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CHORD Hugo TT2 Review (DAC & HP Amp)

Rate this DAC & HP Amp

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 82 22.5%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 126 34.5%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 123 33.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 34 9.3%

  • Total voters
    365

Garrincha

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That's fantastic... may I ask why and what is the rationale?


JSmith
I guess because it is the most expensive one and therefore must be the best?
why? because this combo just sounds the best. It's sharp and clear without being fatiguing, has the nice chord sound, and tons of power so dynamics are insane
So it is not fatiguing? Like the other transparent DAC/amp combos? Has Chord sound? Like the other transparent combos? Are you aware that you are not on head fi here?
 
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srkbear

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oh right, I always forget you guys here think all DACs sound the same.

Carry on
Who is “you guys”? I’m a member here just as you are, and there sure are a lot of suppositions going on here. And ad hominems. Look, it’s great that you’re happy with your Chord! Nobody can change that for you and I certainly wouldn’t want to. The Chord got a favorable review on this site in terms of its performance as a DAC—it’s just that many of us would like to know what is justifying its price, when it costs five or six times what other gear reviewed on here costs with objectively comparable performance, that’s all. Can’t we do that, since we work hard for that cash?
 

JSmith

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I think I might actually... so according to your headfi about me page, which you proudly display in your sig and about me page here, you have all these DAC's;
Chord TT2, Holo May KTE, Gustard X18, FiiO K9 Pro (ESS), FiiO K9 Pro (AKM), iFi ZenDac Signature V2, Cayain N8ii, Shanling M8, SMSL SU-9, Khadas Tone2Pro with Balanced RCA, FiiO BTR5, FiiO K3
It seems then you're in quite a good position to be able to conduct some blind listening tests and easily pick the sound of each one. I mean if they're all that different, wouldn't you want to be able to show that?


JSmith
 
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amirm

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That looks a bit disingenuous. I'd categorise it like this (using some words from this thread):

Not personal:

"You've made extraordinary claims about your product for which I can't see any convincing evidence so I don't believe them"

Personal:

"You are a crook and a charlatan."

Note also that true/false is orthogonal to personal/not personal.
That is not "personal." It is a reflection of the business conduct related to this product. The claims are so extreme and so dubious that folks are expressing their frustration with the person so promoting them. Again, pay attention to how loud Rob's claims are about these DACs. And how dismissive he is of anyone disagreeing. You can't create a more perfect storm of criticism than this.

And we are beyond your "not personal" commentary. We have now tested the device and its objective performance is just not where it needs to be on proper measurement metric.
 

srkbear

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I think I might actually... so according to your headfi about me page, which you proudly display in your sig and about me page here, you have all these DAC's;

It seems then you're in quite a good position to be able to conduct some blind listening tests and easily pick the sound of each one. I mean if they're all that different, wouldn't you want to be able to show that?


JSmith
Anyone who has all those DACs is in a position where money is no object, surely. I’m just wondering what I would do with all of them frankly. Now, I’m not about to say that those Head-Fi signature pages are often about classist oneupmanship and ostentatious status-seeking or anything…I’m sure that they are all 100% sincere.
 

srkbear

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That is not "personal." It is a reflection of the business conduct related to this product. The claims are so extreme and so dubious that folks are expressing their frustration with the person so promoting them. Again, pay attention to how loud Rob's claims are about these DACs. And how dismissive he is of anyone disagreeing. You can't create a more perfect storm of criticism than this.

And we are beyond your "not personal" commentary. We have now tested the device and its objective performance is just not where it needs to be on proper measurement metric.
Amir what’s alarming is that when Watts says to the audience on that thread not to bother with the evidence and just listen to the charming adage his mum always taught him, legions of Chord owners go “whew!” and go on feeling reassured that their money was well spent. I do not understand this phenomenon, at all.
 

srkbear

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It is the red pill vs blue pill in Matrix....
To me it is confounding why people will accept an asking price for a product that is brand new, when invariably if they were considering a used one and took it to a repair shop first to get checked out, and the technician said “if I were you I’d pass on this one because for this price it shouldn’t have all this noise”, they would surely walk away. Why?
 
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Music1969

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Again, pay attention to how loud Rob's claims are about these DACs.
I just watched this recent review (see below link) of Chord DAVE and in it he shows clips from his interview this year with Rob Watts.

In the clips Rob still refers to DAVE as state of the art and says Hugo TT2 didn't come as close to DAVE as he expected - Even though ASR measurements show opposite.

Rob is clearly the one in fantasy parallel universe.

By the way @amirm Rob still claims his DACs are the only ones that don't show any measurable noise full modulation.

He says DAC chips can't do this because he used to work on chips decades ago.

He also says ONLY APx555 can do this measurement.

Even with better measuring DACs today he is hiding behind his noise floor modulation claim

PLEASE do a measurement with a Topping or SMSL to end this fantasy thinking.

1. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-dave.766517/post-11721177

2. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/watts-up.800264/post-16534545

Some other interesting posts:
1662265075953.png


1662265454041.png


1662265511984.png


 

Music1969

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Interesting... as previously RW said this;

It must be convenient to move the goalposts I assume.


JSmith

Yep and in that same link:

"Like all my DACs this shows zero measurable noise floor modulation; no other DAC at any price point has zero measurable noise floor modulation. This is a very important concept, as it directly ties in with subjective performance - but why can't other reviewers do this test? I have been talking about the vital importance of this for decades, but the audio business continually ignores this vital issue. Why?"

and

"Again the two tone performance is limited by the APx 555 - even so it's substantially lower than any other DAC at any price point."


But in the video interview i linked above he says he doesn't listen (and measure?) to any other DACs other than at shows.

So how can he claim his DACs are the only that do whatever, but at the same time, he doesn't know what the competition is doing ?

He is chewing from both sides of his mouth.
 

srkbear

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Rob is clearly the one in fantasy parallel universe.
Surely he must be at least subconsciously if not fully aware that his claims are malarkey. It’s his loyal customers who pay those prices and the industry sites who swallow and parrot his pseudoscience who live in fantasy parallel universes. He counts on them to remain stuck there, I have no doubt.
 

srkbear

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Yep and in that same link:

"Like all my DACs this shows zero measurable noise floor modulation; no other DAC at any price point has zero measurable noise floor modulation. This is a very important concept, as it directly ties in with subjective performance - but why can't other reviewers do this test? I have been talking about the vital importance of this for decades, but the audio business continually ignores this vital issue. Why?"

and

"Again the two tone performance is limited by the APx 555 - even so it's substantially lower than any other DAC at any price point."


But in the video interview i linked above he says he doesn't listen (and measure?) to any other DACs other than at shows.

So how can he claim his DACs are the only that do whatever, but at the same time, he doesn't know what the competition is doing ?

He is chewing from both sides of his mouth.
You know that saying about scientific claims that are unfalsifiable not being science at all? That might apply here.
 

Music1969

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Surely he must be at least subconsciously if not fully aware that his claims are malarkey. It’s his loyal customers who pay those prices and the industry sites who swallow and parrot his pseudoscience who live in fantasy parallel universes. He counts on them to remain stuck there, I have no doubt.
Well he could hide behind his 'nobody is measuring my DACs with APx555' since 2014 or whenever he says he got it.

But he can no longer hide now that Dave and TT2 and Mojo2 and Hugo2 have all been APx555 measured this year.

You know that saying about scientific claims that are unfalsifiable not being science at all? That might apply here.

His name is on every one of his designed DAC/amps and he shows you it.

So he probably gets a nice % from every unit sold by Chord and he's probably made millions.

Mojo has apparently sold over 100k units so imagine he got $20 per unit sold - that's just Mojo alone.

So its all marketing to me.
 
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Robbo99999

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You keep saying this. What is "personal" about the comments here? Did folks talk about his family life? Where he lives? What car he drives? What?
I'm not about to scour this massive thread to create a list posts that did so........it was my impression & I communicated it, which a number of people agreed with said viewpoint, I'm not trawling it all up again, it's already been said & has been put to bed as far as I'm concerned.
 

Robbo99999

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Really, you weren’t referring to me specifically? I was the one who “dropped the link to head-fi” that you highlighted as the impetus for your objection in the first place—the part where you said that it “doesn’t look good if we abuse the product designers personally”. I think I reasonably took that as an implication that I was sullying the optics of ASR.

I don’t know who the “we” was you were referring to exactly. However, I usually take that royal “we” as a pronoun of condescension one uses when scolding someone else’s allegedly inappropriate behavior.

The problem is that I didn’t abuse him, nor did I get personal—I challenged his own inappropriate behavior, that included wrongly disparaging and delegitimizing this site. So without belaboring this issue excessively, I’d just like to ask you to consider whom you were defending with you post, and why. Your post’s tone seemed to be in defense of this site’s reputation, but your methods seemed to have served the opposite. Perhaps you’re not aware that Watts has taken every opportunity to downright trash the integrity of this site in front of massive audiences, and he’s in a position of considerable power and influence. Just sayin’…

PS Full disclosure, I did call Watts a crook and a charlatan—not on Head-Fi, on here. And it was in no way abuse—it was a reaction to his abuse…of my wallet.
I think you need to chill, I've already told you why I made my original post and the fact I wasn't referring to any given individual - as I said I didn't pay attention nor was interested in who specifically were entering into the territory of "personal attacks". I'm not interested in you personally for whatever you may have written on Head-Fi nor for what you may have written in this thread re Rob Watts. Lol, it's not about you, even if you might want it to be.
 
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