CHORD Hugo TT2 Review (DAC & HP Amp)

[Ken Tajalli]

Partially. FFT shows correct levels of distortion, but the noise floor you see is fake. Look up FFT gain for more info.
The Hugo TT2's noise floor is much higher in reality.

Is there a graph here that shows not-fake noise floor?
or a chart or a number?

 

[Anthony T]

What other DACs have been not recommended with such high Sinad? Genuinely curious to know as price isn’t generally a factor in the reviews here.

 

[DHT 845]

Amirm said he wouldn't buy it, not that dac is generally not recommended

 

[AudioSceptic]

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.
View attachment 226238
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:
View attachment 226241

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:
View attachment 226256
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:
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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:
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You have lots of output drive capability:
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Edit: here is the performance of RCA output:
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As mentioned, noise is the limiting factor here:

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We can see the same issue in our IMD level sweep:
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The dashed blue line is a three year old $250 dac+amp product. This noise even impacts linearity:
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Distortion as noted is very low and so is reflected the same in multitone test:
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Jitter spectrum is clean but noise floor again is a bit high:
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Company's claim to fame is their high-tap FIR filter which results in a very sharp cut-off:
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The difference in the four filters is hard to see in above measurement so let's use a frequency response sweep:

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There is no difference in two of the filters. So I upped the sample rate:
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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:
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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):
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At this zoomed out view the two seem pretty similar. Let's magnify this a ton to see when the vertical oscillations die off:

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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:
View attachment 226260

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:
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This is well below average performance:
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So best to avoid super sensitive IEMs and headphones.

Let's measure power vs distortion+noise:
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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:
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EDIT: the rear XLR outputs can be used as headphone out using appropriate adapter. Here is that performance with 300 ohm load:
View attachment 226321

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.

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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/

You say that the reconstruction filter is the stand out but it doesn't reach full attenuation by Nyquist. The Watts filter could easily do that by kicking in just a little lower but bizarrely stays flat to almost 22.0 kHz when 20 is all that we need. I just don't see the logic here.

Edit: and the price is crazy. £4,750 in the UK is only slightly less insane.

 

[PeteL]

Is there a graph here that shows not-fake noise floor?
or a chart or a number?

The dynamic range is signal to noise at a certain voltage. Not necessarily the best case but consistent with other reviews.

 

[Count Arthur]

I thought the Chord Hugo or the Dave might be my end game DAC and headphone amp combo.

I bought an RME ADI-2 DAC as a stop gap.

Then I discovered ASR.

I still have the RME.

 

[Sokel]

You say that the reconstruction filter is the stand out but it doesn't reach full attenuation by Nyquist. The Watts filter could easily do that by kicking in just a little lower but bizarrely stays flat to almost 22.0 kHz when 20 is all that we need. I just don't see the logic here.

Edit: and the price is crazy. £4,750 in the UK is only slightly less insane.

I think the sampling freq was 48000 through the measurements,so...
Edit;No,it was 44100 for the specific as reported on the screenshot so you're right.
Edit2: It looks like 48000 though.

 

[Soundstage]

I’d love to see the impact of such reviews on the sales and after market values of these products but there is not enough data to support it.

 

[AudioSceptic]

I think the sampling freq was 48000 through the measurements,so...
Edit;No,it was 44100 for the specific as reported on the screenshot so you're right.
Edit2: It looks like 48000 though.

It wouldn't make sense at 48 kHz in any case. Nyquist would be 24 kHz so we could stay flat to past 23.

 

[beagleman]

Hard for me to rate something like this as more than Poor, as for this huge sum, it really in the end, DOES VERY LITTLE for what it cost.

 

[Kevbaz]

Blimey thats expensive, I could buy myself, my wife and kids an RME ADI-2 DAC each for that kind of money

 

[AudioSceptic]

Hard for me to rate something like this as more than Poor, as for this huge sum, it really in the end, DOES VERY LITTLE for what it cost.

IMO it's hard to use the rating system fairly for either products that perform barely adequately but are dirt cheap or ones that perform well but are insanely expensive. IOW, it doesn't allow for value.

 

[KxDx]

I'm not now, nor will likely ever be a customer of Chord, but these guys ought to spend a few bucks and hire a good designer. Their products look like they were designed by a bunch of third graders.

McIntosh has the blue VU meters, Chord has the Skittles buttons. It's a brand distinction. People who buy this stuff want you to know they paid a shit ton for it at first glance.

 

[tomtoo]

Not bad if you so lucky that you can ignore the price.

 

[EBrumbaugh]

For this kind of money, no thank you. You can get the same or better performance elsewhere … heck, get Toppings top of the line DAC and Headphone amp and keep the other $5,000.00 in your pocket. Personally, I’m well past the point of buying these uber priced components that don’t offer anything better than what I can get for waaaaay less money elsewhere. Great review Amir, thank you.

 

[F1308]

Not related, SORRY, but DUCKDUCKGO browser says, upon trying to connect (now using BRAVE for this post), that ...CONNECTION ABORTED, THIS SITE CAN CAUSE HARM TO YOUR DEVICE.

 

[staticV3]

Not related, SORRY, but DUCKDUCKGO browser says, upon trying to connect (now using BRAVE for this post), that ...CONNECTION ABORTED, THIS SITE CAN CAUSE HARM TO YOUR DEVICE.

See here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...solving-browsing-problems-with-firefox.36668/

Oh and please don't use caps lock like that. It's bad manners.

 

[KxDx]

My biggest complaint about a lot of the cheaper Toppings and other cheap offerings is the pops and clicks when turning on or off and switching sampling rates. I never heard that with the Chord Hugo 1 & 2 and also not with the Cutest (or was it the 2cute, it was just before Covid19 outbreak) in a limited headphone test session.

That's a great thing about TEAC also. I've owned several models of their DACs and all have been pop-free.

 

[Lupin]

Another ridiculously overpriced piece of crap from CHORD... why am I not surprised anymore..

 

[F1308]

See here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...solving-browsing-problems-with-firefox.36668/

Oh and please don't use caps lock like that. It's bad manners.

Caps are good a thing when issuing a WARNING.