Does your Hugo rattle if you gentle shake it?
only if I'm rattle & rolling...
Does your Hugo rattle if you gentle shake it?
Yes the new QBD does have a remote and balanced OP's.
Rob
Rob,
I'm waiting for a desktop version of Hugo - should I wait?
Cheers.
The volume is digital - its the only way of making it completely transparent. Release date - sometime in 2015!
Rob
Will there be a way to trim the max output in the analog domain as well to avoid using too much digital attenuation?
What problem are you worried about?
Rob
Well, most power amps have an input sensitivity of around 1V; if the QBD outputs 6V on the balanced outs you will have to attenuate a lot in the digital domain for normal listening levels and not clip the amp. Won't this affect the resolution of the DAC?
dCS for example, which also uses a digital volume control, has a switch on the back of their converters that lets you select between 2V and 6V max output at 0dbFS. Weiss also lets you set the max out voltage at 0dbFS in the analog domain with four settings of 1V, 2V, 4V and 8V to match the sensitivity of the power amp and use as little digital attenuation as possible for the VC.
OK, its the resolution problem. No this isn't an issue with the QBD as the problem of low level resolution is a major issue with DAC's, particularly in terms of being able to reproduce sound stage depth, when one needs extraordinary resolving accuracy of very small signals. Frankly, adjusting gain by say 10dB won't solve this problem, as we are trying to reproduce very small signals very accurately. QBD has an extremely complex noise shaper optimized to solve this problem. If you directly adjust the gain in the analogue signal path, you could actually degrade soundstage depth as the extra analogue components degrade transparency.
Rob
is the qbd going to be portable sorry for me not knowing anything about it, is it and amp only or amp/dac
OK, its the resolution problem. No this isn't an issue with the QBD as the problem of low level resolution is a major issue with DAC's, particularly in terms of being able to reproduce sound stage depth, when one needs extraordinary resolving accuracy of very small signals. Frankly, adjusting gain by say 10dB won't solve this problem, as we are trying to reproduce very small signals very accurately. QBD has an extremely complex noise shaper optimized to solve this problem. If you directly adjust the gain in the analogue signal path, you could actually degrade soundstage depth as the extra analogue components degrade transparency.
Rob