[phiemon]

Yeah agreed @Bozon would like your input since my dislike of chord sound wouldnt be helpful to the comparison

In the meanwhile I received the Hugo 2 and I compared it to the K9 Pro ESS.

Sorry for my answer, I'm a noob here and I just write what I immediately feel about the Hugo 2:

+ Clarity
+ Bass definition (better "punch")
+ Wider Soundstage
+ Imaging
+ Enganging, the music of more vivid
+ Mid definition

So, it is for me overall, in every sound category just better... and it has a remote control .

 

[padawan25]

In the meanwhile I received the Hugo 2 and I compared it to the K9 Pro ESS.

Sorry for my answer, I'm a noob here and I just write what I immediately feel about the Hugo 2:

+ Clarity
+ Bass definition (better "punch")
+ Wider Soundstage
+ Imaging
+ Enganging, the music of more vivid
+ Mid definition

So, it is for me overall, in every sound category just better... and it has a remote control .

Hardly an apples to apples comparison. For almost 4 thousand cdn, I would expect the Hugo 2 to be the better sounding equipment

 

[phiemon]

Hardly an apples to apples comparison. For almost 4 thousand cdn, I would expect the Hugo 2 to be the better sounding equipment

I personally find the comparison meaningful since the Hugo 2 is from 2017 and the FiiO has the flagship ESS chip and all the reviews are very enthusiastic.

 

[Bozon]

Thank you very much for the reply.

I would like to buy the Chord Hugo 2 but the problem is that I'm not sure that it is the right product for me since it is portable and I'm looking for a stationary option. On the other hand it is old and I would not like to spend so much money for a product of 2017 – the same is for the Chord QUTEST. So I'm asking you if you know a better, newer DAC+AMP than the Chord Hugo 2 at the same price (about 2000€ or 2000$). For example: what about the RME ADI-2 DAC FS? It is the only product which I practically found online after hours of searching. I hope you can help me with this.

I also had the ADI-2 DAC FS. The RME is also better than the Fiio.
I had disclosed on an earlier post that I don't like the sound of K9 Pro at all.
Qutest (wich is the DAC part of the Hugo 2) vs RME is more about taste. The Chord is more rich sounding, more musical. The ADI-2 is a more neutral and uncolored sound. I liked both on their own merits and would have been difficult for me to choose one over the other.

Since the RME costs 1/2 of the Chord, and it has many dsp functions, I believe it provides a better value. But sound-wise I think is not an easy decision.

Regarding the Fiio, I found it to have a sibilant sound and the THX opamps that uses sounds 'sterile', plain, like it takes the soul part of the music. I really don't like it.

What I have found to be a very nice DAC is the Cayin iDAC6 MK2. It is a very fun DAC, and the tube and solid state output options give it a very good chance to spice things up. It currently is my favorite DAC and a very well made product. It's only shortcoming is the lack of a remote control.

 

[phiemon]

I also had the ADI-2 DAC FS. The RME is also better than the Fiio.
I had disclosed on an earlier post that I don't like the sound of K9 Pro at all.
Qutest (wich is the DAC part of the Hugo 2) vs RME is more about taste. The Chord is more rich sounding, more musical. The ADI-2 is a more neutral and uncolored sound. I liked both on their own merits and would have been difficult for me to choose one over the other.

Since the RME costs 1/2 of the Chord, and it has many dsp functions, I believe it provides a better value. But sound-wise I think is not an easy decision.

Regarding the Fiio, I found it to have a sibilant sound and the THD opamps that uses sounds 'sterile', plain, like it takes the soul part of the music. I really don't like it.

What I have found to be a very nice DAC is the Cayin iDAC6 MK2. It is a very fun DAC, and the tube and solid state output options give it a very good chance to spice things up. It currently is my favorite DAC and a very well made product. It's only shortcoming is the lack of a remote control.

I ordered the RME as well in order to compare it to the Hugo 2 which for now I really, really like!

Do you know the difference soundwise between the RME ADI-2 DAC FS (ESS version) and the RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition? I somehow cannot find online nothing about it.

What do you think about the Cayin iDAC6 MK2 compared to the Hugo 2?

I have spent hours looking for an alternative to the Hugo 2 that is in the same price range (2000€) and reproduces a better sound, and yet so far I could not find anything useful, can this really be true?

 

[Bozon]

I ordered the RME as well in order to compare it to the Hugo 2 which for now I really, really like!

Do you know the difference soundwise between the RME ADI-2 DAC FS (ESS version) and the RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition? I somehow cannot find online nothing about it.

What do you think about the Cayin iDAC6 MK2 compared to the Hugo 2?

I have spent hours looking for an alternative to the Hugo 2 that is in the same price range (2000€) and reproduces a better sound, and yet so far I could not find anything useful, can this really be true?

I haven't heard the new ESS version of the RME. However, I like the Sabre32 DACs more than the AKM, so, It should be a great purchase. I am actually thinking in buying one of those new ADI-2 version too.

The Cayin DAC via balanced outputs is awesome. The RCA output is good, but the XLR gets you a much darker bottom, and a cleaner sound. You have to step up to a Chord TT2 to get that capability. I was considering that purchase but the price is just too high to justify it. You can buy a lot of things with 5-6k Including a significant speaker upgrade that it should always be a much better price/performance upgrade. (Which was my choice BTW). The local Chord dealer actually called me last week to gave me a great deal to make the sell on the TT2 since I have been interested, but I had already submitted the order for a new pair of speakers with other local store. The economy doesn't look good for the future with the War and the pandemic and I prefer to be more cautious. At the end of the day it is just a DAC.

 

[FiiO]

I had the problem today for the first time that the K9 Pro ESS was turned on from standby and yet no sound was played. I had also tried with another headphone jack, but without success. I had to turn the K9 Pro ESS off from behind and turn it back on, then it worked again. Of course this is not normal, should I be worried? Why did this happen? Should I always turn off the K9 Pro ESS from behind at night from now on? If I do it I just hate that I have to turn the light off from the app every time, why it cannot save my option?!

I had a similar issue that the sound was there but crazy noise. I had to restart the device to get the proper sound.

It happened to me like every other week for pretty frequent use. It's definitely something to do with the digital part, so switching headphone jack won't make any difference. Sometimes I cycle through input (clicking the 'input' button) and it fixes things. Sometimes I need restart foobar and there are also times it needs a cold reboot like a computer with power switch at the back.

I guess it's not only K9's problem. It could be caused by the entire play-back chain, PC (Windows, foobar, driver), USB interface, K9. Different users suffer different combination of irregularities and it's not easy to pinpoint the causes and fixes, still I think FiiO should test more and release a firmware update soon to fix at least some of issues that can be recreated across the board.

Dear friends,

We will report to the engineer for testing about that. Are there any other certain operation before the issue happens? Thanks in advanced!

Best regards

 

[phiemon]

Dear friends,

We will report to the engineer for testing about that. Are there any other certain operation before the issue happens? Thanks in advanced!

Best regards

Thank you for the service.

No, I just turned on the FiiO from the standby and I had again to turn it off/on from the back. Once the FiiO is on and works, it has no such a problem.

 

[desertsilver]

Dear friends,

We will report to the engineer for testing about that. Are there any other certain operation before the issue happens? Thanks in advanced!

Best regards

Thanks FiiO for the attention! I really think FiiO should stand behind the FLAGSHIP product. Recently I am having another problem: Foobar DSD ASIO sounds good, shut down foorbar, switching to VLC player, there is no sound! Circling through input selections and suddenly sounds normal. Again, not sure this is Win 11/VLC/Driver issue or something to do with K9 (hope not). Understand the digital playback is a chain of possibilities, but as a FLAGSHIP product, FiiO needs to show the support as such.

Don't get me wrong, K9 sounds impeccable, but I want predictability every time I turn it on or switch to different sources.

 

[Aetherhole]

I am not sure if this has been asked or mentioned before, but I am having an issue with my K9 Pro ESS, specifically with USB-C (maybe also the other USB, too) and MQA/Tidal. Each time the track is about to finish, maybe 5 to 10 seconds before, the audio will drop out for 1 second and then pick back up. Then when it starts up the next track, there is a momentary lack of sound, for like a second at the very beginning of the track.

I’ve tried plugging and unplugging the unit. I’ve also tried holding the input down for 15 seconds to try to troubleshoot, but it still happens.

Anyone have any solutions?

 

[FiiO]

I am not sure if this has been asked or mentioned before, but I am having an issue with my K9 Pro ESS, specifically with USB-C (maybe also the other USB, too) and MQA/Tidal. Each time the track is about to finish, maybe 5 to 10 seconds before, the audio will drop out for 1 second and then pick back up. Then when it starts up the next track, there is a momentary lack of sound, for like a second at the very beginning of the track.

I’ve tried plugging and unplugging the unit. I’ve also tried holding the input down for 15 seconds to try to troubleshoot, but it still happens.

Anyone have any solutions?

Dear Aetherhole,

The K9Pro supports fade in/out when switch songs. And did you enable the gain? We will also report to the engineer for improving.

Best regards

 

[EdgeDC]

Dear Aetherhole,

The K9Pro supports fade in/out when switch songs. And did you enable the gain? We will also report to the engineer for improving.

Best regards

It's nice that the K9 Pro "supports" fade in/out when switching songs - but can that feature be turned off, to not fade in/out instead?

If it can't be turned off, then I highly recommend that FiiO adds the option to do so in the next firmware update.

 

[vsg28]

I appreciate different people having different priority features, for me personally the K9 Pro is very good for the money: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/fiio-k9-pro-ess-desktop-dac-amplifier/

 

[jclyle]

Does the most recent iOS Fiio Control app update allow for remote headphone output volume control?

 

[gonzfi]

Some advice please.... I am using the K9 line in and getting sound from the headphone outs but not the lind oue to an external amp. Should that be the case?