[rq1111]

Just to share how i feel after getting the hugo. i find that the treble has improve greatly for my portable setup but it seems to lost the bass. The treble is a bit high for my ear for the setup. Currently setup is hugo, ak100ii, se846 modded blue with alo sxc8 cable and use optic for connection. I switch my se846 to NAD HP50 headphone. I like this setup. So i start to look for new headphone today and try out Oppo pm3, sony zx7, grado ps500 and ps1000. I like the sound of ps1000 but i do not like the look of the foam on my face.
I came back and try to change my se846 modded blue to modded black and I like it. I will try this setup for a few days to see how it goes.

 

[JaZZ]

 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Quote:

 
 

There are many ways to color and deteriorate enhance the sound to your liking, but there's no way to fix a crippled signal.

Jazz, it seems that you keep focusing on the point about accuracy and transparency to the Hugo DAC signal. That has not been what I, or others, are contesting. I'm sure you would agree that there are other metrics of performance for sound quality.

To stop talking past each other, let me get down to a specific example. If an amp increases, e.g., the soundstage size of the Hugo signal compared to "no amp at all" would you call that "crippling" the signal?

I don't mean that rhetorically or combatively. I suppose you might feel that this is an artificial inflation of the pure DAC presentation. To my sensibilities, if adding an amp can, let's say, increase soundstage depth, this is a significant improvement and not properly described as a "coloring" or a "deterioration."

When I evaluate the performance of a DAC, amp, or headphone I look for transparency, but also the depth of layers in the soundstage is really important to me. I'll give up some accuracy and transparency for that, because it improves another area of sonic realism. In this context, a "flat" 2 dimensional image is a crippled sound for me, because it's not accurate to live sound. 

This is not to detract from the excellence of the Hugo's soundstage as a portable DAC/amp. But, in the larger context, it's capabilities are good but can certainly be improved upon by larger, dedicated amps with better soundstage. For some of us, that's a genuine improvement that's worth pursuing. 

In my opinion, And from my limited experienced pairing the Hugo with a high end amplifier like the Sennheiser hdvd800, the ALO studio six or the audio valve luminaire does give me very sizeable benefits, and not simply in terms of colouration. What I do hear when using a good external amp with the Hugo is improved transparency, composure, soundstaging and imaging and dynamics. Transients are better portrayed and fine textures are better presented.

I understand what you mean when you say that adding another amp Colours the sound. However, I think one thing to take note of would be that there is no such thing as zero distortion. As such, the larger the current draw from the Hugo the larger the deterioration of the signal is likely to be. A good amplifier would minimise the signal deterioration as the current draw goes up, and thus, I am of the belief that a good, well designed external amplifier can and will improve the sound of the Hugo especially at higher volumes with harder to drive headphones as Long as the amplifier causes a smaller signal degredation with an increased current draw when compared to the Hugo with the same current draw.

Having said that, it is all a matter of personal preferences, as you've said, and what matters is that we enjoy our Hugos!

So to anyone out there wondering whether or not it worth amping the Hugo, try it out for yourself and decide for yourself!

 
The distortion argument is a good one. Certainly the Hugo's output signal isn't free of distortion, and in the upper volume range it will be higher than below. But according to Rob Watts (see especially the last four paragraphs) harmonic distortion is way lower than that of desktop amps. Even under the premise that some desktop amps have higher output power, I think with normal listening levels and above the Hugo will still have the edge. After all the sonic difference between the direct connection and the detour via headphone amp is constant throughout the whole volume range, as I hear it.
 
Maybe you haven't noticed that I acknowledge that to some ears and with some configurations the detour via external amp will sound «better». Better doesn't mean more accurate, though. The addition of the amp creates some sonic synergies which were lacking before. Primarily in the domain of sonic balance, but maybe the added distortion or the specific distortion pattern makes the sound more organic, adds texture or slam. Lately I had an interesting experience. Somehow I wasn't entirely happy with the sound of my HE1000 (and/or the then EQ settings) this day. I attributed it to the cable. It's a Silver Dragon, actually a massive improvement over the stock cable in terms of finesse, smoothness and resolution, but I want(ed) even more of the same correction characteristic. Unforunately the planned homegrown cable for that purpose is still waiting to be built. But I had a glorious idea how I could smooth the sound nonetheless: by adding a ¹/₄" to ¹/₈" adapter plus a ¹/₈" to ¹/₄" adapter to the headphone plug. The result was stunning. It sounded as if resolution had increased by 300%, realism anyway. I changed back and forth – the effect was constant, not just in my mind.
 
To tie on above points, you have left out a major component of my argumentation chain: equalizing. While I agree that with some headphones (depending on their sonic characteristic) an amp (depending on its sonic characteristic and the degree of transparency loss) would possibly improve the sound from the Hugo also to my ears, my concern is that you can get that sort of improvement and even more from equalizing. If done right, it won't reduce transparency, won't degrade the signal, it may even improve it – with respect to the output signal of the sound transducer. The synergizing potential (distortion pattern and signal rounding) of your amp has a fixed characteristic with a small scope, whereas the synergizing potential of an equalizer has a much larger bandwidth and is flexible – you can taylor it exactly to your needs. From your post I take it that you haven't entered this field yet.
 
However, you're right: Let's enjoy our Hugos, Mojos, DAVEs the way we like! I'm just making suggestions how to make the best out of it. (And of course fighting audio dogmas is another motive in the background.)

 

[ubs28]

Just to share how i feel after getting the hugo. i find that the treble has improve greatly for my portable setup but it seems to lost the bass. The treble is a bit high for my ear for the setup. Currently setup is hugo, ak100ii, se846 modded blue with alo sxc8 cable and use optic for connection. I switch my se846 to NAD HP50 headphone. I like this setup. So i start to look for new headphone today and try out Oppo pm3, sony zx7, grado ps500 and ps1000. I like the sound of ps1000 but i do not like the look of the foam on my face.
I came back and try to change my se846 modded blue to modded black and I like it. I will try this setup for a few days to see how it goes.

Try going back to the regular blue filter.

 

[Raika]

I recommend using caox with hugo . I found it better than both : usb which sound digital and optical which sound muddy unclear and you lost the 3d soundstage .

 

[montanari]

didnt try the optical but agree on the usb and spdif!
still looking for a dac that sound better from the usb without converter

 

[Kerouac]

  I recommend using caox with hugo . I found it better than both : usb which sound digital and optical which sound muddy unclear and you lost the 3d soundstage .

I've listened quite some ''Hugo hours'' coaxial from DX90 and optical from Cowon P1 and I don't recognize your description ''muddy, unclear and lost 3d soundstage'' with optical at all

 

[TabCam]

  I agree with what Tyll said .
.Yesterday i'm using my asus motherboard sound vs hugo I didn't notice any huge diff .
only the amp of hugo make the sound more powerful .but other things like playing instruments in background, headstage,treble all these things not improve but only tiny diff.
so for me the headphones or the speakers make the biggest impact on the sound . Then comes the amp and dac to improve the sound mless than 10 % .
I used lcd 3 ,philips X1 and fostex Th900 .

I had the same experience, not that much difference until I switched to bit perfect players. I always tried to make the A-B comparisons with the same loudness and that made it quite difficult to hear differences.
When I bought my new MrSpeakers Alpha Prime 

I noticed a Hugo difference (pardon the pun

) between the Mac and my Windows system. In the end I found out that the main difference was Vox which was a bitperfect player. Before I always used the maximum upsampling rate available but now I let the Hugo do the 'analogizing' of the signal.
 
There is a naturalness to the signal which is a lot better than most other Dac's. I know it is very difficult to experience for yourself. I notice it best with acoustic instruments like trumpets, accordians, guitars, pianos, triangles and even the harp. Percussion also gets a more natural timbre.
This is now also noticable on my big speaker system

, I have connected the Hugo to the amplifier and still notice a huge difference. You could say it is an addiction as if it somehow never tires.
 
I am curious which player you are using, what the music file quality is and which Hugo input you are using and hope my 2ct helps.

 

[elviscaprice]

  didnt try the optical but agree on the usb and spdif!
still looking for a dac that sound better from the usb without converter

 
It's not the DAC.  It's the digital stream via USB.  A galvanic DAC can help but I've yet to hear or see one that can't be improved by a cleaner stream.  A Regen is a good start for cleaning the digital stream via input HD Hugo.

 

[Raika]

 
I had the same experience, not that much difference until I switched to bit perfect players. I always tried to make the A-B comparisons with the same loudness and that made it quite difficult to hear differences.
When I bought my new MrSpeakers Alpha Prime 

I noticed a Hugo difference (pardon the pun

) between the Mac and my Windows system. In the end I found out that the main difference was Vox which was a bitperfect player. Before I always used the maximum upsampling rate available but now I let the Hugo do the 'analogizing' of the signal.
 
There is a naturalness to the signal which is a lot better than most other Dac's. I know it is very difficult to experience for yourself. I notice it best with acoustic instruments like trumpets, accordians, guitars, pianos, triangles and even the harp. Percussion also gets a more natural timbre.
This is now also noticable on my big speaker system

, I have connected the Hugo to the amplifier and still notice a huge difference. You could say it is an addiction as if it somehow never tires.
 
I am curious which player you are using, what the music file quality is and which Hugo input you are using and hope my 2ct helps.

how did u do that ? I play with Hugo 24 hours didn't notice any improvement even when change digital output setting of hugo usb in my win 10 . I did everything from 16 bit to 24 bit to 32 bit and tried all frequences .

 

[zachawry]

Recently my relatively new Hugo developed a rattle.

Apparently it's the RCA plugs, because when I hold them and move the device, the rattle goes away.

Anybody else experience this? Does it require servicing?

Thanks!

 

[WCDchee]

Recently my relatively new Hugo developed a rattle.

Apparently it's the RCA plugs, because when I hold them and move the device, the rattle goes away.

Anybody else experience this? Does it require servicing?

Thanks!

It's a common occurrence not to worry. Basically if you look in the RCA plugs the red and black plastic rings can move a little, but it's alright that's just part of the RCA socket design

 

[zachawry]

It's a common occurrence not to worry. Basically if you look in the RCA plugs the red and black plastic rings can move a little, but it's alright that's just part of the RCA socket design

That's great to hear. Thanks. 
 
(I was getting paranoid that they had somehow programmed the Hugo to break on the same day as their new product announcement!) 

 

[OK-Guy]

 
I was getting paranoid that they had somehow programmed the Hugo to break on the same day as their new product announcement!

 
the light-bulb manufacturers did things like that... great idea for a sales boost...

 

[EH-Yeon]

  dust inside my hugo, how to clean it? can be seen through the dusty porthole view

Tried to get it open, but no luck, I used rocket blower to blow through the usb ports.

 

[doraymon]

- No, it isn't a Chord-made Hugo leather case
- Yes, there's a custom-fit pouch for the AK240
- SysConcept  U-shaped toslink to mini

Can you tell me who is selling that case? I would love to have one made for my Hugo and AK120 II.
Thanks for the info!