2017 HEADFI'ER CHORD HUGO MINI REPORT.
After my obsessive bantering yesterday to do with concerns about charging what in effect would be my main piece of hifi equipment, today was the day to test. In the UK the weather was agreeably wet and armed with a rucksack containing a macbook air 512gb ssd early 2014, and a beyerdynamic dt880 600 ohm headphones with suitable cables I set off on my first appointment of the day, to an equally agreeable high end hifi showroom where i had previously arranged to audition a Canadian Moon by Sim Audio 230HAD headphone amp/dac and its British equivalent the Naim v1. The journey started in 2012 whilst in student digs as an undergraduate unable to use speakers at night due to noise levels, and the disruption this might cause others auditioning for their finals, so in i went with a Akg550 and excellent entry level yulong u100. Last September i moved up to an Earmax pro tube amp in conjunction with a schitt modi multibit dac and an industrial intona. Still not satisfied I sold those pieces in favour of exploring the big boy dac avenue, curious to see just how much detail can plausibly be retrieved by the targeted interaction of electrons on pcb's , flip flops, fpga's or whatever the latest thing is.
Fed by my entry level Beyers which till today have not been matched in comfort for me anyway...after being offered the complimentary glass of water and an invitation into the demo room while still operating on 3 hours sleep, such is the life of a mature postgrad, I fed some Dire Straits latest trick into the Naim v1 and was instantly impressed by its smoothness and fluidity, and effortless handling of the 600 ohm headphones. The Canadian Moon would excel and improve on this by offering an altogether more powerful and attacking amp section. Both units were of impeccable build. Something was missing however. Even though they handled the Beyers like there was no tomorrow, on comparing my previous small modi system there was no real gain in the expansion of the 2D soundscape that i was trying to escape, by exploring entry level higher end gear. This meant a moon purchase would in effect cancel all the effort I had put in till this point. Don't get me wrong here...the moon was a very attractive proposition if for the fact that the ultracompact unit did everything needed for the blissful occupation of being able to just finally enjoy one's music and forget what was reproducing it. However the package left me feeling bored, as this seemed to be practicality over the sacred mental buzz which was lacking.
My next appointment involved jumping into a taxi and quickly rushing to the showroom where my hugo demonstration awaited me. As a sidenote I had dismissed the excellent schitt gunjnir multibit as I do not have the funds to upgrade my amp/headphones to balanced level. I'm a firm believer that this particular dac needs a balanced set up to enjoy it at its maximum level of performance. The Metrum Musette another excellent R2R dac comes in near the price of schitt 'gumby' and it is single ended, but reports constantly dismiss it as being second to 'gumby', so by logical deduction this too was written off my list. With delta sigma not really exciting me, and having only briefly listened to the excellent mojo I knew i was in for a treat with the hugo. it turned out to be more... a real real treat. Remember it has only been a few months since i entered this world of hi fidelity headphone microcosoms, the Akg550 /u100 combo being a buy and forget little thing. It did rock though.
After eventually hooking up the hugo to my macbook air, and after being impressed by the solidity of its design (this was the first time i had seen one in reality..exciting stuff) was how dynamically and again effortlessly it drove my Beyers to high volume levels easily matching the two mains powered units i described earlier. It really makes you think about the product in a different light. Again a/b'ing Dire Straits latest trick (at this point it took me around 10-15 minutes to adjust and fully understand and appreciate what i was hearing with the hugo as compared to the moon/naim units which retail for £1500 so same as hugo) the saxophone became 3-dimensional in its representation. The room seemed to fade away. With Yo Yo Ma on cello i felt a lump in my throat, the breathing, the plucking of the cello's strings. At this point with just me in the demo room the lights seemed to flicker even though they were not. WOW......WOW.....my concerns about how I was going to manage hugo's battery felt completely irrelevant at this point. I tried a very bass heavy track to see how hugo would perform. Boom boom pow by the excellent Black Eyed Peas. I was shocked. I actually heard some detail in the lyrics here I had never heard before, something subtle but nonetheless all too apparent and totally real-not placebo. Im always aware of the placebo-effect. At this point i was sold. For now at least my journey was over. Add an industrial intona and some really nice high end headphones when I can afford it and i've found a tool here that in conjunction with a high fidelity streaming service like Tidal, will become my gateway to a world of music just waiting to be discovered.
If there was one criticism of hugo, and this isn't really a flaw it's me being silly, I found if I turned the volume to maximum i.e.to the white light the 600 ohm Beyers became slightly mushy and distorted. This was beyond a deafening level so in practice you would never do this anyhow. (and we're talking 600 ohm cans here) At light blue the volume was fantastic and perfect on my Beyers completely smooth not a hint of nastiness.. If the moon had a slightly more powerful amplifier section, and I mean quite slight here the dac section was 2D as was the Naim v1 in this regard. The salesman told me alot of customers had exchanged their Naim v1's for the hugo so they had stopped selling the Naim v1 even though it is still very good. With the hugo 2 being beyond my means right now I placed a 50% deposit on the black hugo and in early April I have agreed to return to pay the balance and take hugo home!! At £1125 this is 300-400 pounds cheaper than elsewhere in the U.K. so a great deal to round off a lively, wet, tiring but highly rewarding Friday. (NB Right now I can't see any reason why I would consider a non Chord dac in any future upgrade.The only serious and affordable alternative under £2000 I feel are the Schitt Multibit dacs. Funds allowing of course. This from a completely neutral perspective)
