Hugo TT 2 by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

[rkt31]

The only thing that Dave output lacks is power. Not the character.

How do you know lack of power ? Did you reach clipping levels or maxed out on volume ever ?

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

How do you know lack of power ? Did you reach clipping levels or maxed out on volume ever ?

Yes, at @Ragnar-BY place. We tried his planar headphones which efficiency is really low. And with quiet high DR classical music I couldn't get them to the levels that were acceptable.
Keep in mind that I don't listen music loudly.
With external amplifier you could crank these headphones to skull crushing levels.
Of course for most headphones Dave output power is enough. But for some headphones and some music, not really.

Before Dave I had TT2 so I have some experience in that matter.


Ahhh I will also add, that with a bit louder music I still preferred Dave connected directly to the @Ragnar-BY headphones.
The transparency and clarity is addicting.

 

[Currawong]

If I had to nick pick anything with the Dave it would be it’s headphone output. I like it more than the TT2’s SE output. Although it does lack a bit of the TT2’s sound character. Also adding a bit more power to the Dave would be nice. Right now I’m limited on headphone options that will work directly out of the Dave.

I did switch a few things around yesterday, including the power cable and which computer the MScaler was connected to, and I felt better about the DAVE's direct output to the D8000 Pro. It could also be that it had been left on longer by the time I started listening, though I haven't experienced anything like heat/on-time as being a factor with Chord gear before. The other possibility is that it is now connected to the circuit of my Power Plant Premier that is always on. I'll be happily playing around some more to figure it out!

 

[rkt31]

Yes, at @Ragnar-BY place. We tried his planar headphones which efficiency is really low. And with quiet high DR classical music I couldn't get them to the levels that were acceptable.
Keep in mind that I don't listen music loudly.
With external amplifier you could crank these headphones to skull crushing levels.
Of course for most headphones Dave output power is enough. But for some headphones and some music, not really.

Before Dave I had TT2 so I have some experience in that matter.


Ahhh I will also add, that with a bit louder music I still preferred Dave connected directly to the @Ragnar-BY headphones.
The transparency and clarity is addicting.

" Couldn't get to the level " means you maxed out on volume ?

 

[Slim1970]

I did switch a few things around yesterday, including the power cable and which computer the MScaler was connected to, and I felt better about the DAVE's direct output to the D8000 Pro. It could also be that it had been left on longer by the time I started listening, though I haven't experienced anything like heat/on-time as being a factor with Chord gear before. The other possibility is that it is now connected to the circuit of my Power Plant Premier that is always on. I'll be happily playing around some more to figure it out!

Nice, the Dave is sensitive to changes I'm finding out. Looking forward to hearing more as you dive deeper into the matter

 

[bpcans]

Nice, the Dave is sensitive to changes I'm finding out. Looking forward to hearing more as you dive deeper into the matter

Slim1970, have you thought about using a Sean Jacobs DC4 PSU for your Chord DAVE? https://www.custom-hifi-cables.co.uk/dc4-psu-for-chord-dave-dac

 

[Slim1970]

Slim1970, have you thought about using a Sean Jacobs DC4 PSU for your Chord DAVE? https://www.custom-hifi-cables.co.uk/dc4-psu-for-chord-dave-dac

No I have not.

 

[Triode User]

No I have not.

. . . But you are happy to buy eye candy in the form of the Choral stand?

 

[Slim1970]

. . . But you are happy to buy eye candy in the form of the Choral stand?

Haha, yes. Four legs for the price of one

 

[TopQuark]

TT2 came out 3 yrs after TT. TT3 is due. Nice to see features like AptX HD, XMOS 2, etc. It seems like our NOS, R2R, or even those carrying the 9038 PRO have already caught up with the TT2.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

It seems like our NOS, R2R, or even those carrying the 9038 PRO have already caught up with the TT2.

oh dear

 

[rkt31]

TT2 came out 3 yrs after TT. TT3 is due. Nice to see features like AptX HD, XMOS 2, etc. It seems like our NOS, R2R, or even those carrying the 9038 PRO have already caught up with the TT2.

How do you come to this conclusion ? On youtube there are a number of comparison and tt2 always sounded "cleaner". When every reviewer busy in promoting his channel by rating everything between 8.7 and 9.2 and with reviews like " if you like this type of sound, then that dac and if you like that kind of sound then this dac " , the property of being cleaner is the biggest accolade a dac can get. Also few days ago I could find a detailed post of rob watts and posted here about the tt2's design. For any audiophile that post is an eye opener, how is the approach behind Rob's design right from digital filtering to actual conversion from digital to analog. Even the minutest of noise and distortion causing factors have been taken into account. Don't forget chord dacs have in in built extremely accurate digital volume control within it's FPGA. As far as I know it's accuracy is more than 64bit float. No other manufacturer is using it because readymade chips are accurate to only 32bit so they have to use hybrid volume control ie partly in digital domain and partly in analog.

 

[Rob Watts]

TT2 came out 3 yrs after TT. TT3 is due. Nice to see features like AptX HD, XMOS 2, etc. It seems like our NOS, R2R, or even those carrying the 9038 PRO have already caught up with the TT2.

They have only caught up in a fantasy parallel universe where the laws of physics and maths are different.

How do you come to this conclusion ? On youtube there are a number of comparison and tt2 always sounded "cleaner". When every reviewer busy in promoting his channel by rating everything between 8.7 and 9.2 and with reviews like " if you like this type of sound, then that dac and if you like that kind of sound then this dac " , the property of being cleaner is the biggest accolade a dac can get. Also few days ago I could find a detailed post of rob watts and posted here about the tt2's design. For any audiophile that post is an eye opener, how is the approach behind Rob's design right from digital filtering to actual conversion from digital to analog. Even the minutest of noise and distortion causing factors have been taken into account. Don't forget chord dacs have in in built extremely accurate digital volume control within it's FPGA. As far as I know it's accuracy is more than 64bit float. No other manufacturer is using it because readymade chips are accurate to only 32bit so they have to use hybrid volume control ie partly in digital domain and partly in analog.

All of the audio digital modules are better than 64b floating point, as they have to be able to perfectly reproduce -301dB in the digital domain with zero phase and amplitude errors. The noise levels are typically below -400dB (audio bandwidth) in the digital domain with zero noise floor modulation as it is aggressively noise shaped and fixed point. This includes the output pulse array noise shapers too.

 

[TopQuark]

A lot of the youtube comparisons are outdated. After reading those who have tried, say, the Holo May, there was the impression of more openness than on the TT2. Those are from posters I truly respect. Some have to patch in a BTC to override the Amanero in the TT2 and Dave to boost the PRaT. Rob talked about R2R as a bad implementation but designers nowadays coupled them with FPGA's to cancel noise and distortion. Is Rob missing something here? Recall that Rob says he does not look at competition.

Just trying to be devils advocate here. Not a fanboy. I got a TT2 and thinking of buying another one for the living room until I saw several used units on sale in classifieds.

 

[Rob Watts]

It's absolutely impossible to cancel resistor mismatch as resistors age and have significant temperature coefficients too. Remember that to get -301dB 0.001dB amplitude accuracy you need matching to 400 dB - that's 0.00000000000000000001% accuracy. Completely impossible to do this with R2R from matching POV - let alone the issue of signal correlated switching noise, which is another huge problem.

There are plenty of people who prefer NOS and R2R DACs - but they are simply "enjoying" distortion. And yes I don't waste my time looking at the competition; but I do spend a lot of time at shows listening to other demonstrations and the DACs always sound as bad as I expect them too from the purely technical performance.