[Audiowood]

  Glad to see you have finally got your Hugo. Now on warm up, I agree things sound better the more times you listen to Hugo. I have been listening to one since September, and I swear it sounds better now than then - it very much has the ability to surprise even 8 months on - I was listening to some castanets today, and the click was extraordinary - very sharp, and precisely focused. So is it Hugo breaking in, or my brain breaking in to Hugo, or is it that Hugo has the power to surprise like live music? I do not know - but I know that getting used to Hugo sound is not something that happens quickly, and it is something that you will find sounds better and better - but doing careful listening tests with old units and new units does not reveal a big difference in sound.
 
Another point in a posting earlier - it does not matter which source is selected, DoP will be decoded to DSD on all inputs.

 
Oh my.. Mr Rob, you have finally arrived here. Welcome to headfi..your presence and contribution will be greatly appreciated.

 

[OK-Guy]

Told her she got the best ear phones in the world lol

 
about time you treated yourself to a pair...

 
congrats on receiving the Hugo.

 

[OK-Guy]

  Glad to see you have finally got your Hugo. Now on warm up, I agree things sound better the more times you listen to Hugo. I have been listening to one since September, and I swear it sounds better now than then - it very much has the ability to surprise even 8 months on - I was listening to some castanets today, and the click was extraordinary - very sharp, and precisely focused. So is it Hugo breaking in, or my brain breaking in to Hugo, or is it that Hugo has the power to surprise like live music? I do not know - but I know that getting used to Hugo sound is not something that happens quickly, and it is something that you will find sounds better and better - but doing careful listening tests with old units and new units does not reveal a big difference in sound.
 
Another point in a posting earlier - it does not matter which source is selected, DoP will be decoded to DSD on all inputs.

 
we normally welcome new Head-Fi'ers by saying 'welcome to Head-Fi, sorry about your wallet'... I guess in your case we should say 'welcome to Head-Fi, thanks for emptying my wallet'...

 
in all seriousness, what a game changing piece of hi-fi equipment you & Mr Franks have given us, our ears will be happily sated with musical pleasure... cheers...

 

[bmichels]

Dear M. Rob, since you are here, may I reiterate a wish that I believe I share with many other Head-Fiers here : we need from you a "transport" ( No DAC, No AMP) to pair with the HUGO !
 
Today, there is NO perfect portable source for the HUGO: either not enough capacity, OR no possibility to stream DSD natively to the HUGO, OR bad GUI... and in all cases, cumbersome wiring between the 2 units.  I have not YET bought the HUGO only for this reason, and I may end-up buying a TOL all in one DAP instead  !  
 
So, pleaaaase make us a portable-battery operated transport of the same size than the hugo, with a BIG 5" screen,  good battery, perfect playlist management and 512 Gb capacity + a SD slot (not MicroSD), and, may I propose, a proprietary connector that is located under the 2 units and that connect them together WITHOUT WIRES when the 2 units are stacked together.
 
Assembled together with the HUGO, they will make a wonderful complete "trans-portable" solution !  a "small wire-less brick" !  are we asking too much ?
 
And such a pure Transport will also be used by us AT HOME to feed our TOL Home DAC/AMP.   So, its market goes way beyong the HUGO owners market.
 
Indeed, with such a source, we will have to manage only one music librairy and only one playlist system: On the GO, hop piggy connected to the HUGO, and back at home, hop connected to the TOL home system through Coax or USB or Wifi... (no need for a complex network NAS system + iPAD control through Wifi.  The Chord source will become a sort of big remote control for the home system, with all the music inside)
 
This is my free suggestion

 

[Rob Watts]

   
do u mean it also decode dsd from spdif and optical input? how
btw really glad you join here finaly ! welcome

Yes sure. The DoP decoding is done after the source selection, so it does not care which input it is. Also, the FPGA SPDIF RX is capable of running at 384kHz, but we do not spec this, as it has only been tested under simulation, as there are no 384 kHz sources on SPDIF. But it should work when sources become available, then you can run DSD 128 through the phono dig input. 

 

[Rob Watts]

   
we normally welcome new Head-Fi'ers by saying 'welcome to Head-Fi, sorry about your wallet'... I guess in your case we should say 'welcome to Head-Fi, thanks for emptying my wallet'...

 
in all seriousness, what a game changing piece of hi-fi equipment you & Mr Franks have given us, our ears will be happily sated with musical pleasure... cheers...

Thanks, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

[bmichels]

  Yes sure. The DoP decoding is done after the source selection, so it does not care which input it is. Also, the FPGA SPDIF RX is capable of running at 384kHz, but we do not spec this, as it has only been tested under simulation, as there are no 384 kHz sources on SPDIF. But it should work when sources become available, then you can run DSD 128 through the phono dig input. 

Thanks but... I read from jayboy76 that has when he use his AK240 connected to his HUGO through optical : " the optical cable cannot carry DSD streams. It just cannot stream it and therefore, (when playing DSD files on the AK240)... no sound."
 
--> how to play DSD files on the AK240 through optical to the HUGO ?

 

[SleepyOne]

  Yes sure. The DoP decoding is done after the source selection, so it does not care which input it is. Also, the FPGA SPDIF RX is capable of running at 384kHz, but we do not spec this, as it has only been tested under simulation, as there are no 384 kHz sources on SPDIF. But it should work when sources become available, then you can run DSD 128 through the phono dig input. 

 
That's great news, thanks for letting us know Mr. Rob! And welcome to Head-fi, really great that you visit us! Really looking forward to try out Hugo when it arrived hopefully this or next week (PhilW any more news for queue order #10? 

 ). Lastly, Mr. Rob if you want to add a title under your name you could ask jude 

 

[Rob Watts]

  Dear M. Rob, since you are here, may I reiterate a wish that I believe I share with many other Head-Fiers here : we need from you a "transport" ( No DAC, No AMP) to pair with the HUGO !
 
Today, there is NO perfect portable source for the HUGO: either not enough capacity, OR no possibility to stream DSD natively to the HUGO, OR bad GUI... and in all cases, cumbersome wiring between the 2 units.  I have not YET bought the HUGO only for this reason, and I may end-up buying a TOL all in one DAP instead  !  
 
So, pleaaaase make us a portable-battery operated transport of the same size than the hugo, with a BIG 5" screen,  good battery, perfect playlist management and 512 Gb capacity + a SD slot (not MicroSD), and, may I propose, a proprietary connector that is located under the 2 units and that connect them together WITHOUT WIRES when the 2 units are stacked together.
 
Assembled together with the HUGO, they will make a wonderful complete "trans-portable" solution !  a "small wire-less brick" !  are we asking too much ?
 
And such a pure Transport will also be used by us AT HOME to feed our TOL Home DAC/AMP.   So, its market goes way beyong the HUGO owners market.
 
Indeed, with such a source, we will have to manage only one music librairy and only one playlist system: On the GO, hop piggy connected to the HUGO, and back at home, hop connected to the TOL home system through Coax or USB or Wifi... (no need for a complex network NAS system + iPAD control through Wifi.  The Chord source will become a sort of big remote control for the home system, with all the music inside)
 
This is my free suggestion

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately such a project would be a major undertaking, so it's beyond what I or Chord can do - at the moment. Consumers often don't understand how difficult these design exercises are - such a project would require a major design effort, and it would result in no better sound quality. My focus is on doing everything I can to improve sound quality, and doing a source will not significantly benefit that. I have lots of projects on the go that will result in substantially better sound quality, that's what I must focus on.
 
Hugo is a case in point. Some of the intellectual property (IP) for Hugo started 30 years ago, so one could say that it took 30 years to develop. That's a lot of effort. Bear in mind too that Hugo is designed from the gate level, so I have control over every aspect of sound reproduction - it is not a simple effort of reading a data sheet and soldering a chip onto a board. So a new project for Chord is a lot of investment on my side - and we have a lot of projects that will have major impacts on sound quality on the go!  

 

[SleepyOne]

  Unfortunately such a project would be a major undertaking, so it's beyond what I or Chord can do - at the moment. Consumers often don't understand how difficult these design exercises are - such a project would require a major design effort, and it would result in no better sound quality. My focus is on doing everything I can to improve sound quality, and doing a source will not significantly benefit that. I have lots of projects on the go that will result in substantially better sound quality, that's what I must focus on.

 
Wow, thanks for the insight, that is very interesting regarding source!

 

[bmichels]

  Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately such a project would be a major undertaking, so it's beyond what I or Chord can do - at the moment. Consumers often don't understand how difficult these design exercises are - such a project would require a major design effort, and it would result in no better sound quality. My focus is on doing everything I can to improve sound quality, and doing a source will not significantly benefit that. I have lots of projects on the go that will result in substantially better sound quality, that's what I must focus on.
 
Hugo is a case in point. Some of the intellectual property (IP) for Hugo started 30 years ago, so one could say that it took 30 years to develop. That's a lot of effort. Bear in mind too that Hugo is designed from the gate level, so I have control over every aspect of sound reproduction - it is not a simple effort of reading a data sheet and soldering a chip onto a board. So a new project for Chord is a lot of investment on my side - and we have a lot of projects that will have major impacts on sound quality on the go!  

 fair enough, and thank you for answering so clearly and so rapidly.
 
Re the new casing: what is the exact status: some dealers tells us "we have it" and some others still say "in 4 week time" !?  
 
--> If we purchase on-line from a distributor, how can we be sure to purchase the HUGO with new casing ? is there a different SKU# or a different serial N° serie ? 

 

[holeout]

Mr. Rob, welcome to the forum and a great thanks for bring a spectacular product to the market, the Hugo has given me many hours of listening pleasure especially on to go. Hope Chord will continue the good work and bring improvements (On/off switch, i/o compatibility, ergonomics) to the Hugo.
 
Having a taste of what Chord can do with a portable device sonically, I wonder if Chord will venture into desktop components for headphones. Dac and amp to complete with the TOTL dacs / amps currently in the market. I know a few of my friends and myself are holding off in buying hi-end dacs (think DCS, Trinity ....) to see what will be up in the horizon. Hope you can shed some insight.
 
 
Quote:

  Yes sure. The DoP decoding is done after the source selection, so it does not care which input it is. Also, the FPGA SPDIF RX is capable of running at 384kHz, but we do not spec this, as it has only been tested under simulation, as there are no 384 kHz sources on SPDIF. But it should work when sources become available, then you can run DSD 128 through the phono dig input. 

 
I'll try the spdif out from the Lumin to Hugo tomorrow, the Lumin should be able to output Dop from spdif. Will report back later.

 

[OK-Guy]

 
I wonder if Chord will venture into desktop components for headphones. Dac and amp to complete with the TOTL dacs / amps currently in the market.

 
this might help, Chord's Chordette desktop range:-
 
http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/products.asp?cat=16

 

[bmichels]

 
 
240gb iPod, Algorhythm Solo, coax into Hugo, Alpha Dogs...

 
What is the advantage of using an Algorhythm Solo instead of CCK between the iPod and the HUGO ?  
 
don't it make things more complicated ? does it improve SQ a lot ?
 
plus... using cck + Onkyo HF Player you can apparently play DSD and hi-res flac files ?  can you with the Algorhythm Solo ?

 

[pjw241142]

Rob - are there any sources / input cables that you would recommend as having synergy with the Hugo?