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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

the_brunx

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Would love to see the same energy from you guys over at ad-fi when Amir is being insulted with vulgar etc for years that it’s become the normal there some comments even borderline racist, never saw any of you defend him like you do RW for his multiple proven falsehoods.
 

Robbo99999

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Would love to see the same energy from you guys over at ad-fi when Amir is being insulted with vulgar etc for years that it’s become the normal there some comments even borderline racist, never saw any of you defend him like you do RW for his multiple proven falsehoods.
What the people do & say on Head-Fi is their business and a reflection of their own community, we're not responsible for that, but we are responsible for how we conduct ourselves here. This is not a race to the bottom. I don't have a problem with folks going over to Head-Fi to defend Amir & what is achieved by Amir & his site & it's members, but that doesn't mean that we have to lower ourselves here in our conduct on this site, here on ASR. I would probably hope that ASR folks would conduct themselves as well as possible over on Head-Fi if they choose to partake over there, most of them probably would.
 

the_brunx

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What the people do & say on Head-Fi is their business and a reflection of their own community, we're not responsible for that, but we are responsible for how we conduct ourselves here. This is not a race to the bottom. I don't have a problem with folks going over to Head-Fi to defend Amir & what is achieved by Amir & his site & it's members, but that doesn't mean that we have to lower ourselves here in our conduct on this site, here on ASR. I would probably hope that ASR folks would conduct themselves as well as possible over on Head-Fi if they choose to partake over there, most of them probably would.
But when it comes to overpriced and falsely advertised products, they have to be called out as strongly as possible. It is to the benefit of all.
 
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amirm

amirm

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What the people do & say on Head-Fi is their business and a reflection of their own community, we're not responsible for that, but we are responsible for how we conduct ourselves here. This is not a race to the bottom. I don't have a problem with folks going over to Head-Fi to defend Amir & what is achieved by Amir & his site & it's members, but that doesn't mean that we have to lower ourselves here in our conduct on this site, here on ASR. I would probably hope that ASR folks would conduct themselves as well as possible over on Head-Fi if they choose to partake over there, most of them probably would.
We are not lowering ourselves to anything. There are a handful of industry people with massive online effort to confuse and mislead consumers about audio. When facts come out about their claims not being right, there is naturally outrage from membership. I am not here to police or muzzle their reactions when the offending messages from the other side have travelled so wide and far. Please take your own advice and move along. There is a lot that is wrong in the world of audio that requires your attention, than this one.
 

Robbo99999

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We are not lowering ourselves to anything. There are a handful of industry people with massive online effort to confuse and mislead consumers about audio. When facts come out about their claims not being right, there is naturally outrage from membership. I am not here to police or muzzle their reactions when the offending messages from the other side have travelled so wide and far. Please take your own advice and move along. There is a lot that is wrong in the world of audio that requires your attention, than this one.
You are the owner of this site, and you have your own views.

I've already made clear what mine are. You know I think this site is great for what it does, I'm offering my opinion on it's proceedings & attitude. I'm pleased to have had my say, I'm not alone in that. I don't know why you wanna grind your axe when it comes to me, I'm not dissing you or your review - if you want to support people who are holding more extreme & personal views towards the people that designed some of the gear you've reviewed, then that's your call, but a surprising one. I've already said everything I need to say, I suppose I'll have to be tight-lipped (& not respond) if people keep quoting my posts, those that have a Rob Watts "anti-fetish", otherwise the conversation won't end.

End of......looking forward to participating in anything non Rob Watts related! :D
 
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amirm

amirm

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You are the owner of this site, and you have your own views.

I've already made clear what mine are. You know I think this site is great for what it does, I'm offering my opinion on it's proceedings & attitude. I'm pleased to have had my say, I'm not alone in that. I don't know why you wanna grind your axe when it comes to me, I'm not dissing you or your review - if you want to support people who are holding more extreme & personal views towards the people that designed some of the gear you've reviewed, then that's your call, but a surprising one. I've already said everything I need to say, I suppose I'll have to be tight-lipped (& not respond) if people keep quoting my posts, those that have a Rob Watts "anti-fetish", otherwise the conversation won't end.
A handful of you keep bringing up this topic. So the response is addressed to the few of you. Your posts are selected because you are there and I can respond to it.

That aside, I don't know why you are surprised at anything like this. I was all professional in my review. Put in positives where it was merited. The response from Rob was so nasty and unprofessional. Both now and in regards to my previous reviews. In that context, your statement and couple of others in this regard ring quite hollow. We/I are showing quite a bit of restraint in the grand scheme of things. To turn this around and make us look like the bad guys makes no sense whatsoever. As I keep explaining to you, folks that use the Internet as a megaphone to sell products based on false premise, put themselves in a situation where harsh words are said about their conduct in this regard. You can't make it your thing to stop this. I say it again: move along.
 

TabCam

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lol, a specific Rob Watts thread would be even more personal, even more childish, and even lower in moral standard as a reflection of us here on ASR. But you have a point, we have really talked about Rob Watts enough in this thread, but a Rob Watts thread is certainly not the answer. We need to forget about the man for now, his product is here to hold it's own in performance albeit at an absurd price.
Maybe a thread "Request for Substantiation of unbelieve claims". That way it is far less personal but you still confront the industry when they try to use it in marketing.
 

Robbo99999

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A handful of you keep bringing up this topic. So the response is addressed to the few of you. Your posts are selected because you are there and I can respond to it.

That aside, I don't know why you are surprised at anything like this. I was all professional in my review. Put in positives where it was merited. The response from Rob was so nasty and unprofessional. Both now and in regards to my previous reviews. In that context, your statement and couple of others in this regard ring quite hollow. We/I are showing quite a bit of restraint in the grand scheme of things. To turn this around and make us look like the bad guys makes no sense whatsoever. As I keep explaining to you, folks that use the Internet as a megaphone to sell products based on false premise, put themselves in a situation where harsh words are said about their conduct in this regard. You can't make it your thing to stop this. I say it again: move along.
Well, I'm gonna leave it now.
 

srkbear

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Maybe a thread "Request for Substantiation of unbelieve claims". That way it is far less personal but you still confront the industry when they try to use it in marketing.
Much of this site is a substantiation of unbelievable claims. It’s about audio science vs marketing claptrap. For me it has been invaluable in separating hype from truth, which is what any consumer hopes for when making a decision about how to part ways with their hard-earned dollars.

There are hundreds of sites like this for other products and industries—a banal example is Consumer Reports. You rarely see appliance manufacturers savaging the efforts of those sites, but audio is itself a deeply “personal” endeavor, and one that is particularly rife with unctuous salesman peddling mistruths—so much so that a cliched term has been co-opted to describe this phenomenon, namely “snake oil”.

There is no other sensory organ we have that is more susceptible to cognitive biases than the human ear. We can immediately tell if something tastes bad. We can quickly sense if sheets aren’t soft enough. No matter how lusciously a candle is described, if it smells like a dirty sock we put it back. And our eyes are fairly adept at sensing defects in build quality or other aesthetic assets. Although admittedly it can be somewhat challenging to decide which television has superior image reproduction (because the differences can be subtle), for some reason we still don’t fret with indecision after we buy a TV—it goes on the wall and we forget about it for years.

But our ears constantly betray us, and since music can be such a passionate hobby and most of us aren’t sufficiently trained to spot dubious scientific jargon, we are particularly susceptible to specious benchmarks like price and confusing technical gobbledygook that can be mistaken for innovation. There are innumerable audio myths like “burn in” and the sonic “differences” between different conductive materials in wire that have no basis in fact, but are nevertheless pervasively given credence not only by fellow enthusiasts but by manufacturers themselves. Many user manuals still recommend burn in, and Moon Audio is a site that is almost defined by expensive headphone cable mythology—they actually force you to deselect one of their curated Dragon Cables when purchasing a headphone.

The audio industry has capitalized on this cognitive weakness of ours by forging one of the most outlandish markup and price gouging heists any market has ever witnessed. There is literally nothing more arbitrary than the price points set by so called blue chip brands like Chord, dCS, PS Audio, Naim, etc. Say what you want about measurements, but there’s a very good reason why many high end brands don’t publish their own measurements for their products. They’ve learned that they don’t need to. They establish the value of their brand reputation based on their price points and need only to ensure that their wares meet the threshold of acceptability for their respective segments.

You are no less susceptible to these fraudulent practices than anyone else, and it is your wallet at stake. Ask yourself what factors justify the cost of something like the DAVE—where is that $14,000 price coming from, for an eight year old product that has long since recouped its R&D investment? How is it that brands like Topping and Gustard can sustain a profit producing components that perform on the bench at least as well as these so-called premium products at literally 1/20th of the margins, right from launch?

I consider the specious practices of industry tycoons like Rob Watts to be deeply personal. These predatory pricing strategies are an insult to our love of music and to the sacrifices we make to bring it into our homes. Watts isn’t the slightest bit worried about your feelings, and he isn’t in any way being a professional collaborator or colleague with the honest engineers who visit sites like ASR—earnest pros who have deep respect for the science informing their efforts and integrity behind their work.

With all this in mind, ask yourself again why we should be polite, and why we shouldn’t take their arrogance, subterfuge and dirty dealings personally? They’re doing just fine, and they don’t mind savaging the reputations of others in pursuit of their own selfish aims—I say they can take it.
 
Last edited:

Garrincha

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Very good Amir. Personally, this forum helped me a lot with the selection of products and I am satisfied. I must say that this forum is unique, true based on the right metrics and I appreciate it very much.:)
I fully agree. Besides the learning, instruction and education about audio in general, I was able to make very well pointed purchase decisions, which gave me extrem high fidelity for quite low prices, $200 Topping Dx3Pro+, $300 Hifiman Sundara, $110 Hidizs S9 Pro, $220 Fiio FD5, to name a few. That is not much money for the fidelity it offers. Additionally the whole topic of EQ for headphones and some new music discoveries. And the comfort to know that often the measured gear is not inferior to many other devices, even of 10x or even 20x the price. Such a great forum, thanks Amir!
 

TabCam

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Much of this site is a substantiation of unbelievable claims. It’s about audio science vs marketing claptrap. For me it has been invaluable in separating hype from truth, which is what any consumer hopes for when making a decision about how to part ways with their hard-earned dollars.

There are hundreds of sites like this for other products and industries—a banal example is Consumer Reports. You rarely see appliance manufacturers savaging the efforts of those sites, but audio is itself a deeply “personal” endeavor, and one that is particularly rife with unctuous salesman peddling mistruths—so much so that a cliched term has been co-opted to describe this phenomenon, namely “snake oil”.

There is no other sensory organ we have that is more susceptible to cognitive biases than the human ear. We can immediately tell if something tastes bad. We can quickly sense if sheets aren’t soft enough. No matter how lusciously a candle is described, if it smells like a dirty sock we put it back. And our eyes are fairly adept at sensing defects in build quality or other aesthetic assets. Although admittedly it can be somewhat challenging to decide which television has superior image reproduction (because the differences can be subtle), for some reason we still don’t fret with indecision after we buy a TV—it goes on the wall and we forget about it for years.

But our ears constantly betray us, and since music can be such a passionate hobby and most of us aren’t sufficiently trained to spot dubious scientific jargon, we are particularly susceptible to specious benchmarks like price and confusing technical gobbledygook that can be mistaken for innovation. There are innumerable audio myths like “burn in” and the sonic “differences” between different conductive materials in wire that have no basis in fact, but are nevertheless pervasively given credence not only by fellow enthusiasts but by manufacturers themselves. Many user manuals still recommend burn in, and Moon Audio is a site that is almost defined by expensive headphone cable mythology—they actually force you to deselect one of their curated Dragon Cables when purchasing a headphone.

The audio industry has capitalized on this cognitive weakness of ours by forging one of the most outlandish markup and price gouging heists any market has ever witnessed. There is literally nothing more arbitrary than the price points set by so called blue chip brands like Chord, dCS, PS Audio, Naim, etc. Say what you want about measurements, but there’s a very good reason why many high end brands don’t publish their own measurements for their products. They’ve learned that they don’t need to. They establish the value of their brand reputation based on their price points and need only to ensure that their wares meet the threshold of acceptability for their respective segments.

You are no less susceptible to these fraudulent practices than anyone else, and it is your wallet at stake. Ask yourself what factors justify the cost of something like the DAVE—where is that $14,000 price coming from, for an eight year old product that has long since recouped its R&D investment? How is it that brands like Topping and Gustard can sustain a profit producing components that perform on the bench at least as well as these so-called premium products at literally 1/20th of the margins, right from launch?

I consider the specious practices of industry tycoons like Rob Watts to be deeply personal. These predatory pricing strategies are an insult to our love of music and to the sacrifices we make to bring it into our homes. Watts isn’t the slightest bit worried about your feelings, and he isn’t in any way being a professional collaborator or colleague with the honest engineers who visit sites like ASR—earnest pros who have deep respect for the science informing their efforts and integrity behind their work.

With all this in mind, ask yourself again why we should be polite, and why we shouldn’t take their arrogance, subterfuge and dirty dealings personally? They’re doing just fine, and they don’t mind savaging the reputations of others in pursuit of their own selfish aims—I say they can take it.

I already wrote a reply that applies quite well you did not respond to:

Isn't that one of the center points of the entire discussion! People say they feel robbed of their money bevause it isn't almost the best measuring device they can get their hands on.

With luxury goods it has always been both about performance and perception. If there are better performing and cheaper devices exists, humanity still chooses to differentiate themselves by making scientifically irrational choices. should we condemn humanity? I agree that showing the cheaper and better alternatives is a good endeavor.

Everybody who bought a Chord Hugo TT2 knew upfront that it wasn't a cheap device and, if you followed ASR, that there are far cheaper devices with similar or better performance according to ASR standards.

In hindsight it isn't a bad device, more than adequate performance with, as far as I can see, maybe a noise problem for very very sensitive IEMs. Have you hear the noise? I did not hear noise, even with speakers with 100 dB sensitivity, Maybe with IEMs with 110 dB/mW sensitivity (Sleek Audio SA6) although I doubt that spec and it is a TableTop dc so why listen to it with IEM?

Rob also never said he could hear to 300 dB, he said he tested it until he was sure he could hear no artifacts. You can say that is over exaggerating and over aggressive marketing but here they misquote it here at ASR time and time again.

I do not like the way Rob Watts posts on Head-Fi either. I did not look or post there for a very long time until you posted the link. It does not change the fact that terms like Charlatan, Ginmick etc. in my eyes does not reflect an adequately designed Devices and to me are personal.

The the same thing can about price can be said about the Mola Mola Tambiqui. Over-engineered and very very expensive. It is also not faultless looking at the THD+noise graph. There Amir says "Since I am not the one paying for it for you to purchase it, it is not my issue to worry about the cost. As such, I am happy to recommend the Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC based on its measured performance and functionality.". That seems inconsistent to me.

If you are unhappy with the purchase, sell the TT2, but a far cheaper and technically better measuring device and you will probably have quite a sum in your pocket to boot.

At ASR I think we should better stick to facts and keep a less emotional discussion. In the long run that will serve the goal much better than polarizing communities although that is a big ask with (A)Social Media platforms where polarization is rife.

As said you use big words for a clearly properly functioning device. The term "Snake oil" became synonymous for those who sold not the real but a fake product. That is not the case here. Terms like their arrogance, subterfuge etc. won't stop them.

The bias Amir uses in his recommendations feels to me not earnest. I have a lot of respect for professionals but I know at the same time that a lot of science thought to be correct was later to be found incomplete or outright wrong. And mistakes are easily made, somehow often with Chord as both Hugo 2 reviews show and I am very suspicious of the CHIRP test and don't think we showcase filter differences good enough, Archimago does to me a better job in showcasing filter differences.

In science, not passing and ABX test doesn't means it is proven, passing ABX means proven and even then you must be careful due to statistics. For me a modicum of doubt is in order Instead of presenting things as proven. Not to give marketing folks traction but to be ready for a day new evidence comes to light.

Why shouldn't you take it personally? Because it most probably harms your goals in the long run and it cast doubts on arguments you present.
 

JSmith

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you did not respond to
The term "Snake oil" became synonymous for those who sold not the real but a fake product.
No, it's for those products that utilise deceptive marketing or are a scam in general... the things claimed about this product from the likes of RW are nothing short of deceptive;
Once you start admitting to errors of -300dB or less as being subjectively important, then you can appreciate why it is that cables sound different but measure identically.
Please, don't come in here and preach that ASR members cannot respond to this kind of misleading information.


JSmith
 

Purité Audio

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Rob Watts’ ridiculous claims for me completely undermine his credibility, for that reason alone I wouldn’t touch any of his products, despite their excellent measured performance.
Keith
 

srkbear

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I already wrote a reply that applies quite well you did not respond to:



As said you use big words for a clearly properly functioning device. The term "Snake oil" became synonymous for those who sold not the real but a fake product. That is not the case here. Terms like their arrogance, subterfuge etc. won't stop them.

The bias Amir uses in his recommendations feels to me not earnest. I have a lot of respect for professionals but I know at the same time that a lot of science thought to be correct was later to be found incomplete or outright wrong. And mistakes are easily made, somehow often with Chord as both Hugo 2 reviews show and I am very suspicious of the CHIRP test and don't think we showcase filter differences good enough, Archimago does to me a better job in showcasing filter differences.

In science, not passing and ABX test doesn't means it is proven, passing ABX means proven and even then you must be careful due to statistics. For me a modicum of doubt is in order Instead of presenting things as proven. Not to give marketing folks traction but to be ready for a day new evidence comes to light.

Why shouldn't you take it personally? Because it most probably harms your goals in the long run and it cast doubts on arguments you present.
What is your basis for alleging that Amir’s testing is flawed or insincere, other than your enthusiasm for Chord products? What evidence do you have for this -300db error phenomenon other that Watts’ unsubstantiated claim? And why are you so convinced that cables sound differently? Where is your evidence?
 

TabCam

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What is your basis for alleging that Amir’s testing is flawed or insincere, other than your enthusiasm for Chord products? What evidence do you have for this -300db error phenomenon other that Watts’ unsubstantiated claim? And why are you so convinced that cables sound differently? Where is your evidence?
Read my posts, but the short answer is that the filters differ in the first Hugo 2 test, the sound of the Hugo 2 do not show the effect that the CHIRP test seems to indicate and that Rob Watts never claimed to hear 300 dB phenomena. I never claimed that cables sound different, I know they measure different. Maybe confused about the Hugo 2 and cable differences test where I sarcastically mentioned that Amir measured different jitter for the Hugo 2??
 

TabCam

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No, it's for those products that utilise deceptive marketing or are a scam in general... the things claimed about this product from the likes of RW are nothing short of deceptive;

Please, don't come in here and preach that ASR members cannot respond to this kind of misleading information.


JSmith
Then you say most advertisements are a scam and deceptive?
 

TabCam

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No, it's for those products that utilise deceptive marketing or are a scam in general... the things claimed about this product from the likes of RW are nothing short of deceptive;

Please, don't come in here and preach that ASR members cannot respond to this kind of misleading information.


JSmith
Don't know where you got the third quote from but I never said anything remotely to what you quoted except in a mildly sarcastic/ ironic manner regarding the jitter tests. That is what I detest, misquoting by science defenders!
 

JSmith

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Don't know where you got the third quote from
I linked the post in my post... click on the embedded link "deceptive".

Chord are careful in their own marketing... this is why they have Rob spread the rest of the FUD via various forums. This is why I specifically referred to RW... and you raised the snake oil subject, not I.
That is what I detest, misquoting by science defenders!
It is best to look into things before responding in this way as there has been no misquoting at all.
The bias Amir uses in his recommendations feels to me not earnest.
A personal opinion is not bias... it is what it is, an opinion. The measurements have no bias... unless you're trying to allude to something else?


JSmith
 
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