[iFi audio]

iFi Audio Groundhog:
I had some ground noise "humm" in my chain. ( Hugo 2 & lcd i4 )
Thanks to the groundhog..... humming noise is gone.
Kudos to @iFi audio
Thanks @KMann



Hugo 2 + lcd i4 + groundhog connected to RCA out.


ifi audio groundhog


connected to macbook pro (charging on) via usb


connected to macbook pro ( charging on ) via 3.5 mm

Good to know that you've found it useful. Cheers!

 

[Pappadave]

I will be doing a proper write up once I receive my 9.87's (although the fact that I phrased it that way should tell you something about what my answer was

In another forum, someone asked the same. Below is my response (and to try to stay on topic here, I'm sure the Hugo2 would be able to drive the 4D drivers to amazing levels, but I haven't had a chance to try that configuration yet)

(tl;dr - Omega : Voxativs == Mojo : DAVE)

Completely different level of sound. I adore my Omega SAMs. The Omegas opened my eyes to what was always there in the music, but that I never had the kit to hear. It was like the character in Flatland that is lifted out of the 2D space, and can see 3D for the first time. Once you hear it, it is impossible to go back.

The Omega direct was one of several "Red Pill" experiences for me over the past year (review links below). One of the other Red Pill moments was when I first heard the Chord Mojo. Absolutely stunning, dollar for dollar the finest DAC on the planet. Blew me away. Based on what I heard, I ordered a Chord DAVE unheard, and right after I heard the DAVE, the Chord Blu2 unheard.

I'd say the Voxativ 4D drivers ($15k for the pair, then you have a variety of cabinet choices to drop them in) are the DAVE to the Omega Super Alnico being the Mojo: takes what is transformational in the Omega alnico's and makes it effortless and vast, with stunning new detail and speed, tonal balance, and virtually no distortion. The price of the Mojo to DAVE is also roughly the price of the Omega driver to the Voxativ 4D driver. I suspect some of the Voxativ hybrid field coil drivers may have Blu-level impact, but I'm not willing (yet

to drop $65k a pair(!) to see what they can do.

I was hearing things through the Voxativ's and BluDAVE that I hadn't heard before. The Voxativ 4D drivers were 103dB sensitivity, so the DAVE drove them with pretty unambiguous authority. I was enjoying the BluDAVE too much to drop in BluHugo2 to see how it would drive the units, but based on the room shaking levels we got to, I'm sure even the Hugo2 could hold its own with these speakers.

I also had a chance to spend a couple hours with the incredibly impressive Voxativ T211 tube amp ($20k). As amazing as the Voxativ T211 tube amp was (by far the finest synergy between tube amp and transducer I've ever heard), as I and others have discussed here and elsewhere, no amp on the planet can hold a candle to the DAVE (or Hugo2) driving high efficiency speakers direct. That being said, the Voxativ T211/4D combo was the smallest gap to DAVE direct I have ever heard, which says a lot about the engineering prowess of the Voxativ team.

Thank you! Very tempting...

 

[ray-dude]

Thank you! Very tempting...

Very high on my list is to compare the Voxativ Hagen’s with the entry level ferrite driver vs the Omega SAMs. Those are $5k, so a spitting distance upgrade to the Omegas ($2k).

When you get to the higher end Voxativ drivers, the cost scales very quickly. I would definitely sign up to do a comprehensive survey of the Voxativ drivers, from the $2k ferrite drivers in the entry level Hagens to the $25k 4f’s. The available information is quite limited.

 

[paul2qute]

Try to love and appreciate your wife every day, very sorry to hear you lost your two cats and your dad. We lost our lovely tortoiseshell cat Rosie a year ago, we held her as she passed away after the injection, very upsetting indeed, your mentioning your cats has brought it back.

Your new Hugo 2 will defo cheer you up

Sorry to depress you mate

 

[paul2qute]

Still waiting to get the Hugo 2,waiting on Chord to make the cable I need so not sure when I'll get it now,got my flare pro today,sounds quite good through my Samsung s8 plus,the Bluetooth I'm a bit dissapointed with,needs more volume but I know once I get the Hugo 2 they gonna sound amazing,when I'm in the garden I'm gonna be connecting my phone to the Hugo 2,my contract runs out in April so not sure if to get an iPhone X or Samsung s9 plus for source,in the past my iPhone slaughtered my htc 9

 

[Kevincav]

Man, I've been eyeballing the hugo 2 for a while now. I have a chord mojo and it's great, so I can't imagine how good this'll sound. Too bad it costs a couple of bucks.

 

[paul2qute]

Man, I've been eyeballing the hugo 2 for a while now. I have a chord mojo and it's great, so I can't imagine how good this'll sound. Too bad it costs a couple of bucks.

I had the mojo and it was always in my draw,no case was available at the time and I was terrified of getting it scratched,I sold it and I will always regret it,sold my Hugo regret that but I got my Chord 2 qute so since the Hugo I've never not had a Chord dac in my system,the mojo is the most amazing piece of kit out there for the price,I say price it's amazing full stop,the Hugo 2 I hope will be better but that doesn't take anything away from the mojo just like the Dave can't take anything away from the Hugo 2,they all produce music in a special way and all got the Chord house sound.I say in my draw I listened to it constantly in the house but I had the Hugo so seemed pointless

 

[Kevincav]

Really? man the mojo feels like a tank. Might get scratchd but I can't imagine it ever breaking.

 

[x RELIC x]

Leave that track and forget it ,, it was an example from my side which was intentionally not heavy in bass
give me any track or album you recognize as a good source so that i can understand your point with my ears
maybe all my sources are very bad ,, i am not deep with the term small or large dynamic , i never checked it before in my music
but i never heard my Hugo or any other portable amp as good as you say VS a desktop amp , and now i am doubting all my music library
i hope you got me ..

I got you... my apologies.

Spoiler: some OT dynamic range discussion

What genre do you listen to? I linked a great article earlier regarding dynamic range compression and the loudness wars, but here it is again (it will explain the whole thing):

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/ca-academy/dynamic-range-no-quiet-no-loud-r643/

A video excerpt from the above article:




You can also check your music using this:

http://dr.loudness-war.info/

You can enter your artist / album and check to see what the dynamic range is on the music you listen to (if it’s in the database). I should note that a reported compressed dynamic range doesn’t always equate to poor sound as some music is simply performed that way, but it’s a rare exception. Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, there is often audible distortions found in music that is dynamically compressed for loudness (pumped up so everything is just loud). Adele is a good example.

An example of fantastic dynamic range is the 1985 release of Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits. Also, a great example of how a re-master of the same album can ruin the dynamics in the music just to pump up the volume in the track (this is very, very common). The 2005 re-master of this album is actually much worse than the original CD, even the SACD and DVD versions. Thankfully they released better versions later, but not as good as the original where they wanted to show off the capabilities of the new CD format back then. See the results in the link below:

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Dire+straits&album=Brothers+in+arms


There’s also artists like Norah Jones that have a decent amount of music with good dynamic range but her recordings are rather flat as the vocals and instruments all seem to be mixed at the same level and there is little depth to her recordings (a studio mix decision).

Many heavy metal and rock albums are terribly mastered, but there are exceptions.

Certainly it isn’t a forgone conclusion that the source files are the reason for preferring certain gear added in the chain, but it could be a possibility or even a major factor.

 

[musicmaker]

You're repeating the same old litany. Of course your ears decide what it's best for you. And of course you're entitled to prefer a certain sound. I'm an absolute advocate of tayloring the sound to one's liking, maybe more consequentially than most others. But you simply draw the wrong conclusions. Fault number one is the notion that a headphone (or your headphone) has to sound perfect with a perfect source and amp. In fact no headphone sounds perfect, so how can it sound perfect with perfect gear? It's always a matter of synergy – which means (passably) compensating flaws. Like so many posters with your mindset you keep ignoring the essential points brought up from the «no-amp» camp...




It's not about postulating a single tonal balance and sonic characteristic as the only true way to listen to music for a real audiophile, it's about proposing the best way to acheive the best sound possible, independent of the individual perception and sonic ideal. You may know that the Hugos' integrated «headphone amp» can't be bypassed. So how can you seriously expect a signal «improvement» from reamplifying it? The only scenario where an extra amp would be beneficial is if the Hugo would be driven near clipping, hence to massively increased harmonic distortion. I think meanwhile you realize that this is – usually – not the case. Therefore it is really not helpful if people continue to spread the misinformation of the «underpowered headphone output» solely based on a sound that's too thin for their taste. The best remedy against thin sound is a bit of a bass increase, and it's absurd to delegate this task to an amp with its arbitrary coloration – and (as you may slowly be realizing) its bad habit to degrade transparency and transient response. Unfortunately the kind of colorations produced by an amp can absolutely be perceived as an improvement, the more so as it usually introduces a general forgivingness to tonal flaws (from the headphone's inevitably flawed frequency response).

Note that even the Hugo₂ isn't really neutral – no hi-fi component is! –, therefore the wish to get tonal perfection with plug and play is an illusion.

No need to be defensive. I have seen it more often than not on this thread. This is an open forum. I'm a customer who purchased this product and am entitled to my opinions. You may not agree with it and you're entitled to yours.

You refer to the no-amp camp and mindset. The H2 does have an amplification stage I'm pretty sure which if I'm not mistaken cannot be bypassed. Also have you seen the Amp forum and how many people participate in it ? You must know something everyone on that side doesn't.

And I find the recommendation to get "better" headphones a bit silly. I have the Sony MDR-Z1R and Fostex TH900 m2 both recabled with jenalab ultracryo wire. I'm not running the H2 out of an iphone earbud. I don't want to get into a headphone war but what I will say is I absolutely enjoy these headphones with my other setup more. Planning on getting a Focal clear soon and will definitely try it out with the H2.

The bottom line -
I dont know the rationale behind the design design in the H2 that prevents it from being used as a dac only vs an integrated unit. If you want an all-in-one transportable, this is perhaps your best bet today. Unfortunately, that isn't my use case and for the price I would expect to have the flexibility to use the unit as a dac only or as an integrated dac-headAmp.

This is the last I have to say on this thread.

 

[Currawong]

Therefore it is really not helpful if people continue to spread the misinformation of the «underpowered headphone output» solely based on a sound that's too thin for their taste.

I feel the need to say that, personally, I never felt that the Hugo 2 sounded "too thin", but was lacking the dynamics I feel I was getting from the big amps. If Rob's detailed post is applicable to my tube amp, and I'm really hearing something that has been added to the sound, then that to me is interesting, as I now want to sit down and listen to some very fast guitar or the like, with and without the amp in the chain, and see what I feel with that knowledge in the back of my mind.

 

[hugo poon]

Wondering how many have also tried using the RCA out (instead of the "headphone outputs") for headphones and earphones; once I and my friends tried this, we are never going back to the headphone out. Everything from separation, sound stage, dynamic to naturalness is being taken to a totally different level. Just amazing.

Happy listening with the Hugo 2!

Cheers,
Hugo

 

[SearchOfSub]

If you read what I wrote I did say all of this is subjective of course. It isn't a universal preference just like yours isn't either. Clearly there are folks here that feel the same way I do. To my ears, the headphone out in the H2 did NOT drive even my low impedance phones to the level I've heard from my other systems. It was thin and a bit analytical in comparison lacking body. There are a lot of things I do love about the H2 as a dac so I'm not trying to thrash the product. But if someone tells me this is the end game setup at this price point and everything else is subjective and colored, they are out of touch with reality. Lets please put the marketing and fanboism aside. I for one trust my ears more than marketing datasheets and numbers. As a sidenote, I did not listen to any of the tracks above with the H2. Used my reference tracks I use with all my gear.

It really is subjective. I think you prefer more of a tube rounded sound. You wrote it was thin and a bit analytical, which in opposite mean Hugo 2 has alot of air and is detailed. I dont think Hugo would be good with HD 800 be would be good with something like LCD line or Focal or NightOwl.

 

[x RELIC x]

I feel the need to say that, personally, I never felt that the Hugo 2 sounded "too thin", but was lacking the dynamics I feel I was getting from the big amps. If Rob's detailed post is applicable to my tube amp, and I'm really hearing something that has been added to the sound, then that to me is interesting, as I now want to sit down and listen to some very fast guitar or the like, with and without the amp in the chain, and see what I feel with that knowledge in the back of my mind.

I would be interesting in reading your impressions regarding such a comparison Amos.

 

[x RELIC x]

Wondering how many have also tried using the RCA out (instead of the "headphone outputs") for headphones and earphones; once I and my friends tried this, we are never going back to the headphone out. Everything from separation, sound stage, dynamic to naturalness is being taken to a totally different level. Just amazing.

Happy listening with the Hugo 2!

Cheers,
Hugo

Interesting comment considering the RCA out and headphone out are tied to the same circuit.