I am a fan of the products developed by Rob Watts. It's been 6 years that I'm waiting to use some Dave's features. This is intended to operate with one or more DX amps. 2 years ago, Rob Watts announced its DX amp for in 3 years. So I went to choose an Ultima 6 amp in the meantime and I will never regret it because at least I can listen to my 805d4 with a dynamic and control of the bass frequences that few setup can reproduce.
As good as it is the Dave, it took me 6 years to find a Streamer who did not send noise to the 220V and therefore did not kill the quality of the Dave, HMS, Blue2 or TT2.
The solution was provided by Chord with the 2GO2YU.
Many users of DAC Chord are struggling to identify and solve noise problems on the 220V.
When buying the Dave, I have never imagined that this problem will also be prominent and my conversations with Rob Watts showed me that he had not met them and that I had to conduct my own investigation. Then started the ferrite festival.
When buying the Mojo, it was quickly demonstrated that the incoming noise in the USB interface was calamity. The solution also came from Chord with the poly. Jitterbug was only a plaster on a wooden leg.
I had the opportunity to listen to the loss of transparency attributable to the use of the Ultima preamp. If indeed it is minimal and undeniable, the benefit of a quality 220V cable placed on an Ultima amp is much larger. It is easy to speak theoretically in the absolute of certain aspects but evaluate them by relativizing them with other aspects is much more difficult.
It may seem strange that, which for you is second-class products, represents some solutions for me.
Ditto. I'm glad we have that in common. I'm more into his philosophy because products come and go. Yes, I noticed your DX amp posts at the very beginnings of the Watt's Up post. I hope you are the first or very first ones to be able to pre-order the DX amp. As a past owner of B&W 800 non-diamond series, I hope you are enjoying your 805d4. I recently noticed a pair in a Hans Zimmer Masterclass video. You should try Rob Watt's solid core solution with a TT2 as that can be vital for analogue:
That way, you will have the closest emulation to Rob Watt's chain.
But we have to rationally separate as Ultima amps are legacy Chord products. The amps Rob Watts is designing are no where near production although I read he had some breakthroughs. But we still have to logically separate that Ultima and Anni do not adhere to Rob Watt's philosophy. They can be considered like any random high-end amp branded product. I know it's hard because hard earned money is spent on these products that have a Chord logo. But it's naive to lump them together with Rob Watt's philosophy of products. They're completely different entities.
Same thing with the 2Go. I'm glad it's working out for you mainly due to it's decoupling effect. I'm a big fan of decoupling and the low noise floor that it provides. Many Chord users will never experience this effect. They rather double down and not evolve rather than keep an open mind. So I'm glad you kept an open mind after 6 years and found your solution. Be happy with it. Don't mind me, I'm eccentric.
I started on this site over 20 years ago trying to convince posters to switch to FLAC from MP3 back in the day. But in order to play FLAC on a first generation iPod, you needed to hack the operating system. Very few would go to that extent thus not being able to enjoy the benefits of FLAC. So I don't expect people to go to extremes.
Fortunately, FLAC ignited an explosion in portable audio products so general users don't need to go to such extremes. I'm always shocked when I see devices support FLAC because it used to be only for Purists / Enthusiasts. I'm glad it caught on. We are not there yet though with Music Streamers and Passive Power Supplies.
Most will never experience a proper source in the prime of their Chord DAC. They rather wait for the next DAC upgrade and expect the DAC to work miracles. Being a pragmatic realist, it doesn't work out that way. It's GIGO. You can't expect the DAC to spit out magic. Source matters, there's a whole industry dedicated to sources. You won't find good source solutions on this site, you need to go to the hardcore Music source sites. It's caveman sources on this site. Since you have been around, if you ever wondered where your Chord colleagues went, they grativated to other sites because it's so basic here on sources.
Here, it's how to connect Apple devices or a FOTM commercial streamer is the biggest worry. Commercial streamers you cannot install audio-specific operating systems and thus provide no value. They only contain a general-purpose OS unless you spend over $10k.
You also need to separate the expertise. While Rob Watts is the expertise on the DAC design, you can't expect him also to the expert on the Headphone design and the Source design. I treat these as three separate black boxes thus requiring three separate solutions. There are experts on other sites on source design.
The 2Go is headed in the right direction. It utilises better playback software than subpar Android / iOS playback software. It's important to remember Chord didn't invent this playback software. It's always been available, some for over 20 years. I remembered they try to market their Wireless products like they had invented this software and re-invented the wheel. Chord users drooled over that Marketing. To find the optimal solution, you can't fall in love with the Chord brand. It's much more easier if you can detach that it's not a Rob Watt's product.
For the 2Go, when I look at the hardware and the battery, it checks no boxes. Not performance hardware, not performance low impedance battery. When I look at the operating system and the playback software, it checks no boxes. It's just a generic OS. Audiophile Quiet USB port? No. It's just a generic USB port.
Plus, I like value so I see no value in the 2Go. It's like a few hundred in hardware that would never meet my standards and the rest is markup. For Hugo₂, I see value as it can compete with $7000 DACs when it launched. But 2Go, no value unless you can justify for convenience. But as a stay put Music Streamer, there are more robust options.
I can see value in that it decouples from Mains. Powering sources with Batteries or SuperCaps is a dealbreaker, so if I didn't have a solution then I may have considered the 2Go. I would never use a Mains source regardless of price.
That was one of my objectives, to get that black low noise floor background. Not possible without decoupling. To do a USB source right, you need Passive Power, Audiophile OS, and an Audiophile USB port. It's not easy. Fortunately SPDIF doesn't need a complication like an Audiophile USB port, so it's more straight forward.
2Go also has a sporadic Software Architecture. Some random software breaking from time to time. Bad Wifi HW. But again, if I didn't have my own Battery solutions it may draw interest as decoupling from Mains is priority.
So I can see why the 2Go would draw interest due to its decoupling capabilities.
But since I'm able to power a source with more horsepower and versatility, I just see the 2Go as negative expected value. I just see it as a high markup product that values in the few hundred range. Counter that with a battery-powered NUC that when you add a proper Audiophile OS, it rivals $7500 Commercial Streamers. It's just unfortunate NUCs don't have a proper Audiophile USB port. Difficult, but not impossible to install one. Add in the USB optical to decouple and you have the potential of a really good Music source for the price of a 2Go. There are commercial NUCs available for $5000 too, but why when you can build yourself something better at the price of a 2Go. If you have the knowledge to build, you can avoid high markup products.
So for the same price as a 2Go, would I want 2Go that provides a negative expected value less than it's actual retail price or would I want a more robust solution the same price as the 2Go that gives a positive expected value of $7500? With battery, positive expected value of $10,000. Similar to Rob Watt's solution, spend $500 on solid core wiring. Build yourself and it arguably has a positive expected value of $5000. If I spend that $500, and it has a negative expected value of just a few hundred it just doesn't make sense to me.
I'll try to add more on a Source Take posts. I'm almost out of energy here, so just a few more posts then I'm out until Hugo₃.
But just enjoy the 2Go. Music source's are rabbit holes that take a lot of dedication. I did mine during the Pandemic and I'm not sure if I would be as dedicated without a Pandemic.
For example, I can easily build something that rivals $10,000 commerical streamers for the price of a 2Go. The trick is the Audiophile OS which propels it into the >$7500 category. And since it's battery-powered and I can bridge and stack battery power supplies for longer hours, it's very much preferred over commerical offerings. Especially since there are genuine reports of expensive Mains Streamers being noisy beast. And it's understandable, that's why I want nothing to do with Mains Sources.
The NUC is also much more versatile. I can replace the RAM with Industrial RAM which has a positive aspect on SQ. I can also install MacOS w/ Audirvana on the NUC. So I can do RAM playback only via Audirvana on Industrial Quality RAM for that extra special SQ. I can also boot into Windows if I need the native Chord drivers. But preferably it boots into my Audiophile OS which propels it into the expensive Commercial Streamer territory.
With the 2Go, it's a blackbox you can't do much with and at the mercy of it's hardware.
With USB optical, the NUC is a wonderful solution for Hugo₂ users. The only thing holding it back is an Audiophile USB port which I haven't tackled the issue yet. But with my SPDIF source, I don't really have much of an incentive now. But a battery-powered NUC / USB optical is a good backup plan and for general use. If I had a Table Top, then I have to consider more extreme builds but I haven't experimented using Passive Power yet to those solutions. The Taiko power supply costs about the same as the 2Go, so it's such a rabbit hole. And it will likely not beat my State of the Art Oscillator SPDIF, so very difficult to justify a build.
That's why it's difficult to justify a 2Go when you can get so much more positive expected value at the same price for other battery-powered solutions. But these are for extreme cases in which one has the battery-powered option, 99% do not so 2Go seems like a logical gravitation if you are not aware of other battery-powered solutions. It's like if you can't hack your own OS to play FLAC, it's better to just stay put and not explore other options. It's such a rabbit hole and a grind. Well worth it, but it takes a lot of discipline. Maybe one day it will become more mainstream.
There's even a Mac Mini being released this week and reports are you can reduce it's size 80%. Now if you can power with 12V batteries, that can work too. Although, no Audiophile OS is compat it still has value over a 2Go if you can passively power.
