Chord Electronics - Hugo 2 - The Official Thread

[musickid]

ak320 with amp add on for my beyers? any ideas? am i becoming an unaware alien here

 

[miketlse]

ak320 with amp add on for my beyers? any ideas? am i becoming an unaware alien here

You are talking serious money here, so you really should demo them yourself, and make an informed decision.
Probably several owners can offer opinions based on their ears, preferences, biases, other system equipment etc, but if you buy blind there is always a risk that you will end up disappointed.

 

[musickid]

i found an offer whereby the amp normally selling for £500 is given free with ak320 at £1449 all in. a saving of 550. thats one hell of a limited time offer. on the complete other end of the spectrum i'm looking at a full size desktop rig gunjnir multibit dac with mjolnir 2 amp. one extreme to the other. my aim is high fidelity music. not really worried about form more quality. anyone help this alien?

 

[Jawed]

Wow that stuff is going to sound so bad compared with Hugo 2. You'd be better off with a Mojo running off your phone.

There's been no sign of a replacement for the Hugo 2 I bought that was faulty at first switch on.

The Hugo 2 failure rate seems remarkably high. I think that's about 8 failures reported in this thread, and that's probably with less than 2000 in users' hands. The one I bought is serial number 11xx.

Now playing: Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gidon Kremer - Beethoven Violin Concerto

 

[Hooster]

i found an offer whereby the amp normally selling for £500 is given free with ak320 at £1449 all in. a saving of 550. thats one hell of a limited time offer. on the complete other end of the spectrum i'm looking at a full size desktop rig gunjnir multibit dac with mjolnir 2 amp. one extreme to the other. my aim is high fidelity music. not really worried about form more quality. anyone help this alien?

Hmmm... What amp are they just giving away? Sounds like a good deal, as long as you really like the AK320. I would also think about the Pro-Ject dac. It may well be a better DAC for less money than the AK320. It would free up funds for some truly excellent headphones.

 

[Hooster]

Wow that stuff is going to sound so bad compared with Hugo 2. You'd be better off with a Mojo running off your phone.

There's been no sign of a replacement for the Hugo 2 I bought that was faulty at first switch on.

The Hugo 2 failure rate seems remarkably high. I think that's about 8 failures reported in this thread, and that's probably with less than 2000 in users' hands. The one I bought is serial number 11xx.

Now playing: Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gidon Kremer - Beethoven Violin Concerto

I think we need to keep calm and keep things in perspective. There is every indication that the Hugo2 is an excellent DAC. Chord has a fine track record of producing well made, high performing and good looking products. In fact they are known for this around the world. They have been under a great deal of pressure to bring the Hugo2 to the market with glowing reviews of pre production units and many pre orders. They have started to deliver, but there may still be a few kinks that need to be ironed out. If there are in fact 8 failures in 2000, then let's recognize that 1992 of the 2000 are performing faultlessly and bringing pleasure to their owners. (This is of course not much comfort to those who have had more than 1 unit fail, but those few people have been well and quickly taken care of and Chord should be recognized for providing great service and having backup units available.) I am personally using a Chord DAC and it has given me nothing but joy.

I wish Chord all the best.

 

[DrLunaDjangoRex]

I am loving this thing. I hope it doesn't break on me. Its bringing out things my HD800S and HDVD800 that were not possible with the built in DAC. Shows how terrible the DAC in HDVD800 is. Everything just sounds more detailed.

Anyway, I've got one question: On Windows 10, the current driver shows that it can support sample rates 44.1kHz to 96.0 kHz and I've ticked all the options in between. Doesn't show I can go higher than that though. Also, the maximum format i can get is 32bit @38.4kHz.

Is this what everyone is getting or is there something wrong with the driver I installed?

 

[musickid]

the deal is ak320 plus 500 amp add on free plus t5p a and k.

 

[husamia]

Sorry if this is too stupid question but I am considering either getting the Mojo+Poly combo or get the Hugo2 since it has bluetooth capability. Hugo2 can play over bluetooth with smartphone am I right?

 

[514077]

I am loving this thing. I hope it doesn't break on me. Its bringing out things my HD800S and HDVD800 that were not possible with the built in DAC. Shows how terrible the DAC in HDVD800 is. Everything just sounds more detailed.

Anyway, I've got one question: On Windows 10, the current driver shows that it can support sample rates 44.1kHz to 96.0 kHz and I've ticked all the options in between. Doesn't show I can go higher than that though. Also, the maximum format i can get is 32bit @38.4kHz.

Is this what everyone is getting or is there something wrong with the driver I installed?

You should be able to get from 44.1kb/s to 768kb/s PCM and 64-512 DSD. I use Windows 7 and installed the Chord drivers which are available at the Chord page. I know Windows 10 is coming out with driver support for the first time. But, not having used W10 yet, I'd look for the actual Chord driver on their site and install it. It should say something like (Chord ASIO version 1.05-768). I'll check to make sure I'm not misleading you, but that's what I'd do first. Hope this helps.

 

[commtrd]

Thanks for your response ,and no you have not at all lost all esteem in my eyes.
I understand and again value your comparisons both visual and acoustic.
Nice comparison with the Ring as well, although I think not everyone here will get what you mean by that comparison.

I realize that one has to thread a bit carefully here with some .
I sometimes just like to stir the pot a bit here and get a discussion going.
Thanks again for an insightful review of HUGO 2.
But honestly does the lCD I4 IEM really compare with their lCD 4 over ears planar?
Just wondering if it is time for me to broaden my views on IEMs or not?
Cheers Christer

The LCDi4 sound insanely delicious with the Mojo so if these reviews are accurate the pairing with the H2 should really be sublime. I may spring for one someday but wondering for the same money why I shouldn't just buy a Schiit Yggdrasil? Any direct comparisons between these two much more than welcome.

 

[DrLunaDjangoRex]

You should be able to get from 44.1kb/s to 768kb/s PCM and 64-512 DSD. I use Windows 7 and installed the Chord drivers which are available at the Chord page. I know Windows 10 is coming out with driver support for the first time. But, not having used W10 yet, I'd look for the actual Chord driver on their site and install it. It should say something like (Chord ASIO version 1.05-768). I'll check to make sure I'm not misleading you, but that's what I'd do first. Hope this helps.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.

Currently I'm using the driver the Chord 2 driver on their website. And there are no options beyond 92kHz sampling rate and 32 bit/38.4kHz format. Is it because Windows 10 doesn't have the support yet?

 

[supervisor]

Sorry if this is too stupid question but I am considering either getting the Mojo+Poly combo or get the Hugo2 since it has bluetooth capability. Hugo2 can play over bluetooth with smartphone am I right?

yes but poly’s strong suit is wifi. iphone will not be lossless over bluetooth, and it doesn’t have aptx.

 

[husamia]

yes but poly’s strong suit is wifi. iphone will not be lossless over bluetooth, and it doesn’t have aptx.

Thank you sir

 

[commtrd]

Now if the LDC-i4's tonal balance is anywhere near that of the iSine20 (which is entirely possible, given a similar driver design), I can see why this combination might not sound ideal, as both devices share the mentioned upper-midrange-to-mid-treble deficit, so the tonal imbalances are cumulative. – Just speculation so far.

Well the LCD-i4 is really nowhere near the iSine20. It is vastly superior.