[ouchia]

I'm only getting about 7-8 hours of play time using the optical in + some time on the hd usb.  Anyone else?  This is, of course, on the battery...

 

[ALRAINBOW]

It's above the M7 if you are asking me . Although I just listened for about two hours. I tried the Hugo with and without the. Offramp 5 with coax input and the good cable from Steve. It appears the need for the offramp is in a questionable state.
It makes the dac a little darker , but gives you a lower noise floor as well. The test was done with the hd800 headphones
Hirez PCM and dsd. I used the internal amp and an external amp. The femAle vocal was more upfront then without the internal amp. Hence my statement of mid forward. I did not do an A/B comparison. But in the one weakness of the M7 is it's loose and over the top bass the Hugo blows it up . The Hugo like the direct stream is a FGPA dac meaning it is a fully pre programmed DA converter all custom and not an off the shelf chip . And they both seem to NOT benefit from the offramp and actually makes them worse.
Al

 

[seaice]

I have just ordered the Hugo for my travels. I am really curious how it stands against my primary HD800 chain

 

[ALRAINBOW]

I just did a quick observational post , very good. I just dropped 2500 bucks on it. And the dac and amp are really good.
I do not expect it to best out my direct stream but it's in that realm of natural sound .
It has a really low noise floor it goes deep into the recording .
Al

 

[sa92058]

  HI Phil, does Custom Cables carry these adaptors? Thinking of getting the Hugo but the limitations with RCA connectors is getting me worried.

These adapters look pretty crude to me: impure metals and adapters with huge amounts of mass always hurt the sound.

 

[audionewbi]

The first best thing I ever bought in my audio-life world is the ER4S which opened up my ears to an entire undiscovered world of audio which I have today experienced part of it. I had the luxury to try many different great setups of which sadly the one I really wanted I could not afford. Good fortunate and hard work and endless emailing allowed me to make some great purchases in this 11 year hobby, deals which I consider a steal. I paid full price for HUGO andI can say with ease HUGO has been the second most important event in my audio-life and I consider it a great value for its price. If it was not for sentimental reason/attachment I had towards ER4S I would have ranked HUGO as the most important thing that has happened to me in this decade in this hobby.
 
Thank you team chord, thank you Mr Watts. 

 

[sa92058]

  I have always felt that the PortaPros are way above their price in performance, and I imagine other products would score higher, as you mention, with something like the Hugo. When you build on a solid base everything else will normally be better. 

And Hugo is that game changing audio foundation we've needed all along in our systems!..........totally agree.

 

[sa92058]

  The first best thing I ever bought in my audio-life world is the ER4S which opened up my ears to an entire undiscovered world of audio which I have today experienced part of it. I had the luxury to try many different great setups of which sadly the one I really wanted I could not afford. Good fortunate and hard work and endless emailing allowed me to make some great purchases in this 11 year hobby, deals which I consider a steal. I paid full price for HUGO andI can say with ease HUGO has been the second most important event in my audio-life and I consider it a great value for its price. If it was not for sentimental reason/attachment I had towards ER4S I would have ranked HUGO as the most important thing that has happened to me in this decade in this hobby.
 
Thank you team chord, thank you Mr Watts. 

16 bit cds at Wallmart for 4.99 that now sound reference quality through the Hugo.......my Hugo and my Prius have a lot in common: they both save me a lot of money!

 

[ted_b]

I just did a quick observational post , very good. I just dropped 2500 bucks on it. And the dac and amp are really good.
I do not expect it to best out my direct stream but it's in that realm of natural sound .
It has a really low noise floor it goes deep into the recording .
Al

Al,
As I let my directstream break in offline (Oppo feeding it 16/44 compilation test/music disc before my 2nd system backup MAc Mini USB shows up) I'd love to hear more about your thoughts as your Hugo breaks in, especially listening to redbook!  We all seem to have come to the conclusion that redbook (likely the vast majority of our music archives) is improved the most by the Hugo's exquisite timing technology and often gets us to a place where replacing-with-hirez-version is only applicable if the new one is a better master or mix (which is not often).  It will be interesting to ehar your thougths on Huog and Directstream's redbook prowess comparisons.  Maybe MSB too. 

 

[ALRAINBOW]

i will post as it too burns in. i did not even take it with me today to do as you said and let it just play at home 24 7 .
did you read my thhoughts on the offramp and fpga type dacs ? any idea why ?
al

 

[ted_b]

i will post as it too burns in. i did not even take it with me today to do as you said and let it just play at home 24 7 .
did you read my thhoughts on the offramp and fpga type dacs ? any idea why ?
al

Yeah, I am noodling on that.  The ORs pride themselves on jitter reduction, so one would think there is no downside.  Maybe it's purely relative..meaning the average sonic score for a USB input is 6-7, the OR's rate an 8, and the Hugo and/or DS unaltered USB input is a 9?  So 9 to 8 sounds dark?  Dunno, all I can guess without more coffee.
 
Edit:  I am getting an AP2 in here next week.  On my Qute HD review I commented on how even the inexpensive Matrix X-SPDIF improved the soundstage solidity and overall sq of the HD, and the Berkeley took it to SOTA.  Yet on the EX that improvement (Matrix) was only a smidgen and on the Hugo the addition of the Matrix was a subtraction, so same results as you so far...and the OR is a Berkeley-level product.

 

[Clemmaster]

I'm about to find out as well.
I cannot wait for a potential revised Chordette (to Hugo specs) any longer. I got the OR5 and a TeddyPSU 2x 12V that I planned on using with both, but since the Hugo doesn't benefit from the PSU and - from your comments - the OR5 is just a side grade, I might as well sell both and stick with the Ciunas converter for a full battery-powered source (if needed). Richard @ aumacoustics recommends the AP2 + LPSU as a synergistic combo. Could you try the AP1+PP?

We shall see.

Thanks again Al and Ted, keep feeding us with your great info and comparisons!
I'm still wondering everyday why I sold the quteHD + TeddyPSU to fund some other purchase...

 

[ALRAINBOW]

I have the ap1/pp. I was planning on playing with it tonight If I have time . the ap seems briter on most systems i have tried it on. what the off ramp did is it made the prrsentation a little darker and this reviels more low level sounds. i liked the hugo beter as is . the direct stream lost its mojo with the offramp 5. I am thinking offramp 5 is kinda over unless Steve can do something with it. I think back about two years before I bought the MSB and dacs were so much lesser than now. Dsd and better dacs have now a made digital audio reproduction a much better place .
Al

 

[ALRAINBOW]

I will,tonight and post my findings , ted states there is something to this with the fpga dacs and teds explaniTion does seem like a possibility.
Al

 

[SleepyOne]

Looking forward to it.