Hugo TT 2 by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

[Amberlamps]

My TT2 has arrived, much more punch than hugo, it’s stupidly obvious.

Looks like it’s a keeper.

 

[musickid]

Phuca can you go into some detail h2/hms vs tt2/hms it might help me as i decide what to do next. and congrats!!

 

[Light - Man]

My TT2 has arrived, much more punch than hugo, it’s stupidly obvious.

Looks like it’s a keeper.

Enjoy it Phuca!

 

[Amberlamps]

Phuca can you go into some detail h2/hms vs tt2/hms it might help me as i decide what to do next. and congrats!!

I haven’t had it long, and haven’t listened to it for more than 20 minutes, but the most obvious thing was the music was more punchier and had more oomph factor.

I would love to type more, but for some reason this ipad has a delay of 1027ms when typing and It took me 10 to type this up. I blame apple for making schiit updates.

Yup, much better than h2 n mscaler, music how can I say this, more body, and not as bright as h2, which is a good thing as hw massacred some of my music, but that could just be the headphones ?

It’s a very impressive combo for non audiophiles, which is me

 

[musickid]

Maybe once you've really adjusted to the tt2 we will hear back!!

 

[GreenBow]

I've heard a 58K headphone system a TOTL linn dac/streamer worth 25K into a sennheiser orpheus electrostatic system. the presentation was very nice but i'm sure that by replacing the 25K dac with a mojo it would have sounded better at least to my ears. why are so many people running mojo's into multi K amps and multi K headphone amps and now qutest has built on this? why dave? because it builds on the musicality of mojo so the presentation of the music becomes even more enjoyable which is the only reason i'm involved with chord gear. as for this fanboy thing if it's ok to be a man utd or liverpool fan then in my book it's ok to be a chord fan. i never understood the negativity linked to the fanboy labelling on headfi. also the most advanced dacs of any price only use 2-300 taps in their interpolation filters the mojo uses 26,000. At the end of the day each to their own these are just my opinions but i'm convinced that i will always get the most beautiful musical experience for my hard earned dosh. the HMS i now use just confirms that as i'm hearing detail in music i honestly have never heard before check out my mini reviews. i suppose according to some you those are just hallucinatory audible effects i'm experiencing never mind a whole thread of HMS users confirming what i'm saying.

The Mojo is off the charts in brilliance as far as I am concerned. I think some of its measurements are better than some other DACs costing many times more. Being that what is often quoted as being how the Mojo is better. However you do not know how many taps that other FPGA DACs are running. Therefor maybe best not to group all other DACs together.

I was talking with someone a while ago in PM. He was still using a DAC from maybe twenty years ago that was using an FPGA DAC. (Can't remember the manufacturer, but that's not the point.) Hence it led me to understand that FPGA is not only used by Chord, and never has been. There are competitors today. Hardly surprising since Chord have been top of the game, that someone would have a go at FPGA.

Therefor it's probably wrong to claim that, "the most advanced dacs of any price only use 2-300 taps in their interpolation filters the mojo uses 26,000.". Secondly some designers seem to make good DACs out of off the shelf chips. No idea how though. I did recall seeing the Audiolab M-DAC+ briefly in an awards category between Mojo and 2Qute. I remember thinking that strange because the Mojo bested the Audiolab M-DAC. Whereas the M-DAC+ was not some major leap up over the M-DAC.

Anyway whatever, I agree with you about musicality of the Mojo and Chord. I have said it before, that if I only ever had a Mojo, I could live with it. Mojo with my AKG N40, it's like they were made for each other. With an amp and speakers it's excellent. .. I also 'rightly or wrongly' assume that I would always prefer Chord's way of doing things, against any other DAC. Meaning any other DAC without FPGA. The reason being that I like Chord's qualities e.g sound-stage. I don't have experience with enough other non FPGA DACs to compare to, but I know I like Chord.

 

[GreenBow]

Piggybacking on what you’re saying about Mojo being musical. I wholeheartedly agree. I’ve owned it, a Hugo 2, and since a week ago, Dave. With each upgrade, using my same LCD-4s and WA22, those particular Chords got more technical and less musical sounding. More details, wider soundstage, better imaging and air...less organic, analog, and natural sounding. I totally get it.

I can't agree with that. I find the Hugo 2 a large improvement over the Mojo. What you are saying is contradictory, like micro-detailing does not remove the analogue sound. If you prefer the Mojo then that's fine and your choice. I do not hear your negative breakdown of the Hugo 2.

 

[Amberlamps]

Maybe once you've really adjusted to the tt2 we will hear back!!

Ya, more oomph and more detail, I shouldn’t of hooked it upto the mscaler straight away, but I couldn’t help myself.

I can’t say for sure, but I think TT2 helps get the best out of the mscaler, not that hugo 2 doesn’t, it’s just that I find it more noticeable on tt2 than I did on h2.

Some tunes have blown me away, truly, the combo is like when I heard my H2 for the very first time in march this year.

I’m actually glad that I didn’t buy a dave, as I would of still needed to buy an mscaler, and I just couldn’t afford another 3.5k at this time of year.

This is end game for me, if I don’t sell my hugo 2 with 2 years transferable warranty left, I will buy 2go, but apart from 2go, I only need a server, new headphones and thats me finished for a couple of years.


Edit,

If anyone is interested, Hugo 2 with a Van Nuys leather case, all in mint condition and complete with it’s box and all accessories, I would sell it for £1500. It was £1800 new and £125 for the leather case and is not even 1 year old yet. Also includes 2 years and 3 months left on the transferable warranty.

Everything is in excellent condition, possibly a good xmas present for someone ? I will even throw in a brand new pair of Anew U1 iem’s. They are unused and are still in it’s box, and they are very good and got good reviews. Cost $139.00.

If anyone in the uk is interested, message me.

Edit 2,

I like the dot matrix screen, cheap and retro, but somehow it’s very fitting for tt2 and I love that it can be read from the top and front, I find it impressive to look at. Everyone uses lcd, led or oled screens nowadays, but I think I actually prefer the dot matrix one.

I also didnt realise how big tt2 is, the volume ball is huge compared to h2 and the actual tt2 case is like 1 and a half times as thick as the mscalers case. I really didn’t realise it was that big.

I have it sitting on top of the mscaler, but thats just temporary until I figure out where they can go, as I have cables everywhere, and I need to strategically figure this out.

Edit 3

Speaking about screens, I would love to see a proper chord and nixie tube setup, I love devices with nixie tubes and I think that they would fit with chords design philosophy, making things look and feel like the 1950s and 60s. They would need to be user replaceable as they would die, but it would be worth it.

 

[kyle1010]

That’s cool, we don’t have to agree. I’ve owned both for a over year each and I hear what I hear. H2 is a large improvement over Mojo as it should be, but those improvements IMO don’t jive with my sound signature preferences. I’ve heard micro detailing done right on a dCS Rossinni dac where it still sounds analog and natural. On Hugo 2, for me, it doesn’t. I’m afraid to listen to half my library on H2 for fear of it making me wince with brightness, even through tubes. I can’t relax into it like with Mojo. Dave’s highs are definitely smoother than H2 but I also perceive it flatter in the bass and mids which I don’t like.

 

[naynay]

Even though i have fairly easy to drive speakers i was still not expecting to have so much power from the XLR outputs direct to speakers from TT2.

 

[Triode User]

That’s cool, we don’t have to agree. I’ve owned both for a over year each and I hear what I hear. H2 is a large improvement over Mojo as it should be, but those improvements IMO don’t jive with my sound signature preferences. I’ve heard micro detailing done right on a dCS Rossinni dac where it still sounds analog and natural. On Hugo 2, for me, it doesn’t. I’m afraid to listen to half my library on H2 for fear of it making me wince with brightness, even through tubes. I can’t relax into it like with Mojo. Dave’s highs are definitely smoother than H2 but I also perceive it flatter in the bass and mids which I don’t like.

dCS Rossini, £17,000 vs Hugo 2, £1,800. Is that a fair comparison?

Anyway, I wonder if there is something else in your system that is adding brightness to make you wince? Or maybe you just like a plummy sort of sound as your description of Dave's flatter (ie better?) mids and bass is also not what you like. Bring back tone controls, eh, just like on the old radiograms.

I had Mojo and for me the Mojo was a bit too recessed and had a slightly enhanced richness. Also, don't forget that tubes can be bright, brittle even in their sound depending in which tubes you use.

 

[hehaw77]

chord mojo versus 100,000 dollar dacs, lol. Thought id read everything, good times.

Why H2 why dave you had it all with mojo, hard scientific fact wise

LOL... this cracked me up to.. mojo vs Vivaldi... lol........... here's the translated paraphrase: if I get this right.... "there are expensive dacs that use less taps in their filters than the mojo" therefore the mojo can produce better quality music... one thing your forgetting is source! and accompanying equipment around a dac that uses less taps... but I get where your coming from... but may not be accurate.. even though I myself own a Dave/blu2 I'm not a Chord fanboy... if there was a different manufacturer producing like equipment I'd be checking them out...

I've heard a 58K headphone system a TOTL linn dac/streamer worth 25K into a sennheiser orpheus electrostatic system. the presentation was very nice but i'm sure that by replacing the 25K dac with a mojo it would have sounded better at least to my ears. why are so many people running mojo's into multi K amps and multi K headphone amps and now qutest has built on this? why dave? because it builds on the musicality of mojo so the presentation of the music becomes even more enjoyable which is the only reason i'm involved with chord gear. as for this fanboy thing if it's ok to be a man utd or liverpool fan then in my book it's ok to be a chord fan. i never understood the negativity linked to the fanboy labelling on headfi. also the most advanced dacs of any price only use 2-300 taps in their interpolation filters the mojo uses 26,000. At the end of the day each to their own these are just my opinions but i'm convinced that i will always get the most beautiful musical experience for my hard earned dosh. the HMS i now use just confirms that as i'm hearing detail in music i honestly have never heard before check out my mini reviews. i suppose according to some you those are just hallucinatory audible effects i'm experiencing never mind a whole thread of HMS users confirming what i'm saying.

yes 26K taps correct... however a mojo is really used for walking around and being portable... I think the Astell Kern portable players sound better don't know their tap amounts though...

My point is that the mojo is so musical that if it's all i ever owned and all ambitions of getting a dave were thrown out of the window i would still be happy. And yes i myself would use a mojo with the orpheus system rather any linn or dcs dac. a dave/hms through orpheus would be the best electrostatic headphone system in the world IMHO. but then again i myself would rather eliminate orpheus and listen directly to hms/dave through headphones which is my final goal as i believe this will give me the ultimate in SQ.

fair enough... till you hear something better and want it... eg... Nordost "lent me" their USB Valhalla 2 usb cable.... for a week... when they took it away I felt the music sounded like trash after I gave it back... I just couldn't go back... so once you buy the Dave maybe you'll be content with that for a while...

Piggybacking on what you’re saying about Mojo being musical. I wholeheartedly agree. I’ve owned it, a Hugo 2, and since a week ago, Dave. With each upgrade, using my same LCD-4s and WA22, those particular Chords got more technical and less musical sounding. More details, wider soundstage, better imaging and air...less organic, analog, and natural sounding. I totally get it. That’s what most people want to hear the higher you go in gear/pricing. Apparently I’m still learning that the hard way. For MY tastes of rich and organic sound, I’m experiencing less and less intoxicating moments with my music as I’ve upgraded through those 3 dacs. Less romance, more wow this is really crazy what this dac can do. Long story short, Mojo put a smile on my face more than Hugo 2 or Dave does. Resolution isn’t everything to me. I’ll gladly take a loss in micro detail or transparency to have the full and analog textures of Mojo back. For this reason I think I’m going to sell the Dave(on here..PM if interested), use the cash to buy a discounted WA33, and run my Hugo 2 as dac until I can figure out which TT model I should buy since I’m reading they have a more weighted sound which is what I love. I just want a slightly thicker sounding Mojo with balanced outs which would be original TT correct? However if TT2 sounds equally as impactful as original TT with better detail maybe I’ll spring for that. What do you guys think?

I don't agree.. with this... Dave/blu2 sounds just fine... it all depends on your source and the accompany equipment around your core pieces... my setup doesn't sound "less musical" it sounds more musical... no... don't do it... Dave with WA33 sounds really nice... just be patient and save for the WA33 ..... you will regret it....

Nailed it. I listen mostly to high quality electronic music or weighty rock and alternative stuff. I can totally understand where classical and acoustic music would benefit from Dave’s resolution and technical ability, but that’s not what I need. For once in this hobby the cheaper route could be better for me!

Rock and electro sound awesome on the Dave... just don't get where you guys are coming from... unless its the affordability route... there are times where I listen to the Dave/blu2 combo straight from the Dave and bypass the WA33.... however the WA33 is the best head amp I've ever listened to.... the elite version keeps all the details of the combo and adds the organic flavor everyone wants...

 

[Amberlamps]

I tell ya what, TT2 and MScaler is showing up just how badly some tracks and albums were made. The slightest of problems on a track gets picked up by the combo.

The ones that seem to be picked up the most, seem to be “Remastered” albums, and the problem seems to make a brrrrp sound. It’s repeatable at the same time/frame of the song.

It makes the slightest of errors show up, which I suppose can only be a good thing, it will maybe send a notice to shoddy remaster folk, “yo time is up biatches”.

 

[musickid]

what about the positive improvements over h2/hms or is it still early days to appreciate more detail?

 

[paul2qute]

what about the positive improvements over h2/hms or is it still early days to appreciate more detail?

Hugo TT 2 is in a different league than the hugo 2 adding the m scaler gets the best out of both products.
I'm watching the TV through the m scaler and Hugo TT 2 and it sounds better than my Arcam Avr 850 with a seven speaker set up.
I'm driving the speakers direct from the hugo TT 2 and it works great not tripped out once