Chord Electronics - Hugo 2 - The Official Thread

[bytor33]

Does anyone have any info about the digital filters and how they will work exactly?  I'm curious how much treble roll off there will be with each setting.  

 

[Articnoise]

Innovation comes at a cost, so that is what the argument is in our hobby. 

I didnt like Mojo, I do enjoy HUGO with all its quirkiness. I will listen to the HUGO II certainly, but I will remain skeptical on whether doubling the tap will enhance the performance twice as much. 


The silver lining I guess is they kept the price the same. My guess for why Chord made HUGO II is simply because to improve the design, they probably had way more unit returned for reasons such as loose micro microUSB, RCA, glass panel falling off, people incorrectly plugging the wrong charger. CHORD probably saw releasing a new HUGO will reduce their repair work down the line.

 

Doubling ONE parameter doesn’t gain you twice as much performance. The exaptation would be doubling power on tap, if it’s a bit low for driving your headphone properly. If not mistaking Hugo 2 can deliver more power than Hugo.  

 

[ChiAki]

I wonder how the Hugo 2 pairs with the HE1000 V2

 

[Articnoise]

   
I couldn't disagree more.  Far better to not have to feed the 5Vbus to the DAC with galvanic isolation and instead to supply galvanic isolation outside the DAC in the USB stream.  In fact, I wouldn't buy it for desktop DAC if it has galvanic isolation or 5Vbus is required.  I just hope that the 5Vbus is not required for flashing????  If it is, I'll pass.
 
Also I would like the ability to upgrade the power supply to an LPS-1, voltage 5V or 7V with 1.1 amps max.  I won't buy another DAC that can't be powered with a galvanic isolated supply.  Direct LIPO battery charging is a second place solution.

 

You can add external galvanic isolation to an input with galvanic isolation. Many people do so with for example a MicroRendu connected to Dave.

 

[JaZZ]

  I wonder how the Hugo 2 pairs with the HE1000 V2

 
After all the HE1000 sounds great with the original Hugo (to my ears)...

 

[ChrisIsAwesome]

Interesting that chord limited the frequency response to 20Hz - 20kHz. Ive always wondered what the effect of inaudible frequencies would be on the response of the driver and perceived sound if any.

I would like to know more about the Hugo "ultimate reference difital filter" and what that entails, wouldnt no filter be best to reproduce the source recording?

I think accuracy is more important than musicality, take tube amplifiers for example, so i hope between noise shaping and filtering that the sound isnt adulterated (Which to me the mojo sounded)

But i dont understand anything about fpga's, or if these are required components. If someone knowledgable could explain, thanks.

 

[Christer]

   
After all the HE1000 sounds great with the original Hugo (to my ears)...

Imho  Hugo was not that impressive with HEK .DAVE was much better with HEK  on demanding complex  large scale classical music.
One of the limitations of HUGO is that it is not quite capable to drive harddriven/ difficult headphones with real authority.
Apart from  more taps and the other theoretical  improvements of the new HUGO 2 over HUGO  hopefully HUGO 2 will deliver both  more power and body  in the important bass region which can sound too thin and lean and less congestion and masking at fff climaxes than HUGO.
HEK in its own right , is impressive in some ways but problematic in some other ways.
HD 800 has clearly better impulse response/transients than basically any other headphone on the market for example.
Percussion sounds more realistic via HD 800 than HEK .
But the seductive string sound on some material was tempting indeed with DAVE,but  less so with HUGO
I spent almost  a  full day comparing my HD 800  with HEK and came to the conclusion that with DAVE there might have been reason enough to own  the HEK as well as my HD800,with some of my master files material. But not really with HUGO.
Then again, I have yet to hear the new version of my old favourite headphone Jecklin Float electrostatics.
With  my electrostatic speakers there is even more transparency depth  and resolution than my HD 800s.
Unfortunately the new  Jecklin Floats seem to available only in Germany.
But  with  both the new more powerful and higher resolution HUGO 2 and HEK V2 I might reconsider. 

 

[jmills8]

Imho  Hugo was not that impressive with HEK .DAVE was much better with HEK  on demanding complex  large scale classical music.
One of the limitations of HUGO is that it is not quite capable to drive harddriven/ difficult headphones with real authority.
Apart from  more taps and the other theoretical  improvements of the new HUGO 2 over HUGO  hopefully HUGO 2 will deliver both  more power and body  in the important bass region which can sound too thin and lean and less congestion and masking at fff climaxes than HUGO.
HEK in its own right , is impressive in some ways but problematic in some other ways.
HD 800 has clearly better impulse response/transients than basically any other headphone on the market for example.
Percussion sounds more realistic via HD 800 than HEK .
But the seductive string sound on some material was tempting indeed with DAVE,but  less so with HUGO
I spent almost  a  full day comparing my HD 800  with HEK and came to the conclusion that with DAVE there might have been reason enough to own  the HEK as well as my HD800,with some of my master files material. But not really with HUGO.
Then again, I have yet to hear the new version of my old favourite headphone Jecklin Float electrostatics.
With  my electrostatic speakers there is even more transparency and resolution than my HD 800s.
Unfortunately the new  Jecklin Floats seem to available only in Germany.
But  with  both the new more powerful and higher resolution HUGO 2 and HEK V2 I might reconsider. 

But on the go the Dave sounds horrible.

 

[ChiAki]

 
Imho  Hugo was not that impressive with HEK .DAVE was much better with HEK  on demanding complex  large scale classical music.
One of the limitations of HUGO is that it is not quite capable to drive harddriven/ difficult headphones with real authority.
Apart from  more taps and the other theoretical  improvements of the new HUGO 2 over HUGO  hopefully HUGO 2 will deliver both  more power and body  in the important bass region which can sound too thin and lean and less congestion and masking at fff climaxes than HUGO.
HEK in its own right , is impressive in some ways but problematic in some other ways.
HD 800 has clearly better impulse response/transients than basically any other headphone on the market for example.
Percussion sounds more realistic via HD 800 than HEK .
But the seductive string sound on some material was tempting indeed with DAVE,but  less so with HUGO
I spent almost  a  full day comparing my HD 800  with HEK and came to the conclusion that with DAVE there might have been reason enough to own  the HEK as well as my HD800,with some of my master files material. But not really with HUGO.
Then again, I have yet to hear the new version of my old favourite headphone Jecklin Float electrostatics.
With  my electrostatic speakers there is even more transparency depth  and resolution than my HD 800s.
Unfortunately the new  Jecklin Floats seem to available only in Germany.
But  with  both the new more powerful and higher resolution HUGO 2 and HEK V2 I might reconsider. 

As a Hugo user myself, I have the same impressions as you have. Hugo lacks the capability to drive headphones with authority and provide large scale dynamics for orchestral music to my ears. It's not to say that Hugo lacks power, as it's been discussed countless times that Hugo is pretty powerful alright.
 
Really hope the Hugo 2 improves regarding this department.

 

[jmills8]

As a Hugo user myself, I have the same impressions as you have. Hugo lacks the capability to drive headphones with authority and provide large scale dynamics for orchestral music to my ears. It's not to say that Hugo lacks power, as it's been discussed countless times that Hugo is pretty powerful alright.

Really hope the Hugo 2 improves regarding this department.

Hugo has more than enough power for any iem.

 

[JaZZ]

  Imho  Hugo was not that impressive with HEK .DAVE was much better with HEK  on demanding complex  large scale classical music.
One of the limitations of HUGO is that it is not quite capable to drive harddriven/ difficult headphones with real authority.
Apart from  more taps and the other theoretical  improvements of the new HUGO 2 over HUGO  hopefully HUGO 2 will deliver both  more power and body  in the important bass region which can sound too thin and lean and less congestion and masking at fff climaxes than HUGO.
HEK in its own right , is impressive in some ways but problematic in some other ways.
HD 800 has clearly better impulse response/transients than basically any other headphone on the market for example.
Percussion sounds more realistic via HD 800 than HEK .
But the seductive string sound on some material was tempting indeed with DAVE,but  less so with HUGO
I spent almost  a  full day comparing my HD 800  with HEK and came to the conclusion that with DAVE there might have been reason enough to own  the HEK as well as my HD800,with some of my master files material. But not really with HUGO.
Then again, I have yet to hear the new version of my old favourite headphone Jecklin Float electrostatics.
With  my electrostatic speakers there is even more transparency depth  and resolution than my HD 800s.
Unfortunately the new  Jecklin Floats seem to available only in Germany.
But  with  both the new more powerful and higher resolution HUGO 2 and HEK V2 I might reconsider. 

 
Hi Christer
 
My deviating experience may have to do with the fact that equalizing makes me largely independent of component synergy – although of course the HE1000 driven by the DAVE is a step up nonetheless. But I really enjoy the HE1000 with the Hugo as well and don''t miss any authority (actually even without equalizing). Also, to my ears, the HE1000 – equalized and modified – sounds more natural and accurate than my (equalized and modified) HD 800. Especially overtones sound more believable than with any other headphone I've heard, whereas the HD 800 has a slight glassy component in it, a certain lack of palpability – but still sounds very good nonetheless, just not equally natural and detailed.
 
In any event I dispute the notion that the Hugo doesn't have enough power to drive the HE1000 properly – which you haven't explicitly stated, but it may come across like it. The gain of «authority» with the DAVE compared to the Hugo is about the same with the HD 800 and even with any of my IEMs, just for the record.

 

[ThatPhil]

Apparently it does have some improvements in that area:
New digital DC servos have replaced the inline capacitors in the original output stages and reduce distortion further while improving the power-drive performance and capability of the output stage. An element of switch-on delay has resulted, but the performance benefits were felt to outweigh the disadvantage.
source http://earphonia.com/digital-audio-players-daps/chord-electronics-hugo-2-blu-2-poly/2/

 

[maxh22]

For those who are interested:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Edit:
 
Note: I was not present at this event. These photos were taken from the web and are not my own.

 

[maxh22]

Some real world photos of Hugo:
 

 

 

 

 

 
I think it looks marvelous!
 
Edit:
 
Note: I was not present at this event. These photos were taken from the web and are not my own.

 

[skhan007]

How does on control the volume?