[elviscaprice]

I should say only difference I heard was in crossfeed

Podeschi, are you still finding the Blue Dragon USB Micro cable your preferred PC connector to the Hugo HD Micro port?
 
On a side note, do you think it worth while to use a high end USB cable for connection from an ADC to the PC?  I'm thinking no, because there is no analogue conversion once the digital information transfers thru the USB cable?  But I hear confliction accounts.

 

[estreeter]

  I also would encourage all Hugo owners to hook up their units to a good Blueray player and run some DTS master audio movie tracks thru thru the DAC and learn about the DYNAMIC RANGE this DAC  is really capable of.I kept thinking I just made a major headphone upgrade from my JH16  Freaqphase but then after the movie I saw Hugo lit up by the Blueray player and remembered the only difference was that it was in the signal chain. amazing!

 
Interesting - I currently have my BDP105D hooked up to the DAC in my PM6005 via coax to get some idea of how good the DAC in the upgraded Marantz is and I could easily slot the Hugo back in when I watch the Pacific Rim blu-ray with some friends this afternoon. Its a lot of hardware just to watch a movie, but I'm up for it  

 

[pigfatcat]

I remember when SACD was first released , professional reviewers claimed that the airiness of the SACD sound is nearly ( but not quite) on par with LPs , and thus setting it apart from CDs. I bought an Sony SCD 777 ES in year 2000 and did experienced that added airiness. The advance of SACD did trigger a revolution in the speaker industry, suddenly every vendor had to add tweeters capable of 20khz to 100 khz extension. We then had the tweeters of aluminium ribbon  , diamond , beryl,..., and it took quite a while and extensive tweaks for speaker designers to integrate these new tweeters into the existing speaker unit arrays to accomplish flatter  FR an phase harmony etc. 
 
With a bit of hindsight, such airiness may still not be the natural airiness of LPs , which is the real thing ( together with mechanical noise inherent with LPs , of course ) . Part of the SACD airiness may well comes from the HF noise ! In fact many SACD players actually trunked the over 50 khz  FR , may be to avoid excessive noise .Just like the case of tube base NOS DACs ,  the added airiness might not be real . It might just originate from  the added distortions of tube .
 
Now with the high number of tap length of Hugo, CD sound reproduction might to a large extent reproduce the airiness in LPs, and to a large extent it might  have approached the real thing ,instead of HF digital noise or even degree harmonic distortion from NOS tube DAC. I Believe this may be the real breakthrough that Hugo is presenting to us. 
 
Just my 0.02 cents only . The matter is too complicated for an non audio engineer like me to fully comprehend . 

 

[pigfatcat]

  I also would encourage all Hugo owners to hook up their units to a good Blueray player and run some DTS master audio movie tracks thru thru the DAC and learn about the DYNAMIC RANGE this DAC  is really capable of.I kept thinking I just made a major headphone upgrade from my JH16  Freaqphase but then after the movie I saw Hugo lit up by the Blueray player and remembered the only difference was that it was in the signal chain. amazing!

Can Hugo play DTS or AC3 files ? or you decode in the PC first into PCM , before sending to Hugo?

 

[estreeter]

  What Hi-Fi - 5 Star Review of the Chord Hugo, enjoy
 
http://www.whathifi.com/review/hugo

 
Thanks for that - one of the other Brit magazines claims it's 'Chords best number-cruncher yet' but I agreed with their demerits, esp the power switch and the inclusion of so many connections in a very small chunk of the casework. 
 
Getting back to What, er, WHF - gotta love the usual knucklehead comments from clowns who've never even seen the Hugo in the flesh, much less heard it - there should be a mandatory IQ test before you can register on that site. I suspect that the Hugo will continue to ruffle feathers for some time to come, especially if folk keep comparing the sonics with the likes of MSB and Berkeley - personally, that's not the point of this DAC for mine, but inevitably people will want comparisons. Golden ears at 50 paces, anyone ?  

 

[Currawong]

  volume comparison is fairly easy with the Hugo because of the subtle color changes on the digital control.

 
I seriously recommend doing proper volume matching. Even a dB or two can make one device sound better than another. If you have an iPhone an app like SoundMeter will do it (though you have to be sure to have the iphone not move relative to your headphones or IEMs while changing things around as that will change the SPL). If Chord (or Rob) says that there was no change in the circuit or firmware, then it would be very odd to find differences between two units. 

 

[estreeter]

@Currawong thanks for the feedback, mate - we've both been here long enough to have seen more than one 'game changer' (the first SABRE DACs spring to mind) and its great to get your impressions. I'm also loving the Hugo with the HD800 and I just dont get all the 'too bright' hyperbole around these great cans, but I wasnt deterred by similar comments about the various Grado models I've owned. The HD800 is the closest thing to 'a pair of speakers strapped to your head' that I'm likely to experience this side of a Stax rig and I love them with the Hugo. 

 

[TLS1]

I had a first and second Hugo. The first sounded as good as the second. Only difference was spacing around input and output jacks.

 
Same here.

 

[sutjahjo]

Same here.

Mine is the first batch and and I am extremely happy with the sound. Here's hoping you are right.

 

[sutjahjo]

Ordering from SysConcepts was really a pleasant experience. They answered every idiotic question I have politely and immediately. And they are shipping on Tuesday!!!

 

[OK-Guy]

  I finally have a loaner Hugo in the house (only 10 months later than I planned, but still).

 
think you may be thinking of the Qute, the Hugo has only been out for a couple of months.

 

[hugoboss]

  I also would encourage all Hugo owners to hook up their units to a good Blueray player and run some DTS master audio movie tracks thru thru the DAC and learn about the DYNAMIC RANGE this DAC  is really capable of.I kept thinking I just made a major headphone upgrade from my JH16  Freaqphase but then after the movie I saw Hugo lit up by the Blueray player and remembered the only difference was that it was in the signal chain. amazing!

but isn't hugo doesnt support any dts or dolby sound. so it only convert to stereo. but seems like you enjoyed it so much

 

[Currawong]

 

  I finally have a loaner Hugo in the house (only 10 months later than I planned, but still).

 
think you may be thinking of the Qute, the Hugo has only been out for a couple of months.

 Yup, whoops. I was thinking of the date of the first message I sent about Chord gear, which was the QuteHD.
 
Anyhow, my shotgun impression of the Hugo is, once the Lucy-in-the-Sky-with-Diamonds-like design and UI is understood, it reminds me of the seductive qualities of a good SET amp, but in a DAC. 

 

[malcolm.mcintyre]

Thanks for the advice chaps. Got the Lightning Camera adapter, complete with its mysterious recognition chip, all all is working beautifully with the iPod.
After a few hours listening, the BIG revelation for me has been between headphones. Before the Hugo, I wasn't totally convinced that my Sennheiser HD800s or my Shure SE846s were that much of an upgrade on my previous HD650s and SE530s. Different, yes, but not necessarily better . With the Hugo there is no contest, particularly using the HD800s, where there is real synergy.
Tell you something else. Playing the Hugo into my fairly high end Naim system sounds far better than any previous digital source that I have heard.

 

[SleepyOne]

What do you use to feed Hugo with on your Naim setup? Is it much better than via your ipod?