There is no sonic difference. To my experience WASAPI was a bit more stable. ASIO crashed more often. As far as I know Chord favours ASIO. There is no meaningful difference imo.
Chord Electronics - Hugo 2 - The Official Thread
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Great stuff. Figured as much. I'm using ASIO, but I've also used WASAPI on Hugo 2 and have not noticed a difference either.
Amberlamps
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Ah but, Asio can do 512 DSD whilst Wasapi is limited to 256 DSD.
It’s a useless piece of info, but knowing headfi, some dude will have converted his entire library of mp3’s to dsd 512.
Amberlamps
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How much of your library is 256 DSD, honestly. Not to mention 512.
I am an old ass old school audiophile who refuses to join this streaming madness. 90% of my library is FLAC and I am happy.
Like using 8K video format to copy a jpeg image. Once an MP3, always an MP3 no matter how one wraps it.
I buy some of my tracks from NativeDSD. If they say originally mastered or recorded in 256, I buy 256. Only one time did I buy something without reading onward for it's pedegry. I bought a DSD128 file only to later read that it was originally 24/96.
Amberlamps
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I have about 15 dsd tracks, test tracks of all different dsd formats, last week I decided to play one of them and each time I did it locked up roon.
After anout 5 minutes of wondering What is happening, I went to go find said track in my library, I found it and also found the answer to what is making roon lock up.
The track was 3 gigabytes, What, had I known the size of it, no way would of I downloaded that schiit.
Was it a single file?
Amberlamps
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Yup, there was 3 files that were 1 and a half gig, another just over 2gig and a 3gig one.
GreenBow
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I still unplug my Hugo 2 power now and again and allow it to run on battery.
Hooster
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I am over all that. Tidal is my choice and the reason is that it is good.
Audirvana here. I currently have both Qobuz and Tidal, but the Qobuz windows app misbehaved when changing sampling rates with Mojo and so I swallowed the £67 Audirvana Windows license cost. I must say, it's really annoying Windows and Mac have separate licenses/you can't transfer them...
Would recommend Audirvana nevertheless.
GreenBow
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There's been the odd comment recently about the Hugo 2; saying it's bright, lean, or harsh.
I want to address this from my point of view. Honesly I can't find any cause for concern with the Hugo 2, and don't agree with these criticisms.
To quote What HiFi:
"With Hugo 2 incorporated into our Naim/Gamut/ATC reference system as both DAC and pre-amplifier, the story is the same. Ours is a system that’s intended to make a product’s shortcomings obvious, but in the case of the Chord it simply gets on with the job in the same clear, frank and casually spectacular manner it does when driving a pair of headphones."
In other words they have a system designed to trip up equipment. The Hugo 2 passed cleanly.
I know there are people that say, What HiFi and the rest are garbage. However every single pro-reviewer of the Hugo 2 and Qutest say the same. ...I agree with them. Even my modest system shows the Hugo 2 to be neutral, just naturally warm but not warm. I know my speakers don't go all the way down and I lose the bottom two octaves and maybe a bit more. However I mentally compensate for that. Also my amplifier will have some roll off too. I compensate again, in what I should expect.
Yet my Hugo 2 never lets me down. Sometimes it sound a little bright, and sometimes a bit warm and bassy. It depends on the source music, (and sometimes my mood). ......... Furthermore, to make matters worse for me, I am less than 1m from my speakers, which are on my desk. It means somehow that the bass signature doesn't quite get to form. If I roll back another 0.5m, all the bass fills in that bit more. Then it sounds like hifi. If I sit even further back, it sounds like a hifi still, and even off axis.
Considering my system should sound bass light, it really doesn't. It just sounds right wherever I listen to it. I know I miss the bottom end of my bass, as my speakers are specced down to 50Hz. I know it also because my AKG N40 go all the way down. Meaning I hear stuff on my N40, that I don't hear on my speakers. However the N40 and my speaker are similar in all but that bass response.
Again, quoting What HiFi:
From one extreme of the frequency range to the other, the Chord is a smoothly neutral listen – it doesn’t overstate, it doesn’t underplay. It simply arranges the pieces into a convincing whole where bass is balanced against treble in the most unforced and crystal-clear manner.
This is what I hear.
The HiFi Choice review of the Qutest also stuns me. It talks about the tonality of the Qutest being right. (Meaning no leanness.) Going from the Hugo 2, I agree. I find the Hugo 2 amazingly well rounded.
However I acknowledge that people are comparing the Hugo TT2 to the Hugo 2 and finding the TT2 warmer and bassier, and I assume a bit thicker sound. (Thicker is what some said of the TT anyway.) Well I would expect some of that added warmth from the TT2 without supercaps. Basically because I actually find the Hugo 2 feels warmer than the Mojo. I know that flies in the face of many an opinion, but I can explain why. There is more detail on the Hugo 2, so there is more in the warm region to 'latch on to'.
Finally though, the argument against much thicker sounding DACs. When I went from Meridian Explorer to Mojo for desktop DAC, I thought I missed the ME thick sound. It was only when I realised that the Mojo sounded right and balanced in its own right, that I relaxed. I know that Mojo or Hugo 2, if they could have added supercaps, would sound fuller. However criticising Hugo 2 for not having supercaps, is kind of arrogant. The Mojo and Hugo 2 are almost works of art in their own categories. The extra final fullness is not needed to have them sound complete. It's only when you either more, or view them from a TT2 perspective, that they are not complete. Yet they are in their own right.
It reminds me of a What HiFi review of the Focal Utopia. They said something like this, when comparing the Sennheiser HD800s, and the Beyerdynamic T1 2nd gen, to the Utopia. The HD800S and the T1 2nd gen, sounded a bit grainy compared to the pristine Utopia. When in any other setting they were not grainy headphones. Meaning - they did not insult the lesser headphones. They made constructive comparisons.
That's a difference to what we hear recently in the Hugo 2 thread. Suddenly we are supposed to think the Hugo 2 is flawed - left, right, and centre. However it's not. It's class leading across the world and rightly so. .. Some folk say adding an M-Scaler, adds some warmth and more detail; among many other mind-blowing statements. That's OK. We can relate to that. However saying the mighty Hugo 2 is somehow evidently and clearly flawed makes no sense to what I hear.
It's also a bit patronising. Some folk out there won't even earn $1 today. Please then be constructive. Don't diss other peoples' lesser stuff, in a non-constructive way.
I want to address this from my point of view. Honesly I can't find any cause for concern with the Hugo 2, and don't agree with these criticisms.
To quote What HiFi:
"With Hugo 2 incorporated into our Naim/Gamut/ATC reference system as both DAC and pre-amplifier, the story is the same. Ours is a system that’s intended to make a product’s shortcomings obvious, but in the case of the Chord it simply gets on with the job in the same clear, frank and casually spectacular manner it does when driving a pair of headphones."
In other words they have a system designed to trip up equipment. The Hugo 2 passed cleanly.
I know there are people that say, What HiFi and the rest are garbage. However every single pro-reviewer of the Hugo 2 and Qutest say the same. ...I agree with them. Even my modest system shows the Hugo 2 to be neutral, just naturally warm but not warm. I know my speakers don't go all the way down and I lose the bottom two octaves and maybe a bit more. However I mentally compensate for that. Also my amplifier will have some roll off too. I compensate again, in what I should expect.
Yet my Hugo 2 never lets me down. Sometimes it sound a little bright, and sometimes a bit warm and bassy. It depends on the source music, (and sometimes my mood). ......... Furthermore, to make matters worse for me, I am less than 1m from my speakers, which are on my desk. It means somehow that the bass signature doesn't quite get to form. If I roll back another 0.5m, all the bass fills in that bit more. Then it sounds like hifi. If I sit even further back, it sounds like a hifi still, and even off axis.
Considering my system should sound bass light, it really doesn't. It just sounds right wherever I listen to it. I know I miss the bottom end of my bass, as my speakers are specced down to 50Hz. I know it also because my AKG N40 go all the way down. Meaning I hear stuff on my N40, that I don't hear on my speakers. However the N40 and my speaker are similar in all but that bass response.
Again, quoting What HiFi:
From one extreme of the frequency range to the other, the Chord is a smoothly neutral listen – it doesn’t overstate, it doesn’t underplay. It simply arranges the pieces into a convincing whole where bass is balanced against treble in the most unforced and crystal-clear manner.
This is what I hear.
The HiFi Choice review of the Qutest also stuns me. It talks about the tonality of the Qutest being right. (Meaning no leanness.) Going from the Hugo 2, I agree. I find the Hugo 2 amazingly well rounded.
However I acknowledge that people are comparing the Hugo TT2 to the Hugo 2 and finding the TT2 warmer and bassier, and I assume a bit thicker sound. (Thicker is what some said of the TT anyway.) Well I would expect some of that added warmth from the TT2 without supercaps. Basically because I actually find the Hugo 2 feels warmer than the Mojo. I know that flies in the face of many an opinion, but I can explain why. There is more detail on the Hugo 2, so there is more in the warm region to 'latch on to'.
Finally though, the argument against much thicker sounding DACs. When I went from Meridian Explorer to Mojo for desktop DAC, I thought I missed the ME thick sound. It was only when I realised that the Mojo sounded right and balanced in its own right, that I relaxed. I know that Mojo or Hugo 2, if they could have added supercaps, would sound fuller. However criticising Hugo 2 for not having supercaps, is kind of arrogant. The Mojo and Hugo 2 are almost works of art in their own categories. The extra final fullness is not needed to have them sound complete. It's only when you either more, or view them from a TT2 perspective, that they are not complete. Yet they are in their own right.
It reminds me of a What HiFi review of the Focal Utopia. They said something like this, when comparing the Sennheiser HD800s, and the Beyerdynamic T1 2nd gen, to the Utopia. The HD800S and the T1 2nd gen, sounded a bit grainy compared to the pristine Utopia. When in any other setting they were not grainy headphones. Meaning - they did not insult the lesser headphones. They made constructive comparisons.
That's a difference to what we hear recently in the Hugo 2 thread. Suddenly we are supposed to think the Hugo 2 is flawed - left, right, and centre. However it's not. It's class leading across the world and rightly so. .. Some folk say adding an M-Scaler, adds some warmth and more detail; among many other mind-blowing statements. That's OK. We can relate to that. However saying the mighty Hugo 2 is somehow evidently and clearly flawed makes no sense to what I hear.
It's also a bit patronising. Some folk out there won't even earn $1 today. Please then be constructive. Don't diss other peoples' lesser stuff, in a non-constructive way.
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I agree hugo 2 is complete and world leading unto itself. I also agree that because higher level dacs are warmer and more "fuller" and more complete in their presentation when comparing to hugo 2 this does not in any way diminish the beauty and totality of hugo 2. But the truth is after adding the mscaler i am hearing things i never heard with hugo 2 solo. Especially things like finer micro/macro detail, reverb in human vocals, ridiculously enhanced sound stage. As Rob said qutest and hugo 2 benefit enormously from the mscaler. I'm now listening to a 1000,000 tap dac. So my conclusion therefore is that even though a solitary hugo 2 is complete this does not mean the experience can't be seriously enhanced. Hugo 2 is not flawed that is complete nonsense. It's a show stopper. Does the mscaler seriously enhance the musicality of hugo 2? Yes. Is the TT2 a significant step up from hugo 2? Yes. Is Hugo 2 compromised by all the developments? Of course not. In fact throw me a lush hugo1 and take all my gear away and i'm still a happy headf'ier.
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