[guerph]

How do you like the Etymotic with the Hugo 2 as thought getting one (and possibly the aeon as well). Thank you.
Paul

The Etymotic ER4SR sound so much better driven by the new Hugo compared to the Mojo. Aeons and Hugo 2 are match made in heaven.

 

[canali]

Relic is spot on. I had the same "issue" because I was expecting a different marble to turn blue. You don't need to hold the button down during the power cycle. Simply hit the button once while it's turning on and you'll see the volume button turn blue. You can still adjust the volume at that point but it takes you away from the gain sweet spot. When I want to go back to using the Hugo by itself I always cycle the power again to be safe but think you can probably just plug phones back in and adjust the volume accordingly. I could be wrong but don't think there is much to this setting other than that.

xRelicx is always 'spot on' don't you know?

 

[Christer]

Is this the Channel Classic's DSD recording you were referring to? https://channelclassics.nativedsd.com/albums/concerto-for-cello-and-orchestrasymphonic-variations (While not DSD, the album is also available on Tidal. With Roon's up-sampling a recording of this level should do well on it's own)....

Side note...... The mic placement is very close, too close according to some but to me that is one of the things I like about this recording. While maybe not ideal from a balance standpoint the level of detail is astounding. Purely from an "audiophile" standpoint, I often prefer a smaller group ensemble for this very reason and this provides the best of both world (large + small). However this is a good recording to experiment with the crossfeed function. With the mic placement I think level one of crossfeed adds more than it detracts from my enjoyment.

Hello ,yes that's the one.
Normally Jared Sacks mic's less close than on this one. But this is a live recording and in order to avoid some of the audience noise being picked up, I think he mic'd closer than he normally does.
With most of his recordings he balances at sessions and monitors both via headphones and speakers both in stereo and 5 channel mch.
I have had the opportunity to repeatedly hear all three ways and compare them to the live sound in the hall, And frankly the closest to real live sound in the hall was the 5 channel mch version.
But both from what I heard via his AKG 1000 monitoring headphones and from the stereo masterfiles via my own HD800 and now HE1000V2, I don't think crossfeed is needed.It messes up the original image and puts some bass instruments where they were not in the hall. The main part of the sound in stereo comes from the main stereo pair which are placed so they balance with no hole in the middle and good coverage of both channels both left and right.
Imho, done well with the main sound coming from an omni stereo pair ideally placed there is no need for crossfeed with headphones with most classical recordings. Ok there are some bad ones where basses are almost isolated in either the left or the right channel depending on where they were in the hall. But those are exceptions and most classical symphonic recordings actually sound closer to how things were sounding in the hall without crossfeed.
Since I was there last time there have been some experiments both with minimal miking and binaural and I am trying to convince Jared not to just sit on those but also make them available for sale to the general public.
Binaural is of course the optimum way of hearing things as close as possible to live sound in the hall via headphones. But good simple stereo pair miking can get pretty close too. And mch adds a similar three dimensional sound when listening via speakers.
The only thing that has kept me from going mch is the astronomical price I would have to pay for the ideal mch solution which is five identical speakers and comparable five channel amping.
HUGO 2 expensive as it is for what it does, seems almost cheap in comparison to a highend 5 channel system.
Luckily more and more" high information content" music, like classical and jazz is becoming avalable in binaural and I just noticed that some of this season's Proms will be broadcast binaurally.

 

[x RELIC x]

Audeze recommends H TT, prom a power perspective this is ex aequo with H2. any views?

From a power perspective the Hugo2 is more powerful than the TT.

 

[x RELIC x]

xRelicx is always 'spot on' don't you know?

Lol, certainly NOT, but I try. #awkward.

 

[Whazzzup]

From a power perspective the Hugo2 is more powerful than the TT.

power output isn't everything. you know that, mojo would be better than TT following that logic in powering audeze. Disclosure even with the authority of TT I use a wire and gain amp as well.

As an FYI then TT has more authority than mojo and hugo 1 at this point, even with less output, go figure huh

 

[x RELIC x]

power isn't everything. you know that, mojo would be better than TT following that logic in powering audeze.

I know. You know I haven't heard the TT, but the poster asked about power so I replied. Looking forward to your impressions between the two.

 

[miketlse]

I have spent a few hours today exploring the Hugo 2 filters.
I mainly listened using speakers to the DVD of Ahmad Jamal and Yusef Lateef at the Olympia in 2012. The overall system was DVD>optical to Hugo 2>Arcam Solo Neo amp>Focal Aria 936 speakers
The signal was pink (48 kbits), so not hi-res.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/live-a...teef-jazz-village-review-by-ian-patterson.php

I started with the white filter, and the notes were clear and sharp (especially percussion and piano). The double bass exhibited good extension, helped partly by the good bass extension available from the speakers, but there were occasional patches where the resonance of some bass notes seemed just too strong.
So I tried the green filter, and it was noticeable that the notes lost a smidgen of their sharpness, but this was compensated by the double bass seeming to retain the bass extension, but lose that occasional bloat to the resonance - overall an acceptable compromise
I next tried the orange and red filters, and it was hard to detect a difference to the green filter.
I then returned to the white filter, and found it difficult to reproduce the earlier bass bloat - it has made me wonder if this is yet more evidence of my brain training itself during those few hours, to adapt to the increased music information.

My overall conclusion (listening through speakers) is that at non-hires signals, the white filter has a marginal advantage in terms of the sharpness of notes, but in all other respects it is difficult to detect the differences between the filters.

I plan to try the same tests again tomorrow, with similar material from Bill Evans and Charlie Haden - plenty of piano and saxophone music tracks to test and compare.

 

[Martinrm]

Just in case anyone is curious, the largest diameter RCA plugs that will fit on the H2 is 13mm. My WBT-0411's barely fit.

 

[miko64]

can you give some impressions on the H2/Vega combo? thinking they will be my next purchase...

First I need to disclose that I am only listening to opera, which might limit the usefulness of my comments:

a) bass
Very strong, possibly a little bit too strong. This does not matter too much for opera because very low frequencies quite rare. LCD 4 has more true bass, e.g. vega overdoes say 40-100 Hz, but fades away below.
LCD4 goes lower

b) mids
Very very nice and natural, almost like lcd 4 or sr 007

c) hights
also very nice, have a certain sparkling, which you hear not a lot, both lcd 4 and sr 007 do better

d) voices
very good, this is a strength

e) balance between different frequencies
very similar to lcd 4 - like it

 

[Mython]

Small point but the rattling of the plastic balls does give the incorrect impression that Hugo 2's build quality may not quite be quite so "rolls Royce" and cheapens the impression (a notch)

Agreed.

But it sounds so F&^!ING fantastic I don't care .

They'll fix it in Hugo 2.1. I still won't care.

Doody

These are my words, not those of Chord's, but I am confident this isn't an oversight or QC issue, on Chord's part. IMO, it is better for the plastic balls to be fractionally undersized than a 100%-snug fit, because it provides a factor of safety in the unlikely scenario that dust or grit were to try to jam one of the balls/buttons in a 'making-contact' position.


I confess I still can't decide whether I prefer silver or black casework (same goes for DAVE, too!)

 

[Currawong]

I suspect that it is actually supposed to go blue. Could someone who knows please help?

Does i need to set Hugo2 to the line level mode in order to connect it to Amp because I thought it doesn't need that as it has RCA output connection which differ than what Mojo have.

The easiest way: Turn on the Hugo 2. Turn the volume to green for standard 2V line level output. Turn it to blue for Chord's higher than standard 3V output. For amps that have a volume control on the input, any volume level suitable for using the volume control the amp is OK. For amps that have a volume control after the main gain stage, such as Audio-gd, you want something close to line level so that you don't overload the gain stage.

I'm eager to see someone comparison between Hugo2 and other DAC like Kitsune Level 3 Dac and yggdrasil Dac

Search for my earlier post, but basically the Hugo 2 resolves more low-level, even ultra-low-level detail than the Yggdrasil, very noticeable with good acoustic recordings. I A/B'ed them, volume-matched, through a Master 9, with the Yggdrasil from it's balanced output.

could someone give me an exact description of what tidal exclusive mode is actually doing. i.e.not just that "tidal has exclusive use of the audio device".

USB is rather complex in how it functions. It's not like a dumb transmission method like S/PDIF where essentially just the data is sent, but has to share functionality with other devices and the computer system. This makes the USB sending and receiving chips do a lot more work and consequently dump more noise into the electronics. By using an exclusive, or "hog" mode, the software takes over the device, preventing other software accessing it, reducing processing, noise, and for some DACs, improving sound quality.

 

[musickid]

Thanks Currawong that helps alot. does "other software" mean the tidal app and all osx functions?

 

[Deftone]

try to audition them all before assuming the most expensive is automatically the best.

All audiophiles should live by this but sadly many dont and listen with their eyes instead.

 

[Deftone]

These are my words, not those of Chord's, but I am confident this isn't an oversight or QC issue, on Chord's part. IMO, it is better for the plastic balls to be fractionally undersized than a 100%-snug fit, because it provides a factor of safety in the unlikely scenario that dust or grit were to try to jam one of the balls/buttons in a 'making-contact' position.


I confess I still can't decide whether I prefer silver or black casework (same goes for DAVE, too!)

Everything looks better dressed in black!

Now Playing: Deftones - Sextape