Hugo TT 2 by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread
Jan 12, 2020 at 11:50 AM Post #8,296 of 18,854
I would think that the choice of power supply makes a difference if using a Roon Nucleus directly. A question for the two posters above: were you both using the standard SMPS with the nucleus?
 
Jan 12, 2020 at 12:11 PM Post #8,297 of 18,854
So this is going on right now. A little A/B testing with the volume matched via my two channel setup. I will say that to me there is a marked difference in sound presentation as well as staging.

The DCS is being fed via the network and the TT2 is via usb from the laptop.
20200111_211922.jpg
 
Jan 12, 2020 at 12:17 PM Post #8,298 of 18,854
I would think that the choice of power supply makes a difference if using a Roon Nucleus directly. A question for the two posters above: were you both using the standard SMPS with the nucleus?
I just use the standard SMPS that came with the Nucleus.
 
Jan 12, 2020 at 4:17 PM Post #8,300 of 18,854
I find a chromecast audio (optical) streaming roon into my HMS is perfect. The trick is i power it with a ifi i power 5v. Smallest RF footprint total cost £80. Easily equals higher cost options and if you believe audioscience they claim roon did a stellar job implementing chromecast. It does up to 96 kHz only and no DSD if you can live with that. HMS only needs redbook anyhow.

With regards to the HMS it is the centre of my musical universe with regards to real musicality at the next level. Once removed everything sounds 2D is how i would describe it in the real world. Your photo is good though.:thinking:

Roon core: late 2013 imac 27, 2560*1440 screen, 512gb ssd, quad core i5, 8gb ram. Roon is lightning fast.
 
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Jan 12, 2020 at 8:08 PM Post #8,301 of 18,854
Hi all,

Does anyone use the TT2 standing on its side? Obviously, it would need some help staying up like that, so if you do can you point me to what you use to keep it up that way?

I ask because the footprint of the TT2 is unfortunately large on my desk. So I'm looking for either some kind of rack I can put it on so that I can make better use of the vertical space. Or, looking for some kind of rack I can put it in to keep it lying on its side so that I can make better use of the desktop.

Thanks,
J.
 
Jan 13, 2020 at 2:18 AM Post #8,302 of 18,854
don't do it it's not hugo2.
 
Jan 13, 2020 at 4:12 AM Post #8,303 of 18,854
So this is going on right now. A little A/B testing with the volume matched via my two channel setup. I will say that to me there is a marked difference in sound presentation as well as staging.

The DCS is being fed via the network and the TT2 is via usb from the laptop.

Apples vs Oranges. Network audio is a *very* different (difficult!) proposition compared to laptop over USB...
 
Jan 13, 2020 at 7:48 AM Post #8,304 of 18,854
Apples vs Oranges. Network audio is a *very* different (difficult!) proposition compared to laptop over USB...

I also tried them both via usb side by side. The result was the same for me. I feel that the Bartok is to my ears superior to the TT2 even with an Mscaler attached.

I did some testing at my friends sho pl the other day against a Dave being fed by the innuos zennith mk3 with the Phoenix reclocker vs the Bartok being fed directly from the network. He and I both came to the same conclusion that the Bartok was to our ears just as detailed with a more dense soundscape and the stage was deeper and wider. The music also had more weight and body to it and the highs sounded more natural. We did not find much if any benefit from using the innuos setup with the Bartok. All of the testing in the shop was done with Magico M2s and D'Agostino momentum amplification. The Bartok and Dave were both used as the pres. All listening was done level matches too.

For me the biggest take away was. For a little more than the price of a Dave alone (equal if you include the stand) you can get the Bartok which can stream directly as a roon end point and upsamples to either dxd or dsd all in one well made box. If you want the headphone output it is 1.5k more to get it. We did not test with an mscaler setup with the Dave which might have made them about equal. With the mscaler and innuos you are at about $25k.that is DCS Rossini money.

So as much as I love my TT2 iam selling it and have ordered a Bartok without the headphone output ( no need for it with external headphone amps and I have sold my Abyss so I only have the clears right now.) I was going to add an mscaler and had already bought an auralic aries G2. The three of them would have cost more than the Bartok and been 3 separate boxes. 2 of them with external power bricks. Once I get my unit and burn it in I will report back more on the sound.
 
Jan 13, 2020 at 12:54 PM Post #8,306 of 18,854
I find a chromecast audio (optical) streaming roon into my HMS is perfect. The trick is i power it with a ifi i power 5v. Smallest RF footprint total cost £80. Easily equals higher cost options and if you believe audioscience they claim roon did a stellar job implementing chromecast. It does up to 96 kHz only and no DSD if you can live with that. HMS only needs redbook anyhow.

With regards to the HMS it is the centre of my musical universe with regards to real musicality at the next level. Once removed everything sounds 2D is how i would describe it in the real world. Your photo is good though.:thinking:

Roon core: late 2013 imac 27, 2560*1440 screen, 512gb ssd, quad core i5, 8gb ram. Roon is lightning fast.


You have prompted my curiosity to test this. I bought a CCA last year but never got around to testing because I didn't have the right optical cable.
I now bought the cable (wireworld supernova 30cm) and will test it out with the stock power supply over the next couple of weeks. I will then order an ifi ipower. I will report back with comparisons to my Zen mkIII with curious USB cable.

One question: do I need to remove the USB cable from the Zen when listening to the optical? In other words does the USB connection still give a negative effect to the sound even if not listening to the USB input on the TT2?

Darko also suggests hard wiring ethernet to the CCA with an adapter/splitter from amazon. Have you tried this?
 
Jan 13, 2020 at 2:17 PM Post #8,307 of 18,854
You have prompted my curiosity to test this. I bought a CCA last year but never got around to testing because I didn't have the right optical cable.
I now bought the cable (wireworld supernova 30cm) and will test it out with the stock power supply over the next couple of weeks. I will then order an ifi ipower. I will report back with comparisons to my Zen mkIII with curious USB cable.

One question: do I need to remove the USB cable from the Zen when listening to the optical? In other words does the USB connection still give a negative effect to the sound even if not listening to the USB input on the TT2?

Darko also suggests hard wiring ethernet to the CCA with an adapter/splitter from amazon. Have you tried this?
Yes the cable is creating a physical conduit for the rf (they say).
 
Jan 13, 2020 at 3:32 PM Post #8,308 of 18,854
Ok I just plugged in the CCA. Bizarrely the volume is WAY softer than when using USB. Can anyone help troubleshoot?
With USB I am running in high gain mode at -25 with HD800S. With Optical I need to crank to -8 to get a roughly similar volume.
Surely all inputs should play at the same volume? I have them both set to ‘fixed volume’ in Roon settings.
 
Jan 13, 2020 at 4:10 PM Post #8,310 of 18,854
Seems like it was a rookie error. In Roon it seems like ‘Fixed volume’ just locks whatever volume was last used. I changed the CCA to ‘Device volume’ and then cranked it to 100, and then set back to fixed volume and it seems to lock in the volume at 100. I checked that the Zen is also locked to 100.

Early listening tests show no detectable difference between the CCA and the Zen. Note that the Zen is the Roon core in both cases. I tried pulling out the USB plug from the TT2 while optical was playing and couldn't detect any change in the sound.

It will be interesting to see what difference the ifi power supply for the CCA makes.
 
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