Chord Electronics - Hugo 2 - The Official Thread

[Peter Hyatt]

Thanks for the advice!

Back to enjoying hearing about H2 and looking to learn of the next shipping dates!

 

[ahossam]

I am not familiar with how Chord design their product, in fact Mojo is my first Chord product. From what i've see that other company seems to always include balance port in their high end AMP/DAC product, so I am just curious why Chord not include balance port with the Hugo2?

 

[musicday]

I am not familiar with how Chord design their product, in fact Mojo is my first Chord product. From what i've see that other company seems to always include balance port in their high end AMP/DAC product, so I am just curious why Chord not include balance port with the Hugo2?

The balance port is not needed on any Chord Electronics product.
Hugo 2 , sounds fantastic as it is.
Balanced will make it sound worst, and these are words from Rob Watts himself few pages back.

 

[Whazzzup]

The balance port is not needed on any Chord Electronics product.
Hugo 2 , sounds fantastic as it is.
Balanced will make it sound worst, and these are words from Rob Watts himself few pages back.

TT and dave both have balanced out xlr ports, but correct all dacs are SE outputs to headphones.

 

[Hooster]

I am not familiar with how Chord design their product, in fact Mojo is my first Chord product. From what i've see that other company seems to always include balance port in their high end AMP/DAC product, so I am just curious why Chord not include balance port with the Hugo2?

Chord includes balanced ports in their high end amp/dac. It is called DAVE. The Hugo2 is a portable device, so I don't really see why you would expect balance ports.

DAVE:



You could buy/build an adapter that uses the balanced ports on the back of DAVE to drive balanced headphones.

 

[cs600]

Yes. The auto shut-off is disabled in desktop (magenta) mode - that's where you plug in the charger for longer than 24 hours.

Dear Rob
Is desktop mode affected by turning on/off the unit? That is: if I leave my h2 always connected to the wall and turn it off when not in use, will it remain in desktop mode?
Thanks
Mauro

 

[Whazzzup]

TT as well balanced out xlr but se for hp

 

[musicday]

Did anyone else received his Hugo 2 yet?

 

[maxh22]

Did anyone else received his Hugo 2 yet?

Unfortunately not

 

[x RELIC x]

I am not familiar with how Chord design their product, in fact Mojo is my first Chord product. From what i've see that other company seems to always include balance port in their high end AMP/DAC product, so I am just curious why Chord not include balance port with the Hugo2?

I suggest you read the third post in the Mojo thread to find out why Chord doesn't use balanced outputs. There is a lot of information there that pertains to the overall design implementations of Rob's DACs. The short story is that balanced output is a fix for an issue they don't have given the low substrate noise and excellent Current linearity of his DACs. Balanced output covers up these issues in other DACs. Also, more components in the analogue path reduce transparency so by having more analogue components to make the design balanced means less transparency to the source.

This link covers some quoted text from Rob regarding balanced:

https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/c...pressions-thread.756029/page-30#post-12625641

If i buy one it will be black friday or boxing day sales..... Shipped in 3 days to boot...
TT and dave both have balanced out xlr ports, but correct all dacs are SE outputs to headphones.

Rob has said that the SE RCA is more transparent than XLR. The XLR out on the TT and DAVE may be of benefit depending on the attached amp's capabilities and the amps best operating topology, but not a benefit for the signal coming from the DAC, regarding transparency and measured performance, according to Rob.

Spoiler

Yes SE will be more transparent than balanced - with all other things being equal. But I have heard balanced sounding overall much better, in certain circumstances, so it really is a case of YMWV. So in your case it will depend on the ATC SCM40A and the cables you use - I would certainly give SE a go and see which works best.

Rob

 

[miketlse]

Did anyone else received his Hugo 2 yet?

Not many people seem willing to raise their heads above the parapet.
I am still hoping that my dealers estimate that they will receive the Hugo 2 on the 9th, and then ship to me, turns out to be correct (even so, being pragmatic, if i factor in the weekend and then the 2 or 3 days delivery, I am assuming I shall receive my Hugo 2, the middle of next week).
I know that several posters will receive their Hugo 2 in the meantime, so please post everyones impressions. I remember a post from maybe 24 hours ago, describing your impressions as like a glass of water, to a thirsty man in the desert - so post on.
You mentioned that your Hugo 2 was very good with classical music. Any chance that you could list the tracks/CDs that you have listened to, so that some of us can try the same music as well?

 

[LeoKane]

Did anyone else received his Hugo 2 yet?

Yes, mine arrived this morning. Early impressions are a clear improvement over my Hugo and Mojo through Layla's and LCD-X.
Mine gets very warm whilst on charge though. Anyone else noticed this?

 

[Whazzzup]

I suggest you read the third post in the Mojo thread to find out why Chord doesn't use balanced outputs. There is a lot of information there that pertains to the overall design implementations of Rob's DACs. The short story is that balanced output is a fix for an issue they don't have given the low substrate noise and excellent Current linearity of his DACs. Balanced output covers up these issues in other DACs. Also, more components in the analogue path reduce transparency so by having more analogue components to make the design balanced means less transparency to the source.

This link covers some quoted text from Rob regarding balanced:

https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/c...pressions-thread.756029/page-30#post-12625641



Rob has said that the SE RCA is more transparent than XLR. The XLR out on the TT and DAVE may be of benefit depending on the attached amp's capabilities and the amps best operating topology, but not a benefit for the signal coming from the DAC, regarding transparency and measured performance, according to Rob.

yes it depends on the topography of the amp/ pre amp you use, which in my case XLR balanced out is a must. so if you were to use a non balanced out amp/ preamp you can use rca, matter of fact hugo has rca out. But rob feels strongly about se output for HP but trust me, xlr balanced out works very well in the right tandem of amp/ cables/hp

 

[supervisor]

Did anyone else received his Hugo 2 yet?

apparently you're the only person in the world with this device.

EDIT: another owner has popped up!

 

[x RELIC x]

yes it depends on the topography of the amp/ pre amp you use, which in my case XLR balanced out is a must. so if you were to use a non balanced out amp/ preamp you can use rca, matter of fact hugo has rca out. But rob feels strongly about se output for HP but trust me, xlr balanced out works very well in the right tandem of amp/ cables/hp

It's all down to the listener and their preferences. Personally I prefer the DAVE on its own compared to the Liquid Gold connected to it with XLR, of course with my gear and my tastes. I don't think that the lack of balanced output on the Hugo2 is a negative in the least.