[JM1979]

Thanks, but as I'm in the UK I can just pick some up from Ebay/Amazon. Seems like a no brainer to give them a go considering how cheap they are.

That was my thinking too. I think I got like 8-10 pair of roduim plated plugs for less than $10.

 

[JM1979]

This is more of a curiousity question than anything... are there any Amps that people like to pair with Hugo 2 that have nice synergy with the Hugo 2 and harder to drive planars?

 

[alxw0w]

One thing that you haven't tried, but which will provide even more transparency, is to direct drive your b&w dm602 s3.
They are rated 90 dB efficiency. I have managed to drive speakers as low as 86 dB efficiency, so you should be fine, if you want to test the concept.

Yup I read about it, just need to buy adapters to connect banana plugs into rca sockets.
Should be interesting

 

[EagleWings]

This is more of a curiousity question than anything... are there any Amps that people like to pair with Hugo 2 that have nice synergy with the Hugo 2 and harder to drive planars?

It depends. Which planar are we talking about and what kind of tonality are you looking for? And also, what's the budget?

 

[JM1979]

It depends. Which planar are we talking about and what kind of tonality are you looking for? And also, what's the budget?

I have the Ether 2s and for tonality neutral/warm. As for budget, I’m not really sure.

I kind of have the itch and am hoping it goes away. I think I’d like to buy the TT 2 but don’t want to spend that kind of money. So I’m just curious about playing around with my Hugo 2 set up. Maybe getting an Amp for a nice sitting area and then still using the Hugo 2 transportable when I want.

The M Scaler sounds like another nice toy that might have a much greater impact than an amp. And to be honest, I love the Chord gear so much, it’s hard to think about putting something else in the stream and possibly having a negative impact on the SQ.

 

[EagleWings]

I have the Ether 2s and for tonality neutral/warm. As for budget, I’m not really sure.

I kind of have the itch and am hoping it goes away. I think I’d like to buy the TT 2 but don’t want to spend that kind of money. So I’m just curious about playing around with my Hugo 2 set up. Maybe getting an Amp for a nice sitting area and then still using the Hugo 2 transportable when I want.

The M Scaler sounds like another nice toy that might have a much greater impact than an amp. And to be honest, I love the Chord gear so much, it’s hard to think about putting something else in the stream and possibly having a negative impact on the SQ.

I am mostly a proponent of adding an amp to the Hugo 2, especially when it comes to High-Impedance Dynamics and Hard-to-Drive Planars. But in your case, Ether 2 is not really a hard-to-drive planar. I'd recommend keeping your setup simple by not adding an amp. Adding an amp can bring you certain benefits, and I have discussed it here. But then, between the interconnects and trying to fix issues related to noisy power can take you down a rabbit hole.

I haven't tried the Mscaler, but I have tried a the Blu 2 on a Dave. Adding an Mscaler or upgrading a Hugo TT2 would take you in a direction different from adding an amp. MSclaer and Hugo TT2 would be step up in resolution, transparency and few other aspects. Adding a good amp might not improve transparency, but would improve aspects like bass slam, soundstage and airiness. Both would offer a sense of increase in realism, but due to different reasons. So it comes down to what you seek. If I had $5k on me right now, I'd go for a nice tube amp. But then, that's me.

 

[tekkster]

This is more of a curiousity question than anything... are there any Amps that people like to pair with Hugo 2 that have nice synergy with the Hugo 2 and harder to drive planars?

I got the iFi iCan Pro a while back because it's pretty versatile, and at the time, I was thinking of getting the the HE-6 (which I never purchased), and remembered reading that the HE-6 needs 3 watts to drive properly and 4 watts to make it really fun. With so much flexibility in connections and so much power, seemed like a good choice for a reasonable cost at the time.

In the end, I didn't get the HE-6, and found that some of the "quickness" (sharper transients) were lost when listening to some acoustic instrument based music (mostly jazz, some smaller ensemble classical). Still use it, but instead of the H2, I connect to the RME ADI-2 DAC. The H2 is now dedicated as a straight connect to Stellia.

Which makes me think the H2 doesn't really need an amp for most headphones requiring less than 2 watts of power, and even then, since i don't listen to music loud, it'd probably be fine for the HE-6 for me. From an ohm perspective, the H2 drives my T1's just fine (and that is my second fav headphone for the H2, despite having other more expensive headphones).

But I'm also looking at other amps more for different colorings to the sound.

So wondering the same thing as you.

 

[Slim1970]

Same as @tekkster, my desktop pairing is the Hugo 2 and iFi Pro iCan. But I really enjoyed the Hugo 2 and Burson Conductor V2+ pairing. The Hugo 2 and Burson pairing wasn't as transparent as the Hugo 2/Pro iCan pairing but it was so darn musical. I wish the Pro iCan had a little more soul sometimes. Then I think it would be the ultimate amp. I'm thinking about trying the Pro iDSD to see if it adds a little more musicality to the Pro iCan. But for the now the Hugo 2 and Pro iCan is my go to pairing for music enjoyment. I can barely tell the difference from listening to the Hugo 2 on it's own.

 

[Mediahound]

This is more of a curiousity question than anything... are there any Amps that people like to pair with Hugo 2 that have nice synergy with the Hugo 2 and harder to drive planars?

It sounds great the the Violectric:

 

[Mikey99]

I just upgraded from Mojo to Hugo2 for my work rig, and am really enjoying it! One thing I noticed while using my LCDi4. When plugged in to power I get a loud hum when I touch the metal housing of the LCDi4. It reduces in volume but can still be present when I take my hand away from the LCDi4. If I adjust the LCDi4 to minimise contact between the metal housing and my ear then the hum is nearly but not completely gone. The hum goes away entirely if I touch the casing of the Hugo2. And no hum when I run off the battery. A ground loop I guess.

I also tried this with my Inears Profile 8 and Shure 846 IEMs, neither of which have metal casings. There was still a faint hum, which again went away when I touched the Hugo2 casing. Again, no hum running from the battery.

I could not hear a hum from my HD800, perhaps due to lower sensitivity.

I would prefer to run in desktop mode from the power outlet when at work, to preserve the battery. Any tips, other than touching the casing all the time which is inconvenient and which also looks a little silly?

By the way, I had the same issue with the Mojo.

 

[JM1979]

Thanks for everyone’s feedback. While the Ether 2’s do sound great directly out of the Hugo 2, I get the feeling they will scale really well and sound even better with a little more juice. I typically listen in the medium to deep blue range on Hugo 2 with the E2.

I’ll have to try out some tube amps and that violectric to see if my suspicion holds true.

 

[Andyb90]

I just upgraded from Mojo to Hugo2 for my work rig, and am really enjoying it! One thing I noticed while using my LCDi4. When plugged in to power I get a loud hum when I touch the metal housing of the LCDi4. It reduces in volume but can still be present when I take my hand away from the LCDi4. If I adjust the LCDi4 to minimise contact between the metal housing and my ear then the hum is nearly but not completely gone. The hum goes away entirely if I touch the casing of the Hugo2. And no hum when I run off the battery. A ground loop I guess.

I also tried this with my Inears Profile 8 and Shure 846 IEMs, neither of which have metal casings. There was still a faint hum, which again went away when I touched the Hugo2 casing. Again, no hum running from the battery.

I could not hear a hum from my HD800, perhaps due to lower sensitivity.

I would prefer to run in desktop mode from the power outlet when at work, to preserve the battery. Any tips, other than touching the casing all the time which is inconvenient and which also looks a little silly?

By the way, I had the same issue with the Mojo.

I had a humming sound with a different device. I used an IFI Groundhog and it stopped the hum.

 

[x RELIC x]

Thanks for everyone’s feedback. While the Ether 2’s do sound great directly out of the Hugo 2, I get the feeling they will scale really well and sound even better with a little more juice. I typically listen in the medium to deep blue range on Hugo 2 with the E2.

I’ll have to try out some tube amps and that violectric to see if my suspicion holds true.

Of course the thing is when you have enough juice you have enough, which you do if not listening at white on the Hugo2. Hooking up equipment with more juice available won't actually use more juice for the same listening level. That's the way transducers work. The only way to know if you are actually using more juice is to measure the output and too many times tuning and synergy are confused for a difference in power availability.

Look for an amp that has the tuning you are looking for (with enough juice of course). Want more lushness, try some warm gear like Cavalli SS amps or some warm tube gear (some tube gear can be bright as well). Want more brightness try some bright amps like the Schiit Jotenheim.

Edit: Of course keeping in mind that the quality of the gear should also be up to the ETHER2 quality. Or use EQ instead of adding more gear to the chain... much cheaper.

 

[alxw0w]

Can somebody tell me thoughts chord hugo 2 vs hugo TT ?
I'm thinking about selling my hugo 2 and getting hugo TT (original TT 1)
The price dropped a lot and you can find ex demo units for really nice money.
Can somebody tell me is the update worth it ?
Maybe some comparisons that were posted on forum that I couldnt find

 

[silvahr]

I had a humming sound with a different device. I used an IFI Groundhog and it stopped the hum.

I had the same problem when using CA Andromeda with CH2. The IFI Groundhog solved the problem.