[x RELIC x]

I am growing to like them.
Yesterday, straight out of the box, there were sections of tracks where they sounded fine, but others where it sounded like one was listening through a veil.
Maybe that is why posters claim that Chord dacs need an extra amplifier to drive planar headphones.
Today with the volume raised from red to yellow, the veil has gone, and they provide a very enjoyable listen to jazz music - notes start and stop very crisply, but I am not hearing the shimmer on cymbals that you can get with Beyer Tesla drivers.
If I already had an expensive pair of Beyers, I am not yet convinced that I would consider selling them and keeping the Aeon.

Going from Beyer to the AEON I’m not surprised you find the AEON veiled, in comparison. I had the same feeling when I first received the ETHER Flow (open), however once I became accustomed to it the sound was very enjoyable, smooth and very clean. Also, and I hate to admit this, the Vplanar tech that Dan uses does seem to require a little burn-in as he’s documented.

I wouldn’t generally categorize the smooth sound tuning with the difference between planar and dynamic drivers though, nor would I assert in any way that it has to do with the amplification ‘power’ from Chord DACs, which is more than enough across the lineup for MSpeakers headphones (Voce excluded of course).

 

[GU1DO]

Is the Hugo TT2 balanced DAC by design ?
My new (coming soon) Master 9 amp is balanced , so i need balanced DAC with XLR output.

 

[GU1DO]

When driving headphones (or passive loudspeakers) there is no benefit from the headphone POV of balanced drive. So you should only consider the XLR if your headphone needs the voltage or power output - and given that TT2 can deliver 9v RMS or 7W into 8 ohms, it's difficult to imagine needing any more power at all - certainly not the HD800S, as these are easy to drive. The benefits of the XLR are (maybe) for feeding balanced power amps, or certainly for loudspeakers, when 18W RMS/8 may be needed.

What do you mean by (maybe) in the sentence

The benefits of the XLR are (maybe) for feeding balanced power amps,

Is the Hugo TT2 balanced DAC ?
(DAC not Amp)

 

[x RELIC x]

What do you mean by (maybe) in the sentence


Is the Hugo TT2 balanced DAC ?
(DAC not Amp)

No, it’s not a balanced design but it doesn’t need to be.

He means that if the XLR inputs of the power amp are better implemented, for the topology of the amp, then XLR out from the TT2 might be the better choice overall.

 

[GU1DO]

No, it’s not a balanced design but it doesn’t need to be.

He means that if the XLR inputs of the power amp are better implemented, for the topology of the amp, then XLR out from the TT2 might be the better choice overall.

Thanks for the answer ,, you saved me huge chunk of money ,,
is there any recommendation for the best true balanced dac that get close to the quality of Hugo 2 or Hugo tt2 ?

 

[CreditingKarma]

Thanks for the answer ,, you saved me huge chunk of money ,,
is there any recommendation for the best true balanced dac that get close to the quality of Hugo 2 or Hugo tt2 ?

It might be worthwhile to look at some of the audio gd r2r dacs, denafrips, or metrum. I just got the metrum onyx and prefer its sound to the chord house sound (at least at the level of the qutest and hugo2) it is balanced now r2r design dac. It pairs well with the liquid platinum and abyss diana phi. I brought this combo to a local shop and it sounded really good with the AB 1266 too.

 

[x RELIC x]

Thanks for the answer ,, you saved me huge chunk of money ,,
is there any recommendation for the best true balanced dac that get close to the quality of Hugo 2 or Hugo tt2 ?

If you were to ask me I’d reply that SE can be just as good or better than balanced depending on the implementation, and I don’t put stock in ‘true balanced’ or ‘just SE’ anymore like I used to. Rather I look at the performance of the implementation, tuning and synergy for what I have in my audio chain.

When asking for matching quality you need to define the term quality. Measurement wise (accuracy to the input source), no I don’t know of another recommendation for you. Sound preference ‘quality’ may be another story. With that said it’s been a while since I’ve looked at balanced and R2R or other factors so I can’t give you a relevant (current) recommendation.

 

[GU1DO]

It might be worthwhile to look at some of the audio gd r2r dacs, denafrips, or metrum. I just got the metrum onyx and prefer its sound to the chord house sound (at least at the level of the qutest and hugo2) it is balanced now r2r design dac. It pairs well with the liquid platinum and abyss diana phi. I brought this combo to a local shop and it sounded really good with the AB 1266 too.

That was one of my choices before, although i never heard it , but i read that it is a warm DAC .
added to the wish list ,, Thanks

 

[GU1DO]

If you were to ask me I’d reply that SE can be just as good or better than balanced depending on the implementation, and I don’t put stock in ‘true balanced’ or ‘just SE’ anymore like I used to. Rather I look at the performance of the implementation, tuning and synergy for what I have in my audio chain.

When asking for matching quality you need to define the term quality. Measurement wise (accuracy to the input source), no I don’t know of another recommendation for you. Sound preference ‘quality’ may be another story. With that said it’s been a while since I’ve looked at balanced and R2R or other factors so I can’t give you a relevant (current) recommendation.

AudioGD specifically say that i need a balanced DAC to get the best out of the master 9 , that's why i was looking at the tt2
problem is that balanced gear is not my specialty ,, i bought the Formula S because it was SE , but now i am entering the Balanced world so there is a learning curve for me .
i like the chord DAC's , sound wise and quality wise , so if you have any suggestions , that would be really appreciated ,, Thanks.

 

[GreenBow]

By the way, I think

That was one of my choices before, although i never heard it , but i read that it is a warm DAC .
added to the wish list ,, Thanks

If you can get a home demo of the TT2, you should do it. Give yourself a few good days with it though before you make up your mind.

 

[GU1DO]

By the way, I think


If you can get a home demo of the TT2, you should do it. Give yourself a few good days with it though before you make up your mind.

i demoed it before (in store) for few hours in privet room ,, as amp its nice ,, as a dac to be honest i didnt notice huge improvement from the Hugo 2 that justify the price although i would say that dac's need at least a month of use to fully grasp its sound.

 

[GreenBow]

i demoed it before (in store) for few hours in privet room ,, as amp its nice ,, as a dac to be honest i didnt notice huge improvement from the Hugo 2 that justify the price although i would say that dac's need at least a month of use to fully grasp its sound.

Yeah, OK. I think store demos while firstly imperative, can sometimes be misleading. I recently demoed a pair of speakers and the bass dropped off at the distance the listener's sofa was. Basically because it was a fairly big room and I was demoing stand-mounters.

General reviews of the TT2 are that's a considerable step up from Hugo 2.

I don't know what you mean by, "As amp it's nice, but as DAC to be honest, etc....". Both amp and DAC are the same. There's only a slight difference I understand from the XLR out, if you're driving balanced direct to speakers. I don't know if that's true balanced, and recent comments suggest not. There's a bit of a story to it.

 

[GU1DO]

Yeah, OK. I think store demos while firstly imperative, can sometimes be misleading. I recently demoed a pair of speakers and the bass dropped off at the distance the listener's sofa was. Basically because it was a fairly big room and I was demoing stand-mounters.

General reviews of the TT2 are that's a considerable step up from Hugo 2.

I don't know what you mean by, "As amp it's nice, but as DAC to be honest, etc....". Both amp and DAC are the same. There's only a slight difference I understand from the XLR out, if you're driving balanced direct to speakers. I don't know if that's true balanced, and recent comments suggest not. There's a bit of a story to it.

Sorry i meant as a headphone amp , and i was talking about the front 6.3mm output to headphones ,,
as a DAC through RCA to another headphone amp
thats how i tried it .

 

[GreenBow]

Sorry i meant as a headphone amp , and i was talking about the front 6.3mm output to headphones ,,
as a DAC through RCA to another headphone amp
thats how i tried it .

Maybe someone else can explain it. In other Chord DACs below TT2, the signal to the headphone port and the RCA are the same. I think its the same or extremely similar in the TT2. I think the TT2 only adds another component when you go High Gain XLR balanced out direct to speakers.

 

[miketlse]

Going from Beyer to the AEON I’m not surprised you find the AEON veiled, in comparison. I had the same feeling when I first received the ETHER Flow (open), however once I became accustomed to it the sound was very enjoyable, smooth and very clean. Also, and I hate to admit this, the Vplanar tech that Dan uses does seem to require a little burn-in as he’s documented.

I wouldn’t generally categorize the smooth sound tuning with the difference between planar and dynamic drivers though, nor would I assert in any way that it has to do with the amplification ‘power’ from Chord DACs, which is more than enough across the lineup for MSpeakers headphones (Voce excluded of course).

I had noticed that Dan had mentioned 100 to 200hrs burn-in on his website, so I hoped that the 'veil' would disappear over a period of time, but it was a surprise that it disappeared overnight (maybe increasing the volume by those few dB was all it took).
We both know that on paper that the Mojo and Hugo 2 both possess more than enough power for planar headphones.
I was merely speculating that maybe some owners, hearing the initial 'veil' jump to the knee jerk reaction that one needs to add an amplifier into the chain, and then cannot be persuaded to change their views.
Anyway I am enjoying the Aeons now, but it will be an interesting test to try the Beyers in a few days, and discover if I still prefer them to the Aeons.