Hugo TT 2 by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

[GreenBow]

interesting point of view. personally, i´m not rich so a purchase of hugo tt2 is hard for me. but i consider some points: a good system needs one dac and one amplifer plus interconnect cable and power cable. with the due caution to inferface weel the various elements of the system. i had hugo and mojo(plus several stuffs in the past) and now i prefere only one device.if i´ll buy an headphone easy to drive, hugo 2 would be enough. but hugo tt2 drives(in theory)all kind ofheaphones. so, from my point of view, hugo tt2 is an end game because it´s a dac, digital preamplifier, amplifier for speakers and for pratically all headphones. just in one little case

Good points.

Hugo 2:
I think will drive all but the most difficult headphones.
Effectively works as a pre-amp, because it has input selection.

Hugo TT 2:
Can only realistically drive very sensitive speakers. I'd only get about 20W/ch, from XLR; max. Maybe not quite enough. .... Maybe though! My amp runs at about 63 W/ch over my 6 ohm speakers. I only use about 2/5 of the volume turn on that, at the very extreme.

 

[alota]

about spekaers, depending on room size too

 

[AndrewH13]

In reply to end-game chat:

When I bought the Hugo 2 I had thoughts that it is end-game.

I based that on the fact that the Hugo 2 is just brilliant. However on reflection, the Mojo was brilliant too, and for a long time I felt no need for more. Owning the Hugo 2 now shows me what more there was possible. The Hugo 2 was better in ways I had not even thought. (As well as being overall/all-round much better.)

However I can also improve my Hugo 2, through buying better kit to play on. Like my amp and speakers were albeit class leaders, but still budget kit. My headphones are kind of blah. Like for now I could invest in some serious speaker cable and get a step up from my kit. Making the Hugo 2 sound better.

I find upgrading the rest of my audio kit, a very slow process though. Like for example, speaker cable. On What HiFi list of best buy speaker cable, there one cable at £5, the next £10, the next £15, then the next £750. (I already own the £10/m one.) ... The point being however, is what to choose next. Going from £10/m to £750/m - really! .... There's no help in choosing. HiFi Choice are bit all over the place whe trying to find advice on ranges of speaker cable etc.

Upgrading the amplifier and speakers is also equally as tricky, for other reasons. I need speakers which are small. An amplifier needs to be bang on neutral. Plus I'd like one that doubles output power at half impedance load.

Yet when I went from Mojo to Hugo 2, the upgrade over amp and speakers was clear, evident, and huge. I think the Hugo 2 could be end-game for me, if I could get the right partnering kit. (Funnily enough I am very happy as it is now, with Rega Brio 2017, and Emit M10.) ... It's likely the Hugo 2 is the best source I ever owned as well. Previously the best source I had was a Rega Planar 3.

Yet an upgrade to a TT 2 would most likely be another substantial upgrade. Taking it closer to end-game via a different route to upgrading amp and speakers. Basically taking source closer to the real thing. Closer to the original analogue signal. Closer to it being like the artists were plugged into your amp and speakers.

Sorry everyone, I know I am waffling. Just that I have spent a lot of time thinking about this. Is it end-game or not. I am convinced the Hugo 2 is potentially end-game of me. However, it's almost impossible to imagine what the TT 2 or DAVE could bring.

You say getting an amp needs to be bang on neutral. You could say the same for speakers. But all of this pails into insignificance without room correction. I’ve just got round to running Tag McLaren room correction on my stereo bedroom system where my Dap and Hugo II now live, and the difference is massive compared to better speaker cable, amp or to a degree speakers. So unless you have a ‘perfect room’ I wouldn’t worry too much about upgrading cable! In fact dearer cable doesn’t mean better at all. At one time in my HiFi journey I ran solid core mains wire, and I preferred it to many dearer speaker cables.

Although I’m back to a speaker system for my Hugo II, one of the things I love about Headfi using my Mojo and Hugo I, connected direct to iem’s or Headphones, is that the room’s effect has no bearing on the speakers you buy, or amp/speaker synergy.

 

[musicday]

I have a feeling that TT2 will work wonderful with HD800S, HD820, Master1 just to name few headphones. Rob have you watched any movies with headphones from TT2? Also will you be at Westminster Plaza Hotel in July for CanJam, looking forward to hear your latest creation.
And thank you for constantly improving your DACs, so we can have better and better sound reproduction, as natural as possible without any jitter and any distortion.

 

[Jawed]

Dave just has a ultra low THD op-amp OP stage for the negative OP; TT2 enjoys the exactly the same amplifier as on the single ended outputs - the high power discrete OP stage plus the second order analogue noise shaper. The intent with Dave was to drive power amp inputs only; with TT2 it's for passive loudspeaker loads, or crazy headphones, or driving power-amps.

Is this how TT2 works:

• each channel has a single pulse array
• the pulse array feeds a single ended amplifier for the headphone and RCA sockets
• the single-ended amplifier does current-to-voltage conversion, low-pass filtering and final amplification
• the single-ended amplifier has a negative feedback loop via an analogue to digital converter in the FPGA
• to feed the balanced output of the XLR a second single-ended amplifier is used, sharing the output of the pulse array and performing current-to-voltage, low-pass filtering and final amplification entirely independently of the other single-ended amplifier
• this second single-ended amplifier has an independent negative feedback loop via a second ADC in the FPGA
• when something is connected to the XLR socket, the current flows through one rail, via one amplifier, into the load and then returns into the second amplifier and then into the other rail - so no load current flows through 0V
• each rail for the two single-ended amplifiers has its own supercapacitor, so that's two supercapacitors for each channel, with another supercapacitor for the FPGA and the final supercapacitor shared by the two pulse arrays - giving 6 in total

It seems as if you've been describing TT2 as a bridged amplifier design when feeding a load via the XLR sockets, and I'm wondering if what I've described above is roughly how it works.

 

[x RELIC x]

but hugo tt2 drives(in theory)all kind ofheaphones.

Actually, based on the specs, the TT2 will undoubtedly drive any headphone currently existing (except electrostats), not just in theory. 9W SE max is a stupid high amount of power (and so is 5A of Current), even for something like the Susvara. For headphones there is no distance variable needed so power levels are easy to directly calculate.

 

[alota]

Actually, based on the specs, the TT2 will undoubtedly drive any headphone currently existing (except electrostats), not just in theory. 9W SE max is a stupid high amount of power (and so is 5A of Current), even for something like the Susvara. For headphones there is no distance variable needed so power levels are easy to directly calculate.

of course. only wrote in theory because noone tried the tt2

 

[miketlse]

of course. only wrote in theory because noone tried the tt2

Someone was lucky https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hug...e-official-thread.879425/page-8#post-14233908

 

[ZappaMan]

Chord at Munich show video

 

[Sound Trooper]

The more I think about it, the more the Hugo2TT makes sense. Its like having an upgraded Hugo2 strapped together to a high quality amp.

@Rob Watts , pardon my noobness, but I have the following questions:
1) I see that there is a dot matrix display listed in the specs of the Hugo2TT, but this has not shown up in the press shots so far. How does this actually look?
2) Can we change the x-feed without the headphones being connected?
3) Since there are no batteries now, what are the possibilities of using a LPS to power the Hugo2TT?
4) I see that that the output specs is listed as Output power (balanced): (@1% THD) 1.15 W RMS 300Ω; 18W RMS 8Ω. Since there 2 x 6.5mm and 1 x 3.5mm headphone jacks in the front, how we get balanced output for headphones?

 

[Rob Watts]

Is this how TT2 works:

• each channel has a single pulse array
• the pulse array feeds a single ended amplifier for the headphone and RCA sockets
• the single-ended amplifier does current-to-voltage conversion, low-pass filtering and final amplification
• the single-ended amplifier has a negative feedback loop via an analogue to digital converter in the FPGA
• to feed the balanced output of the XLR a second single-ended amplifier is used, sharing the output of the pulse array and performing current-to-voltage, low-pass filtering and final amplification entirely independently of the other single-ended amplifier
• this second single-ended amplifier has an independent negative feedback loop via a second ADC in the FPGA
• when something is connected to the XLR socket, the current flows through one rail, via one amplifier, into the load and then returns into the second amplifier and then into the other rail - so no load current flows through 0V
• each rail for the two single-ended amplifiers has its own supercapacitor, so that's two supercapacitors for each channel, with another supercapacitor for the FPGA and the final supercapacitor shared by the two pulse arrays - giving 6 in total

It seems as if you've been describing TT2 as a bridged amplifier design when feeding a load via the XLR sockets, and I'm wondering if what I've described above is roughly how it works.

Minor correction - the ADC in the FPGA only monitors the DC output of the single ended output via an integrator - this is part of the digital DC servo system, where a digital filter in the FPGA eliminates servo noise and distortion to just tweak the DC levels to remove offsets. This scheme allows no coupling caps at all, but with zero DC output, and no servo noise or distortion. The DC coupled negative output does not need a DC servo, as DC offsets are eliminated by design, so there is no ADC/FPGA path for the negative OP.

The more I think about it, the more the Hugo2TT makes sense. Its like having an upgraded Hugo2 strapped together to a high quality amp.

@Rob Watts , pardon my noobness, but I have the following questions:
1) I see that there is a dot matrix display listed in the specs of the Hugo2TT, but this has not shown up in the press shots so far. How does this actually look?
2) Can we change the x-feed without the headphones being connected?
3) Since there are no batteries now, what are the possibilities of using a LPS to power the Hugo2TT?
4) I see that that the output specs is listed as Output power (balanced): (@1% THD) 1.15 W RMS 300Ω; 18W RMS 8Ω. Since there 2 x 6.5mm and 1 x 3.5mm headphone jacks in the front, how we get balanced output for headphones?

1. It's the same display as per the original TT.
2. Yes, there are independent cross-feed controls for headphone mode or amp/DAC mode.
3. Don't bother.
4. You can use the XLR's - either get adaptors made up, or your HP cables terminated with XLR's. But I can't see anybody needing more than 7W/8 ohms or 9V RMS for headphones from the SE drive anyway!

Note that on the display I have conformed to Dave display - -3dB is set to 3v RMS output - so TT will only voltage clip at +7dB volume with 0dBFS input.

 

[GoSUV]

Assuming you were to skip the power amplifier and use the TT2 to drive speakers directly, and you would be using the XLR outputs to do so? How do you connect your speaker cables (assuming banana plugs) to the XLR outputs and what sort of adaptor do you need? Assuming my room is small (about 100 sq ft), what kind of sensitivity level of speaker do you need to get some realistic volume levels?

 

[Rob Watts]

For using the full balanced 18W/8 then these should do:
https://www.flashbacksales.co.uk/ac...4mm-in-line-sockets-cable-set-372.html#SID=81

As too how much volume you need it kind of depends on how loud you like it!

Assuming you want 100dB SPL, then 18W is a 12 dB increase on 1W - so 100-12 is 88 dB sensitivity. But 96 dB SPL, you would only need 84 dB sensitivity...

These figures are for 1m away - but in practice you have two speakers, so it would be good for 2 or 3 m away from the speakers I guess.

 

[tonyl59]

A question for Rob/John: i don’t have any experience of the original TT, but could you let me know how the status of cross feed and filter are shown on the TT 2?
Thanks.

 

[Whazzzup]

It will show in the display amount of feed min to max etc....which input you selected...