[onsionsi]

After a bit of a delay due to the holidays, I finally posted my Blu2 review (includingng experiences with the BluHugo2):

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/chord-blu-mk-ii-digital-cd-transport.22848/reviews

Thanks to everyone that shared their experiences and gave guidance as I was coming up to speed on this piece of kit!

Thanks @ray-dude for your huge efforts to let us know your opinion and thoughts

 

[onsionsi]

Also @ray-dude it will be interesting to see some photos of your chain

 

[musicday]

Thank you Ray-dude for providing a lengthy detailed review. Also thank you for telling us that Hugo 2 has enough power and can drive very well Omega speakers directly. Your thoughts are much appreciated.

 

[ray-dude]

Thank you Ray-dude for providing a lengthy detailed review. Also thank you for telling us that Hugo 2 has enough power and can drive very well Omega speakers directly. Your thoughts are much appreciated.

I wrote more about the Hugo2 driving the Omegas directly in my Mojo vs Hugo2 vs DAVE review. For particular kinds of music (small scale jazz/vocals/acoustic) in a quiet room, it is heavenly. Throw more complex pieces (large scale orchestral, big rock, etc) at it, and the sound stage just collapses under the complexity.

Hugo2 direct to Omegas are incredible enough that I would consider changing the mix of music I listen to to hear what I hear with that set up, but I also recommend having a small amp (we used a Bantam Gold) that you can easily wire in when you need that extra oomph. You definitely lose transparency and part of the vivid soundstage with the Bantam, but for the more demanding pieces, it really shines.

 

[ray-dude]

Also @ray-dude it will be interesting to see some photos of your chain

Here you go. Doing an in house demo of some Brodmann VC1’s right now, so forgive the 7 speaker congestion

 

[miketlse]

After a bit of a delay due to the holidays, I finally posted my Blu2 review (includingng experiences with the BluHugo2):

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/chord-blu-mk-ii-digital-cd-transport.22848/reviews

Thanks to everyone that shared their experiences and gave guidance as I was coming up to speed on this piece of kit!

Nice review, providing quite a bit of food for thought.

 

[maxh22]

After a bit of a delay due to the holidays, I finally posted my Blu2 review (includingng experiences with the BluHugo2):

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/chord-blu-mk-ii-digital-cd-transport.22848/reviews

Thanks to everyone that shared their experiences and gave guidance as I was coming up to speed on this piece of kit!

Thanks for putting the time into writing such a marvelous review of BluDave and BluHugo, it was a very lustful read hehe.

Will you also be updating your rating chart at some point in the future to include BluDave and BluHugo?

 

[ray-dude]

Thanks for putting the time into writing such a marvelous review of BluDave and BluHugo, it was a very lustful read hehe.

Will you also be updating your rating chart at some point in the future to include BluDave and BluHugo?

I did try to get a sense of the overall score of Mojo vs Hugo2 vs DAVE vs BluHugo2 vs BluDAVE in the review. I have limited access to a Hugo2, so I did not have time to do a full 8 hour resweep through the full matrix of songs, but rather I was more selective with tracks that I thought captured some of the key aspects from my Mojo vs Hugo2 vs DAVE comparisons.

Also, with some much of my equipment (headphones, amps, speakers) topping out with the Blu, very challenging to do anything systematic like I did before...I was finding that I was spending more time understanding the limits of the rest of the kit than I was evaluating how the BluHugo2/BluDAVE were performing.

Hopefully I can find (and afford) some headphones that really scale with the Blu. It would be fun to go through and do a proper scaling test through the whole Chord DAC family at the same time!

 

[kzii]

"I am going to report the sound improvement after some time with this"
Sorry but any comment from you about any sound improvement is clearly invalidated due to expectation bias as you have clearly already made up your mind that there WILL be an improvement!! It might be worse!!

No, You are wrong here. I wrote "sound improvements" but it doesn't mean that I expect them. I have a Forza Audio USB copper cable and I couldn't hear any sound improvements (I used it in the past with mojo also). However, I have to say that cable quality and appearance factor are better than stock cable. I want to give honest opinion for people who are thinking about upgrading the cable.

 

[musickid]

I look forward to info on which headphones display true transparency and which scale effortlessly with blu2/dave and blu2/hugo2. great write up thanks Ray.

as a sidenote do you think finding cans which display the true potential of dave/blu will be harder than finding ones which exhbit the true potential of h2/blu?

 

[Christer]

After a bit of a delay due to the holidays, I finally posted my Blu2 review (includingng experiences with the BluHugo2):

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/chord-blu-mk-ii-digital-cd-transport.22848/reviews

Thanks to everyone that shared their experiences and gave guidance as I was coming up to speed on this piece of kit!

Sorry if I am repeating myself again. I am too lazy to search through the thread to see if I have commented on your interesting review before or not?
Anyway, my own experiences with both HUGO 2, DAVE and BLU2 are still limited to audititions via headphones both using the not quite SOTA any longer HD800s you mention and other highend headphones.
I don't quite understand the hype around some headphones like Nighthawks and such though.

And yes, imo the HD 800 are a limiting factor to my ears and with my references. Both HEKV2 and unfortunately ,the ridiculously expensive, Susvaras are more resolving than at least my own HD800 and several HD800S samples I have auditioned.
Apart from the exaggerated highs ,HD 800s exhibit some masking effects newer highend headphones don't.

What makes me take your review more seriously than some others here is among other things, like your dedication, the fact that at least one of your favourite tracks comes from a series of recordings where I not only fully agree with you both musically and recording-wise. But it also happens to be one of several recordings from 2L where I have a personal direct reference to how things sound live in this magnificent church.
Having worked for Morten on some of his productions in Norwegian churches including Nidaros I know how realistic his recordings are and also that DAVE/BLU2 is extremely transparent.
But they are in fact MCH DXD recordings and to get even closer to how things really sounded live one needs to hear them in MCH.

The only two channel recordings that can capture and reproduce the elusive but important height dimension of a venue in stereo are binaural recordings in my experience.

I have to agree with you though,that as far as stereo listening only, and headphones listening in particular,goes DAVE/BLU2 and for example Utopias or Susvaras or really good electrostatic headphones,may possibly be about as good as things get currently in terms of transparency.
Cheers and enjoy your music and system.
Christer

 

[ray-dude]

And yes, imo the HD 800 are a limiting factor to my ears and with my references. Both HEKV2 and unfortunately ,the ridiculously expensive, Susvaras are more resolving than at least my own HD800 and several HD800S samples I have auditioned.
...
I have to agree with you though,that as far as stereo listening only, and headphones listening in particular,goes DAVE/BLU2 and for example Utopias or Susvaras or really good electrostatic headphones,may possibly be about as good as things get currently in terms of transparency.

I am quite fond of the Utopias, but until earlier this week, I had not had a chance to listen to them with the Chord stack (let alone the BluDAVE). I must confess that I was a bit disappointed. I was dearly hoping that they would scale to what I was hearing with BluDAVE through my Omegas, but they also seemed tapped out. I was hearing noticeably more temporal detail and resolution than with my HD-800's, but with less spatial resolution and a more compressed sound stage.

I would dearly love an opportunity to hear HEKv2's, Abyss Phi's, and/or the Susvaras on BluDAVE. If they can keep up with the BluDAVE, I have a checkbook ready for an early birthday present for myself!

I will say that binaural recordings with BluDAVE and the Omegas are an incredible experience. I've had that immersive surround experience with headphone and binaural recordings before, but never with 2 channel. The soundstage literally wraps around your head and up and down. Holographic, and an unexpected shock when I first heard it. I am delighting in revisiting my Chesky titles.

As an aside, I've also finally setup a basic 5.1 surround system (a first for me), basically to experience Morten's recordings in that way (movies are a bonus). The 2L recordings are wonderful in surround, although obviously without all of that wonderful Chord Magic. Heres to someday having multi-channel mScaler and taking the digital cross over concept to the next level (when that day comes, Morten's recordings will be the first ones I fire up)

 

[jlbrach]

the abyss Phi keeps up...the Utopia is good but a completely different listen,the Phi is top notch

 

[Christer]

the abyss Phi keeps up...the Utopia is good but a completely different listen,the Phi is top notch

I haven't heard the Abyss Phi yet ,but the Utopias good as they are at some things can sound a bit hard and overbright in the treble and they can also sound almost uncomfortably upfront and a bit lacking in soundstage compared to both the HEKV2 and Susvara imo.
Some a bit distantly mic'd acoustic recordings sound very nice indeed with the Utopias though.
And they excel in retrieving low level detail.
In an ideal world I would probably own both the Utopias the Susvaras and at least one highend electrostatic headphone.
Currently I only have a pair of HD800 and the HEKV2. And I have an old pair of electrostatic headphones waiting to be refurbished back home.
My travel headphones are the HD800 and the HEKV 2.
Have you auditioned the Susvara against the Abyss via DAVE/BLU2?
Cheers Christer

 

[PANURUS]

Strange that nobody speaks about the Grado GS2000e or RS2e.
I love Stax since 1980 and the B&W signature. I have HD600 and Oppo PM3.
Until end 2015, i was thinking that Grado will be never for me because the voices with the GS1000e are strange.
I just do not like the 6khz of the HD800 or HD800S.
A year ago, I had tested the B&W P9 but I prefer the bass of the PM3.
Now, I have discovered the GS2000e with Hugo2 and Dave(200 hours). It kill for ever the HD600.
I like the sound RS2e with Mojopoly but not the sensations on my hears. The cups are too little.
Near the same signature that GS2000e. Very good for the price.

Now, I am waiting for the PS2000e before to go further. Why is the price so high?
Have you an idee?
Because Grado writes professional on it?
Jean