This is a review, detailed measurements and listening tests of Chord Hugo TT2 DAC and amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $6,725.
The product looks and feels like it was designed by a committee with multiple design styles from globes to dot matrix green (!) display. Labels are almost impossible to read as you see in the front (much harder when looking from above). The aforementioned green display has a line going through it courtesy of the smoked cover's right angle. So most of the time it cuts off what it is showing. There is a long delay as the unit powers up, supposedly charging its supercaps. Mode changes from low to high gain trigger the same 10 to 15 second pause. Same with when plugging and unplugging the headphone. Confusing light show goes on during all of this.
Fortunately a remote control is provided which while very cheap looking, performs most functions like any other device. The main exception is that it doesn't have a menu button so you can't change simple things like gain using it! Strangely, that gain setting also impacts line outs.
Here is the back panel:
The external power supply likely gives heart attacks to any high-end listener.
Unit runs fairly warm although not hot to the touch.
Company's market is all about objective measurements yet there is hardly any specification provided for the unit:
So let's measure out own.
Chord Hugo TT2 Measurements
All testing is done using XLR (and later headphone) output. I set the gain to low and adjusted the volume to get close to nominal 4 volts output:
Distortion is below threshold of hearing. Even after adding noise, SINAD of 115 dB is at or below threshold of hearing. This is naturally an excellent response but not compared to its competitors:
You have lots of output drive capability:
Edit: here is the performance of RCA output:
As mentioned, noise is the limiting factor here:
We can see the same issue in our IMD level sweep:
The dashed blue line is a three year old $250 dac+amp product. This noise even impacts linearity:
Distortion as noted is very low and so is reflected the same in multitone test:
Jitter spectrum is clean but noise floor again is a bit high:
Company's claim to fame is their high-tap FIR filter which results in a very sharp cut-off:
The difference in the four filters is hard to see in above measurement so let's use a frequency response sweep:
There is no difference in two of the filters. So I upped the sample rate:
Still not much of a difference. I would just stick with the default Filter 1.
Given the excellent filters, our wideband distortion+noise sweep shows very good performance:
Chord Hugo TT2 Time Domain Measurements
Company marketing material makes vague claims about timing performance. So let's measure the impulse response using a log sweep and compare it to a "traditional" DAC (Topping D70s):
At this zoomed out view the two seem pretty similar. Let's magnify this a ton to see when the vertical oscillations die off:
I have aligned the two impulses to fall on top of each other and showing performance to the left of both. Faded blue is Topping D70s. We see a nice graceful decay into noise with one additional spike which indicates second harmonic distortion. In red/burgundy we have the Chord Hugo TT2 Filter response. To my eye, its oscillations fall below the noise the same as topping. However, if you let it continue, it all of a sudden becomes unstable with response shooting up and down. Not sure what the cause of this is. You can see it better with just the TT2 response zoomed out a bit:
Whatever the explanation, it doesn't make for a good showing in "time domain."
Chord Hugo TT2 Headphone Amplifier Measurements
Let's start with our noise level while outputting 50 millivolts:
This is well below average performance:
So best to avoid super sensitive IEMs and headphones.
Let's measure power vs distortion+noise:
In both cases we have plenty of power but noise performance is not competitive with even budget products. Strength of the product is more on current delivery -- and hence lower impedance loads -- than higher:
EDIT: the rear XLR outputs can be used as headphone out using appropriate adapter. Here is that performance with 300 ohm load:
At nearly 1 watt, that is tremendous amount of power available for high impedance headphones.
Chord Hugo TT2 Listening Tests
I started my listening tests using Dan Clark Stealth headphones (which Chord designer also prefers). There was plenty of power available except at very high levels where distortion set in. Otherwise, everything sounded excellent and dynamic. I could not detect any "magic" related to the filter or general performance of the unit.
Switching to Sennheiser HD-650 was even better due to more sensitivity this headphone provides. Everything sounded great but again, nothing different than what I am used it when testing other high performance DAC+Amps.
Conclusions
Putting aside the functionality and look of the unit, the electronic performance is generally excellent. The problem it faces is that there has been a fierce race in the last few years to optimize the design of such combo products. That competition has given us state-of-the-art performance that is distinctly better and cheaper than what TT2 provides. The only stand out is the sharp reconstruction filter that the unit provides. You are paying $6000 for that feature. I can't detect it improving anything while things like higher noise floor can be audible.
For multiple reasons, from design to cost and performance, the Chord Hugo TT2 is not for me so I can't recommend it. If you own it though and it is a sunk cost, then you have a high performance DAC+Amp so I see no reason to be worried about it.
Edit: video review now posted:
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The product looks and feels like it was designed by a committee with multiple design styles from globes to dot matrix green (!) display. Labels are almost impossible to read as you see in the front (much harder when looking from above). The aforementioned green display has a line going through it courtesy of the smoked cover's right angle. So most of the time it cuts off what it is showing. There is a long delay as the unit powers up, supposedly charging its supercaps. Mode changes from low to high gain trigger the same 10 to 15 second pause. Same with when plugging and unplugging the headphone. Confusing light show goes on during all of this.
Fortunately a remote control is provided which while very cheap looking, performs most functions like any other device. The main exception is that it doesn't have a menu button so you can't change simple things like gain using it! Strangely, that gain setting also impacts line outs.
Here is the back panel:
The external power supply likely gives heart attacks to any high-end listener.
Unit runs fairly warm although not hot to the touch.
Company's market is all about objective measurements yet there is hardly any specification provided for the unit:
So let's measure out own.
Chord Hugo TT2 Measurements
All testing is done using XLR (and later headphone) output. I set the gain to low and adjusted the volume to get close to nominal 4 volts output:
Distortion is below threshold of hearing. Even after adding noise, SINAD of 115 dB is at or below threshold of hearing. This is naturally an excellent response but not compared to its competitors:
You have lots of output drive capability:
Edit: here is the performance of RCA output:
As mentioned, noise is the limiting factor here:
We can see the same issue in our IMD level sweep:
The dashed blue line is a three year old $250 dac+amp product. This noise even impacts linearity:
Distortion as noted is very low and so is reflected the same in multitone test:
Jitter spectrum is clean but noise floor again is a bit high:
Company's claim to fame is their high-tap FIR filter which results in a very sharp cut-off:
The difference in the four filters is hard to see in above measurement so let's use a frequency response sweep:
There is no difference in two of the filters. So I upped the sample rate:
Still not much of a difference. I would just stick with the default Filter 1.
Given the excellent filters, our wideband distortion+noise sweep shows very good performance:
Chord Hugo TT2 Time Domain Measurements
Company marketing material makes vague claims about timing performance. So let's measure the impulse response using a log sweep and compare it to a "traditional" DAC (Topping D70s):
At this zoomed out view the two seem pretty similar. Let's magnify this a ton to see when the vertical oscillations die off:
I have aligned the two impulses to fall on top of each other and showing performance to the left of both. Faded blue is Topping D70s. We see a nice graceful decay into noise with one additional spike which indicates second harmonic distortion. In red/burgundy we have the Chord Hugo TT2 Filter response. To my eye, its oscillations fall below the noise the same as topping. However, if you let it continue, it all of a sudden becomes unstable with response shooting up and down. Not sure what the cause of this is. You can see it better with just the TT2 response zoomed out a bit:
Whatever the explanation, it doesn't make for a good showing in "time domain."
Chord Hugo TT2 Headphone Amplifier Measurements
Let's start with our noise level while outputting 50 millivolts:
This is well below average performance:
So best to avoid super sensitive IEMs and headphones.
Let's measure power vs distortion+noise:
In both cases we have plenty of power but noise performance is not competitive with even budget products. Strength of the product is more on current delivery -- and hence lower impedance loads -- than higher:
EDIT: the rear XLR outputs can be used as headphone out using appropriate adapter. Here is that performance with 300 ohm load:
At nearly 1 watt, that is tremendous amount of power available for high impedance headphones.
Chord Hugo TT2 Listening Tests
I started my listening tests using Dan Clark Stealth headphones (which Chord designer also prefers). There was plenty of power available except at very high levels where distortion set in. Otherwise, everything sounded excellent and dynamic. I could not detect any "magic" related to the filter or general performance of the unit.
Switching to Sennheiser HD-650 was even better due to more sensitivity this headphone provides. Everything sounded great but again, nothing different than what I am used it when testing other high performance DAC+Amps.
Conclusions
Putting aside the functionality and look of the unit, the electronic performance is generally excellent. The problem it faces is that there has been a fierce race in the last few years to optimize the design of such combo products. That competition has given us state-of-the-art performance that is distinctly better and cheaper than what TT2 provides. The only stand out is the sharp reconstruction filter that the unit provides. You are paying $6000 for that feature. I can't detect it improving anything while things like higher noise floor can be audible.
For multiple reasons, from design to cost and performance, the Chord Hugo TT2 is not for me so I can't recommend it. If you own it though and it is a sunk cost, then you have a high performance DAC+Amp so I see no reason to be worried about it.
Edit: video review now posted:
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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