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

[seeteeyou]

I read page 26 and found this

 

https://www.mcintoshlabs.com/-/media/Files/mcintoshlabs/DocumentMaster/us/d1100om01.ashx

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Coaxial, Optical and AES/EBU: 44.1kHz to 192kHz, 24-Bit

 

768kHz = 1.0 million taps

384kHz = 1/2 million taps

192kHz = 1/4 million taps

 

There's a dedicated single S/PDIF output for non-Chord DACs so that even 250,000 taps would be quite a bit more when compared to those 164,000 taps from DAVE. However, the isolation on DAVE's SPDIF inputs might seem to suck pretty bad and that's why even Toslink with 0 scaling could actually beat single BNC with 1/2 million taps

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-dave.766517/page-735#post-14204373

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The Toslink cable supplied with the Dave goes from the convertor to the Dave. All upsampling is turned off, so it’s just plain vanilla Red Book into the Dave. It sounds glorious and much better than BNC Blu 2 to Dave.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-dave.766517/page-735#post-14204513

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Let me clarify: it sounds better than the single BNC output from Blu 2 into Dave. As regards the dual BNC output into Dave, that gives greater detail, depth and soundstage. Unfortunately, it also adds a metallic sheen, like a false additive, which I find unacceptable.

 

While DX amps should be at least years away, it might still make sense to get HMS for now and see what's next

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-qutest-dac-official-thread.869417/page-9#post-13968886

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So the DX amps are just DAC's, exactly the same as existing pulse array DAC's - but with very high power OP stages, and a very clever power supply arrangement (don't ask!).

 

Let's say HMS itself could be connected to DX amps directly while we do need something that's even more powerful than the single-ended outputs (i.e. more transparent / less powerful than balanced ones) of TT 2, then it might be a good idea to live with "only" 1/4 million taps for those of us who own non-Chord DACs.

 

(OTOH, volume control could be a concern if DX amps weren't providing any of that.)

 

Of course we still couldn't tell how much DX amps would cost in the future, though that might be (much?) cheaper when compared to some monsters like $18K Mass Kobo 406 or $15K Headtrip Reference

 

https://audiobacon.net/2018/02/15/wells-audio-headtrip-reference-headphone-amplifier-15000-musical-indulgence/

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Basically, better in every way. I even feel that it sounds more transparent (gasp).

 

Finally there's also DAVINA down the road with USB output, that's why I'm not spending anything on Chord products in the (near) future.

[seeteeyou]

Last month I got a chance to audition the following setup for only a few hours, IIRC it should be fairly close to the gears mentioned in Rajiv's fantastic review as well as Roy's NUC + SOtM + Habst + Chord combo at home

 

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/the-best-usb-network-gadget-setup-i-have-auditioned-in-2018-sotm-cybershaft-uptone.27025/

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/page/402/?tab=comments#comment-890477

 

I didn't get all the details (not much time that morning) but the chain should include these items

 

sNH-10G with sCLK-EX (still awaiting arrival of an additional 50Ω Habst)

Stock NUC

Lush^2 USB Audio Cable

tX-USBultra + 50Ω Habst

Cybershaft Limited2 OP20

Intona Ultimate USB Audio Cable

Chord Blu2 / HMS (switching back and forth)

A pair of 75Ω Habst

Chord DAVE

 

Despite all the bells and whistles, simply disconnecting 50Ω Habst from tX-USBultra resulted in a significant difference that's immediately noticeable. Everything felt kinda flat / compressed / pushed down etc. as if the singer were suffering from food and sleep deprivation. In a nutshell it's pretty much like what I was reading here

 

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/page/123/?tab=comments#comment-697065

 

I couldn't tell a difference between Blu2 and HMS myself, though vibration control seemed to help when we're putting HMS to the test. I also suggested that we might wanna try double stacking Blu2 + HMS but basically we're running outta time.

 

Since it's such a revealing setup, I brought my own DELA D10 and got ripped thanks to its heavyweight

 

https://global.rakuten.com/en/store/digitalside/item/dela-d10/

 

Not exactly sure why, but for some reasons USB-connected (DELA D10 with Pioneer BDR-209M) flavor sounded more relaxing to me while I felt somewhat stressful when I was listening to the same track that's ripped by SATA-connected Pioneer BDR-S11J-X with vibration control from Paul Pang Audio.

 

In the end it's just a matter of personal preferences, somehow the USB route seemed to be more "polished" while the SATA counterpart might be "raw" in comparison. In other words, neither one was better but we could actually hear the difference.

 

We're also planning to disconnect both tX-USBultra and Cybershaft in order to add them between DELA D10 and the ripping PC, though once again we didn't get enough time to give that a shot. In retrospect we couldn't even rip any tracks successfully (dBpoweramp was showing error with AccurateRip and all ripped tracks turned out to be unplayable) with Vertere Pulse-HB USB cable during the first try, therefore we'll have to sort things out next time.

 

The listening part was so taxing for sure, though it's lots of fun for a headphone guy like me to experience a speaker setup with ToTL gears.