Chord 2Go & 2Yu Wired/Wireless Network streamer and S/PDIF adaptor - Official thread

[Widell]

I thought I might report back after spending some time with the 2go. I really have mixed feelings about it. In theory it is the perfect device but in practice for me at least it is not working as expected. Maybe it is me - I am not very tech-savvy. My hope about the 2go was also that my family could use it as well. To use it as a streamer dac for my family in our living room and when the kids are sleeping I could unplug it and plug it in my head-fi rig.

But apparently the 2go is a no-go for my spouse at least. Airplay in tidal is full of noise and unstable. We downloaded m-connect and 8-player pro. The m-connect app works but stops playing after the 3-6 songs we have queued up. 8 player is not working at all. When we stream tidal to it it just skips all the songs we have selected. When playing Roon everything is working perfectly. But my initial idea when I bought the 2go was to ditch Roon as I/we do not have a spare computer we could dedicate to the core-duty and we do not have the funds for roon server...

A bug that is very irritating is that on my iPhone SE I can't seem to connect to the gofigure app, but when using my work iPhone which is also an SE I can connect. My wife's iPhone 11 can also connect. It is only my phone - just keep getting that spinning circle. And I tried turning the 2go-hugo on and off many many times plus shutting off and turning on my phone and also shutting the other phones off as well. Nothing works.

Please guide me as I also had same thoughts but at this point does not seem wife friendly, (pun intended), even if I get Roon which seem the best option to make things work smoothly at home (with extra cost, (my node 2i works flawlessly with Bluesound, using it with CH2 via optical... couch way with HD800)......however if I am on the go and want to stream Tidal 24/96 and/or Qobuz upto 24/192 streaming or by downloaded to my iPhone what is the best way and solution, airplay is restricted to CD resolution....so how do I get the Hi-Rez it deserves on the move? (sorry if I missed this if already answered in the thread...)

 

[ZappaMan]

I thought I might report back after spending some time with the 2go. I really have mixed feelings about it. In theory it is the perfect device but in practice for me at least it is not working as expected. Maybe it is me - I am not very tech-savvy. My hope about the 2go was also that my family could use it as well. To use it as a streamer dac for my family in our living room and when the kids are sleeping I could unplug it and plug it in my head-fi rig.

But apparently the 2go is a no-go for my spouse at least. Airplay in tidal is full of noise and unstable. We downloaded m-connect and 8-player pro. The m-connect app works but stops playing after the 3-6 songs we have queued up. 8 player is not working at all. When we stream tidal to it it just skips all the songs we have selected. When playing Roon everything is working perfectly. But my initial idea when I bought the 2go was to ditch Roon as I/we do not have a spare computer we could dedicate to the core-duty and we do not have the funds for roon server...

A bug that is very irritating is that on my iPhone SE I can't seem to connect to the gofigure app, but when using my work iPhone which is also an SE I can connect. My wife's iPhone 11 can also connect. It is only my phone - just keep getting that spinning circle. And I tried turning the 2go-hugo on and off many many times plus shutting off and turning on my phone and also shutting the other phones off as well. Nothing works.

Is your iPhone perhaps going to sleep or something after a while, maybe when the screen locks or something?
Try the Rigelian app.
I use iPhone se, so it is compatible. Are you update with ios?
Maybe delete any Bluetooth reference to your device, reboot and try again.
If you were just streaming, you could run roon server on a really cheap raspberry pi.
Go for the roon option, that sounds like the sweet spot, who can help recommend a basic raspberry pi to act as a roon server?
You can install gentoo player as the operating system. Then just choose it to act as roon server. It’s free and very efficient operating system so it can run on raspberry pi.
Give me a shout if you need a hand setting it up, goes for anyone.
Edit- maybe raspberry pi isn’t powerful enough, but pick up a cheap second hand laptop for the server. People are practically giving them away.

 

[GreenBow]

By the way after the great video from Darko this week we now have the first review of 2Go in from WhatHiFi.
https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/chord-2go

Not sure what's going with What Hifi. Intially they reviewed the Hugo 2 as perfect balance between bass and treble.

In this 2Go review, they talk about the Hugo 2 being a bit clinical, lean, and lacking natural warmth.


Well that's just pure garbage! They said something similar of the TT2 saying it erred on the lean side. Whereas I find the TT2 full and meaty.

Considering What HiFi seem are OK with leaner bright kit anyway, like some of the Rega amplifiers. Criticising the balanced Hugo 2 for leaness, is insulting. The Hugo 2 may not initially appear to have quite the weight of other DACs. That's because there is more detail on each sound, compared to other DACs. I noticed that immediately going from Mojo to Hugo 2. Or at least that is what I think. Meaning if you reduce detail, the sound just appears thicker or fatter.

I don't know. Maybe they picked up on something that one or two other 2Go users reported. That Hugo 2 sounded brighter from SD-card. Although I put that down to maybe using the 2Go allowed more detail through, due to maybe less noise.

Calling the TT2 lean leaning, though. Grrr, they got me mad about that.

(Edit: afterthought. ... I don't mind admitting that when I bought Hugo 2, coming from Mojo, it was detail dazzling. I had to sit with the Hugo 2 for about a month to fully adjust. I knew it was balanced with natural warmth, however at first I was simply outfaced by the detail. I said exactly the same back then when I bought Hugo 2.

Maybe What HiFi were back to that point.)

 

[tonyl59]

I know I don’t chip in very often, but I have to say that I am really loving the 2go. Paired with my trusty Oppo PM-1s the sound, to my ears, is very detailed and engaging with a very dark background (quite strikingly so, in fact). I do hear the occasional ‘pop’ (doesn’t appear to be source-specific), but this is not distracting from my enjoyment.
Now I’m eagerly awaiting 2yu so that 2go can perform double duty with my Sonoma Model 1, via Audioquest Diamond Ethernet. Matt, any thoughts on when 2yu is likely to be available?
Tony

 

[GreenBow]

@ this thread and @miketlse

I am really chuffed that I mentioned my smartphone buying woes recently.

Since Triode User mentioned he replaces batteries in his phones, where non-removable batteries are fitted. I feel way more confident moving forward.

Now I can look at phones with genuine removeable batteries, and ones without. I will however be looking for some ruggedness. My bottom line will be a Gorilla Glass screen. This is essential, because both phones that I have owned for many years, both ended up dropped down stone steps. Both from a high drop, and then bounced all the way down.

If I can not settle on a rugged-phone, I will get a phone with a touch screen and a rugged case for it. A case that depth is no object; for maximum protection. …….. I like the idea of being able to buy a more regular phone, because it broadens choice, and specs available.

After my first looks I found I liked the e.g. the Samsung Galaxy S9. While looking at that, I spotted another flaw generally in that most phones only support up to 256GB SD-card. Hmmm, not brilliant. … Anyway wha'ever. I'll prob end up with Poly anyway.

Thanks again Triode.

 

[Currawong]

Yes, i know what you mean. For Christmas I bought myself the Drop 95X electrostatic headphones, whilst they were on warehouse closing sale price.
I have used them with both Mojo and Hugo2.
They make it sound like the drummer is playing the cymbals 1m away from your right ear.
Great fun, but I tend to reserve them for the Mojo, but a great introduction to electrostatic headphones.
I am sure that some Stax enthusiast will post that if I spend 2k€ I will be able to hear better sound quality with a Stax system.
Quite possibly true, but for bang per buck, the Koss 95X satisfied my original objective, and revealed to me the potential of electrostatic headphones.

That's a great little system. I'm shooting a review of it right now. I recommend getting a basic linear PSU for it. I rigged one up and the sound is even better.

It’s strange that so many people are having pops and clicks and my whole experience is faultless right now and I’m a heavy daily user for the last 2-3 weeks. Primarily Tidal via Roon and SD cards in Airplane mode, with the occasional Airplay just to test.

All I know is that I’m lucky to have great bandwidth (1gb up/down fibre) excellent Wi-FI throughout my house (even in the Garden) via AmpliFi HD and no neighbours interfering with my Wi-fi.
So I can also guess that this is not a hardware fault.

I'm getting the pops and clicks over ethernet, so I'm going to wait for a firmware update before reviewing it.

 

[Doody]

So I spent a bunch of time playing with the DLNA/UPNP/MPD stuff yesterday evening.

Net-net, FWIW, the ONLY app that is giving me any joy seems to be MConnect - and it's nothing to get excited about, IMHO. I paid for the nonLite version hoping that it's incrementally better - more play time this afternoon. Bubble works for me - until it refuses to, and requires some sort of broad-strokes reset of anything with a battery or a plug. I only have so much patience.

Tonight I played with seven apps (Android): MConnect, Bubble, Hi-Fi Cast, DMS Explorer, 2player, MediaMonkey, and MPD Control. Some couldn't see 2go at all as a media source device. Some could pull content from the 2go SD cards - but couldn't play to the 2go (mostly with an error like "unsupported format" (FLAC and MP3 - they're 'supported'!)). MConnect is the only app that repeatedly and routinely is working for me. Which isn't to say such function is flawless. Bubble has worked off and on for me the last weeks, but this morning it refused to function properly. Truly weird behavior - even with reboots and restarts. That's what instigated the research exercise.

I am pretty unimpressed with these apps and at how much of a sh1tshow these protocols apparently are. In fairness to the protocols, I've never mucked with the before, so what do I know. I do know that 2go is a $1,295 product that has to be controlled by other people's software - which software is, generally speaking, craptasic. I think this might be an error of judgement on Chord's part. They nailed the 2go Roon endpoint, for sure - and as I've said before, that's "worth the price of entry" in my book if you're a die-hard Roon'er like me.

MConnect "just works" in my book. It sees 2go. It connects to 2go. It plays stuff. Hopefully it stays that way this time .

Doody

PS: Who the feck is Justin Maggard, and what the feck is JF Light Industries and why do they keep showing up in my apps when I talk to 2go?

PPS: Finally got my 1TB SanDisk card loaded up with music yesterday. No drama, other than reindexing issues. Cf.

 

[miketlse]

So I spent a bunch of time playing with the DLNA/UPNP/MPD stuff yesterday evening.

Net-net, FWIW, the ONLY app that is giving me any joy seems to be MConnect - and it's nothing to get excited about, IMHO. I paid for the nonLite version hoping that it's incrementally better - more play time this afternoon. Bubble works for me - until it refuses to, and requires some sort of broad-strokes reset of anything with a battery or a plug. I only have so much patience.

Tonight I played with seven apps (Android): MConnect, Bubble, Hi-Fi Cast, DMS Explorer, 2player, MediaMonkey, and MPD Control. Some couldn't see 2go at all as a media source device. Some could pull content from the 2go SD cards - but couldn't play to the 2go (mostly with an error like "unsupported format" (FLAC and MP3 - they're 'supported'!)). MConnect is the only app that repeatedly and routinely is working for me. Which isn't to say such function is flawless. Bubble has worked off and on for me the last weeks, but this morning it refused to function properly. Truly weird behavior - even with reboots and restarts. That's what instigated the research exercise.

I am pretty unimpressed with these apps and at how much of a sh1tshow these protocols apparently are. In fairness to the protocols, I've never mucked with the before, so what do I know. I do know that 2go is a $1,295 product that has to be controlled by other people's software - which software is, generally speaking, craptasic. I think this might be an error of judgement on Chord's part. They nailed the 2go Roon endpoint, for sure - and as I've said before, that's "worth the price of entry" in my book if you're a die-hard Roon'er like me.

MConnect "just works" in my book. It sees 2go. It connects to 2go. It plays stuff. Hopefully it stays that way this time .

Doody

PS: Who the feck is Justin Maggard, and what the feck is JF Light Industries and why do they keep showing up in my apps when I talk to 2go?

PPS: Finally got my 1TB SanDisk card loaded up with music yesterday. No drama, other than reindexing issues. Cf.

A simple google finds these
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-☆-poly-☆-wireless-microsd-module-for-mojo-☆★►useful-info-on-1st-page-◄★☆.831347/post-14886063
https://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php/topics/421660/DLNA+instructions?.html
https://sourceforge.net/p/minidlna/wiki/Home/

You look to be in danger of diving into the rabbit hole of the original sources of Poly/2Go source code.

 

[Doody]

@Matt Bartlett there are absolutely some bugs with the code that decides whether or not to index/re-index an SD card. When you're futzing with 1TB cards, these are seriously seriously annoying bugs . Y'all have to test this stuff some more.

As best I can tell - and this is admittedly purely anecdotal - 2go needs to index TWICE before it's comfortable that it has an index. The first index then a reindex the next time it powers-up or that card is selected in GF.

Doody

 

[Doody]

A simple google finds this https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-☆-poly-☆-wireless-microsd-module-for-mojo-☆★►useful-info-on-1st-page-◄★☆.831347/post-14886063
https://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php/topics/421660/DLNA+instructions?.html

So I did try to AVT:SetNextAVTransportURI my http-get:*:audio/x-m4a:* on the github.com/medoc92, but in the end I just ended UpMPD.

Still a bit sore, frankly. Trying ice on it for a bit now .

Doody

 

[Doody]

Lots of varied listening last night [both SD card and wired ethernet Roon endpoint]. No signs of pops or clicks.

Truly curious why some folks have it a lot and others have it a tiny bit (me) and others don't have it at all. @Matt Bartlett you might want to survey us for how we're set up - it seems there're enough data points (?) to help target the research? Just a thought.

I do live in fear of all pop-and-click all the time. Like Godzilla stepping on Tokyo!

Doody

 

[joshnor713]

Tonight I played with seven apps (Android): MConnect, Bubble, Hi-Fi Cast, DMS Explorer, 2player, MediaMonkey, and MPD Control. Some couldn't see 2go at all as a media source device. Some could pull content from the 2go SD cards - but couldn't play to the 2go (mostly with an error like "unsupported format" (FLAC and MP3 - they're 'supported'!)). MConnect is the only app that repeatedly and routinely is working for me. Which isn't to say such function is flawless. Bubble has worked off and on for me the last weeks, but this morning it refused to function properly. Truly weird behavior - even with reboots and restarts. That's what instigated the research exercise.

I am pretty unimpressed with these apps and at how much of a sh1tshow these protocols apparently are. In fairness to the protocols, I've never mucked with the before, so what do I know. I do know that 2go is a $1,295 product that has to be controlled by other people's software - which software is, generally speaking, craptasic. I think this might be an error of judgement on Chord's part. They nailed the 2go Roon endpoint, for sure - and as I've said before, that's "worth the price of entry" in my book if you're a die-hard Roon'er like me.

This is what bugs me to no end that there's no Google Cast support. With AirPlay, you don't have to rely on others' software, you just play straight out of the streaming app.

Regarding SD card content, it's my opinion that the proper thing should have been that GoFigure plays it. If Chord's streamers make their version of a "DAP", then it should have all it needs to play stored content. All DAPs that I know of, you just plop in an SD card and hit play.

 

[Doody]

Regarding SD card content, it's my opinion that the proper thing should have been that GoFigure plays it. If Chord's streamers make their version of a "DAP", then it should have all it needs to play stored content. All DAPs that I know of, you just plop in an SD card and hit play.

I concur. Building this control capability into GF wouldn't be rocket science. For simple folks like myself who almost exclusively navigate their SD cards by folder and then hit play on the track they want to play (with whatever follows following), the UI is straightforward (and MConnect nails it, when it's working reliably).

Where it gets messier, I'm guessing, is when people start wanting more creative solutions: playlists, shuffles, casting to, casting from, etc. etc.

In theory, by supporting these standard/open protocols Chord gets access to a broad ecosystem of app developers and other devices it wouldn't if it went proprietary. That said, IMHO the apps aren't up to snuff (and it hasn't changed much since Poly - this isn't a new lesson), so they're hitching their cart to a jalopy when they were hoping to have hitched it to a robust pickup truck. Not their fault that all the other apps are lame. But they probably should support a "painfully simplistic" solution within GoFifugre that bypasses all the bells and whistles BS.

Doody

 

[Infoseeker]

I'd like a system to stream and use an EQ.

Would love a non bitperfect uapp integration.

 

[miketlse]

@Matt Bartlett you might want to survey us for how we're set up - it seems there're enough data points (?) to help target the research? Just a thought.

Such a survey should be technically possible, if it were possible to embed a link to a Google Form, in one of these posts. The Google Form can be set up, to then consolidate all the responses in a spreadsheet, where Matt can then analyse them.