[PhilW]

Certainly for me...musicality comes when I can relax into the music, not be distracted by what's being played to me. My foot also taps. Heh

 

[rudi0504]

Nice setup have you tried the optical output from the hibino hdpr10 ???

Hi ALRAINBOW

Thank you , yes I have tried on all connection from my IBasso Hibino HDP R10
This is as one of my favorite transport has so many output like : Line Out , coax Out , Optical Out and
Headphone out .

 

[SilverEars]

My NT6 responds well to Hugo.  I can discribe the sound as very sweet.  The treble is very nice, and not so forward.  The recordings HD800 is finicky with, the NT6 does well with the Hugo.  I can't say it's smooth as it has textures that are not offensive.  The combo outputs treble that reminds of the 334 treble which was rich of textures but not offensive.  It pushes the NT6 to be very musical of mainstream tracks.  HD800 reveals the compression, and cannot enjoy certain tracks even with the Hugo.  I feel that Hugo brings what is meant to listen to music as it elicits emotion of the music to me.

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

However the lampi or the msb or ps audio DS sound much better than a Hugo
But most here do not want to admit or say it
Just what sound do they have. For me it's just more of what I like
Al

Hello Al

I listened to my friend's new DS last week for more than an hour, he likes it how it plays his dsd better than his MSB stack. So now the MSB needs to go except the transport. To throw Hugo into the equation is that based on memory, Hugo reproduces bass notes superior to the DS. I am however also intrigued enough and plan to get DS in the near future. Lastly, my friend audition a Lamp7 before pulling the trigger on DS.

So i tend to believe Hugo is definitely not a tier below than DS...

I think most here are audio addicts on this forum who beg and pray at nite for new gear better than the ones we own..And man enough to admit one toy is better than other regardless of ownership...

You are the man to have them all. Cheers.

 

[archeryc]

My NT6 responds well to Hugo.  I can discribe the sound as very sweet.  The treble is very nice, and not so forward.  The recordings HD800 is finicky with, the NT6 does well with the Hugo.  I can't say it's smooth as it has textures that are not offensive.  The combo outputs treble that reminds of the 334 treble which was rich of textures but not offensive.  It pushes the NT6 to be very musical of mainstream tracks.  HD800 reveals the compression, and cannot enjoy certain tracks even with the Hugo.  I feel that Hugo brings what is meant to listen to music as it elicits emotion of the music to me.

Are you using the stock cable with your hd800? I found that Cardas Clear can help the 800s easier to accept bad recordings.

My 1m VanDenHul optical cable gonna ship next week, can't wait to try it with the Hugo already.

 

[SilverEars]

Are you using the stock cable with your hd800? I found that Cardas Clear can help the 800s easier to accept bad recordings.

My 1m VanDenWul optical cable gonna ship next week, can't wait to try it with the Hugo already.

Yes stock.  It outputs very detailed sound for good mastering, bad for poor mastering or compressed music.  

 

[Duncan]

Certainly for me...musicality comes when I can relax into the music, not be distracted by what's being played to me. My foot also taps. Heh

For me, it is where I can forget that I'm listening to electronics to hear the music (it washes over me if you like) which - my full size rig cannot do, but ironically my portable rig (listed in signature - albeit not including the HA3 in this) can...

I'm looking forward to the Hugo, when it comes later in the week expanding what the Vorzuge Duo has added to my listening pleasure - already, the former owner of the Duo FortisFlyer75 was convinced enough in the benefit of the Hugo to sell me the Duo, to get the Hugo, however, until I let the Hugo's charm wash over me (not heard it yet) I'm not fully convinced that this will improve my enjoyment (sure I will eat humble pie, but cannot be fanatical about something that I haven't auditioned yet!)

 

[lovethatsound]

First off game changing is yet another word not in the audio dictionary
And what does the Hugo do as to change the game. Anyone say core a apple as it palatable music.
What it does do better than any other DAC is its mobility factor
It is the best at this for now. Putting up against desktop or full size equipment is just not fair or proper.
Next audio terms we all want our music to sound what we feel is best now this means it's all Greek to us until we like it.

Musicality is just a way of saying it's nice as accuracy is a joke as none of us were there at the recording.
Being a musician matters but in some ways makes it worse
As I know two such people who
Like the sound of sabre and the MyTek
This is just needles in the head for ME.

But proves the point we all want something different
The audio industry is now going after the sound of FPGA type dacs as there us a few out there now.
However the lampi or the msb or ps audio DS sound much better than a Hugo
But most here do not want to admit or say it
Just what sound do they have. For me it's just more of what I like
Al

Al you keep saying the ds audio dac is in another level compared 2 the Hugo, but I have given you 3 different reviews of people who have got both, and all of them say they prefer the Hugo.maybe 2 your ears it does,but 2 other people's it don't. And then there's the small question of price, ds audio dac £5200, Chord Hugo £1400.Now even you Al have said they sound very similar.why is the Hugo a game changer? Because it gives you high end sound 4 a reasonable price.Think about it Al.

 

[junepy]

Hi, 
 
Has anybody have the "hiss" issue with Hugo? 
Tried 2 Hugos today at SF meet up using Roxanne with source iPhone 5 CCK and Mac Air, and I can "hiss" whenever I paused the Hugos. (It was very small but it won't be hard to notice)
So I kind of guess that's a universal problem for Hugos? 
I really like the sound comes out of Hugo and it is really a great step up and lots of people mentioned & reviewed before, but also it will be a big problem for me to get used to it. 
 
Heard from someone at the meet up that it is a impedance matching problem. (But I forgot to put down his userid to track how to solve it, )
Anybody has the same issue and how you solve it? 

 

[SilverEars]

  Hi, 
 
Has anybody have the "hiss" issue with Hugo? 
Tried 2 Hugos today at SF meet up using Roxanne with source iPhone 5 CCK and Mac Air, and I can "hiss" whenever I paused the Hugos. (It was very small but it won't be hard to notice)
So I kind of guess that's a universal problem for Hugos? 
I really like the sound comes out of Hugo and it is really a great step up and lots of people mentioned & reviewed before, but also it will be a big problem for me to get used to it. 
 
Heard from someone at the meet up that it is a impedance matching problem. (But I forgot to put down his userid to track how to solve it, )
Anybody has the same issue and how you solve it? 

Don't worry, it happened with me with 16bit 44.1kHz and I set it to higher rate and it went away.  I'm not sure what has caused it.  
 
Vocals are amazing real sounding with the Hugo.  I'm listening to Diana Krall, her vocal centric tracks are very realistic. Live recordings are so realistic. Hugo is very musical with the NT6.  I haven't had this much fun in awhile listening to stuff.  

 

[junepy]

  Don't worry, it happened with me with 16bit 44.1kHz and I set it to higher rate and it went away.  I'm not sure what has caused it.  
 
Vocals are amazing real sounding with the Hugo.  I'm listening to Diana Krall, her vocal centric tracks are very realistic. Live recordings are so realistic. Hugo is very musical with the NT6.  I haven't had this much fun in awhile listening to stuff.  

hmm, maybe you're right. I used default setting when plugged in USB cable. 
But how can I change the iPhone CCK output rate? iPhone and Mac will be my main source when using Hugo as portable dac & amp. 
btw, sometimes when I switched the songs I can hear some internal noises and not sure that's normal as well. Did you experience that? 
 
Overall Hugo is such an amazing dac & amp combination and I already sent my pre-order request

 

[kkcc]

  ...
So I kind of guess that's a universal problem for Hugos? 
...
Anybody has the same issue and how you solve it? 

 
Em... never had this issue and nope not a "universal problem".... 
 
And I'm even using a universally acknowledged "hiss" detector - TG334.  
 

 
Totally black and no "hiss" where I "paused the Hugo" (guess you meant paused the music?) or without any music playing.  The same via any of the inputs (USB, Coax, Optical).  My range of IEM also goes from very low impedance (8ohm of the XBA4) to very high (100ohm of the er4s) and nope, never had any "impedance matching" issue.....
 
Not sure if it's related with CCK as I no longer use iphone... usb from Note 3 is fine.

 

[muah]

I am using IPod touch with CCK and HD USB with TG334.

No hiss for me too.

 

[junepy]

   
Em... never had this issue and nope not a "universal problem".... 
 
And I'm even using a universally acknowledged "hiss" detector - TG334.  
 

 
Totally black and no "hiss" where I "paused the Hugo" (guess you meant paused the music?) or without any music playing.  The same via any of the inputs (USB, Coax, Optical).  My range of IEM also goes from very low impedance (8ohm of the XBA4) to very high (100ohm of the er4s) and nope, never had any "impedance matching" issue.....
 
Not sure if it's related with CCK as I no longer use iphone... usb from Note 3 is fine.

Thanks @kkcc, maybe I should try more sources and usb cables before getting this kind of impression. 
At least I'm glad to know it shouldn't be an impedance matching issue which is great. 

 

[OK-Guy]

Hifi has gone through an era of trying to be as accurate as possible to the recording but in my mind it's all too analytical and losses it's musicality. The Mirus to me gives it as is and the ESS chip is unbelievably accurate and it's one of the best implementations around.....however I think....and hope the Hugo changes the landscape a bit and I hope we are now through the other side where we can still get unbelievable levels of detail and accuracy but the musicality is added back to the final presentation which I feel has been missing from a lot of equipment for years.....possibly back to the old Arcam alpha series which maybe wasn't accurate but hell it sounded good. Then Arcam launched the diva range which was analytical and the magic seemed to be lost.

Thus for me making the Hugo the game changer where music is wholly enjoyable but also has outstanding detail. For me the word analytical is now a negative word when describing a system...analytical is not what I enjoy.

 
I rue the day I sold my Arcam Alpha set-up it is sadly missed, I did look into getting another system but most what I thought I would like sounded 'industrial' in comparison (all clangy & overly detailed). I for one see where your coming from regarding musicality... everyone enjoys detail but there comes a point where music loses its soul/heart, sad but true imo.
 
I guess the Hugo has reintroduced FMJ back into music... see what I did there...