[richardliu1991]

Have anyone compared Chord Hugo to Schiit Yggdrasil yet? I've very interested in hearing some impressions. 

 

[phonomat]

Wow, thanks everyone for the many suggestions! I'd have my hands full if I wanted to hunt all these down. I did a lot of reading overnight however, and taking into account your suggestions, I have to say I'm almost sold on the Fostex TH-900s. Most people seem to agree that they are a hell of a combo with HUGO.
O yeah, and he arrived as scheduled, I'm listening right now via my good ol' PRO 900. Since I've never owned a DAC before, you can imagine the level of my amazement at how much detail he retrieves from tracks I've listened to hundreds of times and thought I knew inside out. Well, guess what, I was wrong. Boy, this is FUN! The only thing that bothers me a little is that the highs are quite shrill. I know this can be a problem of the Ultrasones, but I actually experienced it less when running them straight out of my laptop, which I'm finding a little strange. If I had to describe HUGO's sound as I experience it through these cans, I would say it's VERY upfront, in your face, even borderline aggressive. Don't get me wrong, I like an involving sound (and this is extremely involving), but since I like it so much, I tend to climb the volume ladder to get lots of bass punch (okay I guess I am somewhat a basshead), which ultimately results very shrill, piercing highs. I have to say the phones never sounded this harsh directly out of my PC's headphone out. Could this be something that settles down over time? And most importantly, could this be a potential problem I would experience with the Fostex as well? Looks like I'm just finding out that I'm more treble sensitive than I thought. Or maybe HUGO + Pro 900 is just not a marriage made in heaven. Details layering and stage are amazing though, much improved!
Again, thanks for the many kind replies. I love this forum and have done tons of reading here, and it's great to receive such a nice welcome. Really appreciate it!

 

[phonomat]

Especially modern ambient like mono lake, biosphere etc.

 
I love Monolake! Have almost their complete back catalogue. And Biosphere is great as well. If you like their stuff, be sure to check out Porter Ricks sometime. Their album "Biokinetics" is a modern classic that was recently reissued. Might be right up your alley.
And you mentioning them in connection with the TH-900 made me feel like the Fostex might be right up mine ... 

 

 

[paulchiu]

  Wow, thanks everyone for the many suggestions! I'd have my hands full if I wanted to hunt all these down. I did a lot of reading overnight however, and taking into account your suggestions, I have to say I'm almost sold on the Fostex TH-900s. Most people seem to agree that they are a hell of a combo with HUGO.
O yeah, and he arrived as scheduled, I'm listening right now via my good ol' PRO 900. Since I've never owned a DAC before, you can imagine the level of my amazement at how much detail he retrieves from tracks I've listened to hundreds of times and thought I knew inside out. Well, guess what, I was wrong. Boy, this is FUN! The only thing that bothers me a little is that the highs are quite shrill. I know this can be a problem of the Ultrasones, but I actually experienced it less when running them straight out of my laptop, which I'm finding a little strange. If I had to describe HUGO's sound as I experience it through these cans, I would say it's VERY upfront, in your face, even borderline aggressive. Don't get me wrong, I like an involving sound (and this is extremely involving), but since I like it so much, I tend to climb the volume ladder to get lots of bass punch (okay I guess I am somewhat a basshead), which ultimately results very shrill, piercing highs. I have to say the phones never sounded this harsh directly out of my PC's headphone out. Could this be something that settles down over time? And most importantly, could this be a potential problem I would experience with the Fostex as well? Looks like I'm just finding out that I'm more treble sensitive than I thought. Or maybe HUGO + Pro 900 is just not a marriage made in heaven. Details layering and stage are amazing though, much improved!
Again, thanks for the many kind replies. I love this forum and have done tons of reading here, and it's great to receive such a nice welcome. Really appreciate it!

 
I'd try the Ultrasone ED10 with the Hugo. I did not mention in my post earlier as I did not like the combination.  AS such, I also found the TH900 having that issue in the higher range.  So, I went elsewhere.  This is not to say my ED10 and TH900 suck.  Not at all, they just work a lot better with other sources.  Really well with 300B tubes.

 

[Whazzzup]

 

Especially modern ambient like mono lake, biosphere etc.

 
I love Monolake! Have almost their complete back catalogue. And Biosphere is great as well. If you like their stuff, be sure to check out Porter Ricks sometime. Their album "Biokinetics" is a modern classic that was recently reissued. Might be right up your alley.
And you mentioning them in connection with the TH-900 made me feel like the Fostex might be right up mine ... 

 

Icarus sounds pretty cool on th900

 wax stag awesome, vermont really good

 

[Jeff Y]

I finally got the Hugo just 30 mins ago! I was waiting 2 months for my dealer to get one in stock and now I'm at home listening away 

I got the latest black Hugo for 2066 USD and with the black leather case for 2200 USD combined (living in Korea) (I'm guessing this is cheaper than price in England?).
The most surprising thing is that I open the box up and turn it on without expecting it to turn off because I guessed it's not charged but it's fully charged!
One question I've got is, I've demoed the Hugo a couple times before and the 6.3mm plug (the big one) on my Hugo is a little tight compared to the demo Hugos I've listened to (demos have been used for a long time). Have all you guys's Hugos had the same thing happen when you first bought them? Thank you.

 

[paulchiu]

  I finally got the Hugo just 30 mins ago! I was waiting 2 months for my dealer to get one in stock and now I'm at home listening away 

I got the latest black Hugo for 2066 USD and with the black leather case for 2200 USD combined (living in Korea) (I'm guessing this is cheaper than price in England?).
The most surprising thing is that I open the box up and turn it on without expecting it to turn off because I guessed it's not charged but it's fully charged!
One question I've got is, I've demoed the Hugo a couple times before and the 6.3mm plug (the big one) on my Hugo is a little tight compared to the demo Hugos I've listened to (demos have been used for a long time). Have all you guys's Hugos had the same thing happen when you first bought them? Thank you.

tight is good. if it goes all the way in, shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Duncan]

tight is good. if it goes all the way in, shouldn't be an issue.

Assuming the same headphones were used both times...

As much as I would love to refer to the quote as an innuendo, I have seen there be some variation on the "6.3mm" socket, with some jacks being up to 6.5mm - might not sound a lot, but - has made some of my gear in the past unusable... - Assuming what the original poster has would be a regularly available headphone / cable, and that the Hugo is just that new that the little contacts haven't flexed at all yet, but - be a little careful...

 

[Jeff Y]

Assuming the same headphones were used both times...

As much as I would love to refer to the quote as an innuendo, I have seen there be some variation on the "6.3mm" socket, with some jacks being up to 6.5mm - might not sound a lot, but - has made some of my gear in the past unusable... - Assuming what the original poster has would be a regularly available headphone / cable, and that the Hugo is just that new that the little contacts haven't flexed at all yet, but - be a little careful...

It's getting better as I plugged the jack in & out about a few times.
It's supposed to be 6.3mm or quarter inch but I guess there are some differences. When I get custom cables, I'll be sure to get some good plugs I guess.

 

[bmichels]

I read many people claiming that the TT sound better than the HUGO .... but when testing A/B booth (with AK100 as a source and their respective internal headphone amp), I couldn't hear a difference !?

 
-->  Is it really such a big SQ difference ?  Are my ears that bad ? 

 

[Jeff Y]

  I read many people claiming that the TT sound better than the HUGO .... but when testing A/B booth (with AK100 as a source and their respective internal headphone amp), I couldn't hear a difference !?

 
-->  Is it really such a big SQ difference ?  Are my ears that bad ? 

Who really knows? It's good news for us Hugo owners haha .
But I think that a big part of the improvement that Chord has made to the TT over the Hugo is the galvanically isolated USB so I think testing with a computer using the USB input would make the difference more obvious (it's just my guess). Or it may be the headphones, recordings, mood of the day, and lots of reasons.

 

[Jeff Y]

Listening to the brand new Hugo I bought today, I feel like it is the best piece of audio equipment which has not been burned in. Because I do not have a fully burned in Hugo next to me, I can only make assumptions but it seems to me that a brand new Hugo is not so bad for something that is not burned in yet. I demoed a fully burned in one today and I can't really say it's a night and day difference (which has been the case for every amp or dac I have ever bought before). I think I remember someone from Chord posted about Chord products not really having burn in period or something so I guess he/she was right.

 

[Dobrescu George]

  I read many people claiming that the TT sound better than the HUGO .... but when testing A/B booth (with AK100 as a source and their respective internal headphone amp), I couldn't hear a difference !?

 
-->  Is it really such a big SQ difference ?  Are my ears that bad ? 

What were your main headphones for testing?
 
I think that headphones make some difference, as hugo TT should have more power than hugo, so harder to drive should feel more of a difference than easy to drive. 

 

[bmichels]

  What were your main headphones for testing?
 
I think that headphones make some difference, as hugo TT should have more power than hugo, so harder to drive should feel more of a difference than easy to drive. 

 
I has using my Ultrasone ED5.

 

[Jeff Y]

   
I has using my Ultrasone ED5.

Ultrason ED5's are not a very hard headphone to drive well like a HD800 so I would say that was one of the many reasons. hth