Article: My Quest for a New DAC, Part 5: Chord Electronics Hugo M Scaler & Hugo TT 2

[ted_b]

Rajiv,

As others have already said, this review (and the review cycle in general) is a model for what audio reviews should include.  It is also gave me, personally, a real benchmark for any additional reviews I would do in the future (when my system is back up).  As some may know, I have reviewed (very positively) Chord products in the past, have a good relationship with Rob Watts, yet have not listened to their offerings in a couple years.  This review got my Chord-ism rekindled.   

 

Regarding the M Scaler vs HQP, I am VERY interested in someone doing some relatively equivalent comparisons.  Whereas I trust Rob's heightened approach to "temporal coherence" and his focus on noise floor modulation, I also respect Jussi's software-based approaches to filters, modulators and letting the DAC do as little heavy lifting as possible, given the price/performance of massive hardware/software vs the $5 upsampling chips in most dacs.  The relevance of a comparison between these two SOTA approaches (M Scaler and HQP) seems to be a no-brainer.  Anyone?

 

Net/net, great job Rajiv.  You've raised the bar.

[ted_b]

Just now, TheAttorney said:

 

I have used (and still have) HQP on laptop to drive my portable iFi iDSD DAC/amp.

 

Thanks.  Although I respect your opinion, I have to say that I don't think HQP was being used to anywhere its fullest here.  Why?  Twofold (at least):

1) the iFi dac does not get out of the way, entirely.  That is to say, it is not an NOS dac, nor has an NOS setting (to my knowledge) so the full extent of HQP's upsampling to one's sweetspot is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. 

2) HQP on a laptop does not represent anywhere near a fair fight against HMS!    My HQP i6700k server environment is tweaked to the max, with some very heavy lifting occurring.  And we have not begun to discuss any possible advantages of an NAA in this comparison. 

 

My comments about a comparison between HQP and HMS rely heavily on the reviewer doing a complete, i.e all-in, comparison..taking full advantage of each "upsampler" architecture.  As I like to say in a baseball analogy, the goal is to get the batter out; not comparing just speed:  Nolan Ryan's fastball to Greg Maddox's off speed stuff.  Ryan wins every time.  This likely means two different signal paths, with HQP on a robust server talking to an NOS-style dac, while HMS runs dual BNC to a Chord dac of similar pedigree (read: total price?).  This is less an experiment (more than one variable) than it is a comparison of two upsampling approaches.  The TT2/HMS solution in one column, the HQP/server/NAA (if needed)/NOS dac in the other column. 

[ted_b]

The PCM layer of an SACD is red book only. What discs have better redbook layers than their 64x DSD masters?  Those must be a mess (assuming a credible DSD converter). 

[ted_b]

2 hours ago, ankur625 said:

Imho tt2 and HMS combo driven with 12v ups batteries and 3-4 ferrited BNC cables beats any dac combo on earth, it's so clean and realistic. There are much more details, depth and realism that it is difficult to believe that it is not a live performance.

Ankur625, what dac combos are you comparing this to (i.e which ones have you experienced)?  And how does this combo do with DSD-based material, esp DSD256 recordings?  I love Chords stuff, and have documented my awe of Rob and his thought process.  But I've always felt his stuff doesn't do DSD justice like some other dacs.  My $.02..I haven't heard the TT2/HMS.

[ted_b]

Leave clocks on all the time....and when first powering up (initial setup, power blackout interruptions,etc) expect thermal equilibrium will take 24 hrs (most likely won't).