So I spent 2 hours with the TT2 yesterday, using my HD800S driven directly by TT2 on high gain and then spent 30 minutes listening to HD800S from HDV820 that was fed by TT2 in DAC mode via a balanced interconnect. (To recap, I currently have a Hugo 2 that I use with HDV820 amp and HD800/S). Firstly, the treble was definitely an improvement over H2. I wouldn’t say it was darker, perhaps because the HD800S are very clear and transparent, but it wasn’t harsh and it felt more real. I am no expert on sound but there was a general improvement to depth of the music and when I returned back to H2 for 10 minutes, the sound felt flatter. So from that perspective it is a definite improvement to my ears.
What I was mainly after though was finding out whether I can ditch the HDV820 amp altogether and listen to HD800/S fed directly by TT2. Getting HDV820 last year was the eureka moment when the Hugo 2 sound in my HD800/S arrived with incredible energy and emotion and I stopped tweaking/tuning the sound and just got lost in the music. Up until that moment, I always felt something was missing when I listened to HD800 straight from H2. So this was a very interesting comparison I was looking forward to as the TT2 definitely has gobs of power so underpowered sound certainly wouldn’t be an issue. However, after listening to TT2 for ca an hour and then adding HDV820 into the chain and using TT2 as a DAC only, I must admit that while the TT2 has delivered powerful sound, the HDV820 makes the sound in HD800/S better. There’s different sort of energy and power coming through the cans, the bass was more impactful/less bloated and the sound felt more coherent compared to the HD800/S fed directly by TT2. I tried playing a bit with EQ as well to see if I could tweak the sound, particularly the low end, but after ABing this several times, the HDV820 amplification is, at least to my ears, a better match for the HD800/S. The DAC in TT2 definitely brough my music to a new level compared to H2, no doubt about that, but without the HDV820 in the mix, the HD800/S lost something special. I have come to believe that Sennheiser spent a lot of time creating an amplifier that is made for the HD800/S and gets the best out of them (I don’t think the same about the DAC onboard the HDV820 - for me, it’s an amplifier only).
So I left the demo with somewhat mixed feelings. Firstly, I felt relieved that my wallet survived the demo haha but I also know that there is better sound out there that could be fed to my HDV820/HD800S. I don’t think the outlay of £4k to get a better DAC is justifiable for me, however, I am now thinking about swapping my H2 for the Qutest and getting the M Scaler - I think that judged purely on the DAC output quality, the Qutest+HMS should beat a standalone TT2 DAC and might be worth the £3k upgrade cost - would people agree? The retailer told me I could take the combo home for a few days to really make up my mind, I’ll leave that for a few weeks to allow my demo experience to sink in first.
By the way, I hope I haven’t insulted any TT2 enthusiasts! It is a beast and a wonderful performer and in a way I feel sorry it hasn’t worked out as I am a bit underwhelmed with Hugo 2 now...