Chord Electronics - Hugo 2 - The Official Thread

[Rob Watts]

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.

I was up at Chord for a few days this week. I have had numerous discussions with them in the past about this thread, and every time I see reports of failures I have talked directly to the production director. And he kept saying that there was no real problem with quality with Hugo 2, which of course didn't tally with the reports of multiple failures.

Talking in a full Chord meeting about the issue, again he said failure rates were very low - of the order of 0.1% - indeed he backed this up by saying that Hugo 2 was one of the most reliable first start production runs ever.

Facts - Hugo 2 is not manufactured by Chord, but by the company that makes Mojo. It has a dedicated production line just the make Hugo 2, as it is being built in vast quantities. It is built on a SMD pick and place line that is the most advanced in Europe. Even the soldering is done in nitrogen atmosphere to give oxide free solder joints and higher sound quality and reliability.

Facts - the USB driver, software, and decoder device is identical to Mojo, and today I read of two USB failures, with Mojo working fine.

Facts - Chord success has been down to the internet, and when something goes wrong they bend over backwards to sort it out.

Coincidentally, I was seeing a journalist on Tuesday taking him through BluDave. In the pub over lunch we were chatting about my new B and W 803 D3 (which sound fantastic). But I was chatting about the difficulties with reviewing, and that loudspeakers have big quantitative changes (so you hear big changes) but smaller qualitative changes. But with electronics you tend to get smaller quantitative changes but much bigger qualitative changes. He gave a surprising answer (surprising because professional reviewers don't tend to express their opinions) and said that was true about conventional electronics - the changes from different products are usually small - but this certainly was not the case with Chord, as all of the DAC's are on a completely different level of performance, and it was so very easy to hear the superiority.

Now of course I can prove that from a measurement perspective this is completely the case - no other DAC's (at any price) have zero noise floor modulation. No other DAC's have zero measurable jitter artifacts. No other DAC's recover the original un-sampled analogue signal to the accuracy that even Mojo achieves. No other DAC's have a single stage analogue that can drive headphones directly. These are all provable, measurable and demonstrable facts.

So how does a manufacturer respond to products that are clearly much better in all regards? It can't do it legitimately; and before anybody says oh they can just design something better next time, they can easily catch up - well they can't. To design DAC's from the bottom up requires many man years of development time - and nobody in the hi-end audio business has the appropriate skills, experience or capability. This is why I freely talk about the tech that goes into my designs, as I know no other hi-end audio company can actually use the valuable info I give out freely. And you absolutely can't get anything like this performance from using any DAC chips - they are fundamentally crippled in performance.

So why has the thread seem to have gone pear shaped recently?

Perhaps it's just unlucky coincidences, and that all posts are honest and true, and the reports are just goldfish bowl problems. If so, I know Chord will bend over backwards to sort any issue out - we live and die on the forums.

But perhaps something more sinister is going on...

 

[514077]

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?

I'm a little confused. The sample rates are multiples of 41.4 and 48 kilohertz. And being a blind guy, I don't remember the lighting code for the diferent sample rates. Are you getting your numbers from the lights inside the H2, or from your source? Maybe someone can chime in to fill in the details.

 

[Currawong]

Dear Rob,
Could you add a function to muting output if input is not PCM(AAC, AC3 and others) in your future products?

I input AAC by mistake, and got loud noise. I think it would be better to add this function and protect such trouble.

How can you input AAC by mistake? When your computer (or phone) outputs from any PCM-based audio file (WAV, AIF, AAC, ALAC, FLAC etc.) the output is PCM data. If you are getting noise, then something has screwed up with the transmission from your PC. This happens to me occasionally with all the DACs I have here.

Perhaps it's just unlucky coincidences, and that all posts are honest and true, and the reports are just goldfish bowl problems. If so, I know Chord will bend over backwards to sort any issue out - we live and die on the forums.

It's this. Happens with EVERY new product that has a lot of attention and has large sales. People who have a strong desire to express their emotions are more likely to post about them, whether it be how amazing their purchase was, or how pissed off they are because something didn't work.

(BTW, for people who keep asking: My video has been shot, just got to add pictures and finish the written half.)

 

[highfell]

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?

If you want quality then stay with Hugo2, or maybe save money and go for a second hand Hugo1, the reviews from everyone both here & professionally can't lie about the musicality of the Hugo DAC series.

 

[dnnaudio]

Hi Rob, I doubt if there is anything sinister going. I recently purchased Hugo 2 and got a unit w/ faulty volume control. When I returned the unit dealer was not surprised. My experience w/ Hugo 1 was flawless. Its really just minor inconvenience as like you said Chord will take care of it. Your DACs are the real deal in price performance more power.

 

[Rob Watts]

Dear Rob,
Could you add a function to muting output if input is not PCM(AAC, AC3 and others) in your future products?

I input AAC by mistake, and got loud noise. I think it would be better to add this function and protect such trouble.

AAC is fine, it's decoded by the source. But yes, Dolby and DTS data does sound bad. I do have a data detector, and considered many years ago to mute the output, but then the user won't know why one gets silence. So I decided not to mute data, so that you know it's not right, and can then change your source settings to decode surround to stereo PCM.

 

[halloweenman]

I guess if you have an issue or problem then you are more likely to post than if not. On the other hand neither would I be shocked if one of Chord's less scrupulous competitors attempted to damage Chord's reputation.

I've had my Hugo 2 now since June and it's worked flawlessly.

 

[Paul Bjernklo]

I guess if you have an issue or problem then you are more likely to post than if not. On the other hand neither would I be shocked if one of Chord's less scrupulous competitors attempted to damage Chord's reputation.

I've had my Hugo 2 now since June and it's worked flawlessly.

Yes people that have had no issues of course see limited need to post that and hence the reported issues may well be a very low percentage. I have had mine since June 7 with no issues at all, only amazing sound

Also I have not responded to people that say the Hugo 2 is too bright. It is not too bright, but transparent and revealing of the music played - something which I would think would be the objective for most of us. Music that is warm sounds like that (but transparent and revealing). Likewise i have CDs and files that sound very bright because frankly they were either intended to sound such, or are bad recordings, and having a revealing transparent DAC should and can of course not alter that. I would hence recommend to listen to a lot of different albums and i think you will hear where I am coming from.

In any case I still read this thread as it gives me many worthwhile suggestion on how to further improve my overall system such as getting the MrSpeakers Aeon...

My top tip in a speaker context is to try the Benchmark AHB2 power amp (less noise and higher dynamic range than most I have seen) and Tellurium Q Black II Speaker cable (experts at timing they say reducing time smear and haze and I agree vs other speaker cables i have had) as for me I got even better sound from that. I only have normal power cables from Isotek but they also improved the sound and I think of great value. And for usb cable Supra are cheap and have great reviews...

Oh and Jamiroquai's new album Automaton sounds fab on the Hugo 2 so would recommend to listen to that!

 

[EndGameSearch]

Perhaps it's just unlucky coincidences, and that all posts are honest and true, and the reports are just goldfish bowl problems. If so, I know Chord will bend over backwards to sort any issue out - we live and die on the forums.

But perhaps something more sinister is going on...

Rob,

Goldfish bowl problems is more likely in my opinion, and in my case as one of the posters who's Hugo stopped working. Surely nothing sinister. Failures are bound to happen with any product at any stage of the life cycle and the realities of world wide demand can compound the frustration when you're unable to resolve an issue in the time we've grown to expect in today's instant gratification driven market place. I for one loved my Hugo and used it for hours a day, every day so it's absence was felt. After two weeks without it with an ETA of a few more weeks beyond that I got the itch to try something different. I appreciate how you and John participate in the thread but would suggest you stockpile a handful of replacement units with dealers in each geo.. Owners should not have to get back in line after waiting "patiently" the first time and after being early adopters and supporters/promoters on this forum. I don't think I can find better portable DAC so used my funds in a different product category but would not have if I could have replaced mine in a more timely manner. That said, I'll likely end up buying another one at some point all though the additional expense will not make my wife any happier....

 

[Christer]

"Always look on the bright side of life". In spite of reported QC problems HUGO2 is definitely very much still on my to audition list. But seeing in Rob's justly concerned post above, that he has just bought a new pair of humble "little bargain speakers".Well I just could not resist so here is a hint of humble little contenders for his new B&W 803Ds.
The very well dressed gentleman,especially note his highgrade, very expensive italian leather footwear, standing proud between these two little bookshelf speakers, is none other than the undersigned himself.
Joking aside,Rob and anybody else who might happen to do the rounds at the Adelphi in Singapore do lend them an ear.
They are quite special.
The bass SLAM from these babies might even qualify on the Richter scale.
In that respect definitely in the most realistic SQ category of any speaker I have ever auditioned.
Price? Peanuts, only 149K €.My leather shoes?
I think I paid 10SGD for those in Little India.
The speaker price,by the way, includes both home delivery and setup anywhere in the world.
How about that for a bargain?
Weight a mere 300-500kg or so each.
I can't remember the exact weight to be honest.
Their humble name?
MAAT ZIGMA.
Cheers Christer

 

[taka taste]

AAC is fine, it's decoded by the source. But yes, Dolby and DTS data does sound bad. I do have a data detector, and considered many years ago to mute the output, but then the user won't know why one gets silence. So I decided not to mute data, so that you know it's not right, and can then change your source settings to decode surround to stereo PCM.

Thank you for your reply.
I understand the reason. If so, can down the volume? Is it halfway?

AAC is output from TV. TV broadcasting in Japan use AAC encoding. There is no problem if TV output is set to PCM.
TV output can be set to PCM for stereo and AAC for surround. I was thinking Can I use properly Hugo 2 for PCM and AV amplifier for surround selectively?　But I can’t do that.

 

[Peter Hyatt]

I was up at Chord for a few days this week. I have had numerous discussions with them in the past about this thread, and every time I see reports of failures I have talked directly to the production director. And he kept saying that there was no real problem with quality with Hugo 2, which of course didn't tally with the reports of multiple failures.

Talking in a full Chord meeting about the issue, again he said failure rates were very low - of the order of 0.1% - indeed he backed this up by saying that Hugo 2 was one of the most reliable first start production runs ever.

Facts - Hugo 2 is not manufactured by Chord, but by the company that makes Mojo. It has a dedicated production line just the make Hugo 2, as it is being built in vast quantities. It is built on a SMD pick and place line that is the most advanced in Europe. Even the soldering is done in nitrogen atmosphere to give oxide free solder joints and higher sound quality and reliability.

Facts - the USB driver, software, and decoder device is identical to Mojo, and today I read of two USB failures, with Mojo working fine.

Facts - Chord success has been down to the internet, and when something goes wrong they bend over backwards to sort it out.

Coincidentally, I was seeing a journalist on Tuesday taking him through BluDave. In the pub over lunch we were chatting about my new B and W 803 D3 (which sound fantastic). But I was chatting about the difficulties with reviewing, and that loudspeakers have big quantitative changes (so you hear big changes) but smaller qualitative changes. But with electronics you tend to get smaller quantitative changes but much bigger qualitative changes. He gave a surprising answer (surprising because professional reviewers don't tend to express their opinions) and said that was true about conventional electronics - the changes from different products are usually small - but this certainly was not the case with Chord, as all of the DAC's are on a completely different level of performance, and it was so very easy to hear the superiority.

Now of course I can prove that from a measurement perspective this is completely the case - no other DAC's (at any price) have zero noise floor modulation. No other DAC's have zero measurable jitter artifacts. No other DAC's recover the original un-sampled analogue signal to the accuracy that even Mojo achieves. No other DAC's have a single stage analogue that can drive headphones directly. These are all provable, measurable and demonstrable facts.

So how does a manufacturer respond to products that are clearly much better in all regards? It can't do it legitimately; and before anybody says oh they can just design something better next time, they can easily catch up - well they can't. To design DAC's from the bottom up requires many man years of development time - and nobody in the hi-end audio business has the appropriate skills, experience or capability. This is why I freely talk about the tech that goes into my designs, as I know no other hi-end audio company can actually use the valuable info I give out freely. And you absolutely can't get anything like this performance from using any DAC chips - they are fundamentally crippled in performance.

So why has the thread seem to have gone pear shaped recently?

Perhaps it's just unlucky coincidences, and that all posts are honest and true, and the reports are just goldfish bowl problems. If so, I know Chord will bend over backwards to sort any issue out - we live and die on the forums.

But perhaps something more sinister is going on...

The answers are found in the language used in posting; including passive-aggressive, and 2nd language English, linguistic commitment, etc.

Peter

www.hyattanalysis.com

 

[Jawed]

Perhaps it's just unlucky coincidences, and that all posts are honest and true, and the reports are just goldfish bowl problems. If so, I know Chord will bend over backwards to sort any issue out - we live and die on the forums.

But perhaps something more sinister is going on...

I love my DAVE, my TT before it was an inspiration, the Mojo I bought for a friend (late birthday present) on Saturday is fantastic, he's utterly gobsmacked and my second friend is now listening to the replacement Hugo 2 which I bought as a birthday present for him

So thanks very much to Chord for a rapid solution.

Now playing: Jazz at the Pawnshop

 

[guerph]

Perhaps it's just unlucky coincidences, and that all posts are honest and true, and the reports are just goldfish bowl problems. If so, I know Chord will bend over backwards to sort any issue out - we live and die on the forums.

But perhaps something more sinister is going on...

FACT: I received my first unit with a loose screw inside the case. Other than that it sounded great. I was able to use it for a few weeks and really got used to the feel, including the volume control, which had a nice fluid/smooth feel to it. It would not however accept my interconnects despite the fact that the OD of my RCAs were under the 13mm ID (per specs). I did not have calipers to get accurate measurement.

FACT: The second unit had greasy smudge on the inside of the viewing glass, defects in the black anodizing (which was not present on the first unit). The volume control was noticeably different, much more resistance. There was so much resistance that I was nervous something was going to break when I adjusted the volume. Something just didn't feel right. My interconnects fit without issue on the second unit. Again, other than that it sounded great.

FACT: I'm a Chord fanboy through and through, which is why I'm so disappointed right now.

To all those who received defect-free devices, fantastic! I'm not ragging on Chord, but after two defective units, its pretty hard not to lose faith. Put yourself in our shoes. Minimizing the issues the few of us (honest and true) have noted here is insulting, in particular to those of us who have dealt with more than one defective unit. The suggestion made by some, that perhaps there are some of us who are purposefully trying to tarnish the Chord name is offensive. Your suggestion that reports are perhaps JUST unlucky or JUST "goldfish bowl problems," is particularly insulting to those of us who work in a production environment, spend time on a shop floor and deal with issues that escape the notice of rigid quality control systems every day. Shop failure rates and throughput should not be the gauge Chord uses to measure customer satisfaction. My guess is that your production manager has zero insight into the issues your vendors are trying to respond to. I can say that, because I'm surrounded by production managers who are too busy trying to cram a moose through a keyhole to know what's happening anywhere downstream. The responses I've received on the issues I've had with the two devices I've received from Chord, from the dealer (who shared some info with me that they asked me not to share in any public forum), and now from your production manager (who claims there is no problem) suggest you're more interested in deflecting the issues a few of us have reported rather than giving us the benefit of the doubt, acknowledging our concerns and taking steps to keep Chord fanboys as Chord fanboys for years to come.

PS. I've decided not to cancel my order, I'm going to wait for my third Hugo2 to arrive. Maybe third times a charm?

 

[TokenGesture]

Gotta agree with @MacedonianHero (who is fast becoming my spirit animal in all things Headfi ) - the K812 is stunning with Hugo2.