Hugo TT 2 by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

[kelly200269]

What is LVDS protocol?
I never said i thought ethernet cables was better because of what cat they have. I think its down to what sheilding and other audiophile action they have done to
combat rfi/emi.

Like for exempel aq vodkas cat7 actions

"TheVodka utilizes what AudioQuest calls Noise-Dissipation System (NDS): Traditional shield systems typically absorb and then drain noise/RF energy to component ground, modulating and distorting the critical "reference" ground plane, which in turn causes a distortion of the signal. NDS's alternating layers of metal and carbon-loaded synthetics "shield the shield," absorbing and reflecting most of this noise/RF energy before it reaches the layer attached to ground"

You obviously haven’t read any of the information in my last posts.
For the last time: UTP is balanced in operation, and does not require shielding.
Read the post from dCS, and digest.

 

[GreenBow]

There is no plastic on the screen???all the open box video shows there is plastic on the screen...

Besides that i found a cutting mark(like somebody trying to cut the tape) on the plastic bag that warped around tt2 (I didn’t use knife so the cutting is not my doing)

None of that is important if the device performs well. But it didn’t I experiencing occasional drop out (tt2 stops outputting sound during playback)

Also some times when its bass heavy(gaming) tt2 would stop outputting sound for a sec and two, feels like the super caps is out of power or something

I don't know, but I think it's unlikely that the TT2 is running out of juice. Apparently the supercaps only start using up storage when playing very loud. I am sure I read Rob tell us, that even then they don't use much.

I imagine the supercaps also run tiny amounts even when not running loud. For example with Hugo 2 when in desktop mode, small amounts of power were still drawn from battery. Although having said that, the TT2 power supply excluding supercaps, is probably more advanced that Hugo 2 power supply too.


It's strange though, that you say TT2 drops bass stuff in games. Like if you played the games with another DAC, if they don't drop the same bass stuff. All I can say is, I never found the TT2 drop bass in games. I used an amplifier though when I gamed.

I recently got new speakers, and moved to direct driving speakers with TT2. I have barely touched a game since then. Too busy listening to music; (and seeing what it's like with direct drive).

 

[jarnopp]

Is anyone using a subwoofer in a 2.1 system with the TT2 driving the speakers directly? Right now I drive Dynaudio excite 12’s direct, using the XLR outputs at the back of my TT2. There is a Dyn sub 250 for sale near me, and I was thinking about grabbing it to try with this setup. I remember Raydude uses subs in his setup with the Dave, so I was thinking along those lines. The thing is, the RCA outs of the TT2 work at the same time as the XLR’s I believe, but since the Sub has an inbuilt 200 watt amp, how would this work? Right now I am in AMP mode/High gain, but would it work still in amp mode, or would the RCA’s somehow output no power if connected to a powered sub? As you can see I am a bit confused, normally I have used subs with my Cary Audio Cinema 12 as a Pre/processor, which does not carry any power, any ideas?

I do the same thing as rkt31 and I think it’s exactly what you are asking. The inputs on the powered sub (mine only has line level RCAs) will take that signal from TT2. I’m sure there is some step down of voltage when using that input vs a sub with speaker taps. The sub will then do the DSP and, as mentioned, you set the overall level to match with your speakers and and also the crossover frequency. (I use an Elac 3030.).

As for your t8ming question, my sub will allow me to delay the sub signal (which I don’t so), but there isn’t a way to delay the speaker signal. I haven’t noticed any timing issues and it sounds really good overall.

 

[greyforest]

I don't know, but I think it's unlikely that the TT2 is running out of juice. Apparently the supercaps only start using up storage when playing very loud. I am sure I read Rob tell us, that even then they don't use much.

I imagine the supercaps also run tiny amounts even when not running loud. For example with Hugo 2 when in desktop mode, small amounts of power were still drawn from battery. Although having said that, the TT2 power supply excluding supercaps, is probably more advanced that Hugo 2 power supply too.


It's strange though, that you say TT2 drops bass stuff in games. Like if you played the games with another DAC, if they don't drop the same bass stuff. All I can say is, I never found the TT2 drop bass in games. I used an amplifier though when I gamed.

I recently got new speakers, and moved to direct driving speakers with TT2. I have barely touched a game since then. Too busy listening to music; (and seeing what it's like with direct drive).

before i use hugo2 for the same game (sandstorm ) never experienced any problems. With tt2 I experienced this like twice (didn’t play that much game lately )

What really happened is say there is gun fights and explosions tt2 would suddenly go silent for 2sec and come back normal. I was suspecting power related problems with my tt 2 cause the remote issue occurred randomly as well. It’s like the tt2 is charging to boost up some of its functions. Sometimes during music playback this happens as well more regularly. But the difference is i have to restart the playback on my pc to get the sound back.

I do use the supplied psu, as I believed the saying that tt2 require no additional attention to power supply, but i did use a power cleaner from plitron on my desktop (500w) hook to my monitor and tt2. I tried put tt2 directly to the wall plug, remote is still not responding regularly so i guess its not because of that thing.

 

[rkt31]

Thanks for the reply rkt31, but that is a little different than what I want to do. I want to use the amp in the TT2 only to drive my speakers. I could insert an amplifier, since I have an Anthem MCA 50, but I thought Ray-dude was doing it the way I asked about.

It won't matter whether you use XLR out with amp or directly into speakers. Only thing using amp will cause tt2 to operate at lower volume and accordingly rca out will also be low so sub woofer volume will be higher . If you use XLR out directly to speakers, tt2 volume will operate in higher range and rca out will also be higher so sub volume will be lower. But one thing is sure, once the sub volume is matched to your speakers, the volume of both speakers and sub will be changed in sync as you change the volume in tt2.

 

[GreenBow]

before i use hugo2 for the same game (sandstorm ) never experienced any problems. With tt2 I experienced this like twice (didn’t play that much game lately )

What really happened is say there is gun fights and explosions tt2 would suddenly go silent for 2sec and come back normal. I was suspecting power related problems with my tt 2 cause the remote issue occurred randomly as well. It’s like the tt2 is charging to boost up some of its functions. Sometimes during music playback this happens as well more regularly. But the difference is i have to restart the playback on my pc to get the sound back.

I do use the supplied psu, as I believed the saying that tt2 require no additional attention to power supply, but i did use a power cleaner from plitron on my desktop (500w) hook to my monitor and tt2. I tried put tt2 directly to the wall plug, remote is still not responding regularly so i guess its not because of that thing.

If your TT2 is doing that with music, than it has to be sent for repair, return, or replacement. (Sorry if you already said you are doing that. I don't mean to patronise.)

I have never heard of anyone's TT2 cutting out like that. I have read an odd comment that folk have had either Mojo or Hugo 2 stop responding. It's usually after music had paused, and pressing play did not get music going again.

 

[greyforest]

If your TT2 is doing that with music, than it has to be sent for repair, return, or replacement. (Sorry if you already said you are doing that. I don't mean to patronise.)

I have never heard of anyone's TT2 cutting out like that. I have read an odd comment that folk have had either Mojo or Hugo 2 stop responding. It's usually after music had paused, and pressing play did not get music going again.

I use optic connections for gaming and movies therefore i can get the dsp effects provide by the sound card(fake surrounding decode Dolby dts etc,also there are some applications which are not that friendly with usb dac)

When i use usb for music playback it seems worse ( i do have a ifi usb reclocker thing stand between tt2 and my pc)

Thank you for you sharing of information my dealer was telling me that the demo tt2 in the shop sometimes drops out during music playback as well. Almost believed that it is a normal thing.

For anyone interested in knowing about ifi usb reclocker : it improves sound with hugo2 especially when external amp is connected. With tt2 I don’t find much differences

Ps: some of those sound card dsp works well with tt2, fake 7.1 surroundings never sounded so ‘real’.

 

[GreenBow]

About TT2 placement and large toroidal transformers in amplifiers.

Manual says this:

With a thick, solid aluminium chassis,
the Hugo TT 2’s casework largely
protects the sensitive internal circuitry
from radio frequency interference.
However, for optimal performance, it is
recommended that the following points
are observed:

• 2. Separate the Hugo TT 2 from amplifiers using toroidal transformers.

Is there any general rule about how much distance electronics ((TT2) need to be from transformers? What I mean is a large toroidal transformer in an amplifier.

When stacking units on top of an amplifer, like my DAB radio then TT2 on top of that. I assume that would be too close. However would putting a thick aluminium sheet between the amplifier and the TT2 be enough protection from RFI for TT2?

 

[GreenBow]

I use optic connections for gaming and movies therefore i can get the dsp effects provide by the sound card(fake surrounding decode Dolby dts etc,also there are some applications which are not that friendly with usb dac)

When i use usb for music playback it seems worse ( i do have a ifi usb reclocker thing stand between tt2 and my pc)

Thank you for you sharing of information my dealer was telling me that the demo tt2 in the shop sometimes drops out during music playback as well. Almost believed that it is a normal thing.

For anyone interested in knowing about ifi usb reclocker : it improves sound with hugo2 especially when external amp is connected. With tt2 I don’t find much differences

Ps: some of those sound card dsp works well with tt2, fake 7.1 surroundings never sounded so ‘real’.

I have read the whole TT2 thread and never heard about drops outs. It's been a long time since the TT2 thread started though, so I could have forgotten.

 

[greyforest]

I have read the whole TT2 thread and never heard about drops outs. It's been a long time since the TT2 thread started though, so I could have forgotten.

I have read it too before i got the tt2

But what you posted about the toroidal transformer is very interesting....the power conditioners i use is basically a large toroidal transformer....and i put it right next to my tt2

 

[N Quarter]

I do the same thing as rkt31 and I think it’s exactly what you are asking

Thanks for the reply, but no, it is not exactly the same. He is using an external amp to drive his speakers, I want to use the TT2’s internal amp to drive my speakers, which I am currently doing. I know how to use powered subs, I owned two JL Audio Fathom 112’s for about four years, but they were connected to a non powered Pre/processor’s sub out (Cary Audio Cinema 12). I still have the Cary, so could use it with the sub, an external amp etc., but this is different.I want to maintain the transparency of no amp driving the speakers, and just add a sub to the RCA outputs. The reason I asked about it, is because the signal will be going through TWO amp stages, one from the TT2, one in the sub. I am trying to get across what I want to do, but nobody seems to be following what I mean.

 

[ray-dude]

This is exactly how I run my set up with DAVE (and have done the same with TT2): RCA outs from DAVE directly drive the Pi units of my Voxativ 9.87's speakers (no amp, no cross over, direct drive the single driver speakers). XLR output of DAVE connect to the bass units of the 9;87's (200W amp), via the RCA inputs on the bass units. This strategy has worked with no problems with DAVE, TT2, and Hugo2 (for Hugo 2, I used the two headphone outs)

 

[N Quarter]

This is exactly how I run my set up with DAVE (and have done the same with TT2): RCA outs from DAVE directly drive the Pi units of my Voxativ 9.87's speakers (no amp, no cross over, direct drive the single driver speakers). XLR output of DAVE connect to the bass units of the 9;87's (200W amp), via the RCA inputs on the bass units. This strategy has worked with no problems with DAVE, TT2, and Hugo2 (for Hugo 2, I used the two headphone outs)

Thank you Ray-dude, that was the confirmation I was looking for. I think I would be doing it opposite to you though, XLR’s to speakers, RCA’s to Sub, but it should work the same.

 

[Ciggavelli]

Is anybody using a preamp with the TT2?

I need to quickly switch between my headphone amp and then my powered speakers without always just changing the cables. I've never had the need for a preamp before, but are there any good ones that do not affect sound quality? Or, where do I need to go to research preamps?

 

[kelly200269]

Is anybody using a preamp with the TT2?

I need to quickly switch between my headphone amp and then my powered speakers without always just changing the cables. I've never had the need for a preamp before, but are there any good ones that do not affect sound quality? Or, where do I need to go to research preamps?

I use a Linn Klimax Kontrol preamp. Not available new anymore, and not cheap on the secondhand market, but the best preamp I’ve ever heard.
Or, to be more precise, it’s the best preamp I’ve never heard, as it’s that transparent.