[Dalmonegrig]

When I checked last night via Fing, I had 68 devices actively connected. We stream to every tv and often have 3 on at a time (I watch sports with the sound off and stream music instead), so the TVs and online gaming are the primary consumers of bandwidth aside from Roon.

What's your lowest internet speed for Wi-Fi (can be checked on your phone)?
Please answer the question above, everyone who does not have a problem with clicks (pops) on 2Go.
Thank!

 

[hptubes]

Apologies, I was in the car and missed the first part of your question. My speeds are pretty high--they were 60 mbps when I got the 2Go, but I've recently upgraded and I just got 210 mpbs.

 

[Dalmonegrig]

I consistently get over 100 megabits per second (i.e as good as wired 100mbps ethernet). So anyway, what I am suggesting is that it’s the Orbi mesh system that allows this type of performance on 2.4 ghz - DSD no problems. I am sure that without Orbi then yes it may well be problematic.
Auralic make similar recommendation for their old Aries Wireless Streaming Bridge. DSD64 and DSD128 over WiFi, Auralic recommends using a router with 802.11n MIMO support. So 5GHz isn't strictly needed, but you have to have a very good / robust 802.11n system to maintain high/constant bitrate.

Streaming from Roon, I've had one brief drop-out during the last half-an-hour or so. My Mac Mini, which has the Roon library on it, shows Roon as sending about 1.2 MB/sec (96 Mbit/sec).

My speeds are pretty high--they were 60 mbps when I got the 2Go, but I've recently upgraded and I just got 210 mpbs.

I am happy to report that the intermittent connectivity issues I was having with "Tidal loading slowly" and hires tracks refusing to play from my audio server to 2Go on my home network were due to the router I was using.
I was a bit perplexed as to how Tidal/Roon can be having issues like that when I have a 300mbps connection.
Getting a much more capable router has fixed this (for now);

Thank you for the answer.
Now we know one characteristic for the correct operation of 2Go - Internet connection speed when working via Wi-Fi should be at least 60 MbPS.


I looked through the topic (87 pages), collected useful information in one place, for the stable operation of 2Go. Maybe someone will help!

That’s why I like Roon (https://kb.roonlabs.com/RAAT)

Bit perfect mode wasn’t set to ON in GoFigure

I have a multi-access point network at home with access point-steering enabled (similar to a mesh network but based on enterprise gear) and the issue seems to happen when I cross from one access point to another. The song currently player will finish to the end and then mConnect will warn that the renderer stopped responding. I note that the DLNA and MPD servers still remain visible and connectable as does the AirPlay service - it is literally just the UPnP/DLNA renderer that seems to crash.

Hi all,
The other issues reported with M Connect and mesh networks we are looking at. We can reproduce
the issue with M Connect on a single newer iPhone XS but with Android and an older
iPhone 7 there is no issue. Interestingly it is related to something on this particular phone as other colleagues
( and other customers ) with the same model of phone do not have an issue.
Matt

However it's better all round to use DLNA/MPD/Roon/Airplay if possible as these all support much higher resolution playback and do not use compression.

I use MConnect for its Tidal+Qobuz integrtions and Rigelian for SD card playback. However, I use Roon 90% of the time.
Works great.

I use BubbleUpnp with Qobuz or with the SDcard of in my S8.

Hi @mrandery If you don't want to use WiFi then yes the only option would be Bluetooth. However you can still use WiFi on the go (or at home/office if you like) in one of 2 ways. The first is to switch on 2Go's hotspot which will broadcast a WiFi signal that you connect your phone to. The second is to switch on the hotspot mode on your phone and connect 2Go to that instead. Both these options will allow you to use Airplay to stream offline content from Qobuz/Tidal. You can also use it for DLNA/UPnP and in most cases Roon as well. Hope that helps.

I think it’s imagined that there are 2 main use cases.
Use within the home, then 2go is a Roon end point.
Use outside the home, then the sd cards become the music storage and playback is through various other apps.

Try to avoid situation when you listen and charge at the same time when battery is fully discharged. I think these are the only rules to be followed.

I ended up using MAFA on Android as my mpd client.

I use dlna (BubbleUPnP app on Android) to access all my music on Google Drive. On WiFi I have problems playing high-bandwidth files (24-176). That's why I've decided to move to a mesh WiFi. I imagine this would not be a problem with Ethernet.

Hi Doody,
Q: Is there a way to 'reboot' the 2go? To power-cycle it?
MB: Yes there are 2 options:
1. Remove the charger and make sure Hugo2 is switched off. Wait until all the lights go out on 2Go and then switch Hugo back on.
2. Press and hold the config button on the side of 2Go for 5s and this will shut down 2Go completely.
Q: Is 2go working with 2.4 or 5 GHz WiFi? I'm guessing it's just 2.4? If so, why on Earth would you choose not to support 5 as well (it's not about chip costs at these price points)?
MB: 2.4Ghz is still more widely supported than 5Ghz and has better range so is better for portability. For fixed use then Ethernet is available which is always going to outperform WiFi.
Roon requires a lot of bandwidth on your network so if you get the message ‘loading slowly’ it indicates that Roon is struggling to pass the data across your WiFi network. DSD256 is difficult to handle anyway so it does look like your router is not fast enough. It’s one of the reasons we also include Ethernet as another option.
Matt

That's a network issue. Roon is *very* sensitive to network delays. If there is congestion or delays in the network (quite likely over wifi) then Roon will be unhappy.

I generally have no problems but, occasionally, I have seen the slow loading message in Roon and it can be very frustrating when it is persistent.
1) Give your Roon core and the Roon endpoint device - H2Go in this case - the highest priority service under QoP rules if your router has this facility.

This really depends on your router. Some routers will isolate 5Ghz, 2.4GHz and Ethernet so the network messages you need for audio renderers and servers do not get through. Other routers will treat everything as a single network and you can have your phone/computer on 5Ghz and 2Go on 2.4Ghz without any issue at all.

I reset 2Go, deleted & reinstalled Go Figure and started anew.
2Go working seamlessly in all regards.
This is what I’ve been waiting for.

Chord were using these cards
Buying advice

 

[hardinge]

Please please please can chord release a v2 2go with physical buttons. One to switch between connection (ether, wifi, bluetooth, hotspot) and another for play/pause, shuffle SD, next. I've spent far too many hours putting in an ethernet cable and then pulling it out, then putting it back in, then pulling it out. Turning off and then turning on. The auto switching on the 2go doesn't work so please please give us some control (and sanity).

 

[SteveHulk]

Please please please can chord release a v2 2go with physical buttons. One to switch between connection (ether, wifi, bluetooth, hotspot) and another for play/pause, shuffle SD, next. I've spent far too many hours putting in an ethernet cable and then pulling it out, then putting it back in, then pulling it out. Turning off and then turning on. The auto switching on the 2go doesn't work so please please give us some control (and sanity).

I suppose a physical button to switch between connection modes could be possible as an add-on to the 2go.

I think that the other buttons that you require are not possible.

The design paradigm of the 2go is that it hosts an MPD that is controlled over a network by another device. That device provides a screen, gui, and os which is used to view and select the music to be played. That device then sends instructions to the 2go which result in the selected tracks being actually played. As such there is no native support within the 2go for the functions that you describe. For what you describe to be possible the whole design concept of the 2go would have to be ditched and redone from scratch.

What you are describing is essentially a self-contained DAP. The Hugo 2go is simply not a self-contained DAP.

 

[Dalmonegrig]

Please please please can chord release a v2 2go

Let them solve all the problems that arise with v1 2go!

2Go requires a USB pass-through to connect to devices (PC, phone) via USB without having to disconnect 2Go from Hugo 2.

 

[hptubes]

Mid-afternoon yesterday my buddy and I assembled and then listened to two different open baffle speakers that he had built for me for our second home. We used the H2Go wirelessly to listen to Airplayed Pandora and Tidal via my iphone's apps for most of the time we were assembling the speakers--probably 3 hours in total. I don't recall any issues, and both devices were connected via my Orbi network. No popping/clicking (which I've never gotten), and no drop outs in play (which I have gotten from the beginning periodically). In fairness, there was very little other network activity for that time as my wife and kids weren't with us, so no TVs, no PS4, etc. Nest cameras, garage door opener, and Hue lights would have been connected. I'm getting about 150 mbps there. I do NOT have Roon running there at the moment.

Then last night, my buddy and I did a dac shootout in my main home. It was right after i took the speed test from my phone, and posted to this thread the 200 mbps speed at the time. Other than the Rossini (which is directly connected to the network through my Antipodes stack via ethernet, and controlled via Roon), the rest of the dacs were not online aside from the Chord. We used Roon to stream a number of local and Qobuz/Tidal tracks to a total of 7 dacs. We connected the Chord wirelessly with the H2Go which is my normal usage of this device. The rest of the DACs (again, aside from the Rossini), were fed the audio signal via a coax cable out of the Antipodes stack.

As expected (by me), Roon itself did pretty well across the couple of hour period, giving the slow Qobuz loading error 1-2 times, but as a new song was loading. With all dacs except the H2Go, this was ok as it happened as we switched to new tracks and only for a brief second. Again, it was very sporadic.

But yes, you guessed it, when we did the Chord Hugo2/2Go testing, we got pauses in play in the middle of the 3rd song, even with no upsampling/high-rez files. No popping/clicking, but the usual song delay dropouts many have experienced with regular use, in the middle of the track. It required hitting play again.

This doesn't prove anything new, just re-confirming the behavior in my two networks.

 

[LCMusicLover]

Gets lost in all the ‘connectivity pain’, but just want to reiterate how great this thing sounds if you can get it to play music. Utopia, Auteur, Hedd, RAD-0, HEKse, all well-driven w/ sonic character retained. Even plenty of juice for Hedd (between green & blue volume).

Also, I had the GoFigure-won’t-connect problem from my iPad last night. Sees the device and when you select it it starts connecting, but then the progress bar never progresses. ‘Forget this device’ solved the problem again.

 

[tret]

Agreed, it sounds great and with some effort and the right wireless setup it can be rock solid. In my case, I have a Ubiquiti Unifi network w/ 3x access points and have done the following to get a near perfect solution (solid 99% of the time).

• Restricted access to the 2.4Ghz radio to my Chord 2Go, all other devices (~25 or so) in my household are on 5Ghz. Doing this reduces 2.4Ghz congestion and interference.
• Surveyed the neighbor's wireless networks and set my 2.4Ghz network to the channel w/ the fewest number of networks. This also helps reduce congestion and interference.
• I noticed that automatic access point switching (as I move around the house) can cause streams to pause or stop so I disabled my 2.4Ghz network on all but the access point closest to my home office, which is where I spend > 90% of my time listening.

Having established the above and achieving good success I decided to add Mojo+Poly for a pocketable option allowing me to wander around the house doing stuff while listening. I created another 2.4Ghz network and enabled it on the central most access point in my home for the Poly. With this, my 2Go and Poly are on separate access points and 2.4Ghz channels. Without having to worry about Access Point switching I'm able to go anywhere in my home with solid Roon streaming to my Poly.

Again, it can require some effort and consideration to get a solid solution but once there it's awesome.

 

[enragedlemon]

Agreed, it sounds great and with some effort and the right wireless setup it can be rock solid. In my case, I have a Ubiquiti Unifi network w/ 3x access points and have done the following to get a near perfect solution (solid 99% of the time).

• Restricted access to the 2.4Ghz radio to my Chord 2Go, all other devices (~25 or so) in my household are on 5Ghz. Doing this reduces 2.4Ghz congestion and interference.
• Surveyed the neighbor's wireless networks and set my 2.4Ghz network to the channel w/ the fewest number of networks. This also helps reduce congestion and interference.
• I noticed that automatic access point switching (as I move around the house) can cause streams to pause or stop so I disabled my 2.4Ghz network on all but the access point closest to my home office, which is where I spend > 90% of my time listening.

Having established the above and achieving good success I decided to add Mojo+Poly for a pocketable option allowing me to wander around the house doing stuff while listening. I created another 2.4Ghz network and enabled it on the central most access point in my home for the Poly. With this, my 2Go and Poly are on separate access points and 2.4Ghz channels. Without having to worry about Access Point switching I'm able to go anywhere in my home with solid Roon streaming to my Poly.

Again, it can require some effort and consideration to get a solid solution but once there it's awesome.

This essentially echoed my experience with the 2Go as well. The only issue is that in an older house (better built, denser materials) getting consistent coverage is a lot more challenging. When I returned my 2Go and got the FiiO M15 (still awaiting a loner 2go unit to do more testing) I noticed there were some pretty weak zones in the house from where I had to put the APs to accommodate the 2Go. I put everything back into my original arrangement and that problem was solved.

However, it did give me enough to go on to make a sound hypothesis about what may be causing the issues with the 2Go. Based on what we know (the speeds people have reported from from their access points to the 2Go) the wireless chip on the 2Go is one of:

• An OG 802.11n chip supporting a single antenna, limited to ~72Mbps.
• Is a newer chip but it’s more power efficient to just run in this manner.
• Has a compatibility issues with some networks which is resulting in a connection at the lowest-common denominator (a single stream like the first two points).

Firstly I just want to say that none of the above inherently mean that Chord have skimped out or cut corners. Secondly, we are likely only to get an answer about the above if someone from Chord officially responds or someone does a teardown. On to the point, this is a sensible target speed as the stated PCM limit of the 2Go only gets up to ~50Mbps which will more-or less fit into at standard 72Mbps connection (accounting for overheads). Realistically most users won’t listen to music that gets anywhere near that high.

The problem comes when signal strength becomes weaker. There are places in my house that my iPhone 11 Pro and FiiO M15 (and my Hiby R3, and $20 streamer box) work fine where the 2Go did not. When I checked those device connections I did notice degradation in signal quality and connection speed, but as they all connect at much higher speeds (5Ghz, larger band widths, newer protocols, more antennas, etc) they continue to work as normal. The M15 is the perfect example as it’s internal configuration limits it to 2 antennas at ~150Mbps combined and in these weak spots it was still hitting 50Mbps no problems! The 2go however reported under 10Mbps and sometimes lost connection all together. If you take a look in the Chord 2Go manual it makes reference about having a 10m wireless range. I always thought that odd and a likely understatement, but there may be some truth in it for those with larger spaces, older walls, urban density issues, etc. It also means that there are those who aren’t as bothered by those things may never run into issues.

Again, we really, really need Chord to give an official response of some kind other than ‘please contact support’. I have contacted support on a number of occasions for both my (now returned) Poly and 2go and I have to say the experience has been inconsistent at best. This isn’t a COVID problem as it has been going on long before that, though I suspect lockdown hasn’t helped. Head-Fi (thread like this in particular) are incredibly valuable resources for companies like Chord. People here tend to be engaging (either for or against) and moderation means it doesn’t turn into a Facebook comments section. I do not understand the assertion from those on here that we should feel lucky that Chord engages with us on here. Chord is a company that relies on goodwill to sell its products. We are the customers and would-be brand ambassadors. Being in regular contact on here makes good business sense. I noticed a chat in another forum where iFi dropped in randomly to engage. That is good stuff! Chord’s recent radio silence punctuated only by messages either trivialising people’s concerns (suggesting we just plug in the cable) or being downright rude (John) are unhelpful.

This is an expensive device with so much potential (i.e. sound quality when working) so I would expect more public work to try and resolve issues. I would really like to buy one again as the sound and would-be convenience are fantastic. However, as I have said before, how this has been handled in the wider sense has given me some serious second thoughts.

 

[jonnyt]

This essentially echoed my experience with the 2Go as well. The only issue is that in an older house (better built, denser materials) getting consistent coverage is a lot more challenging. When I returned my 2Go and got the FiiO M15 (still awaiting a loner 2go unit to do more testing) I noticed there were some pretty weak zones in the house from where I had to put the APs to accommodate the 2Go. I put everything back into my original arrangement and that problem was solved.

However, it did give me enough to go on to make a sound hypothesis about what may be causing the issues with the 2Go. Based on what we know (the speeds people have reported from from their access points to the 2Go) the wireless chip on the 2Go is one of:

• An OG 802.11n chip supporting a single antenna, limited to ~72Mbps.
• Is a newer chip but it’s more power efficient to just run in this manner.
• Has a compatibility issues with some networks which is resulting in a connection at the lowest-common denominator (a single stream like the first two points).

Firstly I just want to say that none of the above inherently mean that Chord have skimped out or cut corners. Secondly, we are likely only to get an answer about the above if someone from Chord officially responds or someone does a teardown. On to the point, this is a sensible target speed as the stated PCM limit of the 2Go only gets up to ~50Mbps which will more-or less fit into at standard 72Mbps connection (accounting for overheads). Realistically most users won’t listen to music that gets anywhere near that high.

The problem comes when signal strength becomes weaker. There are places in my house that my iPhone 11 Pro and FiiO M15 (and my Hiby R3, and $20 streamer box) work fine where the 2Go did not. When I checked those device connections I did notice degradation in signal quality and connection speed, but as they all connect at much higher speeds (5Ghz, larger band widths, newer protocols, more antennas, etc) they continue to work as normal. The M15 is the perfect example as it’s internal configuration limits it to 2 antennas at ~150Mbps combined and in these weak spots it was still hitting 50Mbps no problems! The 2go however reported under 10Mbps and sometimes lost connection all together. If you take a look in the Chord 2Go manual it makes reference about having a 10m wireless range. I always thought that odd and a likely understatement, but there may be some truth in it for those with larger spaces, older walls, urban density issues, etc. It also means that there are those who aren’t as bothered by those things may never run into issues.

Again, we really, really need Chord to give an official response of some kind other than ‘please contact support’. I have contacted support on a number of occasions for both my (now returned) Poly and 2go and I have to say the experience has been inconsistent at best. This isn’t a COVID problem as it has been going on long before that, though I suspect lockdown hasn’t helped. Head-Fi (thread like this in particular) are incredibly valuable resources for companies like Chord. People here tend to be engaging (either for or against) and moderation means it doesn’t turn into a Facebook comments section. I do not understand the assertion from those on here that we should feel lucky that Chord engages with us on here. Chord is a company that relies on goodwill to sell its products. We are the customers and would-be brand ambassadors. Being in regular contact on here makes good business sense. I noticed a chat in another forum where iFi dropped in randomly to engage. That is good stuff! Chord’s recent radio silence punctuated only by messages either trivialising people’s concerns (suggesting we just plug in the cable) or being downright rude (John) are unhelpful.

This is an expensive device with so much potential (i.e. sound quality when working) so I would expect more public work to try and resolve issues. I would really like to buy one again as the sound and would-be convenience are fantastic. However, as I have said before, how this has been handled in the wider sense has given me some serious second thoughts.

This 1000 times!

My exact suspicion is that the wifi chip is the cheap one referenced earlier in the thread and basically nopes out as soon as the wifi connection becomes less than perfect, where more modern wifi chips (in our phones, laptops, tablets etc) are fully capable of maintaining a solid connection when wifi signal strength drops below 100%

This is the only way I can explain why some people seem to have no problems (they are lucky and have ideal wifi networks where their 2go has constant access to a full strength signal) and some of us get intermittent problems (because we occasionally have ideal wifi but often the signal strength drops to 90%, 80% strength and the 2go says "no")

It would really be great to get Chord to confirm what the wifi chip in the 2go is and what its capabilities are to put this issue to rest.

@Matt Bartlett any chance of official word from Chord on the wifi chip to put us all out of our misery?

 

[Dalmonegrig]

Note that devices in the 2.4 GHz band may automatically prefer the 20 MHz channel as required by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Since most smartphones and tablets are equipped with 1x1 Wi-Fi adapters, in this case they will connect at speeds up to 72 Mbps and their real Internet access speed will not exceed 40 Mbps.
Actual Wi ‐ Fi speed varies depending on the number of devices, their distance from the router and interference.
In the 2.4 GHz band, microwave ovens, baby monitors, and other (neighboring) networks interfere most of all - in such conditions, we recommend setting the channel width to 20 MHz and dynamic auto-channel selection in the Wi-Fi router settings.
For critical connections, use the less congested 5 GHz band, but keep in mind that the signal range is physically shorter and is weakened by any obstacles.
The IEEE 802.11n standard allows you to use an open network or a WPA2 AES secured network (set by default). Selecting WEP or WPA security will reduce the maximum wireless speed to 54 Mbps.

 

[hptubes]

Agreed, it sounds great and with some effort and the right wireless setup it can be rock solid. In my case, I have a Ubiquiti Unifi network w/ 3x access points and have done the following to get a near perfect solution (solid 99% of the time).

• Restricted access to the 2.4Ghz radio to my Chord 2Go, all other devices (~25 or so) in my household are on 5Ghz. Doing this reduces 2.4Ghz congestion and interference.
• Surveyed the neighbor's wireless networks and set my 2.4Ghz network to the channel w/ the fewest number of networks. This also helps reduce congestion and interference.
• I noticed that automatic access point switching (as I move around the house) can cause streams to pause or stop so I disabled my 2.4Ghz network on all but the access point closest to my home office, which is where I spend > 90% of my time listening.

Having established the above and achieving good success I decided to add Mojo+Poly for a pocketable option allowing me to wander around the house doing stuff while listening. I created another 2.4Ghz network and enabled it on the central most access point in my home for the Poly. With this, my 2Go and Poly are on separate access points and 2.4Ghz channels. Without having to worry about Access Point switching I'm able to go anywhere in my home with solid Roon streaming to my Poly.

Again, it can require some effort and consideration to get a solid solution but once there it's awesome.

Are you getting DSD-level streaming to work with no issues then, I assume?

 

[gryffe]

Am I cracking up or have some posts been culled today?

 

[tret]

Am I cracking up or have some posts been culled today?

yeah, some were definitely removed. I think it’s @radnor’s fault