Hugo TT 2 by Chord Electronics - The Official Thread

[Reactcore]

Id say it is also very source dependent.
Many new recordings are (digitally)overmixed maybe even multiple times DAC'ed and back ADC'ed and called a remaster.

That gives smearing of transients which Chord DAC's en more so Mscaler cant repair with the WTA filter.. it can make those (sadly loads of) recordings kind of wooly sounding. Its why with those, i completely hardware bypass the scaler out of my chain and use Dave alone.. just to use less processing on purpose.

So some abstractness or sharper treble of a NOS or chip DAC with few processing to smear things can give that extra bite to make those 'studio damaged' recordings more lively.
I sometimes enjoy my old Wolfson DAP more on those tracks.

I understand why some dont like Chord .. they simply havent heard what they can do with real 'studio clean' material and/or their preferred artists have used, in a transient POV, poor studio mixing.

..and yes the rest of the system must be really transparent to hear what i mean.

 

[Amberlamps]

hey guys... hey;p please.... when I turn on tt2 it flashed this O with 2 lines on top... then a few mins later it is flashing chg and makes a clicking noise?????? what do I do? is this a send in for repair?


well researching looks like this is a common fault that Chord has not seemed to address publicly.... I guess I will need to send to them to fix... is there a USA repair location? who do I contact at Chord to to send this in? contact email etc????


thanks

If it clicks send it back to where you got it from so that it can be repaired. That clicking happened to my very first TT2, several iterations later and I have a no click TT 2. That was 3 - 4 years ago and I’m sure Chord fixed the problem.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

Haven't heard May, only Rockna Wavelight instead (as a representative of high end R2R DAC). In my system TT2 is a clear winner. YMMV of course.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

Rockna Wavedream is supposedly a balance between the Dave and May. I can see why people like R2R if you want a “romantic” feel to the music, it doesn’t have to always be 101% accurate with tons of processing for the highest ranking measurements on a chart. There’s always going to be a better delta sigma DAC.

Wabi-sabi as the Japanese say.

I couldn't care less about the "romantic" sound, I don't go to concerts to hear romantic sound. I want the music to be raw, with speed and impact and edge, I want instruments that are bright to sound bright, dark instruments to sound dark, I want variation between instruments and I want depth to the music, to me Chord delivers on all of that. Ladder DACs don't

 

[alekc]

Haven't heard May, only Rockna Wavelight instead (as a representative of high end R2R DAC). In my system TT2 is a clear winner. YMMV of course.

@TheMiddleSky I think at this level it is mostly personal preference. I prefer very smooth and relaxed sound that lets me forget that I'm actually listening to the music. If you like to be constantly focused on music and analyze every single detail, TT2 is probably better but still in terms of being revealing and detailed it comes nowhere close to MMT for example. I also preferred TT2 sound signature from Dave (again for similar reasons, Dave also seemed to me more bright, sharper and without this hint of warmth and musicality that comes with TT2). Being said that for me it is WaveLight that If I would have to choose a single dac, would stay with me. As a side note TT2 is fine on its own, but WaveLight needs an amp. In my case AuroraSound HEADA and Feliks ENVY were perfect choice. Both actually pairs perfectly well with TT2 too. IMHO HEADA has been much more important addition to my TT2 setup than M-Scaler.

 

[alekc]

I couldn't care less about the "romantic" sound, I don't go to concerts to hear romantic sound. I want the music to be raw, with speed and impact and edge, I want instruments that are bright to sound bright, dark instruments to sound dark, I want variation between instruments and I want depth to the music, to me Chord delivers on all of that. Ladder DACs don't

@GuiltyRocker I understand what you are saying. Indeed Chord is great at delivering those qualities, but if you are focused on those I would advise you to listen to Mola Mola Tambaqui. IMHO beats DAVE (as a dac) while being a bit cheaper even. On the other hand I wouldn't call TT2 completely neutral but is it all very subjective.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

@GuiltyRocker I understand what you are saying. Indeed Chord is great at delivering those qualities, but if you are focused on those I would advise you to listen to Mola Mola Tambaqui. IMHO beats DAVE (as a dac) while being a bit cheaper even. On the other hand I wouldn't call TT2 completely neutral but is it all very subjective.

Interesting, I never listened to the Mola Mola so I can't say anything, other than several reviewers say the DAVE is much better, hopefully I get to listen to it at some point. Hans Beekhuysen had both and he stuck to the DAVE as he said it DAVE was surperior.

 

[Digital Enigma]

I couldn't care less about the "romantic" sound, I don't go to concerts to hear romantic sound. I want the music to be raw, with speed and impact and edge, I want instruments that are bright to sound bright, dark instruments to sound dark, I want variation between instruments and I want depth to the music, to me Chord delivers on all of that. Ladder DACs don't

That’s absolutely fine if you’re chasing that kind of quality, as real as possible to the source sound I mean. The thing is to me that can be fatiguing and then I might want an over smoothed sound with blunted transients for late night listening and relaxing. To me you will never hear the original sound because you can’t be in the recording studio at the time so I don’t aim for accuracy when I don’t know what it’s supposed to sound like anyway.

I’m not keen on the “there’s only one way to enjoy audio and that’s X” so there’s so many talented DAC designers out there with different beliefs on what works and what doesn’t. I find all of it highly interesting from insanely long tap length filters in Robs pulse array designs to audio notes Peter Qvortrups less is more approach with 1x over sampling and no filter.

I appreciate there’s such a variety and gives us so much choice depending on taste. I love my mojo 2 and my Pro-Ject NOS filterless DAC (I imagine Rob having palpitations reading that) at the end of the day it doesn’t matter for the consumer how something performs on a test rig or in measurements your ears will ultimately tell you what’s right for you.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

@TheMiddleSky I think at this level it is mostly personal preference. I prefer very smooth and relaxed sound that lets me forget that I'm actually listening to the music. If you like to be constantly focused on music and analyze every single detail, TT2 is probably better but still in terms of being revealing and detailed it comes nowhere close to MMT for example. I also preferred TT2 sound signature from Dave (again for similar reasons, Dave also seemed to me more bright, sharper and without this hint of warmth and musicality that comes with TT2). Being said that for me it is WaveLight that If I would have to choose a single dac, would stay with me. As a side note TT2 is fine on its own, but WaveLight needs an amp. In my case AuroraSound HEADA and Feliks ENVY were perfect choice. Both actually pairs perfectly well with TT2 too. IMHO HEADA has been much more important addition to my TT2 setup than M-Scaler.

Had listened to Mola fo several times, it was indeed a great dac, but it's just didn't appeal me that much to make a purchase for it. Agree, perhaps due to synergy with my system and my preference, TT2 really deliver what I expected as a DAC.

Rather than Mola, actually I curious more about Wavedream. Same here, I like TT2 more than Dave too, with same reasons as you.

I think next month I may hear the combination of Wavedream + Envy, based on what I ready supposed to be a "yummy" pairing.

 

[alekc]

Had listened to Mola fo several times, it was indeed a great dac, but it's just didn't appeal me that much to make a purchase for it. Agree, perhaps due to synergy with my system and my preference, TT2 really deliver what I expected as a DAC.

Rather than Mola, actually I curious more about Wavedream. Same here, I like TT2 more than Dave too, with same reasons as you.

I think next month I may hear the combination of Wavedream + Envy, based on what I ready supposed to be a "yummy" pairing.

@TheMiddleSky considering our similar test in case of TT2 vs Dave I'd recommend to listen to WaveLight first with Envy. WaveLight vs WaveDream is very similar to TT2 vs Dave dispute IMHO but be prepared to a lot more smoother sound than any of Chord dacs I've heard (Mojo, Mojo 2, Hugo 2, Qutes, TT2, TT2 + Mscaler, Dave). It also take a time to appriciate what Rockna is playing, do not except immediate WOW effect, just give it a bit of time like 15-20 minutes and only than start judging.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

That’s absolutely fine if you’re chasing that kind of quality, as real as possible to the source sound I mean. The thing is to me that can be fatiguing and then I might want an over smoothed sound with blunted transients for late night listening and relaxing. To me you will never hear the original sound because you can’t be in the recording studio at the time so I don’t aim for accuracy when I don’t know what it’s supposed to sound like anyway.

I’m not keen on the “there’s only one way to enjoy audio and that’s X” so there’s so many talented DAC designers out there with different beliefs on what works and what doesn’t. I find all of it highly interesting from insanely long tap length filters in Robs pulse array designs to audio notes Peter Qvortrups less is more approach with 1x over sampling and no filter.

I appreciate there’s such a variety and gives us so much choice depending on taste. I love my mojo 2 and my Pro-Ject NOS filterless DAC (I imagine Rob having palpitations reading that) at the end of the day it doesn’t matter for the consumer how something performs on a test rig or in measurements your ears will ultimately tell you what’s right for you.

I see where you're coming from, except I dont get any ear fatigue from Chord at all, in fact, I listen for hours and hours and no issues. It may be also because I use Parasound JC amps and a Parasound all-analog preamp. I don't care about Chord's amps, I only care for Rob's DACs.

 

[alekc]

All this discussion about TT2 sound quality made me listen to some demanding recording in terms of intrument separation and placement with focus on details. What a treat it was.

 

[Slim1970]

All this discussion about TT2 sound quality made me listen to some demanding recording in terms of intrument separation and placement with focus on details. What a treat it was.

I owned the TT2 before getting the DAVE, and the TT2 is the warmer sounding of the two. The TT2 has a beautiful sound, but the for me the DAVE was a step up in overall performance.

One thing is for certain, that for my preferences Chord DAC's lead the way in detail retrieval, instrument separation, clarity, transient response, and accuracy. What's debatable is the music engagement factor, which I think the TT2 edges out the Dave in this category. Some call Chord DAC's a little cold sounding. I don't think so. I just find that they produce an accurate signal. Add the HMS to any of their DAC's and you can step up performance even more.

 

[Kentajalli]

I owned the TT2 before getting the DAVE, and the TT2 is the warmer sounding of the two. The TT2 has a beautiful sound, but the for me the DAVE was a step up in overall performance.

One thing is for certain, that for my preferences Chord DAC's lead the way in detail retrieval, instrument separation, clarity, transient response, and accuracy. What's debatable is the music engagement factor, which I think the TT2 edges out the Dave in this category. Some call Chord DAC's a little cold sounding. I don't think so. I just find that they produce an accurate signal. Add the HMS to any of their DAC's and you can step up performance even more.

I was at canjam London this year, and met RW in person.
I also listened to the TT2. Now, I do have a Hugo2 and I had it with me. What surprised me, was the fact that TT2 was clearly superior sounding!
I didn't think it would be, or if there were any differences, they'd be minor, but No! it was clearly better.
My problem is, I don't need a table top DAC, I need it to be portable (OK transportable).
So I shall wait for a possible Hugo3, that sounds like a TT2, that I can take it with me.
Anybody listening ? ?
If you're gonna do it, do it soon, while I can still hear good, I am 63!

 

[CaptainFantastic]

Rob just said (interview at CanJam SoCal) that the normal development timeline for a product like the Hugo is 18 months and that he has not started work on the Hugo 3 yet. But he seemed quite open about the possibility of a Hugo 3 in the future.