[DJJEZ]

How is the combination of hd650 and tt2+HMS ? To me it is bit extra dark. But it is one of the smoothest experience for sure. I don't plan to use external amp though.

Are you only using HD650 with the TT2/HMS?

 

[Rob Watts]

Thank you. I quoted Rob's post here just for reference.

It looks like from this that all power goes through the supercaps and they are a resevoir. This is contradictory to that which I wrote above. However it makes sense in other ways. It expains why Rob quotes the supercaps as being noise filtering for the TT2. It also explains why Rob quotes the battery as being the same for the Hugo 2.

Am still perplexed though, as why did Rob say, "There is no AC current drawn". I mean because the power brick supplied DC current anyway.

Anyway either way thanks for finding ths post. I guess I should search myself and see what else I can find.


I honestly also found it confusing with the Hugo 2. If the Hugo 2 running with the power adapter plugged in, runs from the power brick, with battery for extra power. (Extra power when needed.) It would mean that the 2A supply was struggling to supply enough current or when not dynamically responsive enough. Then how can the battery charge back up while the music is playing, as we know it can do. As that would mean the 2A was enough for playing music and charging battery which it is. .... I don't know, maybe I just answered my own question.

Referring to your comment "Am still perplexed though, as why did Rob say, "There is no AC current drawn". I mean because the power brick supplied DC current anyway."

This is quite an important point; PSUs have two primary problems - RF noise from the mains (which I have talked about ad nauseum!) and signal related error voltages, due to currents being fed to headphones and loudspeakers. With power rails, this current is highly distorted, and with a PSU impedance will create distorted voltages. These distorted voltages will then feed back into the amp electronics and appear as distortion due to the amplifier's power supply rejection ratio (PSRR). This distortion is very nasty, as it has got a lot of HF components. So, to minimise this problem from the power brick, I designed the super-caps to have complete isolation from the power supply by connecting it via a large inductor. With this arrangement, the current drawn from the brick is just DC current - it has no audio related currents. Thus, I do not have to worry about the brick impedance at all, as there are no audio related currents to create distortion in the amplifier. If I didn't use the super-caps and the large inductor, there would be large, rectified audio currents being drawn from the power brick, which would damage sound quality.

Of course, this eliminates this problem from the brick, but does not eliminate it within TT2. Here I solve it by separately regulating the gain sections from the OP stages, and powering everything off the super-cap PSU - and I know it’s been eliminated due to zero distortion (that is well below -180dB) above 3kHz when testing at 12W into 8 ohms using a 20Hz sine wave.

Power supplies and their interaction are much more complex than people imagine. Audiophiles just see big toroid transformers and capacitors and imagine that this must be better than a small PSU. This is plain wrong – it’s very much more involved than that.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

Referring to your comment "Am still perplexed though, as why did Rob say, "There is no AC current drawn". I mean because the power brick supplied DC current anyway."

This is quite an important point; PSUs have two primary problems - RF noise from the mains (which I have talked about ad nauseum!) and signal related error voltages, due to currents being fed to headphones and loudspeakers. With power rails, this current is highly distorted, and with a PSU impedance will create distorted voltages. These distorted voltages will then feed back into the amp electronics and appear as distortion due to the amplifier's power supply rejection ratio (PSRR). This distortion is very nasty, as it has got a lot of HF components. So, to minimise this problem from the power brick, I designed the super-caps to have complete isolation from the power supply by connecting it via a large inductor. With this arrangement, the current drawn from the brick is just DC current - it has no audio related currents. Thus, I do not have to worry about the brick impedance at all, as there are no audio related currents to create distortion in the amplifier. If I didn't use the super-caps and the large inductor, there would be large, rectified audio currents being drawn from the power brick, which would damage sound quality.

Of course, this eliminates this problem from the brick, but does not eliminate it within TT2. Here I solve it by separately regulating the gain sections from the OP stages, and powering everything off the super-cap PSU - and I know it’s been eliminated due to zero distortion (that is well below -180dB) above 3kHz when testing at 12W into 8 ohms using a 20Hz sine wave.

Power supplies and their interaction are much more complex than people imagine. Audiophiles just see big toroid transformers and capacitors and imagine that this must be better than a small PSU. This is plain wrong – it’s very much more involved than that.

Thank you @Rob Watts. Quick question: based on this above, is it correct to say that a defective stock PSU could never cause channel imbalance in the TT2?

 

[TeknicalXtacy]

Does anyone know if Chord recently updated the power supply for the TT2? MIne has a small power brick. I recall seeing a very small basic AC adapter somewhere. This appears to be somewhat more substantial. Although that may have been the Qutest.

 

[aut0maticdan]

Does anyone know if Chord recently updated the power supply for the TT2? MIne has a small power brick. I recall seeing a very small basic AC adapter somewhere. This appears to be somewhat more substantial. Although that may have been the Qutest.

Mine has a classic two-prong ac cable into a brick and dc out from there. 15v/4a, chord-branded. Nothing special, but works

EDIT: FYI, mine is pretty new from the last few months.

 

[aut0maticdan]

I just use two batteries, one for MScaler and one for TT2. I charge them overnight when I'm sleeping. I unplug in the morning and they last me through the day and well into the night. There is a 12v DC out on the battery and a standard sized DC cable (also linked a couple posts above) will connect the battery to the Chord products.

Why use a battery? Cleaner sound? Be interested to undertsand the benefits. TT2 showed up today, of course I was not here to sign for it. Hopefully get it tomorrow. But would be interested to hear about your experience with a battery.

Never mind - went back a ouple pages. Wonder if it voids the warranty.

I picked up the battery that ra990 suggests. It works well, for the most part--it is large capacity and has a 12v/10a output. Things I've noticed:

- The DC power supply that comes with the battery is 15v/4a just like the TT2 adapter. Since the DC ports on the battery and TT2 are the same, I assume you could use the TT2 power supply to feed the battery and the battery to feed the TT2 (just unplug the PSU when you want to go off grid). Interesting implications for using this battery as a UPS with the original chord PSU, if that interests you. (EDIT: I 'assume' because I don't know what the risk is of the battery drawing too hard on the PSU and damaging it--do at your own risk)
- Occasionally, with this battery, I can't start the TT2 from a very cold state. It is like an old diesel engine in the winter. I've experienced it a few times. I think it happens when the TT2 is fully drained, like sitting unplugged over night. It seems like the TT2 won't draw enough power to get the battery to activate that port. I have another smaller battery that is unaffected by this. It gives me the creeps a little. @ra990 @CaptainFantastic ever experience anything like this?
- I don't hear any difference from the stock PSU.

I am mostly using the stock PSU these days. I originally set the battery up to be more mobile (if you qualify carrying a heavy personal pizza and a bucket of water around as 'mobile'), but just spend more time sitting at my TT2 now and use the mojo in bed. I just ordered a listening chair that rivals the TT2's price, so I expect this pattern to hold up. LOL

 

[aut0maticdan]

BTW, I'm loving the TT2. So amazing. I picked up another node 2i and stole the node 2 from the living room to have it permanently attacked to my TT2.

Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon UHD, Local files [optical> Node 2 > TT2 > Aeon 2 Noire, HD800S, Eikons

F,ML is good. Simple setup that sounds amazing. I have no interest in adding the complexity of Mscaling at this time, so please don't mention it ROFL

Honestly, if I was going to add anything at this point, it would be some Omega Alnicos or P3ESRs. I'm going to wait for a while to prevent overdoing it.

 

[Articnoise]

I just set up my new TT2 for the first time. Holy smokes! I am going to minimize what I write now because I don't want to make an ass out of myself. But Holy Smokes!

Nice, I also got my TT2 today .

Let's see how it preforms compared to my DAC and amp, aka David vs Goliath.

 

[118900]

deleted

 

[S-O8]

In the absence of searching and finding what I need ... anyone with a Chord Hugo TT2 and MScaler using Roon with Tidal from a Mac that thinks Roon is better just for sound quality compared to through the Tidal app ... no interest in indexing / suggestions for tracks ... just wonder if people think Roon is worth it solely for sound quality through my kit.

 

[Amberlamps]

In the absence of searching and finding what I need ... anyone with a Chord Hugo TT2 and MScaler using Roon with Tidal from a Mac that thinks Roon is better just for sound quality compared to through the Tidal app ... no interest in indexing / suggestions for tracks ... just wonder if people think Roon is worth it solely for sound quality through my kit.

No, Roon really isn’t worth it imho, Jriver is more powerful and flexible and much much cheaper than roon. Granted, Jriver annoys the schit out of me by continually trying to fleece more cash out of me multiple times per year.

If you have a big library and want artist bio/info, roon reigns supreme for that, but Jriver is king due to it’s flexibility and what all it can do, and it also has a app.

I suppose it all depends on how much LGBTQ one has in their body.

Ninja edit # 672’382’963

Meh, you just reminded me that my yearly roon sub is ending soon, thanks for that £150 reminder.

 

[ZappaMan]

No, Roon really isn’t worth it imho, Jriver is more powerful and flexible and much much cheaper than roon. Granted, Jriver annoys the schit out of me by continually trying to fleece more cash out of me multiple times per year.

If you have a big library and want artist bio/info, roon reigns supreme for that, but Jriver is king due to it’s flexibility and what all it can do, and it also has a app.

I suppose it all depends on how much LGBTQ one has in their body.

Ninja edit # 672’382’963

Meh, you just reminded me that my yearly roon sub is ending soon, thanks for that £150 reminder.

It does have a very very good “radio” mode, where it will pick similar songs... that’s an amazingly good feature. And the user interface from a laptop is quite good.

 

[Super Pang]

I finally saved the pennies and pulled the trigger on one of these. Arriving Tuesday hopefully. I have a couple of questions. I'm sure they've been answered before but it's a hard thing to search for.

I believe the fixed DAC output is 2.5V single ended. Is it the same for balanced? What volume setting equates to approx 2V when using XLR?

The TT2 will connect to my Luxman integrated, replacing a TT which I find works best with the volume set at the top of the greens.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ra990]

I picked up the battery that ra990 suggests. It works well, for the most part--it is large capacity and has a 12v/10a output. Things I've noticed:

- The DC power supply that comes with the battery is 15v/4a just like the TT2 adapter. Since the DC ports on the battery and TT2 are the same, I assume you could use the TT2 power supply to feed the battery and the battery to feed the TT2 (just unplug the PSU when you want to go off grid). Interesting implications for using this battery as a UPS with the original chord PSU, if that interests you. (EDIT: I 'assume' because I don't know what the risk is of the battery drawing too hard on the PSU and damaging it--do at your own risk)
- Occasionally, with this battery, I can't start the TT2 from a very cold state. It is like an old diesel engine in the winter. I've experienced it a few times. I think it happens when the TT2 is fully drained, like sitting unplugged over night. It seems like the TT2 won't draw enough power to get the battery to activate that port. I have another smaller battery that is unaffected by this. It gives me the creeps a little. @ra990 @CaptainFantastic ever experience anything like this?
- I don't hear any difference from the stock PSU.

I am mostly using the stock PSU these days. I originally set the battery up to be more mobile (if you qualify carrying a heavy personal pizza and a bucket of water around as 'mobile'), but just spend more time sitting at my TT2 now and use the mojo in bed. I just ordered a listening chair that rivals the TT2's price, so I expect this pattern to hold up. LOL

The battery is 12v, not 15v. Don't use the TT2 PSU to charge the battery. It comes with its own PS to charge it, or you can use the USB-C port to charge (that's what I do).

The battery powers off after a few minutes of no activity. You just need to press the power/charge indicator button on it to bring it back online.

 

[Amberlamps]

It does have a very very good “radio” mode, where it will pick similar songs... that’s an amazingly good feature. And the user interface from a laptop is quite good.

I forgot about that,

I can’t remember, but did the sleep timer start with this update or was it a previous update.