Did some listening tonight with my Nhoord Red V1, mostly sound-stage an imaging tracks from the Chesky Binaural Demo disc, fed Optical in from an iRiver H140. Orignal Track was 24/192, track was down sampled to 16/44.1 for use with the H140, Volume matched out of the on board headphone out for each unit, SE 6.5mm on the Hugo 2 and 4pin XLR on the NFB10ES2
4 surround voice
Drum an Bell Around Mic
Center Height Shaker Test
With Four Voices,
Both the NFB 10ES2 and Hugo 2 placed each voice as stated. Front Right, Rear Right, Rear Left Front Left,
As the voice got closer the nosier NFB10ES2 didn't resolve the dynamics as well as the Hugo 2 did. Also The Hugo had a more accurate sense of left center right, with each voice drawing closer to center as they moved closer the NFB10ES2 though resolved a difference in height, the front left voice always sounds a tad higher than the rear left
With Drum an Bell,
The Hugo 2 was blacker, with better transient resolve in the lows, the drum's release rang out longer it was audible down to a quieter level than what the NFB10ES2 resolved, the NFB10ES2 how ever had a more prominent attack, each hit was fuller, heavier more dynamic, the decay from that attack to the release point was quicker, and the drum audibly settle'd sooner.
On the flip side the Bell sounded a bit rolled off with the Hugo 2, the NFB10ES2 had both better attack an extension for the bell as it rang, it resolved the release of each hit to a quieter point before silence
The sense of movement was clear'er with the Hugo 2 as well, the drum and bell moved from front, to left, to behind, to the right and then back to the front. The NFB10ES2 placed the sound originating from the front slightly above the sound originating from behind,
Finally with Center Height an Shaker,
The Hugo was not able to clearly resolve the sound of the shaker as it moved from below the mic, to level with it, and finally up above the mic. Rather all sounds that should originate below sound more in front, once they were level with the mic then they proceeded to move upwards
The NFB10ES2 resolved height, both below and above the mic much more accurately, you could very clearly hear the mic coming up from beneath you
So with the easier to drive, smaller Nhoord Red V1 I have to say I enjoyed the Hugo 2, did an excellent job with a cohesive image from left to right, and was excellent as resolving the low end transients with a driver that's a little rolled off on the bottom end, it also brought good vocal dynamics as well, but it's sound stage was a bit short an it lacked dynamics on both of the extreme ends in comparison to the NFB10ES2
After I finished, I tested my findings with my HE 4 out of the NFB10ES2 with Coax input from the Etir. With the Etir as the point of entry, the NFB10ES2 had the same blackness as the Hugo 2 with Optical input, so with Drum and Bell it was equally capable of resolving the drum as it settled and more dynamic
Additionally the strange up hill tilt I experienced with the Nhoord Red, was not present with the HE 4. I'd imagine that up hill tilt is the result of the smaller driver on the Nhoord an the taller image presented by the NFB10ES2, but testing the HE 4 out of the Hugo 2, I got a more "intimate" image with the Hugo 2, both the drum and bell sounded closer to the mic, where as moving to the NFB10ES2 the sound opened up, dynamics were also lacking with the HE 4 out of the Hugo 2. That said, for testing the internal amp I of the Hugo I chose the Nhoord Red V1 because it's much less demanding. Tomorrow's tests will be with the Nhoord Red v1 / HE 4 and my Pico Power, so I can eliminate the influence of a different amp from each unit
