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Hugo TT 2 by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

Mar 18, 2021 at 5:14 PM Post #12,976 of 19,749
don't think about the mscaler buy it and see how it adds an undefinable magical sparkle to recordings you thought you knew. i'm serious. i would but after dave ownership my audio budget is FUBAR....:L3000:

Currently listening to careless whisper a cover by the delvon lamarr organ trio from the album i told you so. electric.
 
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Mar 18, 2021 at 5:41 PM Post #12,977 of 19,749
bpcans said:
lucrasratmundo, for cripes sake man just do it! You can feel the power of the M Scaler compelling you. Come over to the Dark Side. Bwahahahahaha
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Thanks for the support, folks. I might end up buying it soon :sweat_smile::sweat_smile::sweat_smile:
 
Mar 18, 2021 at 7:22 PM Post #12,978 of 19,749
I just picked up a used chord 2 Hugo TT and I was worried about going a little overboard in what I'm hearing but it looks like a lot of people go through it. I was coming from an RME ADI Pro and a GOTL with ZMF Verite Closed and I was trying to temper my expectations that I probably won't hear a big difference and it may be subtle but it really blew my mind. I figured I'd be giving up body and soundstage going from a tube amp and the TT2 nails both of those in spades and yeah that soundstage depth is something else and IMO it's something that I don't get feeding this into an amp but it's really special and just sucks you into the music direct out of the TT. Also just the detail for really complex music and speed and dynamics I really enjoy it's I guess that toe tapping aspect where it just keeps you engaged and the speed is one of my favorite things about the Verite and the TT really uses it to full effect which I love and the closed have a really black background because of the seal so they really show off the depth aspect. I think the first day I unpacked it at noon and was listening for most of the day on off until midnight and I have trouble thinking of a piece of equipment that did that to that extent (maybe my first decent 2 channel speakers but I think that is about it). Second night was the same as far as enjoying the sound but I listened to it a lot less I think I needed a bit of the break but man it sounded just as amazing.

I guess some background into why I ended up going with Chord when I picked up the GOTL I did a lot of cleaning up of noise in my system to avoid noise in the tubes so I spent a lot of time splitting up the components, isolating them where I could using optical and I think the biggest was I did start running my source off of a raspberry pi2AES and ran that off of battery (I also ran the ADI pro off of battery) and the difference there amazed me so when I saw Rob talking about the benefits of removing high frequency noise and running things off of battery that really appealed to me. I haven't tried to run this one off of a battery yet just because things seem to be working well with no charge issues so I'm just going to enjoy things for now but if I do get a M scaler I think I would run that off battery (just the whole charge sequence with the TT if things aren't broke I'm not going to mess with them even though it seems like things are safer with the battery I'm just not risking anything right now lol).

I guess the other thing is I just really like the design of it and I think one of my favorite things is I have glasses but usually don't wear them when listening to music because I'd rather get a better seal and I like how the color changing ball can show me easily how things are changing and I don't need to have really great vision to see the color change vs reading an output. The porthole is really cool too, with the RME I was always fascinated by the real time frequency distribution but with this I really like looking at the circuits. There are a lot of companies that have audio jewelry like the fancy cases but I like how they are proud of the design and the circuit itself is the audio jewelry so I thought that is a really cool touch. Overall like I said before this is probably the most dramatic piece of audio equipment I've ever picked up and it really shocked me I wasn't expecting to hear a big improvement but this really blew me away and I just keep wanting to find time to listen to it. Setup is really simple now but I like that and I’ll move the RME and GOTL into another room because those really complement each other well.

776AC4CC-94A9-4838-87EE-9C2C17190002.jpeg
 
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Mar 18, 2021 at 9:45 PM Post #12,979 of 19,749
Karnicopa, your experience sounds similar to mine. I thought I went overboard too, but I knew this was something special - I couldn't stop listening. It reminds me of the first time I drove a Porsche; intialy the power and handling is thrilling, scary even and can be overwhelming. But then afterwards you get a hang of it, gain control and start to appreciate the experience - this thing is built for a whole other level of performance you may not have thought possible. Then you get used to it and start wondering what it's like to drive a lambo.
 
Mar 18, 2021 at 10:55 PM Post #12,980 of 19,749
Karnicopia said:
I just picked up a used chord 2 Hugo TT and I was worried about going a little overboard in what I'm hearing but it looks like a lot of people go through it. I was coming from an RME ADI Pro and a GOTL with ZMF Verite Closed ...
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I'd love to hear your thoughts if you've used the Glenn OTL with the TT2, especially compared to the RME. That's my eventual plan if any more Glenns get built. I enjoy the TT2 directly and with tube amps (and electrostats for that matter).
 
Mar 18, 2021 at 11:19 PM Post #12,981 of 19,749
Yeah I was kind of worried the second night that maybe the magic wouldn’t be there but I just keep going through music and and ended up staying to 3 last night and it’s music I’ve loved for a long time that is just so fun and engaging and dynamic through this thing. Also I think there is a lot to the car analogy because it isn’t like the TT is doing one thing better and some worse this is like a finely tuned machine where each component is well thought out and works together to make an overall experience.

With the GOTL I think I need more time so I’m going to listen to the TT on its own for a week and then check it out but my early impressions are the GOTL adds a large amount of soundstage to the RME and the dynamics and power also are a massive step up with the GOTL so that improves the RME in every way. The TT already slams with really good body to the sound has really wide soundstage and is just as or more dynamic and powerful so when I listen through the GOTL those really aren’t advantages against the TT. I think the soundstage is a bit wider with the GOTL but the TT is no slouch there but the depth of the TT is what sets it apart and makes the sound so remarkable I think because of the noise modulation that Rob talks about and the minute I go to the GOTL you get a bit more soundstage width but lose the depth because you are introducing noise from the mains, tubes and going to a second amp. To me it didn’t seem worth the trade off I would rather keep the soundstage depth than the bit of width I get with the GOTL.

The nice thing is with the GOTL it’s really about rolling different sounds and the nice thing there is you could roll in a really easy going romantic tube roll that may be a nice balance to the TT or you may be able to get more dynamic sound with 6336 so I think it would be great to add color to the TT or give a different sound but to me I don’t know that I want to give up the soundstage depth to get a bit more width with the TT so I think I will keep it with the RME but I would like to spend a bit of time with the TT and switch back to see but I felt this pretty strongly so I don’t anticipate it would change but we’ll see. I absolutely love the GOTL too but I think it’s more that a lot of its strengths the TT already does a great job at and there is that soundstage trade off but it elevates the RME in every way and I do want 2 setups so I’ll use more of the advantage using it there but I’ll probably revisit in a week or so I’ll let you know if any of that changes.

Edit: I also wanted to mention that it's more that I don't think the TT needs to be paired with any amp like I don't know what problem that would solve but if I was going to pair it with an amp the GOTL is probably the amp I would pair it with. For example I don't know what you would get out of pairing a SS amp with the TT, you aren't going to improve transparency or speed and it has plenty of dynamics and power for anything outside of speakers. So to me the only amp that I would try to pair with the TT is a tube amp and again you aren't going to improve on the transparency speed dynamics or power so about the only thing you can do is color the sound to what you like and the GOTL is a master at that and there probably aren't many amps that provide more tube rolling options than the GOTL so it is perfect for that purpose. What's really great about that is you can make it sound mid, bass or treble forward and you can make it dynamic or laid back so I really liked adding mid forward and dynamic tubes with the Verite. I am going to try a couple things though I did want to see if I can run the GOTL off of a battery with an inverter since it's only 15 watts and I'm maybe using half of that. People have said inverters create their own noise issues but I'd like to listen to it to see because if you are able to keep the soundstage depth and feed it into a tube amp to create more soundstage width that would be something but it wasn't what I was hearing so far. Another thing I'd like to try is to run the RME off of a battery and use it as a digital EQ before the TT just because I did really like to be able to EQ bad recordings quickly but again not really willing to sacrifice soundstage depth but it would be interesting if keeping it on a battery prevented that so I'll give it a shot. So far just listening to the TT straight and it's still really awesome but I get some battery stuff next week so I'll try more stuff out then.
 
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Mar 19, 2021 at 5:46 PM Post #12,984 of 19,749
I mentioned the Lyndsey Buckhingham and Christine McVie album (album of the same name, 2017), in TT2 thread or Hugo 2 thread.

Anyway I kept meaning to explore the rest of Lyndsey Buckingham's albums, as the album named above grew on me. Anyway tonight I got Wikipedia and his discography; and Seeds we Sow, was the previous album from him. ...... First few tracks took my head off, so I suggest everyone check those tracks out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeds_We_Sow


@Karnicopia

Yeah it never gets old. I said many times in Hugo 2 thread, that the Hugo 2 surprised me every day. When I got it, I listened to it solidly for a month (plus), because life was too short not to.

TT2 never gets old either.

I still love my Mojo.
 
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Mar 20, 2021 at 5:11 AM Post #12,988 of 19,749
lucasratmundo said:
Thanks for the support, folks. I might end up buying it soon :sweat_smile::sweat_smile::sweat_smile:
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Aaaand I ordered it. My m-scaler will be delivered in the next days. Can't wait!
 
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