[CClose]

I wonder if he fried the balanced outs by trying to plug in single-ended to them with the wrong adapters or something.

It seems very odd to me that both the left and right channels there would be broken in the same way like that just by chance...

Also known as, P2Q'd.

 

[Mediahound]

Also known as, P2Q'd.

What does that mean?

 

[Tao8]

This is not to knock hugo 2, which I owned fir about 6 months before trading it in fir the tt2.
(My phone keeping spelling it fir).
I used to think hugo 2 was good, but tt2 has a realism that I didn’t know hugo 2 didn’t have until I got tt2.
When I first listened I really couldn’t believe the difference fir the first few days. Piano chords were meaty, high chords were really high, low chords could shake you, any aspect of the drum kit was amazing, really realistic metallic decay.
When Neil young placed emphasis on his voice or piano chord, it really transferred, these were all subjectively received by me as being vastly superior to hugo 2.
Not to put the boot in, I remember feeling, hugo 2 was analytical after all, tt2 was organic and ‘real’ and vicerably more enjoyable. Note, this is with mscaler in the line for both dacs so it should cancel it out!

Just been going back through the thread and this description Zappaman also helps a lot. But just wondering as the meaty visceral presentation is what I’m after but I’m going to essentially use the TT2 as a dac upgrade over my qutest if this characteristic and these qualities are as noticeable via the rca or is it partially a function of the headphone amp.

The qutest also does sound different to the H2 and just shades it out in comparison.

Do you guys generally think the benefit from going TT2 just purely as a dac over a qutest as an upgrade is as clearly noticeable. PS I will go audition also but just trying to get some more experienced background thoughts going in. Thanks

 

[Mediahound]

Do you guys generally think the benefit from going TT2 just purely as a dac over a qutest as an upgrade is as clearly noticeable.

It's certainly noticeable given that it has double the amount of taps. That said, The Qutest sound great too. If I was only going to be using the DAC as a DAC and no need for a headphone amp or preamp, I'd probably just go for the Qutest and M Scaler.

That said the dac and amp section on the TT2 is really good!

 

[Amberlamps]

Well I found the issue for the smell of the HUGO TT2

two smd restistors are busted.

What.

What were the symptoms you were having ? Just the smell ? No bad audio related symptoms ?

I say that because a few weeks ago I turned my TT2 on and for some strange reason I thought to myself that hmm, this sounds different than it was yesterday. Now I dont know if it was brain in, me testing between tt2 and h2, or if something happened internally, I doubt it but now that yours is bust I would like to check inside mine but dont have the balls to.

I hope you did not use a third party psu, as both Rob and John said that if using a third party psu, the warranty is void and any damage done by the third party psu is easily spotted and detected as being caused by a third party psu .

As it will blow some resistors which is basically impossible to do with the supplied psu.


Edit

I found the reason why TT2 is hottest at the headphone input area, the supercaps are there.

 

[Amberlamps]

What does that mean?

It means

Lol What mate!

 

[Triode User]

What does that mean?

It’s a reference to an ex HeadFi member who blew up his TT2, widely suspected to be operator error.

 

[KHADIS]

Hi ,

the H2_TT2 is being used with the original PSU , why should I need to swap the PSU as I think that the designer knows what's the best
for his product is.
The H2_TT2 is mainly used at work.

 

[Triode User]

Well I found the issue for the smell of the HUGO TT2

two smd restistors are busted.

Ooh, when you say busted I see you really mean blown apart. That begs the question of whether it was an ‘event’ rather than a continuous thing which caused it. Anyway, it’s a back to Chord jobby for sure. It will be interesting to hear what they think caused it.

 

[musickid]

deleted

 

[Tao8]

It's certainly noticeable given that it has double the amount of taps. That said, The Qutest sound great too. If I was only going to be using the DAC as a DAC and no need for a headphone amp or preamp, I'd probably just go for the Qutest and M Scaler.

That said the dac and amp section on the TT2 is really good!

Thanks mediahound, much appreciated, I’ve got the qutest up on stillpoints (which adds quite a bit to the sq in terms of resolution and extension) and it’s on a linear supply (yes I know bad) but with Shunyata power cable and into a Shunyata Triton and Typhon combo and it’s also hooked up with Wireworld Platinum digital and ICs so I’ve maxed it out as much as I can.

All this infrastructure has bought quite a bit of improvement along with the addition of some mscaler magic so I’m probably not actually chasing much more resolution but just really a different tonal balance to help flesh it out a touch... so while a big spend just to shift the shape of the sound but there aren’t too many options now that I’ve got a mscaler... short of going a Dave or waiting for next gen Dave... or waiting for the dx amps and that could be a whenever timeframe.

 

[rostak]

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...

 

[x RELIC x]

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...

I would definitely take your dealer up on the offer to demo the HMS/Qutest at home. That's the absolute best way to determine if you like it rather than reading opinions on a forum.

 

[rostak]

I would definitely take your dealer up on the offer to demo the HMS/Qutest at home. That's the absolute best way to determine if you like it rather than reading opinions on a forum.

I completely agree. I am still unclear as to what all the technical differences are between Qutest+HMS and TT2 when used as DAC only (I believe the WTA1 is bypassed when HMS is engaged, taking away the higher tap advantage of TT2) but I will assess whether the upgrade is worth it with my own ears

 

[Triode User]

I completely agree. I am still unclear as to what all the technical differences are between Qutest+HMS and TT2 when used as DAC only (I believe the WTA1 is bypassed when HMS is engaged, taking away the higher tap advantage of TT2) but I will assess whether the upgrade is worth it with my own ears

I can only speak from personal experience with TT2 and Dave when connected to the HMS but the difference between the Dave and TT2 connected to HMS is big (IMO) so the DAC is still playing a big part in the overall sound quality even though HMS is doing its bit.