[Deftone]

Ambient noise when listening to open back headphones can instantly kill the bass, even with closed back it has an impact. its why you will find a lot of earphones have a boosted bass to compensate. 
 
Maybe they should do these shows with dedicated soundproof cubicles 

 

 

[Rob Watts]

 

Had a quick listen to the production Hugo2 at today's Headroom show in Chiswick, London, and had the opportunity to very briefly a/b it with the Hugo1. Headphones were Focal Utopia. Source was Astell & Kern via optical. Music was Diana Krall. Ambient noise was, as usual, not ideal.

Quick impressions were that physically the Hugo 2 looked and felt pretty good. With Hugo1 I might have preferred black to the silver model, but with Hugo2 I preferred silver. The effect of the filters is thankfully quite subtle, with the rolloff moving from white to green being barely noticable (at least with the mild ambient noise around me). I didn't listen long or too critically to the mojo filters but there was definitely more weight and punch. All filters had more authority than Hugo1 - I don't think many will be describing Hugo2 is lean-sounding (not that I felt that way about Hugo1). I couldn't with any certainty say that I could hear more detail or transparency - I found it difficult to break down what the differences were - but did feel Hugo2 portrayed Diana Krall more convincingly (perhaps more organically).

Chord reps told me that Hugo2 (and Poly) would be available from an unspecified date in April, and that the Poly-equivalent for Hugo2 would appear later this year (with one or two unspecified extra features over the Mojo-Poly).

For those in or around London, the show continues tomorrow at the Metropolis Recoding Studio.

Sigh. That's exactly what I feared. I acknowledge it's a fine line between too subtle and overblown, but not sure why we should be thankful for "barely noticeable" differences.

 
Actually I am surprised that white to green with 44.1 would be audible at all under show conditions - it is not a big change, but is more noticeable and useful with 96 K or 192 K. But the real big step is when you replace the 256 FS WTA2 filter with the linear interpolation filter (orange or red) - so using only  the WTA1 16FS filter - then that is not a subtle or hard to hear jump.
 
Rob

 

[flyte3333]

   
Then could it just simply be an issue of misnomers being used to market the Hugo 2? The way I see it, you could simply rename the "Hugo" filter to the "reference" filter, and all will be good.

 
I think it's called 'Ultimate Reference' already: http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/product/hugo-2/
 
It's in brackets next to the Hugo name though but it's clear that it's the reference filter I think?
 
Although Rob prefers Green 'HF Rolloff' for 96 and 192 music.
 
I think all the confusion will end once we get our hands on it (either in a shop demo or after a purchase) and just pick the filter we like.

 

[Deftone]

   
Actually I am surprised that white to green with 44.1 would be audible at all under show conditions - it is not a big change, but is more noticeable and useful with 96 K or 192 K. But the real big step is when you replace the 256 FS WTA2 filter with the linear interpolation filter (orange or red) - so using only  the WTA1 16FS filter - then that is not a subtle or hard to hear jump.
 
Rob

 
As somone who has used Mojo pretty much since launch i cannot wait to hear this white filter on Hugo 2 for metal.

 

[DoctaCosmos]

I think it's called 'Ultimate Reference' already: http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/product/hugo-2/

It's in brackets next to the Hugo name though but it's clear that it's the reference filter I think?

Although Rob prefers Green 'HF Rolloff' for 96 and 192 music.

I think all the confusion will end once we get our hands on it (either in a shop demo or after a purchase) and just pick the filter we like.

In show conditions it was hard to really tell exactly what the differences were. I mean it was obvious there were differences but my brain told me the only logical way to tell what one I liked more was to just relax and see what one seemed more musical.. I reverted to the white one easily every time. Granted I was only listening to tidal and not 96 or higher where green would have come to play

 

[Christer]

  Ambient noise when listening to open back headphones can instantly kill the bass, even with closed back it has an impact. its why you will find a lot of earphones have a boosted bass to compensate. 
 
Maybe they should do these shows with dedicated soundproof cubicles 

 

Show conditions are  normally more or less absolutely  useless for hearing how good or not good a  new product sounds.
I have not been to an audio show for many years for that reason.
I was tempted to visit Canjam in Singapore since I was nearby, but  I stayed on the beach a couple of days more instead.
I would even say that most shops  are too noisy to do any serious listening apart from the fact that they almost invariably play unsuitable low res material  anyway.
In Asia where I spend my winters there are only a few shops that will allow you to listen under reasonably good conditions.
I have yet to find one with sound isolated cubicles there.
When I auditioned DAVE I did get a room for myself for a couple of hours though. And one of the dedicated headphones dealers  in KL has  a storage room where one can turn of the A/C  and listen in peace and quiet away from all ambient noise.
Try listening to a symphonic  ppp even via headphones with A/C on.
 
Jaben in Singapore is very noisy and they often keep their door open with all the noise from the surrounding mall seeping in, to attract customers.
They do not offer any real quality listening facilities at all. 
There are a couple of dealers in Stockholm that have listening booths for headphones.
Serious dealers let you audition at home before buying  a product.
I have had lots of amps,speakers and cabling and headphones and such at home for weeks before deciding on what I want to keep sometimes.
Having said all this I am of course still curious enough to check if  any of the dealers at the Adelphi has got HUGO 2 for auditioning when I get back there in a few days.

 

[flyte3333]

In show conditions it was hard to really tell exactly what the differences were. I mean it was obvious there were differences but my brain told me the only logical way to tell what one I liked more was to just relax and see what one seemed more musical.. I reverted to the white one easily every time. Granted I was only listening to tidal and not 96 or higher where green would have come to play

 
Ah yes, this might make it difficult when demo-ing in a noisy shop too.
 
Best you ask if you can go out back in their quiet office for a few minutes to try it out.
 
Ideal is a home trial for a day or two, if the shop allows. The same would hold true when deciding any headphones and/or Dac/Amp in a shop I guess.
 
As you said also, Rob mentioned green makes the most difference on 96 and higher.
 
Not long until we get our hands on one !

 

[Christer]

 
Recently, I heard Mahler's 6th and Bruckner's 9th symphony live. That was an absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking sensual experience. I played the symphonies at home, with Hugo, Job and the ATC. It was a joke in comparison. I mean, it sounds good and I could connect emotionally to the music. But I doubt any stereo money can buy could come even close to a live performance

I would definitely agree with you, especially Mahler's SUPERMIGHTY 6th.Those hammerblows alone, are enough to severely stress most systems' capabilites. And  other Mahler or Bruckner symphonies for that matter, are about the most difficult tests you can find for  any HIFI system.
Apart from auditioning HUGO 2 asap I am looking forward to Olivier  Messian's  densely scored Turangalila symphony both at rehearsals and  concert in Singapore and then Richard Strauss' almost equally  challengingly scored  Ein Heldenleben  live  in KL a couple of weeks after.
The further in time  I get from live music, the better HUGO sounds and vice versa.
I listened to Bruckner's 8th from Challenge Classics in its 24/192 format last night and  although I enjoyed it musically I was also painfully aware of all the shortcomings of HUGO via  reference headphones.
Congestion at climaxes and masking of inner details being the main culprits
 
No pop/rock material ever, gets even close to the complexity  and dynamic range of this stuff.

 

[rkt31]

" Diana krall type of music " may be slow but it has two most important factors through which one can judge a DAC. (1) piano (2) expressive vocals . when I bought hugo, the most catching was the reproduction of piano notes and vocals. vocals sound so much more real and expressive on chord dacs and similarly piano sounds much more life like. though I don't know much about the intricacies of jazz music as I am from India , but still feel diana's only fault is that she is better known than many others simply because of popularity amongst the audio magazines as testing material. as someone becomes more popular , he or she is started being rubbished by many as they want to be seen 'different'. Diana is a great talent and her music ranges from serious jazz to popular jazz. not many jazz divas have that much powerful vocals as her.

 

[DoctaCosmos]

Ah yes, this might make it difficult when demo-ing in a noisy shop too.

Best you ask if you can go out back in their quiet office for a few minutes to try it out.

Ideal is a home trial for a day or two, if the shop allows. The same would hold true when deciding any headphones and/or Dac/Amp in a shop I guess.

As you said also, Rob mentioned green makes the most difference on 96 and higher.

Not long until we get our hands on one !

Going to be a while for me! :rofl:

 

[Malevolent]

   
I think it's called 'Ultimate Reference' already: http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/product/hugo-2/
 
It's in brackets next to the Hugo name though but it's clear that it's the reference filter I think?
 
Although Rob prefers Green 'HF Rolloff' for 96 and 192 music.
 
I think all the confusion will end once we get our hands on it (either in a shop demo or after a purchase) and just pick the filter we like.

 
Ah yes, thanks for pointing that out.
 
In any case, it's just the name of a preset filter, so I don't think it should affect anybody's perception of the Hugo 2's capabilities.
 
BTW, I did try the green filter myself (during CanJam Singapore). It sounded great, despite the audition taking place in a small, enclosed room with people talking and milling about. Thankfully, I was using a custom, so I was fairly insulated from outside noise.

 

[flyte3333]

   
Ah yes, thanks for pointing that out.
 
In any case, it's just the name of a preset filter, so I don't think it should affect anybody's perception of the Hugo 2's capabilities.
 
BTW, I did try the green filter myself (during CanJam Singapore). It sounded great, despite the audition taking place in a small, enclosed room with people talking and milling about. Thankfully, I was using a custom, so I was fairly insulated from outside noise.

 
Yes absolutely agreed. As I said too, once we get it in our hands for proper listening, the names given (and any possible confusion with names) will disappear. We'll just be talking about white and green and the other colours and which we prefer and how it compares to the Hugo 1 (and Mojo perhaps).
 
Btw, were you able to switch to the other filter colours to compare or was it just green? Just out of interest

 

[6RS]

 
I would definitely agree with you, especially Mahler's SUPERMIGHTY 6th.Those hammerblows alone, are enough to severely stress most systems' capabilites. And  other Mahler or Bruckner symphonies for that matter, are about the most difficult tests you can find for  any HIFI system.
Apart from auditioning HUGO 2 asap I am looking forward to Olivier  Messian's  densely scored Turangalila symphony both at rehearsals and  concert in Singapore and then Richard Strauss' almost equally  challengingly scored  Ein Heldenleben  live  in KL a couple of weeks after.
The further in time  I get from live music, the better HI UGO sounds and vice versa.
I listened to Bruckner's 8th from Challenge Classics in its 24/192 format last night and  although I enjoyed it musically I was also painfully aware of all the shortcomings of HUGO via  reference headphones.
Congestion at climaxes and masking of inner details being the main culprits
 
No pop/rock material ever, gets even close to the complexity  and dynamic range of this stuff.

I do like the Turangalila Symphony too. Well, there is nothing wrong with going to concerts. However, I am counting on Rob on making progress with the ADC and the amplifier, and on finding a better-paid job to raise all the cash, including Mscaler, Dave, etc.

 

[sc2806]

   
Actually I am surprised that white to green with 44.1 would be audible at all under show conditions - it is not a big change, but is more noticeable and useful with 96 K or 192 K. But the real big step is when you replace the 256 FS WTA2 filter with the linear interpolation filter (orange or red) - so using only  the WTA1 16FS filter - then that is not a subtle or hard to hear jump.
 
Rob

I'll keep this in mind when I have my Hugo2, thank you!

 

[paul2qute]

The Hugo has filters but the 2 qute doesn't, is this because the filters change the sound to help in ear phones or on the go headphones?