Chord Hugo Re-Examined

[ted_b]

Well, again, disagree on Radiohead sq. Everything they've done starting with Amnesiac is good quality redbook (Kid A, OK Computer and The Bends are quality songwriting but average at best sq).. In fact, Hail To The Thief won a Grammy for best engineered album. The 24/44 of Limbs is a very good rendition.

[chrille]

Well, again, disagree on Radiohead sq. Everything they've done starting with Amnesiac is good quality redbook (Kid A, OK Computer and The Bends are quality songwriting but average at best sq).. In fact, Hail To The Thief won a Grammy for best engineered album. The 24/44 of Limbs is a very good rendition.

 

Hmm, did you not just a few posts back, ask us all to return back on topic?

 

Although I know that I may be a rather lone voice here regarding what actually constitutes a REAL REFERENCE, in the context of HI FI, I still strongly doubt that Rob designed HUGO or the upcoming DAVE with Radiohead or similar music as a reference.

But awful thought, if he did? Well then , no wonder I am experiencing problems with HUGO on some of the most demanding material you can use in any HI FI evaluation.

Why don't you let us know what YOU have done to make HUGO perform at its very best in your system?

You have access to a lot of DSD material with classical music. How does HUGO perform in your system with really challenging large scale orchestral and Operatic material? Or are you just happy enough that 16/44.1 rbcd Radiohead sounds fine via HUGO?

[PT7]

It seems you and I are having similar experiences with HUGO.

In the jungle far from any electric grid running with both my macbook pro and HUGO off battery power and my HD 800 headphones connected, I have rarely heard digital sound better. But at home it is so uneven that I keep my Benchmark DAC2 connected to my poweramp basically all the time now.

I too would want the magic to be consistent and that is why I posted here again.

I got a bit sidetracked when someone started talking about taste regarding HUGO and VEGA .

Taste should NOT have to enter the equation at all. Maximum transparency and delivery of the source material as fatihfully as technically posssible is the only thing that matters to me.

I too would really like to know how to achieve the best possible results with HUGO with the one and only parameters transparency and absense of any colouration combined with the lowest possible distortion and highest possible resolution.

 

I Agree with you 100% as I'm talking right now my Hugo start to regain his magic .

Is hugo is trolling me or what !!

but yesterday I was disappointed ,I try to fix it but I couldn't ,

Today when I start my PC( win 8.1 with intel i7 last gen ),again the sound of hugo was so good: I can describe the sound as 3d , very good soundstage with extremely nice depth , very detail not only that but you feel something is going behind the scenes as I'm very please with the instruments and the sound of everything ,I also I can hear more smoothness with no harshness.

yesterday, maybe the dac was talking a nap .i's like I listened to the amp of hugo , no magic at all, still very detail nothing got my attention . I feel it's weird cause now it's work so well but yesterday was bad. I notice that diff, immediately with my ears.

I advice you to buy a better cable mr : Chrille . it helps me a little bit and play it nativaly with jriver. I will wait for mr : Ted to see what he can say or advice us to do .

[Emcee]

...I've wasted a lot of money in the learning process of putting together a system that would play modern music well. I'm very happy at where I'm right now. I'd not have done it if it wasn't worth it. I'd not have done it, if I didn't hear the leap of sound quality even with the distorted electric guitar.

...

 

Could you please share what gear you are using. Slightly off topic but not necessarily irrelevant.

[ted_b]

Hmm, did you not just a few posts back, ask us all to return back on topic?

 

Although I know that I may be a rather lone voice here regarding what actually constitutes a REAL REFERENCE, in the context of HI FI, I still strongly doubt that Rob designed HUGO or the upcoming DAVE with Radiohead or similar music as a reference.

But awful thought, if he did? Well then , no wonder I am experiencing problems with HUGO on some of the most demanding material you can use in any HI FI evaluation.

Why don't you let us know what YOU have done to make HUGO perform at its very best in your system?

You have access to a lot of DSD material with classical music. How does HUGO perform in your system with really challenging large scale orchestral and Operatic material? Or are you just happy enough that 16/44.1 rbcd Radiohead sounds fine via HUGO?

 

Chrille, why must you be so aggressive with your wording. No, of course I don't give any DAC, let alone the Hugo, a grade by simply playing redbook Radiohead. You've not read my posts or reviews; so be it. I have about 100 posts here on CA talking about sq and Hugo. You really need me to do it again? Yes, Hugo is a state of the art (under $12k) PCM playback device, while it remains a good but not SOTA DSD playback device. My Hugo drives, then, my Concert Fidelity CF-080 preamp (I do not drive amps with Hugo directly...I've done it and reported on it, but it's not my go-to). Jared Sacks (Channel Classics) actually preferred the Hugo (over a unfairly cold exaSound and a well-broken in Directstream, all via USB and HQPlayer) when we played 2 channel Mahler 9, etc (his recordings) in my system 3 weeks ago....so it is not a DSD dud by any stretch.

 

My 2 channel playlist typically includes Cassandra Wilson (PCM), Mari Kodama piano sonatas (DSD), some Soundkeeper acoustic 24/192 native recordings (like Equinox), some minimalist jazz remasters, a couple classical large piece native DSD (Mahler 9, Tchaikovsky 4th) and a few odds and ends (like Keith Richards, Rickie Lee Jones Pop Pop and Rachel Podger solo violin ).

[PT7]

Chrille, why must you be so aggressive with your wording. No, of course I don't give any DAC, let alone the Hugo, a grade by simply playing redbook Radiohead. You've not read my posts or reviews; so be it. I have about 100 posts here on CA talking about sq and Hugo. You really need me to do it again? Yes, Hugo is a state of the art (under $12k) PCM playback device, while it remains a good but not SOTA DSD playback device. My Hugo drives, then, my Concert Fidelity CF-080 preamp (I do not drive amps with Hugo directly...I've done it and reported on it, but it's not my go-to). Jared Sacks (Channel Classics) actually preferred the Hugo (over a unfairly cold exaSound and a well-broken in Directstream, all via USB and HQPlayer) when we played 2 channel Mahler 9, etc (his recordings) in my system 3 weeks ago....so it is not a DSD dud by any stretch.

 

My 2 channel playlist typically includes Cassandra Wilson (PCM), Mari Kodama piano sonatas (DSD), some Soundkeeper acoustic 24/192 native recordings (like Equinox), some minimalist jazz remasters, a couple classical large piece native DSD (Mahler 9, Tchaikovsky 4th) and a few odds and ends (like Keith Richards, Rickie Lee Jones Pop Pop and Rachel Podger solo violin ).

Ted I agree with you ,for me I don't care for dsd it's only 2% of the market when it about 20 % I can demand a very best dac to play them well ,PCM with hugo is very good .

what's your chain ? did you still playing hugo with AO ?

did you hear dac like lampi 7 it's under 12k$ ,many said it way better than hugo and directStream dac and one the best dac at any price .

when you will review Hugo TT !!

sorry I asked many Questions .

[ted_b]

I am a HUGE DSD fan (and do much work for Native DSD, too). But I am ok with two DACs, frankly.....for now. It's a bit of a pain, but so what. My exaSound e28 is a great DSD dac, plus it does multichannel.

 

I am reveiwing the 2Qute right now; doubt I'll do the Hugo TT. Next Chord DAC would be DAVE.

 

I haven't heard the Lampi 7. I had three prototype Lampis in here over a year ago but their dc leakage was causing amp shutdown issues, etc....all that is behind them now though, of course (and some of it is based on my amps were being a bit too sensitive to shutdown). I respect all those who say it is state of the art DSD. No one is saying it isn't...my $12k measure was for PCM playback. Lampi's wheelhouse is DSD playback via chipless design. PCM lovers don't have Lampis on their must-hear list, necessarily.

[shahed99]

I think Lampi L7 is great on PCM too and should get more attention. Lampi weak point is their usb input IMO. I have heard significant improvement using a $140 Gustard USB to SPDIF converter. However, now that I'm upsampling to DSD using HQP, usb is the only option I have.

 

Ted, I'm eagerly waiting for your 2Qute review. I hope it's DSD is better than Hugo. One of the best feature of 2Qute (also Hugo has it) would be the DoP over spdif. Would you share some of your thoughts comparing 2Qute to Exasound e12 without spoiling your upcoming review? I hope you do some comparsion amon hugo, e12 and 2Qute.

[shahed99]

...

 

Could you please share what gear you are using. Slightly off topic but not necessarily irrelevant.

 

I'm using an all tricked out single PC music server based on Paul Pang components (mobo, ram, usb card, ssd) with Lampizator Level 7 with analog volume control into my Tube Research Lab ST-100 amplifier. My speaker is Daedalus Athena V.2.

[chrille]

Chrille, why must you be so aggressive with your wording. No, of course I don't give any DAC, let alone the Hugo, a grade by simply playing redbook Radiohead. You've not read my posts or reviews; so be it. I have about 100 posts here on CA talking about sq and Hugo. You really need me to do it again? Yes, Hugo is a state of the art (under $12k) PCM playback device, while it remains a good but not SOTA DSD playback device. My Hugo drives, then, my Concert Fidelity CF-080 preamp (I do not drive amps with Hugo directly...I've done it and reported on it, but it's not my go-to). Jared Sacks (Channel Classics) actually preferred the Hugo (over a unfairly cold exaSound and a well-broken in Directstream, all via USB and HQPlayer) when we played 2 channel Mahler 9, etc (his recordings) in my system 3 weeks ago....so it is not a DSD dud by any stretch.

 

My 2 channel playlist typically includes Cassandra Wilson (PCM), Mari Kodama piano sonatas (DSD), some Soundkeeper acoustic 24/192 native recordings (like Equinox), some minimalist jazz remasters, a couple classical large piece native DSD (Mahler 9, Tchaikovsky 4th) and a few odds and ends (like Keith Richards, Rickie Lee Jones Pop Pop and Rachel Podger solo violin ).

 

Thanks a lot Ted, for your response.

Sorry if I was a bit blunt and offensive again. I don't really intend to hurt you or anyone else here . But your references to Radiohead and other Pop Rock stuff was so completely irrelevant for me in the context of SOTA SQ, that I had to push you a bit to get you on some common ground so to say.

I find it interesting indeed to hear that Jared himself preferred HUGO in your system with his,and here I think we can rather safely state STATE OF THE ART for DSD 64 recording, of one of the greatest symphonies ever composed!

Now here we are really talking proper reference material!

One of my own references is his earlier Mahler 5 where I can compare directly from memory now of course ,but one full week of daily sessions with the BFO, to the final result both as released on SACD and DSD download.

Mahler's 9th was the first DSD recorded music I downloaded when I came back home again after my winter in Asia, and I have played it nearly 20 times in the past three weeks both via my electrostatic speakers with HUGO directly line out mode to my amp via preamp and also via my Benchmark DAC 2.

And also via my HD800 headphones.

Absolutely fantastic music equally well recorded imo. But some days I prefer it via Benchmark DAC 2 and other times I find the resolution provided by HUGO is more important to me than that it can sound a bit stressed at the powerful climaxes in the first movement, where my Benchmark never sounds harsh or stressed in the same way HUGO can. But unfortunately a bit softer and sweeter and duller than real as I know this orchestra in their hall.

The puzzling thing is that we all know that HUGO actually converts DSD to 32/384 pcm internally.And that Rob employs heavy filtering to get rid of the infamous DSD noise. And Exasound/ Benchmark and others propose to treat DSD natively.

Or don't they either?

Who really knows what happens inside those Sabre chips used in so many DACS?

Like you I think DSD 64 can sound fantastic and Jared's recordings are proof indeed of that fact.

But maybe just maybe DSD 128 or 256 or 512 have the potential to sound even better.

And Rob Watts made no secret to me of the fact that he prefers PCM over DSD. And not even DAVE will play DSD natively.

By the way why won't you review the TT?

According to both Rob Watts and John Franks it both measures AND sounds better than HUGO.

Cheers Chris

[PT7]

I have many Q: How to replace the battery of Hugo ? where to buy new one ? and how to replace them ?

mr : Ted , tell me how did you run Hugo from your pc ?

should I keep Hugo turn on all the time ? why when I turn off hugo it lost the magic sound ?

 

why chord couldn't achiev. 1000 000 taps ? and why they didn't make 164 k taps inside hugo ? it will sound better right ?

[ted_b]

I have many Q: How to replace the battery of Hugo ? where to buy new one ? and how to replace them ?

mr : Ted , tell me how did you run Hugo from your pc ?

should I keep Hugo turn on all the time ? why when I turn off hugo it lost the magic sound ?

 

why chord couldn't achiev. 1000 000 taps ? and why they didn't make 164 k taps inside hugo ? it will sound better right ?

 

Hugo's 26k taps (a record accomplishment at the time, let alone in a portable dac) was all Rob had to deal with in both the small cramped real estate of the Hugo, and the then-current version of the Xilinx FPGAs. His DAVE project (164k taps) is an apples and oranges comparison.

 

I leave Hugo plugged in 24/7. It runs off many things in my system (Rendu via SPDIF, USB via WS1012 I7-3770S HQplayer and AO, USB or SPDIF or Toslink via Aries, USB via Aurender).

 

Why do you need a new battery?

[PT7]

I have to be ready to replace the Hugos' battery if they died . 1 year of bettery life that's not enough for me . they should put 2nd pair of battery in the box .where I can get one of these ....

Hugo sound very impressive :

[wisnon]

Thanks a lot Ted, for your response.

Sorry if I was a bit blunt and offensive again. I don't really intend to hurt you or anyone else here . But your references to Radiohead and other Pop Rock stuff was so completely irrelevant for me in the context of SOTA SQ, that I had to push you a bit to get you on some common ground so to say.

I find it interesting indeed to hear that Jared himself preferred HUGO in your system with his,and here I think we can rather safely state STATE OF THE ART for DSD 64 recording, of one of the greatest symphonies ever composed!

Now here we are really talking proper reference material!

One of my own references is his earlier Mahler 5 where I can compare directly from memory now of course ,but one full week of daily sessions with the BFO, to the final result both as released on SACD and DSD download.

Mahler's 9th was the first DSD recorded music I downloaded when I came back home again after my winter in Asia, and I have played it nearly 20 times in the past three weeks both via my electrostatic speakers with HUGO directly line out mode to my amp via preamp and also via my Benchmark DAC 2.

And also via my HD800 headphones.

Absolutely fantastic music equally well recorded imo. But some days I prefer it via Benchmark DAC 2 and other times I find the resolution provided by HUGO is more important to me than that it can sound a bit stressed at the powerful climaxes in the first movement, where my Benchmark never sounds harsh or stressed in the same way HUGO can. But unfortunately a bit softer and sweeter and duller than real as I know this orchestra in their hall.

The puzzling thing is that we all know that HUGO actually converts DSD to 32/384 pcm internally.And that Rob employs heavy filtering to get rid of the infamous DSD noise. And Exasound/ Benchmark and others propose to treat DSD natively.

Or don't they either?

Who really knows what happens inside those Sabre chips used in so many DACS?

Like you I think DSD 64 can sound fantastic and Jared's recordings are proof indeed of that fact.

But maybe just maybe DSD 128 or 256 or 512 have the potential to sound even better.

And Rob Watts made no secret to me of the fact that he prefers PCM over DSD. And not even DAVE will play DSD natively.

By the way why won't you review the TT?

According to both Rob Watts and John Franks it both measures AND sounds better than HUGO.

Cheers Chris

 

Actually, Hugo converts DSD first to 90mhz PCM - very high rates (2048FS). The other Dacs dont treat DSD completely natively, as they also employ some processing and likely pass via DSD-wide (multi-bit DSD is PCM like). Very few do LP Filtering like the Lampi with no additives nor preservatives (expect more in the future). Additionally, some like the Lampi have 2 different Dac engines in one box, so different signal paths and this adds to SQ.

 

ROB is a PCM centric for sure and does not think DSD native can sound good. I would LOVE to meet him in person and show him otherwise. He is a very nice guy, but I think he is very wrong on this point. Otherwise, I think he does good work and is an asset in Dac development land.

 

Let's see what Dave brings

[chrille]

Actually, Hugo converts DSD first to 90mhz PCM - very high rates (2048FS). The other Dacs dont treat DSD completely natively, as they also employ some processing and likely pass via DSD-wide (multi-bit DSD is PCM like). Very few do LP Filtering like the Lampi with no additives nor preservatives (expect more in the future). Additionally, some like the Lampi have 2 different Dac engines in one box, so different signal paths and this adds to SQ.

 

ROB is a PCM centric for sure and does not think DSD native can sound good. I would LOVE to meet him in person and show him otherwise. He is a very nice guy, but I think he is very wrong on this point. Otherwise, I think he does good work and is an asset in Dac development land.

 

Let's see what Dave brings

 

Thanks for clearing my misunderstanding regarding how HUGO converts DSD to PCM before outputting DSD.

What DAC and source material would you use to "show him otherwise"?

When I raised the question of native DSD from his then still xxxx project he said DSD could sound good yes. But PCM was according to him better at resolving soundstage depth. He claimed DSD sounded a bit flat in comparison to the best PCM.

quotes " Yes DSD can sound good but PCM is better"

"The new DSD filtering is better"

 

 

The only real native DSD I have heard is DSD raw from the Grimm.

But I suspect that one of my old SACD players, Xindak SCD-2, has some kind of early native DSD chip.

Interesting to hear though that Jared preferred HUGO over Exasound 28? in Ted's system with one of his own SOTA DSD 64 recordings.

In my systems via HD 800 headphones or electrostatic speakers HUGO can sometimes,sound a little bit "forced" "at full throttle" fff passages on large scale symphonic music.But still extemely open and realistic and resolving on everything between ppp and ff. Whereas my Benchmark DAC2 veers slightly on the softer ever so little, but still slightly sweeter side of neutral.

When a bit overtaxed it rather turns dull than harsh .

By the way the Benchmark DAC 2 uses different chips and paths for PCM and DSD if I understand things correctly?

I sometimes feel the absolute truth I heard live in the hall with some of my reference material, lies somewhere in between the two.

As you say: "Let's see what Dave brings"

Or the new NADAC. According to the first reaction from a mastering engineer who has access to some of the very best DACS both Pro and consumer units,and does not use Techno or simliar crap,for reference the NADAC could be THE new reference DAC at least until DAVE makes its entry on the scene.

[Norton]

I have to be ready to replace the Hugos' battery if they died . 1 year of bettery life that's not enough for me . they should put 2nd pair of battery in the box .where I can get one of these ....

Hugo sound very impressive :

 

Presumably if this was necessary, Chord would replace the batteries under the 3 year warranty? Even outside warranty, my experience of Chord is that they are able to maintain long out of production products at reasonable charges. One of the reasons I prefer to buy products from companies with well established factories and workforces.

[wisnon]

Thanks for clearing my misunderstanding regarding how HUGO converts DSD to PCM before outputting DSD.

What DAC and source material would you use to "show him otherwise"?

When I raised the question of native DSD from his then still xxxx project he said DSD could sound good yes. But PCM was according to him better at resolving soundstage depth. He claimed DSD sounded a bit flat in comparison to the best PCM.

quotes " Yes DSD can sound good but PCM is better"

"The new DSD filtering is better"

 

 

The only real native DSD I have heard is DSD raw from the Grimm.

But I suspect that one of my old SACD players, Xindak SCD-2, has some kind of early native DSD chip.

Interesting to hear though that Jared preferred HUGO over Exasound 28? in Ted's system with one of his own SOTA DSD 64 recordings.

In my systems via HD 800 headphones or electrostatic speakers HUGO can sometimes,sound a little bit "forced" "at full throttle" fff passages on large scale symphonic music.But still extemely open and realistic and resolving on everything between ppp and ff. Whereas my Benchmark DAC2 veers slightly on the softer ever so little, but still slightly sweeter side of neutral.

When a bit overtaxed it rather turns dull than harsh .

By the way the Benchmark DAC 2 uses different chips and paths for PCM and DSD if I understand things correctly?

I sometimes feel the absolute truth I heard live in the hall with some of my reference material, lies somewhere in between the two.

As you say: "Let's see what Dave brings"

Or the new NADAC. According to the first reaction from a mastering engineer who has access to some of the very best DACS both Pro and consumer units,and does not use Techno or simliar crap,for reference the NADAC could be THE new reference DAC at least until DAVE makes its entry on the scene.

 

Hi Chrille,

 

My info on the DSD Chord conversion comes from Rob himself from a seminal post months ago at Head-fi. I think I even copied an except of it here earlier n this very thread. Do a quick search for "2048FS".

 

I use a Lampi Big7 with "Dac chipless" DSD. Its an elaborate filter system that deals with DSD in the most native sense...low pass filtration. I find that the DSD signal is extremely susceptible to jitter and brute force handling is just plain wrong, if the aim is to extract maxx performance from DSD. FPGA tech so far is a no-no, either from Chord or Direct Stream (wait to see what DAVE will bring- I remain open). I like my DSD straight, not on the rocks or shaken/stirred. LoL

 

Rob is a great designer, but we part company here. However, based on what you said, it seems he may have slightly softened his position on DSD since I communicated with him more than 6 months ago. Recall that I still own a Qute EX with external LPSU. The B7 Lampi is way better, but is way more expensive. The Lampi DSD only (level 4) is one I owned before and that too was way better than the Qute at DSD and quite close to the B7. Brown Brown of Puget Sound owns a balanced Level 4 Lampi DSD-only and wrote a gushing review of it at StereoMojo and seems to want to try the Balanced Golden Gate DSD only flagship (Bugatti parts inside).

 

The Golden Gate and the Big7 use DHT output tubes like 300b, 2A3, 101d, 6A3 and 45 tiodes. They also take a big bottle 5v rectifier tube. SoTA DSD in my book.

 

The Exa Dac was not broken in, I think, so not sure how to take that prefernce. I have heard good things about Exa DSD, so I would look for more extenuating circumstances before drawing final conclusions.

 

Finally, I heard through the grapevine that the NADAC sounds great and will be very popular. The Dave should be a killer too, if we base it just on the spec sheet. Good to see that quality choices are multiplying out there and Digital closes the gap on analog.

[ted_b]

I like my DSD straight, not on the rocks or shaken/stirred. LoL

 

 

Norman, your best post yet. Rob has some of our NativeDSD files and has a unique approach to DSD in the DAVE. We'll see how it responds. In the meantime, I would love to get a Lampi in here that does not react like the early ones. I respect your ears and want to hear Lampi DSD. I have heard what chipless DSD can potentially sound like and I'm quite enamored.

[wisnon]

Norman, your best post yet. Rob has some of our NativeDSD files and has a unique approach to DSD in the DAVE. We'll see how it responds. In the meantime, I would love to get a Lampi in here that does not react like the early ones. I respect your ears and want to hear Lampi DSD. I have heard what chipless DSD can potentially sound like and I'm quite enamored.

 

 

Ted, reach out to Rob. You know you and he hit it off well when you met, so he should be willing to go the extra mile to help you out.

 

Try to get any DHT version for demo, at least a Lite 7, as those big bottles love DSD. Besides, tube roilling is the way to maxx out the DHT Dacs. There is now a craze for the NOS GE/RCA JAN 5R4GY recti and for the Elrog300b, Psvane WE replica 101d and the mesh plate EML 45 (plus the almost unobtanium anniversary Globe). the combo of recti and DHTs can dramatically alter the presentation and synergize better with the rest of your audio chain.

 

I am eager to see what Rob has in store for DAVE, as I am sure its years in the making! October is a Loooong wait though.

[jabbr]

Well, again, disagree on Radiohead sq. Everything they've done starting with Amnesiac is good quality redbook (Kid A, OK Computer and The Bends are quality songwriting but average at best sq).. In fact, Hail To The Thief won a Grammy for best engineered album. The 24/44 of Limbs is a very good rendition.

 

+1 ... in fact the regen & optical & hqplayer upsampling have done a particularly great job with Radiohead ... The SQ is mesmerizing

[audio.bill]

There has been very little I could find comparing the sound of the new Hugo TT to the original Hugo, but I just found these comments which were posted earlier today.

[ted_b]

There has been very little I could find comparing the sound of the new Hugo TT to the original Hugo, but I just found these comments which were posted earlier today.

 

Sorry but everything he attributes to the TT could simply be going direct to amp vs his Hugo setup (which goes through his preamp cuz he didn't like direct when he first tried it with the Hugo). Not an a/b I would do. YMMV.

[Rexp]

Sorry but everything he attributes to the TT could simply be going direct to amp vs his Hugo setup (which goes through his preamp cuz he didn't like direct when he first tried it with the Hugo). Not an a/b I would do. YMMV.

I finally got to try the Hugo yesterday with my Sony Z3c phone using Tidal Flac 16/44.1 into headphones and I gotta say I preferred sound from my phone to the Hugo which sounded more detailed but rather too reserved in comparison. Maybe USB is not the best input to use on the Hugo?

[skatbelt]

Not sure if this on topic but I would like to share an experience. This week I tried the coaxial SPDIF input on my Hugo, fed by the Berkeley alpha USB converter and a Chord Anthem digital array digital cable. Somewhere I read that this input is preferred over the hi-speed USB because the latter has no galvanic isolation. My experience however is that I get much better results with USB. May be this is because I use a very good USB cable (Transparent Premium) or because of the shorter chain. For honest comparison I used 192khz as the maximum for upsampling because the BADA is only capable up to 192/24. Anyone else did a comparison like this?

[MikeJazz]

Well, again, disagree on Radiohead sq. Everything they've done starting with Amnesiac is good quality redbook (Kid A, OK Computer and The Bends are quality songwriting but average at best sq).. In fact, Hail To The Thief won a Grammy for best engineered album. The 24/44 of Limbs is a very good rendition.

 

Agreed.

We should adapt slightly our conception of sound quality on music such as Radiohead.

Probably the mix clarity is more important than total dynamic range.

Impact and mixing "inovation" is far more important to them than a natural sound stage.

 

Producers are part of the creative process and usually look for a special/specific sound for the band or even the album.

 

So rules for assessing sound quality on Radiohead must clearly be different than the ones applied on a Patricia Barber album.

 

Considering all this, most Radiohead albums are very well produced and effective in communicating the musical concepts.