[paul2qute]

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.

Hi Rob,I read somewhere that driving speakers from the hugo TT are usually active not passive,not sure if it's a misprint but surely the whole point of using the amp in the hugo TT 2 is to by pass any amp and drive the speakers directly, I'm gonna speak to my dealer about connecting it through the balanced or rca to my Rel sub and my speakers before trying anything myself, don't wanna see a puff of smoke from my stupidity

 

[squirrelman]

Why would the XLR outputs on the back be stronger output wise than the RCA, and assuming the speakers didn’t need the extra power would one sound better than the other?

 

[paul2qute]

Well that's my chord hugo 2, clear headphones and heimdall 2 cable all packed up ready to be sent off on Monday morning, back to listening to CD s through my oppo 205 until I get my hugo TT 2 in the autumn

 

[ZappaMan]

Well that's my chord hugo 2, clear headphones and heimdall 2 cable all packed up ready to be sent off on Monday morning, back to listening to CD s through my oppo 205 until I get my hugo TT 2 in the autumn

Decisive action

 

[paul2qute]

Decisive action

No point beating around the Brazilian mate

 

[GreenBow]

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.

If TT 2 can run 18W into 8ohms.

Does that mean maybe 25W into 6ohms? Sorry, I don't mean to nag. I use 6ohm speakers. .. Also, the next speakers I was wondering about buying are 6ohm, or 8ohm, depending how I choose; (if at all).

I have an amplifier 50W per channel into 8ohm. 73W/channel 6ohms.
Or specs from website:
50 Watts RMS both channels driven into the rated load of 8Ω
73 Watts RMS both channels driven into the rated load of 4Ω

However I barely ever use all my amplifiers power. Not even half on the volume dial. Sometimes barely any turn on the voume dial. Sometimes more with very quiet audio.

The TT 2 would only serve about only a third (or 36%) of the power of my amplifier though. (That might not be enough. My speakers are only 86dB sensitivity.) However, it would of course be nice to take the amplifier out of the chain.

 

[paul2qute]

If TT 2 can run 18W into 8ohms.

Does that mean maybe 25W into 6ohms? Sorry, I don't mean to nag. I use 6ohm speakers. .. Also, the next speakers I was wondering about buying are 6ohm, or 8ohm, depending how I choose; (if at all).

I have an amplifier 50W per channel into 8ohm. 73W/channel 6ohms.
Or specs from website:
50 Watts RMS both channels driven into the rated load of 8Ω
73 Watts RMS both channels driven into the rated load of 4Ω

However I barely ever use all my amplifiers power. Not even half on the volume dial. Sometimes barely any turn on the voume dial. Sometimes more with very quiet audio.

The TT 2 would only serve about only a third (or 36%) of the power of my amplifier though. (That might not be enough. My speakers are only 86dB sensitivity.) However, it would of course be nice to take the amplifier out of the chain.

I'm in the same boat mate, I'm use to 600 W Bryston mono blocks so 18 w seems feeble to me and that's no disrespect to Rob at all as its a dac after all but I want this pure sound, I've heard my hugo using it as a pre amp and driving it directly to my amp and it sounded amazing so straight from the hugo TT 2 is gonna be out of this world, my speakers are wall mounted, they monitor audio apex 40,I've got seven for my movies I can't see them being hard to drive.The only worry I have is putting to much strain on the amp side and do damage, I know their will be a thermal cut off but I would hate to constantly put strain on the amp

 

[jarnopp]

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.

Rob, would you happen to know the SE and XLR values into 50 (or 53) ohms, for the likes of the Hifiman HE-6? Thanks!

 

[musickid]

For Rob (if you can keep up with all the qu's!!),

If using high sensitivity low impedence easy to drive headphones with TT2 on low gain and you play demanding large orchestral music do the supercaps reserve energy boost come into play here or only on high gain?

The other thing with all the talk about the 2nd order analogue noise shaper what does this mean in real world listening terms?

Many thanks MK. (PCM support only goes up to 384kHz on the chord webpage. Must be typo error?)

 

[Rob Watts]

Why would the XLR outputs on the back be stronger output wise than the RCA, and assuming the speakers didn’t need the extra power would one sound better than the other?

The XLR's are balanced, so you have +9v RMS on the positive pin, and -9v RMS on the negative pin, so 18v RMS is now available.

If TT 2 can run 18W into 8ohms.

Does that mean maybe 25W into 6ohms? Sorry, I don't mean to nag. I use 6ohm speakers. .. Also, the next speakers I was wondering about buying are 6ohm, or 8ohm, depending how I choose; (if at all).

I have an amplifier 50W per channel into 8ohm. 73W/channel 6ohms.
Or specs from website:
50 Watts RMS both channels driven into the rated load of 8Ω
73 Watts RMS both channels driven into the rated load of 4Ω

However I barely ever use all my amplifiers power. Not even half on the volume dial. Sometimes barely any turn on the voume dial. Sometimes more with very quiet audio.

The TT 2 would only serve about only a third (or 36%) of the power of my amplifier though. (That might not be enough. My speakers are only 86dB sensitivity.) However, it would of course be nice to take the amplifier out of the chain.

For 6 ohms you would get just about 20W RMS on the XLR - that would give you 99 dB SPL.

Rob, would you happen to know the SE and XLR values into 50 (or 53) ohms, for the likes of the Hifiman HE-6? Thanks!

SE power would be 1.5W, XLR 6W!

For Rob (if you can keep up with all the qu's!!),

If using high sensitivity low impedence easy to drive headphones with TT2 on low gain and you play demanding large orchestral music do the supercaps reserve energy boost come into play here or only on high gain?

The other thing with all the talk about the 2nd order analogue noise shaper what does this mean in real world listening terms?

Many thanks MK.

The supercaps do two things - via the big input inductor, isolates the PSU from the supplied PSU - by a huge extent. Also they supply very large dynamic currents when needed. So you will always have the first benefit...

The second order analogue noise shaper has two benefits - no high frequency distortion (and this is there all the time) and class A performance irrespective of the load - and we can see this with the 20 Hz distortion, with it making no difference whatsoever whether the load is connected or not. You will of course only get the second benefit with loads below 50 ohms or so. IN sq terms, it sounds a lot smoother, warmer and more natural.

Don't worry about safety - the OP transistors are rated at 24A, and the safety resistors built into the OP stage ensure that I never get anything like this current. On testing, I accidentally ran the OP at full level into a short - and it ran for a minute, then the thermal trip came in - then I realised what I had done!

 

[musickid]

Many thanks Rob. My dac "journey" continues on.

 

[jarnopp]

The XLR's are balanced, so you have +9v RMS on the positive pin, and -9v RMS on the negative pin, so 18v RMS is now available.



For 6 ohms you would get just about 20W RMS on the XLR - that would give you 99 dB SPL.



SE power would be 1.5W, XLR 6W!



The supercaps do two things - via the big input inductor, isolates the PSU from the supplied PSU - by a huge extent. Also they supply very large dynamic currents when needed. So you will always have the first benefit...

The second order analogue noise shaper has two benefits - no high frequency distortion (and this is there all the time) and class A performance irrespective of the load - and we can see this with the 20 Hz distortion, with it making no difference whatsoever whether the load is connected or not. You will of course only get the second benefit with loads below 50 ohms or so. IN sq terms, it sounds a lot smoother, warmer and more natural.

Don't worry about safety - the OP transistors are rated at 24A, and the safety resistors built into the OP stage ensure that I never get anything like this current. On testing, I accidentally ran the OP at full level into a short - and it ran for a minute, then the thermal trip came in - then I realised what I had done!

Thanks! 6W should do nicely.

 

[Currawong]

This will be interesting to try with the Susvaras.

 

[paul2qute]

Think it's time to change my profile picture now as my Focal clear pro have gone sob sob, wonder what pic I should pick???

 

[T Bone]

This will be interesting to try with the Susvaras.

Of the high-end gear I had a chance to check out the SoCal CanJam, the Susvara really piqued my interest. They were amazingly good despite the crowd noise at the convention. In a proper listening setting and paired with a DAC/Amp as good as I expect the Hugo TT 2 to be; I would expect great things from them.