugo level, it would not be impossible in a HM901 sized player, which has dual back to back PCBs doubling its PCB area, although getting the dual batteries in would be tough, but not impossible.
 
I have no idea how the Calyx compares to AK240, nor have I seen internal pictures of either. I personally don't think much of the AK240, mainly because it should be priced $1000 less. I would take the Calyx over it.

 


Funnily enough, I've always thought that if I could get the AK240 for its "normal" (i.e. non-UK) price, then I would go for it in a heartbeat (having been saving for a high[er] capacity replacement for my Cowon X7 for the last year). As it is, the price of it over here is artificially inflated even more thanks to £700-800 worth of import taxes alone.

That's why I've got all my hopes pinned on the M, cos the only other upcoming option that will tick most or all of the boxes for me would be the Fiio X7, but it sounds like we're at least a year away from that. I can't wait that long again!

 

[musicheaven]

The FiiO X7 won't be out on the market until late next year so right now the only contenders are DX90 and X5 currently available and Calyx M to be released in May.

 

[greatbadir]

DX90 not even an option because of the lone micro SD, and I've pretty much put the X5 to rest as an option now because I still have long-term concerns about the file limit (although I AM still keeping an eye on the thread anyway), so the M's combo of built-in memory, micro SD slot AND normal SD slot fixes all my capacity problems (assuming they will update firmware in future to allow for higher capacity SD cards as they come out), so I just have to hope that it will be available in the UK and that it will be a worthy competitor in the sound stakes.

 

[Mython]

 

[musicheaven]

I have to say it's got its beauty call it looks UI or sq to be. There is definitively something attractive about it.

 

[Solude]

Yup now release it to NA

 

[zachchen1996]

Wow, that color looks really nice (it's so hard holding off on the DX90 for this). It's still scheduled to be released sometime around May right?

 

[musicheaven]

Yep that's their plan.

 

[kkcc]

Wow, that color looks really nice (it's so hard holding off on the DX90 for this). It's still scheduled to be released sometime around May right?

A friend of mine was dead set on waiting for the demoing the M and was holding off the zx1, x5, and dx90 temptations.... until he saw the mockup size comparison from a few pages ago he broke down and ordered dx90 after hearing mine lol... he said he will still demo the M as soon as our local dealer got demos in, but "it's SQ and built better blow dx90 out of the water to compensate for it's huge size". I have a feeling he will still end up with the M. I might too as it does looks indeed classy. FWIW their Hong Kong/Greater China dealer is saying "release before June".

 

[zachchen1996]

A friend of mine was dead set on waiting for the demoing the M and was holding off the zx1, x5, and dx90 temptations.... until he saw the mockup size comparison from a few pages ago he broke down and ordered dx90 after hearing mine lol... he said he will still demo the M as soon as our local dealer got demos in, but "it's SQ and built better blow dx90 out of the water to compensate for it's huge size". I have a feeling he will still end up with the M. I might too as it does looks indeed classy. FWIW their Hong Kong/Greater China dealer is saying "release before June".

 
It does seem rather large, but at least it is still thin enough to be pocket-able (unlike the hm901, which was part of the reason I sold it). I'm really hoping the SQ of the M is on par, or better than the ak240 (according to calyx). We'll never know until it releases, but I have high hopes for it.