[Jalo]

 
Good to hear battery life may improve.

BTW, I personally really prefer Class A design even though it may not be the best for battery life, but I think it will be good for driving high demand cans.

 

[Arnav Agharwal]

It will get its own

Is this what these two slots are for? 

 

 

[ColdFlo]

 
Well I was at CES last Friday and first stop was Chord's show room.  I have both the Mojo and Hugo for awhile now so I am familiar with the Hugo sound.  The Hugo 2 that I listened to was connected to a AK380. I have my WM1Z with me and was able to locate a few similar songs on both systems. I used my own Vega to listen to both. I listened for about half an hour and switching back and forth between similar passages to make sure I can compare the sound accurately to my auditory memory of the other system.  Right out the gate I was very surprised by the sound signature because it is quite different from Hugo.  The sound signature of the Hugo 2 is much warmer with more body which Rob confirmed that is the case from conversation afterwards.  Then I listened to my WM1Z with the same songs (Michael Jackson's Billy Jean, Nora Jones' Come away with me etc) seems like everyone has those same songs for demo.  I was very surprised that the Hugo 2 has a very similar sound q as my 1Z, warm and lush. From my conversation with Rob afterward, he seems to think that the Hugo 2 has more resolution. But being in a show condition, I do not want to render any judgement prematurely.  But I walked away feeling like the two are very similar. Without critical listening and own the Hugo 2 for awhiIe, I feel they are like 85% percent similar base on this initial impression. I am particularly impress with the additional power and I have no doubt that it will drive most full size cans to good listening level.

 
Which tuning were you listening to did you even check?  I dont see how an off the shelf dac can ever approach the detail of the warmest tuning aka the Mojo tuning(makes me question your hearing and discernment)(I am glad tho they went in a lush route and less sterile and less fast decay).  Daps were done before AK and Sony, but the way people like to blow money and bling I doubt it will ever happen on this forum(1000 dollars for a cnc milled bar of copper with gold plate and a badscreen and slow laggy interface oh wait thats the new 3000 dollar one).  Really the nexus(the word not the google phone) is the phone and its modular utility will outpace everything and dacs will outpace all daps and android and ios will outpace all dap interfaces.  You dont need a tablet, you dont need a dap, essentially they are a waste of money from any realistic perspective.  The Mojo blows the AK380 and every other dap out of the water on distortion figures.  You guys used to be able to apply this kind of logic to computer hardware but see what audio bling makes you do.....?
 
Honestly I feel bad for what is happening to sony but their recent prices are a little too high I remember I wanted the sony walkman z(I still have my walkman x) so bad but then they discontinued it before they even gave it a chance cause they were psyched out by ipod but it looks like its happening again.  Id rather have an s6 or s7 and a Mojo than those daps ak or sony.  Just wait till foobar really gets going on phones.

 

[JaZZ]

 

  This might be a naive question, but never having owned a Mojo or Hugo, how is the digital filter different from EQ? I know it's a different process to roll off highs, etc., but just curious about this. 

Equalizers are known for creating phase anomalies, so that is why many purists do not like using them, including me. The different filters of the Hugo 2, I expect, are part of the overall design of the digital translation to analog, and as such, would not have this problem with maintaining phase coherency.

 
Every filter causes phase anomalies, analogue or digital. And every sound transducer's frequency-response anomaly causes accompanying phase distortion. So if you manage to equalize a headphone's frequency response to flat, you also get a flat phase response, because inverted filter characteristics also come with inverted phase characteristics – so you get full compensation, no need to shy away from equalizers. IIR filters without phase distortion are possible, but not desirable for applications like this.
 

  This might be a naive question, but never having owned a Mojo or Hugo, how is the digital filter different from EQ? I know it's a different process to roll off highs, etc., but just curious about this. 

 
It's no different from what an equalizer with high-shelf filter also can do. Most graphic equalizers only have bandpass filters, though.

 

[musicday]

It will get its own

Is this what these two slots are for? 

Yes.

 

[catalystcc]

 
Well I was at CES last Friday and first stop was Chord's show room.  I have both the Mojo and Hugo for awhile now so I am familiar with the Hugo sound.  The Hugo 2 that I listened to was connected to a AK380. I have my WM1Z with me and was able to locate a few similar songs on both systems. I used my own Vega to listen to both. I listened for about half an hour and switching back and forth between similar passages to make sure I can compare the sound accurately to my auditory memory of the other system.  Right out the gate I was very surprised by the sound signature because it is quite different from Hugo.  The sound signature of the Hugo 2 is much warmer with more body which Rob confirmed that is the case from conversation afterwards.  Then I listened to my WM1Z with the same songs (Michael Jackson's Billy Jean, Nora Jones' Come away with me etc) seems like everyone has those same songs for demo.  I was very surprised that the Hugo 2 has a very similar sound q as my 1Z, warm and lush. From my conversation with Rob afterward, he seems to think that the Hugo 2 has more resolution. But being in a show condition, I do not want to render any judgement prematurely.  But I walked away feeling like the two are very similar. Without critical listening and own the Hugo 2 for awhiIe, I feel they are like 85% percent similar base on this initial impression. I am particularly impress with the additional power and I have no doubt that it will drive most full size cans to good listening level.

That's not a good sign, I find the WM1Z a bit too lush and warm for my taste.

 

[jwbrent]

BTW, I personally really prefer Class A design even though it may not be the best for battery life, but I think it will be good for driving high demand cans.

Yes, I believe Class A is the only way to go.

I was a big Krell fan in the 90s because of its Class A output design.

 

[ColdFlo]

I think the tuning really more refers to an arrangement of objective filters and blocks within the operation block diagram of the FPGA and their arrangement, speed(hz, datarate), bandwidth, bits etc etc. There was a question earlier sitting on this thread this morning, and as I thought to formulate this answer I got to doing the days work, but it seems this keeps coming up so even tho I am relatively new and have not read all the threads I think I can put it into words(although Im sure somewhat inaccurately).  Sure it may be possible to design the circuit in the FPGA using pure digital logic analysis and design but lets say you did that(the rules or practices to do this likely havent even been developed), still how would you know that those rules and choices were the correct ones?  Is it cheating to go ahead and listen and thus take it away from the tenants of a reference design? or was that going to happen anyway and thus you might as well cheat trial and error style(also likely cause the logic design practice rules likely havent been developed) does this then make your design subjective?  I dont think so because we arent talking about EQ tuning or putting this circuit in to add more bass its more just the arrangement of objective digital filters(likely designed with transparency in mind) and data paths and tweaking their "arrangement and specs" can change the sound somewhat but not so much its spectra..... more like its timing.  So I would say this trial and error listening could be considered objective as it is the final test that the arrangement of objective blocks is correct.
 
I doubt it sounds like his sony he is just coming up with a reason not to upgrade(or realize his expensive dap is obsolete).
These are the 4 tunings.... kinda wish one was old hugo instead of roll off which I havent found the high frequency to be a problem.... but if I had Ultrasones......

Hugo (Ultimate Reference) (White)

Hugo HF+ (High Frequency roll off) (Green)

Mojo (‘Smooth’) (Orange)

Mojo HF+ (High Frequency roll off) (Red)

 

[jwbrent]

Every filter causes phase anomalies, analogue or digital. And every sound transducer's frequency-response anomaly causes accompanying phase distortion. So if you manage to equalize a headphone's frequency response to flat, you also get a flat phase response, because inverted filter characteristics also come with inverted phase characteristics – so you get full compensation, no need to shy away from equalizers. IIR filters without phase distortion are possible, but not desirable for applications like this.


It's no different from what an equalizer with high-shelf filter also can do. Most graphic equalizers only have bandpass filters, though.

Thank you for your comments on the contoversary surrounding the use of EQs.

I come from the home side of high end audio, and in that space you will rarely see preamps or integrated amps with tone controls. There are exceptions, Luxman comes to mind, but EQ of any sort is mostly viewed by manufacturers as a distractor from musical purism.

 

[SamS59]

It will get its own

This will make the Hugo 2 very interesting indeed for main home hi-fi use (not that the original Hugo was lacking), effectively having DAC and streamer all in one without the need of cables, extra power supplies and the myriad other tweaks many have implemented prior to the signal hitting the DAC. So assuming the Hugo add-on will have at least what is slated for Poly - Roon Ready, DLNA etc., it would be great if it could also include Squeezelite (see Sonore microRendu), as despite the demise of the Logitech Squeezebox there is still a large community using LMS (Logitech Media Server) as their streaming backbone - anyway, something for the wish list. Oh, and an ethernet port please !!
 
Many thanks to you, Rob, and all at Chord for the constant innovation. 

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

if the future "poly for hugo2" module can allow users to install laptop ssd and be equipped with some of the trickled down blu2 technology.. it will be super awesome... probably just fantasizing and i should go to bed... its still good that hugo2 will get its own transport.

 

[Malevolent]

Well I was at CES last Friday and first stop was Chord's show room.  I have both the Mojo and Hugo for awhile now so I am familiar with the Hugo sound.  The Hugo 2 that I listened to was connected to a AK380. I have my WM1Z with me and was able to locate a few similar songs on both systems. I used my own Vega to listen to both. I listened for about half an hour and switching back and forth between similar passages to make sure I can compare the sound accurately to my auditory memory of the other system.  Right out the gate I was very surprised by the sound signature because it is quite different from Hugo.  The sound signature of the Hugo 2 is much warmer with more body which Rob confirmed that is the case from conversation afterwards.  Then I listened to my WM1Z with the same songs (Michael Jackson's Billy Jean, Nora Jones' Come away with me etc) seems like everyone has those same songs for demo.  I was very surprised that the Hugo 2 has a very similar sound q as my 1Z, warm and lush. From my conversation with Rob afterward, he seems to think that the Hugo 2 has more resolution. But being in a show condition, I do not want to render any judgement prematurely.  But I walked away feeling like the two are very similar. Without critical listening and own the Hugo 2 for awhiIe, I feel they are like 85% percent similar base on this initial impression. I am particularly impress with the additional power and I have no doubt that it will drive most full size cans to good listening level.

 
Sounds like they took the Mojo's template and improved upon it? That's great, since I preferred the slightly warmer tonality of the Mojo to the Hugo. I could live with the Hugo's sound signature, which is admittedly, very good, but the Mojo is a little more suited for my preferred genres.

 

[Mojo ideas]

Is this what these two slots are for? 

These are tapped holes that will accommodate two small ball ended locking pins for WiFi and SD module to firmly lock onto when it be come available

 

[jwbrent]

   
Sounds like they took the Mojo's template and improved upon it? That's great, since I preferred the slightly warmer tonality of the Mojo to the Hugo. I could live with the Hugo's sound signature, which is admittedly, very good, but the Mojo is a little more suited for my preferred genres.

Agreed.

 

[TG04]

Yes, this discussion about the output stage has been going on for some time on Head-Fi.  At the risk of seeming trite, why not switch to the 2Qute model which doesn't even have a headphone jack (only RCA line jacks) much less an output stage?  
 
Actually, this is what I have been thinking about for awhile already but of course now with Hugo2 coming on-stream, all other models are suddenly of a prior generation and as such not worthy of consideration --- unless deeply discounted (ha, ha, ha).  Well, we'll just have to wait (2-cute-for-you? 3Qute? Qute-squared? Cuter-than-thou? -- the  possibilities are just mind-boggling) won't we?