Hugo TT 2 by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

[RCC HD Sound]

First use ifi idefender+ in usb port of your laptop then ifi isilencer+ after that. Use usb c cable to feed 5v supply to ifi idefender+. I use 4xAA NiMH rechargeable battery pack. This cuts the laptop 5v power and replaces with clean battery power.

Thanks very much...

 

[rkt31]

They have the same signal on each. Chord has left and right channels I believe on each bnc.

No each bnc works fine 384khz ie stereo. after 384khz ie 768 both work in mono as fed by m scaler.

 

[RustyGates]

Just got a new PC which has an Optical S/PDIF output. Swapped the M-Scaler (-> TT2) USB input for an optical input for the first time. Fell off my chair, it sounded that much better. I was using a good quality USB cable as well...

There really is no competition for optocoupling, no matter how much RF suppression goes into an electrical interface.

 

[rkt31]

Just got a new PC which has an Optical S/PDIF output. Swapped the M-Scaler (-> TT2) USB input for an optical input for the first time. Fell off my chair, it sounded that much better. I was using a good quality USB cable as well...

There really is no competition for optocoupling, no matter how much RF suppression goes into an electrical interface.

Find xduoo x10t v1, it's optical out is one of the cleanest.

 

[GreenBow]

Just got a new PC which has an Optical S/PDIF output. Swapped the M-Scaler (-> TT2) USB input for an optical input for the first time. Fell off my chair, it sounded that much better. I was using a good quality USB cable as well...

There really is no competition for optocoupling, no matter how much RF suppression goes into an electrical interface.

I am confused by this. Rob Watts said he found the same recently.

However we were told the USB inputs of the Chord DACs at least are filtered. I guess Rob put that on the M-Scaler too.

I had an AudioQueast Jitterbug in place anyway, on my USB cable. (From Mojo days, since I use a cheap cable and CPs are supposed to be noisy.) That filters the USB power cables.

I am not sure I heard any difference between my USB and optical. I should really pay more attention though. I changed over (USB to optical) and wasn't paying attention. I was more concerned if my cheap £5 optical cable caused any issues, and was trying to listen for that. (I knew it ran 192KHz already, but I wondered what it would be like long-term.)

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

However we were told the USB inputs of the Chord DACs at least are filtered. I guess Rob put that on the M-Scaler too.

Yes TT2 and M Scaler has USB input that is galvanically isolated. But this isolation is not perfect/ideal. There is always some noise getting through.
Perfect isolation is only when using some kind of optical connection, for example toslink.
After trying different kinds of inputs on Dave and M Scaler I stick with toslink.

 

[GreenBow]

Yes TT2 and M Scaler has USB input that is galvanically isolated. But this isolation is not perfect/ideal. There is always some noise getting through.
Perfect isolation is only when using some kind of optical connection, for example toslink.
After trying different kinds of inputs on Dave and M Scaler I stick with toslink.

I don't mean the galvanic isolation. I mean the power rails are supposed to be filtered for electrical noise. Different thing.

Like the Hugo 2 is not galvanically isolated, but it has its USB input filtered for noise.

 

[teknorob23]

I don't mean the galvanic isolation. I mean the power rails are supposed to be filtered for electrical noise. Different thing.

Like the Hugo 2 is not galvanically isolated, but it has its USB input filtered for noise.

sadly neither are adequate in preventing noise. Toslink is probably the best better from a PC, but USB when executed well in the streamer + a good cable in my experience provides best all round performance. if you are going toslink a cheap plastic cable wont give you great performance, so look out for a highend glass one which perform much better.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

but USB when executed well in the streamer + a good cable in my experience provides best all round performance.

You could be surprised how good toslink is on Chord dacs. Right @Ragnar-BY ?

 

[teknorob23]

You could be surprised how good toslink is on Chord dacs. Right @Ragnar-BY ?

i'm not disagreeing i think you can get very good performance with a good providing its been implemented well in the streamer/source and a high quality cable is used, but all things being equal USB well implemented with a good cable out performs pretty much every other connection i have tried with chord dacs, not to mention being capable of higher resolutions. It is of course very unusual to have all things equal as there are so many variables at play, which is why toslink or spdif may perform better for others. i2s is probably the only connection that can improve on USB, but its not an option here and again some depending on whether you use HDMI of Ethernet cable to implement has an impact too.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

You could be surprised how good toslink is on Chord dacs. Right @Ragnar-BY ?

I don’t give up easy I have prepared a coaxial cable for Friday!

 

[Arnold Schwartz]

I found optical and BNC to sound the same but they were slightly better than USB. My MacBook Pro is an older model that supports optical, so I could easily compare USB and optical within seconds. There was a subtle difference in the decay and reverb of sound that toslink seemed to provide more clarity in these areas over USB on my Mac.

 

[rkt31]

I found optical and BNC to sound the same but they were slightly better than USB. My MacBook Pro is an older model that supports optical, so I could easily compare USB and optical within seconds. There was a subtle difference in the decay and reverb of sound that toslink seemed to provide more clarity in these areas over USB on my Mac.

I am not expert but usb from mac can't bypass the os.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

I found optical and BNC to sound the same but they were slightly better than USB. My MacBook Pro is an older model that supports optical, so I could easily compare USB and optical within seconds. There was a subtle difference in the decay and reverb of sound that toslink seemed to provide more clarity in these areas over USB on my Mac.

My impression mirror this statement, also tried with old macbook with optical output. I still prefer usb though, as it's like smoother and less fatigue for more than an hour listening time.

 

[Gadget67]

Toslink provided a noticeable improvement over USB from my MacBook>M-Scaler>TT2 chain. It was enough of an improvement that my non audiophile wife noticed; that’s all the validation I need!