[miketlse]

You don't mean "hurry and wait" do ya?

It is January, yet?

Just gently warming you up on Labor day.

 

[highfell]

I find the recent flurry of emails regarding concerns over quality, and people's reactions, somewhat amusing, but also surprising. Notwithstanding this, I am sure if you have suffered a defective product, it must be a trifle annoying.


But it isn't like, Chord aren't looking after you well.


If the same thing happened to me,
I can't imagine myself deciding to ask for my money back rather than receive a replacement machine. If you valued the sound that Hugo2 then you just wouldn't do that. So I assume those people who decide to "move on" , have in essence decided to try another route to audio nirvana and good luck to them (they just don't realise that actually had it in their hands .........)

 

[Christer]

In my experience, DAC's work better with strong power conditioning or (even better) under regulated battery power only. When I say DACs i mean the digital-to-analog part ...because its the final conversion to analog that is most sensitive to noise or fluctuations in ground or power. We are at the extremes of circuit and system design to immunize against small signal noise and the Hugo2's battery only mode is ideal. Where possible, make your source completely disconnected from the AC mains power. Float your laptop/streamer and any USB conditioning with batteries enroute to the DAC. I'll have some interesting comments in my upcoming Hugo2 review....

Sounds interesting if you have things to say about connections and isolation.
In my experience HUGO 1 is very much in need of running on battery and laptop also on battery and away from other electrical appliances ,cables and the like, that might interfer and cause noise and deteriorate SQ.
A couple of days ago I took my MBP and HUGO out in the garden to enjoy the Sunday Prom Matiné on my HEKV2.
Very nice indeed.
Mendelsohn's Hebrides Overture and Violin Cocerto and 5th symphony, without even any hint of harshness.
Nor any steeliness on strings,both Isabelle Faust and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra playing with gut strings.
All sweet and very mellow indeed.
Strongly recommended.

 

[Light - Man]

I find the recent flurry of emails regarding concerns over quality, and people's reactions, somewhat amusing, but also surprising. Notwithstanding this, I am sure if you have suffered a defective product, it must be a trifle annoying.

But it isn't like, Chord aren't looking after you well.

If the same thing happened to me,
I can't imagine myself deciding to ask for my money back rather than receive a replacement machine. If you valued the sound that Hugo2 then you just wouldn't do that. So I assume those people who decide to "move on" , have in essence decided to try another route to audio nirvana and good luck to them (they just don't realise that actually had it in their hands .........)

First of all, we are talking about a high end luxury product for £1800, which to most people living in the real World - is a crazy amount of money to pay for a DAC-AMP. Therefore people rightly expect a very high quality product with a high standard of quality control.

It turns out that Chord do not make the Hugo 2 or the Mojo but rely on a third party to make them. It makes me wonder if there is a Chord employee working full time overseeing the production to ensure high standards and good QC or if not, what penalties do the third party producer incur for such shoddy QC?

I, and am sure many people here find it disconcerting reading for example - that MusicKid had to return 3 consecutive faulty units and some people find this amusing!

It is not much fun having to repack and head down to your local post office on 3 separate occasions for such needless shoddy QC.

Who is liable for the return postage and insurance?

 

[tunes]

Funny I tried that very same suggestion earlier today w my power hungry laptop w the latest bells and whistles but for the life of me couldnt tell the difference with the power cord on/off. It's properly repasted so it runs fairly cool at idle (27-30C) w fans running about 1500rpm (HWInfo manual fan setttings) while using Roon bit perfect. The setup was Roon > QED usb reference > Iso Regen/LPS-1 > Hugo 2 > LCDi4. I didn't try it wo the IR/LPS-1 so perhaps that combo acted as a noise firewall for the Hugo 2. What I'm certain of is that the Jitterbug did make a difference to my power plugged laptop wo the IR/LPS-1 combo... even w the Hugo 2.



Yes, USB reclocking is a real thing. I just got the ISO Regen a couple of days ago and the difference was immediately obvious. No need for burn in whatsoever. It was hard to believe the Hugo 2 could sound better but it simply did... much more of a difference than say my Lionheart LCDi4 cable, or any other USB cable..

In my experience, different USB cables did make a difference at the Iso Regen output end. I tried it w the Lush usb cable, QED usb, and the supplied USPCB adapter... subtle differences but the Lush and USPCB are my favorites. Also, the USPCB at $35 is an unbeatable value.

Without the ISO Regen, there's a small difference between the Lush cable and the supplied Hugo 2 usb cable but it's there. The Lush had a noticeably tighter bass w less bloom... it was especially obvious w deep house/techno tracks which I hardly ever listen to in my leisure time but are quite useful for deep bass comparisons. For rock (glam/punk/etc), the difference in guitar timbre was less noticeable but still there. Mainly what I noticed was that half of my tracks w the Lush was a little more effortless, a little less congested... but certainly not a night and day difference. For techno tracks, I'm confident enough to do a blind test bc the bass definition is so easy to tell.

With the USPCB adapter at the ISO Regen end > Hugo 2, I can hear more immediacy and better separation in the midrange and lower treble vs no ISO Regen. Also, I couldnt really tell much of a difference w the galvanic isolation feature turned off on the ISO Regen... I dont know if the LPS-1 had anything to do w it... just as I couldnt tell any difference between the ASIO/WASAPI drivers on Roon. I think the Hugo 2 must be doing smth really right in that regard...

 

[tunes]

Have you compared USB to optical via TOSLINK. Way back Rob aluded to the lack of SQ differences between USB and TOSLINK from his laptop using a generic optical cable with the H2

 

[Christer]

First of all, we are talking about a high end luxury product for £1800 which is to most people living in the real World is a crazy amount of money to pay for a DAC-AMP. Therefore people rightly expect a very high quality product with a high standard of quality control.

It turns out that Chord do not make the Hugo 2 or the Mojo but rely on a third party to make them. It makes me wonder if there is a Chord employee working full time overseeing the production to ensure high standards and good QC or if not, what penalties do the third party producer incur for such shoddy QC?

I and am sure many people find it disconcerting reading for example - that MusicKid had to return 3 consecutive faulty units and some people find this amusing!

It is not much fun having to repack and head down to your local post office on 3 separate occasions for such needless shoddy QC.

Who is liable for the return postage and insurance?

I can only add that although some here probably already see me and my posts here as pia.
I would have raised HELL if anything like what he has gone through, had happened to me.

 

[Light - Man]

I can only say that although some here probably already see me and my posts here as pia.
I would have raised HELL if anything like what he has gone through, had happened to me.

I am surprised that you being so well known as a Chord Fanboy - have not been offered a review sample to compare with your H1?

One can only dream I suppose!

 

[HanyTheo]

Question here, when is the best time to implement the crossfeed function?. Any specific kind of recording to be noted?

 

[Whazzzup]

Tunes 1940-65 especially because of right left channel mixing back then even say Beatles. I dont use cross feed but....try it.

Question here, when is the best time to implement the crossfeed function?. Any specific kind of recording to be noted?

 

[TKpurple]

My H2 unit is working flawlessly for more then month and is heavily responsible for my lack of sleep over many nights. Hovewer reading some posts one may think I must have lots of luck to have unit which does exactly all what is expected. I am pairing it with Hifiman he 400 i which I bought together with H2. There is something in vocal presentation of H2 with Hifiman which made me buy them having also auditioning Bayerdynamic DT 1990/Amiron, Senheiser 650,700, 800 and Focal Elears. I also heard higher Hifimans but the price and lack of comfort (way too big) and relatively small sound quality increase over 400 I (for my ears) did not justified pricing upgrade for me. Out of musical euphory I also bought FIIO x 5 third gen as kind of spotify streaming devise before Hugo - Poly will see the light, also having great memories of my first gen FIIO x 5, but it ended with disaster as my unit was faulty. Coming from IOS - Android system is very slow and not reliable, to the extent I returned my unit. So I fully understand that it may be nightmate for the people having faulty H2 and having to return them - notwithstanding how fast chord or delears will act. Not beeing myself experienced audiophile (I still don't hear much a difference between mp3 and flac even using Hugo 2) but rather music fan, who could afford it, I find Hugo performance amasing. For the first time I understand hearing something I never expected to be there. As portable device - It is perfect with my FIIO x 5 using coax out and following FIIO x 5 third gen failure Spotify works perfectly from my Iphone 6 plus camera kit. I also do not have any issues streaming or playing directly from my laptop. Background is deadly silent, clarity, details and 3 d effect is something new for me. Sometimes I hear the sounds that sounds like not coming not from the headphone but like from another side of the room which may be frightening during evenings. I do not know much about cables, but I bought mojo pack which works as expected. (Cables with Hugo 2 did not worked though). I use it also as preamp/dac for my big system and difference from my Naim unitilite is night and day. I still have to find a good way for streaming spotify into my main system (waiting for hugo poly). Currently use optical cable out of my apple tv streaming from Iphone. It may not be the best sound quality (but it still outclass naim unitilite). I know it is presumably absolute overkill but H2 connected from headphone output to the bose sound link mini bluetooth speaker with cheap simple 3,5 cable makes it completely different sounding speaker. And last but not least highly recommed Ukrainian - Valentinum case maker having his shop on Etsy site. His case is simply perfect, he is fast and the price is really good.

 

[514077]

Question here, when is the best time to implement the crossfeed function?. Any specific kind of recording to be noted?

Early stereo recordings where the instruments are panned to the extreme left and right. Early '60s contemporary is a good example.

 

[HanyTheo]

O

My H2 unit is working flawlessly for more then month and is heavily responsible for my lack of sleep over many nights. Hovewer reading some posts one may think I must have lots of luck to have unit which does exactly all what is expected. I am pairing it with Hifiman he 400 i which I bought together with H2. There is something in vocal presentation of H2 with Hifiman which made me buy them having also auditioning Bayerdynamic DT 1990/Amiron, Senheiser 650,700, 800 and Focal Elears. I also heard higher Hifimans but the price and lack of comfort (way too big) and relatively small sound quality increase over 400 I (for my ears) did not justified pricing upgrade for me. Out of musical euphory I also bought FIIO x 5 third gen as kind of spotify streaming devise before Hugo - Poly will see the light, also having great memories of my first gen FIIO x 5, but it ended with disaster as my unit was faulty. Coming from IOS - Android system is very slow and not reliable, to the extent I returned my unit. So I fully understand that it may be nightmate for the people having faulty H2 and having to return them - notwithstanding how fast chord or delears will act. Not beeing myself experienced audiophile (I still don't hear much a difference between mp3 and flac even using Hugo 2) but rather music fan, who could afford it, I find Hugo performance amasing. For the first time I understand hearing something I never expected to be there. As portable device - It is perfect with my FIIO x 5 using coax out and following FIIO x 5 third gen failure Spotify works perfectly from my Iphone 6 plus camera kit. I also do not have any issues streaming or playing directly from my laptop. Background is deadly silent, clarity, details and 3 d effect is something new for me. Sometimes I hear the sounds that sounds like not coming not from the headphone but like from another side of the room which may be frightening during evenings. I do not know much about cables, but I bought mojo pack which works as expected. (Cables with Hugo 2 did not worked though). I use it also as preamp/dac for my big system and difference from my Naim unitilite is night and day. I still have to find a good way for streaming spotify into my main system (waiting for hugo poly). Currently use optical cable out of my apple tv streaming from Iphone. It may not be the best sound quality (but it still outclass naim unitilite). I know it is presumably absolute overkill but H2 connected from headphone output to the bose sound link mini bluetooth speaker with cheap simple 3,5 cable makes it completely different sounding speaker. And last but not least highly recommed Ukrainian - Valentinum case maker having his shop on Etsy site. His case is simply perfect, he is fast and the price is really good.

I do make hugo2 case too if youre wonderin. Excuse yawning doggo

 

[Hooster]

I, and am sure many people here find it disconcerting reading for example - that MusicKid had to return 3 consecutive faulty units and some people find this amusing!

It is what it is, and it is far from amusing. I could write a great deal about what people have been saying and about who seems to be in touch with reality and who does not seem to be, but there really isn't any point. We are all intelligent people and able to make our own minds up.

What I would like to see in this thread are comparisons between Hugo2 and other relevant DACs. I would find that interesting and helpful. Of course the experiences of people who are lucky enough to own a Hugo2 are also of great interest.

 

[Mojo ideas]

It is what it is, and it is far from amusing. I could write a great deal about what people have been saying and about who seems to be in touch with reality and who does not seem to be, but there really isn't any point. We are all intelligent people and able to make our own minds up.

What I would like to see in this thread are comparisons between Hugo2 and other relevant DACs. I would find that interesting and helpful. Of course the experiences of people who are lucky enough to own a Hugo2 are also of great interest.

It is what it is, and it is far from amusing. I could write a great deal about what people have been saying and about who seems to be in touch with reality and who does not seem to be, but there really isn't any point. We are all intelligent people and able to make our own minds up.

What I would like to see in this thread are comparisons between Hugo2 and other relevant DACs. I would find that interesting and helpful. Of course the experiences of people who are lucky enough to own a Hugo2 are also of great interest.

Yes I'd like to hear some more balance too!
I think I'd just like to say firmly, that of those three units, That the first did indeed have a loose knob on its shaft. We have had a few of these from the very first batch due to a very few faulty knobs being supplied. We isolated the build batch very early on and have subsequently dropped that supplier.

The second returned unit was tested thoroughly by us and had no fault found. We assume that the jack or cable were faulty or not pushed in properly.

The third unit would have been fine when we supplied it as it has a final USB check prior to shipping. However having tested the unit it was faulty having had had its USB chip blown to pieces despite having full ESD and overvoltage protection built in, this can only occur if the user's equipment has significant earthing or voltage applied to the USB socket. We have used this specialised custom USB chip for the last five years without fault or failure.
So please understand that repetitive failures are really not always the fault of the manufacture. However, yes we happily hold our hands up for the few loose control knobs on early build ramp units and have endeavoured to respond and fix the issue. Please be assured the quality controls we have in place Im manufacture are rigorous and the actual numbers of genuine faulty units is very low in comparison with the numbers of Hugo2's shipped.