It has been several months, since the day, when I received my Hugo TT2. I promised you guys, that as former Dave owner I will post some impressions then, so here I am.
Please take in mind, that English is not my native language and I'm also not the best, in describing little difference in sound nuances, so my review/comparison will be a little bit different, but hopefully, still informative and helpful for many of you.
Build quality and Design
I purchased Hugo TT2 in silver finish and I have to say, that it looks much better in person, like on the photos. In my opinion, this is exactly the opposite scenario, like in case of Dave. It's a serious piece of hi-fi gear, even when some people can feel different, based on first impressions from advertisment pictures. Regarding build quality, I have to say, that it has been improved, when comparing to Dave imho. The finish of the Hugo TT2's surface is sublime. There are no visible screws, whole surface is so smooth. I don't know what kind of coating or painting process has been used, but it's much more appealing than Dave's surface finish. I like glass opening so much, the way how LED light represents the sample rate is pretty cool. Every person, not familiar with Chord's products, is asking why it is different every time and what does it represent. I have to admit, that with Dave I didn't pay so much attention to sample rate of currently played track, even when it has been represented on the screen of my music player, but now, with every next album I'm always rotating my head to the side, to check, what colour is shining through the glass of the Hugo TT2. One more cool feature, it has On/Off button. I know, it's essential, but only way how to turn on/off Dave is via red button on the remote control.
Ergonomics
This is only category, in which Hugo TT2 doesn't shine in my opinion. Personally, I had to reach out for manual several times in the first two weeks, to figure it out all options and the way how to change them. I was used to logic of controls from Dave, which was different, due to Dave's quite huge display and more buttons. It's not something, what would ruin your listening experience of course. I'm the kind of listener, who will figure it out best settings and leave it like that for the whole time. One more observation, there is no DSD, PCM mode anymore, so you don't have to change between these two mods, during the listening sessions. It's very useful, especially when you are listening to shuffle mode, and your collection consists of many DSD titles. Of course, Dave played DSD in PCM mode as well and vice versa, but I knew that it wasn't ideal and that is something that bothered me.
Performance and Sound
OK, that's the part, which matter the most. Dave is wonderful DAC and if you are asking, if Hugo TT2 is better DAC, my answer is simple, no it isn't. I have to add, that Hugo TT2 is very close in terms of DAC performance, but it's not at the level of Dave in terms of DAC performance. Dave is an older product, Hugo TT2 may have better design of PCB, more optimized software, but Dave has more powerful FPGA, which will be beaten only by Dave2, when it will be released. On the other hand, Hugo TT2 gained some muscles and it can deliver significantly more power to the headphones than Dave.
I really like how Hugo TT2 performs. Sound is tighter and a little bit darker in my opinion. It is not as resolving as Dave, you wouldn't be able to hear so many details, as you would hear on Dave, but it's applicable only to some very well recorded songs, during the critical listening session. To be honest, I like my Audeze LCD-4 powered by Hugo TT2 more, than I used to like them when listening straight from Dave's headphone output. I'm not sure, if it's due to more power, or different (tighter) sound signature. Maybe both of these facts play some role.
Summary/Verdict
If I should be honest, there wasn't even one single day, when I missed my Dave. Yes, Dave is better DAC, but Hugo TT2 is simply better DAC/headphone amp combo. It's so versatile, so powerful, that you wouldn't be able to find any better combo around $5K MSRP. My advice would be, if you already have high-end headphone amp, or you need DAC to feed your speaker setup as well (you need standalone DAC), go for DAVE. If you are headphone enthusiast and you own power hungry planar magnetic headphones, or you want elegant all in one solution, or maybe your budget for a headphone amp and DAC is around $5K, go for Hugo TT2. Rob Watts is a genius and his each next product is better and better, blowing everybody's mind again and again, in terms of what's possible. I'm very happy that I pulled a trigger, replaced Dave with all need for expensive power cable, interconnects, along with Moon 430HA amp for one "magic box" called Chord Hugo TT2.
