[474194]

All you desktop users have envious music sources, especially Antipodes. I would have no idea where to begin down the rabbit hole if I committed to stationary listening. I know I would want a clear separation of duties tho. Roon core on a NAS or any random PC/OS as long it has enough PWR and don't have skips/clicks. Roon core seems like it's just a backend service, don't need to get fancy. I would focus mainly on the endpoint side of things with the requirements of battery && optical. I wouldn't want to run Roon core and endpoint on the same system if avoidable. IMO, these would be my preferences. That's what makes the 2Go attractive is that it is battery-powered and a Roon endpoint, unfortunately USB. But it's likely optimised USB (no data, no power, just audio and pure Chord propreitary audio) and there is no cable to act as a potential RFI antenna, just a direct USB connection inside the aircraft aluminium. If there is desktop charging like the H2, then it seems like it's a near optimal Roon endpoint solution.

No offense to anyone if opinion differs, but not all optical sources are the same. For most optical devices (PC gaming motherboards, Mac, Daps), optical is just a tack-on cheapest cost-savings component feature and not well-implemented. You going to get a flat sound (CCA included) which maybe close to USB. It's another story with a well-implemented optical solution with the right synergy of OS and a glass optical cable. Not all optical sources are created equal.

Yes agreed on batteries and optical! My struggle is to make it such that mains powered USB connected is the same as optical and battery - and I am indeed getting there.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/watts-up.800264/page-112#post-15443146

Maybe in the next gen of Chord DACs, USB will catch up but for now I will stick with a solid simple battery-power optical solution. This works as a Roon endpoint as well, but since I'm mobile-only have no way to experiment. I wouldn't mind the 2Go though as a close second for convenience, but I want to enjoy what I have at least for this year.

We are humans with subjective opinions, but RW is a cyborg. I'll take his statements for fact versus highly-experienced random audiophiles any day related with Chord DACs.

Again, synergy with optimal OS is important:

Also if you use remaster compressed sources, it's going to be difficult to tell differences. You need the good close to master sources for variances. Streaming apps manipulate the SQ as well so not reliable HQ source. Might as well run optical out of a Televison to run tests. It's not the best implemented optical decoder and the cheapest part of the Televison.

 

[474194]

I like to publicly thank Phuca again for inspiring the source that it has evolved into currently. It changed my whole outlook on Redbook and what's possible with Redbook just how RW has always stated. Similar in ways when people add a mScaler. I didn't think I would move on from hires/DSD after a decade, but I have.

It changed my whole Chord experience. Source matters.

Going to keep the 2Go in the back of my mind, but moving on from this thread for now. I would love to try some MPD clients with the 2Go one day. 2Go maybe better than anticipated, so that's exciting.

Since optical such an awesome experience compared to USB, I'm going to focus on sound isolation with car audio products as my next project:

^^ You can add optional flat speakers to the above headband. I'm going to try instead to fill with sound blocking material. The whole inside is hollow so I can like mix 10 different sound proofing products to experiment with that just got delivered.

Not sure if it will work out, but I enjoy the DIY side of this hobby.

GL w/ 2Go

I like to take the DAC designer's statement to heart instead of forming my own subjective narratives. It's understandable as it's a good amount of coin invested in these products to want to produce one's own subjective opinions tho.

 

[Triode User]

I like to publicly thank Phuca again for inspiring the source that it has evolved into currently. It changed my whole outlook on Redbook and what's possible with Redbook just how RW has always stated. Similar in ways when people add a mScaler. I didn't think I would move on from hires/DSD after a decade, but I have.

It changed my whole Chord experience. Source matters.

Going to keep the 2Go in the back of my mind, but moving on from this thread for now. I would love to try some MPD clients with the 2Go one day. 2Go maybe better than anticipated, so that's exciting.

Since optical such an awesome experience compared to USB, I'm going to focus on sound isolation with car audio products as my next project:



^^ You can add optional flat speakers to the above headband. I'm going to try instead to fill with sound blocking material. The whole inside is hollow so I can like mix 10 different sound proofing products to experiment with that just got delivered.

Not sure if it will work out, but I enjoy the DIY side of this hobby.

GL w/ 2Go

I like to take the DAC designer's statement to heart instead of forming my own subjective narratives. It's understandable as it's a good amount of coin invested in these products to want to produce one's own subjective opinions tho.

Finally we see a picture of Phuca @Amberlamps having obviously made the self identify leap. Good on you Amber!

Me, I'm still using well implemented USB in my Innuos Zenith and have no hankerings to transition to optical (don't forget that a mains power supply to an optical device can defeat the optical isolation). Of course as Rob confirms, batteries and optical is the way around that but equally Rob has posted that he himself does not use batteries at home because of the associated faff. I have batteries sat here unused because I got fed up with the recharging.

Back on thread topic, I can't wait until some of the 2Go & 2Yu are released from captivity out into the wild so we can get some feedback. Exciting times.

 

[supervisor]

Me, I'm still using well implemented USB in my Innuos Zenith and have no hankerings to transition to optical (don't forget that a mains power supply to an optical device can defeat the optical isolation). Of course as Rob confirms, batteries and optical is the way around that but equally Rob has posted that he himself does not use batteries at home because of the associated faff. I have batteries sat here unused because I got fed up with the recharging.

well you're also using the Innuos Phoenix still, right?!

 

[DaddyWhale]

I haven't seen this question answered. And I'm hoping that one does not actually need to have one's hand in the 2go to answer it.

Chord says that the 2go can be used as a music server with micro sd cards installed. According to their description you need to install MPD software.

Does MPD (whether with 2go or not) allow you to play whole albums on the fly, or only previously created playlists?

Thanks!

 

[kkrazik2008]

I haven't seen this question answered. And I'm hoping that one does not actually need to have one's hand in the 2go to answer it.

Chord says that the 2go can be used as a music server with micro sd cards installed. According to their description you need to install MPD software.

Does MPD (whether with 2go or not) allow you to play whole albums on the fly, or only previously created playlists?

Thanks!

Hi, you would have to use a third party app to manage the mpd server feature, if you are on an iOS device Glider is solid; https://glideraudio.com/

 

[musickid]

Ipod touch (roon endpoint) on battery with usb out into mscaler in conjunction with a quad core i5 512gb ssd imac as roon core continues to impress. 30+ hours of wifi playback time using a 20,000mAh powerbank. Plug, play and forget. Certified class 2 usb cable is a must.

 

[AndrewOld]

I haven't seen this question answered. And I'm hoping that one does not actually need to have one's hand in the 2go to answer it.

Chord says that the 2go can be used as a music server with micro sd cards installed. According to their description you need to install MPD software.

Does MPD (whether with 2go or not) allow you to play whole albums on the fly, or only previously created playlists?

Thanks!

They also say it is a Roon server, which I very much doubt. Happy to be proved wrong.

 

[kkrazik2008]

They also say it is a Roon server, which I very much doubt. Happy to be proved wrong.

On the Chord website it no longer indicates that it is a Roon server, only a Roon end point. There was confusion about this feature on the Roon forums too, so someone fixed this error.

 

[musickid]

It was quite clearly not a roon server or core just by looking at it. I don't think you could fit an intel processor, 8gb ram and a 64gb or 128gb ssd drive into 2go.

 

[kkrazik2008]

It was quite clearly not a roon server or core just by looking at it. I don't think you could fit an intel processor, 8gb ram and a 64gb or 128gb ssd drive into 2go.

Yet many folks in this thread had been hopeful, despite the clear hardware requirements for a Roon Core on roon.com
Heck, the entry level Roon Nucleus would be cheaper than the 2GO/2U combo, and that is optimized for Roon. Or for that manner running an Intel Nuc would be a quarter of the price.

 

[musickid]

All this conjecture and no on has heard schiitt yet. My prediction is that all this back room gossiping will either cease and we will find a rush of preorders occurring...or not. This all depends on the SQ of the chord streamer and no one has heard it yet. If it's tuned for chord gear which makes sense it's either going to sound excellent or average. We shall know soon....heck even i might be persuaded to tear away from my ipod touch battery powered roon endpoint but that's a big if right now.

 

[AndrewOld]

All this conjecture and no on has heard schiitt yet. My prediction is that all this back room gossiping will either cease and we will find a rush of preorders occurring...or not. This all depends on the SQ of the chord streamer and no one has heard it yet. If it's tuned for chord gear which makes sense it's either going to sound excellent or average. We shall know soon....heck even i might be persuaded to tear away from my ipod touch battery powered roon endpoint but that's a big if right now.

Don’t forget it may well be the case that Chord will bring out a combined 2Go/2Yu in one box for those who haven’t got a Hugo2. If they drop the SD slots, which make little sense for home use, and neaten the cabling they should be able to make it a good bit cheaper. A much neater solution for static use at home. Could even squeeze in 5GHz wifi ..

 

[ZappaMan]

There’s more to server/end point then just low noise. It seems latency is very important. The operating system plays a major role.
I was doing some experimenting with my audio Linux server and end point with squeeze lite emulator running in the end point, and it didn’t sound much better then normal. Then I increased the in memory buffer for squeezelite to 2gb, the sq increase was very clear. The bass was much clearer, everything was a lot better.
You can reboot the server and by the time it’s back up the end point is still playing an album it had been holding in memory.


if you look at the audio Linux home page you see comparisons with it and windows in terms of latency.

for £60, it’s very worthwhile to checkout AudioLinux if you have two average computers you can use.

I also suspect low latency on the server would make normal end points like poly sound better.

 

[musickid]

I get confirmation from roon that the pcm signal entering my mscaler is bit perfect and that's all i need to know and i get no dropouts and passthru the 96kHz MQA first unfold with no issues as an added test and confirmation. I could research and learn about linux based OS and the RAM and latency tweaks but no that's where i stop. I just want to enjoy the music now otherwise it'll never end. For the same reason EQ'ing is something i avoid and i just put my trust in roon's RAAT and the tidal desktop player.