[Fegefeuer]

The V281 eats the Hugo's amp alive.
 
The guy who bought my HD800 brought a Hugo with him and "even" my Valhalla 2 already beat it with the HD800. 

 

[frankraindog]

  The V281 eats the Hugo's amp alive.
 
The guy who bought my HD800 brought a Hugo with him and "even" my Valhalla 2 already beat it with the HD800. 

If this is true, Rob Watts must be lying in his post, over in the hugo thread

 

[Fegefeuer]

  If this is true, Rob Watts must be lying in his post, over in the hugo thread

 
Why? Where exactly in which context?
Plus why should he not regard his own product higher than others? I mean, isn't it natural for a vendor/creator? 
 
What I offer you is my own experience and that of the guy who bought my HD800. He also bought my TH-900 btw. 

 

[project86]

Hugo has an exceptionally "clean" sound to the headphone out. Sometimes that's desirable. Other times not as much. Where it falls short imho is musicality, and drive with some of the more difficult headphones. V281 has both (musicality and drive) in spades which is why it works so well for me. 

 

[Jimmy6]

So would the "clean" sound of the Hugo being sent to the V281 be wasted? Or would that be complimenting the V281?

Hugo has an exceptionally "clean" sound to the headphone out. Sometimes that's desirable. Other times not as much. Where it falls short imho is musicality, and drive with some of the more difficult headphones. V281 has both (musicality and drive) in spades which is why it works so well for me. 

 

[mulder01]

So would the "clean" sound of the Hugo being sent to the V281 be wasted? Or would that be complimenting the V281?

 
Sorry to state the obvious here, but if you are in Sydney couldn't you just pop down to a2a and bring your headphones and hugo and demo the v281 for yourself?

 

[Jimmy6]

I did actually demo it there, but my question was would having such an expensive DAC (Chord Hugo) be wasted if it was only going to be used in conjunction with the V281.

Seems like a waste as the chord Hugo does alright on its own as a DAC/AMP combo.

A friend told me that that it is kind of a waste to dilute or polute the clean signal of the chord into an AMP.

So I was wanting to get an opinion on whether it'd be a waste of money buying the V281 in addition to the chord Hugo.

Otherwise I may be better off selling the chord Hugo and grabbing the V281 and a less expensive DAC if that makes sense ?

 

[mulder01]

That is a weird question... You're saying it like the Hugo deserves a better amp, in which case I think you don't give the vio enough credit. What amp does your friend think would be worthy of being plugged into the almighty Hugo?

Anyway my 2c -

Firstly - don't worry about what other people think is a 'waste' or not - go by what you hear and like. In some people's system the dac is the most expensive part.

If it was me in your position I would compare the hugo+v281 which you already tried vs v850 (or v800) + v281 and see if you think there's much difference between the dacs. If not, sell the hugo and put the money toward the new system to make it more affordable. But also consider the difference between those and the hugo by itself - if you're happy with the hugo, it costs you $0 in system upgrades and you have the advantage of portability - the moment you buy one piece of desktop gear you're anchored to the desk - is the fact that you have to sit in one spot from now on a concern? If the difference between the hugo and vio gear isn't massive to you, and you use the hugo anywhere else besides your computer desk, it seems like you'd be crazy to get rid of it...

I would have thought that since the hugo is a pretty analytical piece of gear and so is the hd800, the sound might be a bit sterile when combined so maybe replacing the hugo with the v281 will bring a bit more musicality to the system?

A little while ago I was trying the v850 vs yggy into the v281 and since the v850 has a volume control, you can match the volume levels of the two dacs by using the XLR out of the v850 with the volume dialled back a bit and the rca's out of the hugo and instantly switch between XLR and RCA on the v281. You can loop the spdif in and out of the v850 or whatever so that the one source can output digital to both dacs at the same time and both dacs can output into the v281 at the same volume at the same time to make the comparison easier - you can just switch back and forward between xlr and rca and instantly compare the 2 dacs at the same volume at the same part of the song. If you don't think you'd miss the hugo dac too much you can comfortably sell it then knowing that you're comfortable with the comparison...

 

[PopcornAddict]

That is a weird question... You're saying it like the Hugo deserves a better amp, in which case I think you don't give the vio enough credit. What amp does your friend think would be worthy of being plugged into the almighty Hugo?

Anyway my 2c -

Firstly - don't worry about what other people think is a 'waste' or not - go by what you hear and like. In some people's system the dac is the most expensive part.

If it was me in your position I would compare the hugo+v281 which you already tried vs v850 (or v800) + v281 and see if you think there's much difference between the dacs. If not, sell the hugo and put the money toward the new system to make it more affordable. But also consider the difference between those and the hugo by itself - if you're happy with the hugo, it costs you $0 in system upgrades and you have the advantage of portability - the moment you buy one piece of desktop gear you're anchored to the desk - is the fact that you have to sit in one spot from now on a concern? If the difference between the hugo and vio gear isn't massive to you, and you use the hugo anywhere else besides your computer desk, it seems like you'd be crazy to get rid of it...

I would have thought that since the hugo is a pretty analytical piece of gear and so is the hd800, the sound might be a bit sterile when combined so maybe replacing the hugo with the v281 will bring a bit more musicality to the system?

A little while ago I was trying the v850 vs yggy into the v281 and since the v850 has a volume control, you can match the volume levels of the two dacs by using the XLR out of the v850 with the volume dialled back a bit and the rca's out of the hugo and instantly switch between XLR and RCA on the v281. You can loop the spdif in and out of the v850 or whatever so that the one source can output digital to both dacs at the same time and both dacs can output into the v281 at the same volume at the same time to make the comparison easier - you can just switch back and forward between xlr and rca and instantly compare the 2 dacs at the same volume at the same part of the song. If you don't think you'd miss the hugo dac too much you can comfortably sell it then knowing that you're comfortable with the comparison...

Did you make notes/compare the 850 vs Yggy? Please post if so, I'm very curious of their differences and characteristics

 

[project86]

I think perhaps what was implied is that the "purity" of the Hugo system is lost when using an external amp. Which I don't find to be the case at all. I like the Hugo in the right context but for me the biggest weak spot is the headphone out.... I just can't handle it with HD800 or similar analytical headphones. V281 sounds better and works with everything so it's worth it for me. If all I ever listened to was something like a TH900 I might stick with Hugo alone. 

 

[mulder01]

 
Did you make notes/compare the 850 vs Yggy? Please post if so, I'm very curious of their differences and characteristics

 
I honestly heard nothing.  Not a damn thing, sorry...  
 
Though that has been my experience with every dac I've tried so far so I'm probably the wrong person to ask.

 

[Jimmy6]

Hi Mulder,
 
Thanks for your reply. 
 
I was able to get a longer demo session with the Hugo, V281, HD800S as well as my CIEMs. 
 
In the end, I figured it sounded maybe a little bit better than just using the Hugo on it's own. There's a bit more body, but the sound signature is essentially the same. I couldn't justify spending that much more money for a slight improvement, whilst being tethered to my desk. 
 
My friend ended up purchasing the V281 and I was able to demo them with a different dacs (IFI and Apogee). With the Apogee one the sound was a lot better. More rich and 3D sounding. Then again, that DAC was purchased about 4 grand used for studio use. 
 
At this stage, I'm not prepared to spend that much to purchase an expensive DAC to go with the V281. So I'll just save up for now, and maybe something better will come along, or good DACs will be better priced. 
 
Cheers
James
 
Quote:

That is a weird question... You're saying it like the Hugo deserves a better amp, in which case I think you don't give the vio enough credit. What amp does your friend think would be worthy of being plugged into the almighty Hugo?

Anyway my 2c -

Firstly - don't worry about what other people think is a 'waste' or not - go by what you hear and like. In some people's system the dac is the most expensive part.

If it was me in your position I would compare the hugo+v281 which you already tried vs v850 (or v800) + v281 and see if you think there's much difference between the dacs. If not, sell the hugo and put the money toward the new system to make it more affordable. But also consider the difference between those and the hugo by itself - if you're happy with the hugo, it costs you $0 in system upgrades and you have the advantage of portability - the moment you buy one piece of desktop gear you're anchored to the desk - is the fact that you have to sit in one spot from now on a concern? If the difference between the hugo and vio gear isn't massive to you, and you use the hugo anywhere else besides your computer desk, it seems like you'd be crazy to get rid of it...

I would have thought that since the hugo is a pretty analytical piece of gear and so is the hd800, the sound might be a bit sterile when combined so maybe replacing the hugo with the v281 will bring a bit more musicality to the system?

A little while ago I was trying the v850 vs yggy into the v281 and since the v850 has a volume control, you can match the volume levels of the two dacs by using the XLR out of the v850 with the volume dialled back a bit and the rca's out of the hugo and instantly switch between XLR and RCA on the v281. You can loop the spdif in and out of the v850 or whatever so that the one source can output digital to both dacs at the same time and both dacs can output into the v281 at the same volume at the same time to make the comparison easier - you can just switch back and forward between xlr and rca and instantly compare the 2 dacs at the same volume at the same part of the song. If you don't think you'd miss the hugo dac too much you can comfortably sell it then knowing that you're comfortable with the comparison...

 

[Jimmy6]

Perfect and Spot on project86.
 
That was what I meant about the purity of the Hugo system. I also found the HD800 a bit boring paired with the Hugo. 
 
However, with the HD800S it sounds a lot better, so it's still works for me at the moment. 
 
I'm pretty sure the V281 would sound good with most headphones, but as I only have one Full-size headphone, and mostly iems, then I'll just wait till I amass a bigger collection. 
 
Quote:

  I think perhaps what was implied is that the "purity" of the Hugo system is lost when using an external amp. Which I don't find to be the case at all. I like the Hugo in the right context but for me the biggest weak spot is the headphone out.... I just can't handle it with HD800 or similar analytical headphones. V281 sounds better and works with everything so it's worth it for me. If all I ever listened to was something like a TH900 I might stick with Hugo alone. 

 

[TonyNewman]

   
 
... TonyNewman, how did you mod your 6's to make them so incredibly close to the HD 800's in detail retrieval? ...

 
Blutak mod + vegan pads + grid removal + under earpad felt rings + fuzzor.
 
I tried running the HE6 without the fuzzor - the treble was nasty - had to put the fuzzor back. I am using a partial fuzzor with adhesive sorbothane. I would get laughed out of the HE6 thread for doing that - don't care - it works for me.
 
As good as the modded HE6 is with the V281, I am finding the HD800S only a short distance behind it for performance. Throw in the amazing comfort factor of the HD800S and I am finding myself torn between these 2 cans. V281 drives them both superbly.
 
I am running my V281 with full boost - the '4' setting for +12dB gain. This works for me when driving the HE6 and HD800S. I don't notice any SQ change for doing this, but it is hard to tell with the delay in shutting down the amp to change the settings. Anyone have any comments on the gain settings regarding SQ?
 
EDIT - I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the bass response of my HE6 is better with the gain at +12dB. Really getting some punch and slam. Liking it.

 

[Fido2]

I think the long process of turning the amp off etc is to "dummyproof" any possible mishaps. Just turn the volume all the way down and flip the switches...