CHORD Hugo TT2 Review (DAC & HP Amp)

[dananski]

Excellent article. Thanks @amirm!

The V/D units on the impulse response graphs, is that Volts out per... Decibel input? I am curious what is causing the "divide by 0 error" parts of the graph that don't seem to occur at all for the D70s.

 

[wwenze]

They give you a cheap wall-wart so you can buy an "upgrade power supply" later

 

[amirm]

My aim was to accurately relay his claim FWIW, not to justify it.

He makes multiple claims here not just the one you are addressing. His high-tap filters have nothing to do with noise modulation. He is saying coefficients in that filter that land way below noise floor and threshold of hearing are audible. This is by far the most common myth he has created and reason people buy his products.

 

[Andysu]

headless panther and cat litter for $6k daylight robbery .

 

[amirm]

Excellent article. Thanks @amirm!

The V/D units on the impulse response graphs, is that Volts out per... Decibel input? I am curious what is causing the "divide by 0 error" parts of the graph that don't seem to occur at all for the D70s.

An impulse response by itself has no unit. So what is there is an arbitrary scale relative to "Digital Full Scale."

 

[srkbear]

Thanks for another interesting review

I find it strange that this device is able to push 15.6Vrms to the line output, but seems limited to around 8Vrms at any impedance for the headphones output.

That's probably because headphones use unbalanced output, and, therefore, half the voltage.

Isn't there a balanced phones output ?

And are the 2 headphones outputs able to deliver the max power simultaneously ?

Chord never provides balanced headphone outputs. Probably helps mask their noise floor; either that or they machined all their chassis when they were designed in the nineties and since they can still shill the DAVE for $14,000, why bother?

 

[PeteL]

He makes multiple claims here not just the one you are addressing. His high-tap filters have nothing to do with noise modulation. He is saying coefficients in that filter that land way below noise floor and threshold of hearing are audible. This is by far the most common myth he has created and reason people buy his products.

Can you trace the actual quote? Not defending this but always interesting to Read and maybe laugh.

 

[beefkabob]

Chord Hugo, not to be mistaken for Chad Hugo of the Neptunes.

 

[the_brunx]

So… Rob has officially lost it.

 

[sonci99]

So… Rob has officially lost it.

View attachment 226518

He has a point here. Other manufactures that tried to reply, didn’t change anything.

Is there any other dac reviewed with a similar filter to the Chord?

 

[amirm]

So… Rob has officially lost it.

View attachment 226518

His mother should have told him that once he becomes an adult, to not continue acting like a child. What happened to industry people acting professional?

 

[amirm]

He has a point here. Other manufactures that tried to reply, didn’t change anything.

Huh? Schiit founders used to act exactly the same on head-fi only to later retool and start building much more performant products. Companies can adapt or keep their head in the sand that the only world that matters are the sponsored membership on a forum.

 

[the_brunx]

Desperate In his first response after being exposed he goes back to the protection of he’s Mum, (I wonder if He’s Mom approves of all the lies and snake oil products like M-Scaler) and so with he’s last time domain argument being exposed he now turns into insults and playing a fictional victim, and basically tries to stop the truth from flowing by telling people to cover their eyes and ears to measurements
What a guy.

 

[RustyGates]

Definitely a better buy than the DAVE given less than half the price, better overall audio performance, far better amp capability, Bluetooth, easier to use UI, better aesthetics. Though the DAVE's distortion only figure would be lower. (Edit: also has really good x-fade functionality)

I do think Amir is a bit over the top with the UI. I bought one in 2018, and thought you only needed half a brain to use it; its not hard in the least. Left most button cycles through the menu, middle button changes the parameter on the selected menu option, right button ON/OFF and the ball changes volume... I though the display was very visible and easy to read. Its a complete non-issue. And I do love the look of the unit, especially in black, and the LED show.

The "timing" testing probably isn't the right to ascertain what Robs Whittaker–Shannon like interpolator is trying to do, and those "issues" may need to be discussed with Rob before "how it looks" on an impulse test means anything.

And for the people who keep ranting about the cheapo SMPS - Rob has stated time and time again, the main PSU of the TT2 is built into the TT2, the SMPS just supplies DC. There is no difference in audible quality while having the SMPS plugged in and removing it (the TT2 can operate off its supercaps for about 10s without supply).

 

[amirm]

I do think Amir is a bit over the top with the UI. I bought one in 2018, and thought you only needed half a brain to use it; its not hard in the least.

I have extremely high standards as it used to be my job to be competitive in this regard. Here is the thing: this is a simple device. You shouldn't try hard to complicate how it works. Yes, I figured it all out as well. How do you think I did the review?

I used to have a Datsun 2000 car with stick shift. For whatever reason, Datsun had reversed the H pattern so that where 1st gear usually is, was the reverse! I got used to it but more than once while filling up at a gas station, I went backward instead of forward by shifting the "wrong way!" Fortunately no one was behind me and so no accident. Chord is like that. It is complicating a design for which much simpler methods exist.

It is not like they conveyed some other benefit through this method. It is actually more expensive to build and assemble those globes, round buttons with ball bearing, etc. Just give me some simple switches for heaven's sake.

 

[RustyGates]

I have extremely high standards as it used to be my job to be competitive in this regard. Here is the thing: this is a simple device. You shouldn't try hard to complicate how it works. Yes, I figured it all out as well. How do you think I did the review?

I used to have a Datsun 2000 car with stick shift. For whatever reason, Datsun had reversed the H pattern so that where 1st gear usually is, was the reverse! I got used to it but more than once while filling up at a gas station, I went backward instead of forward by shifting the "wrong way!" Fortunately no one was behind me and so no accident. Chord is like that. It is complicating a design for which much simpler methods exist.

It is not like they conveyed some other benefit through this method. It is actually more expensive to build and assemble those globes, round buttons with ball bearing, etc. Just give me some simple switches for heaven's sake.

Of course you figured it out, but the TT2 does indeed just have what is literally three simple switches (menu cycle / selector / ON-OFF) and a rotary volume control. Is there something I'm missing?

Yes, the design of the unit is pricey, but that's the Chord design philosophy which differentiates from other products and makes it unique; some people love it. Some don't.

 

[sq225917]

I've never got the Chrod schtik, selling difficult to control products in Jules Verne boxes while making up magical tales about impossible to disprove tech. They lost the way after the dac 64.

 

[Pesuhelmi]

Yes, Watts has claimed that noise modulation in unhearable levels might matter, but I think one of his main claims for his DACs are that they can reconstruct the original analog signal better than current DACs in the time domain. It is true that with sinc(x) function you can reconstruct a bandwidth limited analog signal perfectly to original, and having more taps gets closer to this having less "approximation" errros between the sampled points. To my knowledge the sharp filter cutoff and good attentuation are just a byproduct of this correctly working filter. Also there is some science that humans can distinguish very small differences, it has been speculated if humans can for example differentiate the location of sound by the minuscule time differences it hits each ear. But are these differences relevant in the DACs I don't know, probably not.

It would be very interesting to see, if one could compare a original analog signal, then a regular DACs output and a Chord DAC output zoomed in the micro/nanoseconds and see if there is any differences.

 

[TabCam]

I have extremely high standards as it used to be my job to be competitive in this regard. Here is the thing: this is a simple device. You shouldn't try hard to complicate how it works. Yes, I figured it all out as well. How do you think I did the review?

I used to have a Datsun 2000 car with stick shift. For whatever reason, Datsun had reversed the H pattern so that where 1st gear usually is, was the reverse! I got used to it but more than once while filling up at a gas station, I went backward instead of forward by shifting the "wrong way!" Fortunately no one was behind me and so no accident. Chord is like that. It is complicating a design for which much simpler methods exist.

It is not like they conveyed some other benefit through this method. It is actually more expensive to build and assemble those globes, round buttons with ball bearing, etc. Just give me some simple switches for heaven's sake.

I live in Europe and we have various "styles" for stick shift operation. It depends mostly on brand. I also have used automatic shift cars and they also have different interfaces. I got used to both styles and always looked when driving unfamiliar cars.

That you incorrectly shift to reverse is to me an operator error. If you don't get used to it, switch to another brand of car. To me it is plain wrong that a car reviewer would complain about not getting used to another user interface except in case of real problems,

 

[amirm]

Of course you figured it out, but the TT2 does indeed just have what is literally three simple switches (menu cycle / selector / ON-OFF) and a rotary volume control. Is there something I'm missing?

Sure. The display is always off so you don't know what the sample rate, volume or settings are as far as gain. Yes there is a light show as far as volume but I will be damned if I going to memorize those colors. And even if I did, they are nowhere near as good as a dB level on an always on display.

Yes, you can hit a key on the remote to wake up the display for a short period but doing so changes that value! You can't just wake it up to know the current setings.

Why is there no menu button on the remote?

Why is it that there is poor key debounce on the remote causing it to go two steps instead of one?

If the filter is the star, why isn't a fast way to cycle through them on the remote or front panel?

Why should I have to wait 15 seconds every time I change modes? It is not my problem that they have to screw around with their supercaps to allow this to function instantly.

Why does it look so ugly and hodgepodge? A dot matrix green LED? What is that doing there? Why is there a crease in the cover that makes it near impossible to read?

Try even reading the manual. It is faded gray over gray. Why oh why?

All this could be cleaned up with a modicum of usability testing.