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

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Excellent review, Rajiv.

 

As an owner of both M Scaler and TT2 I was particularly interested in your comments on use of the SR7.  I was not surprised by your findings with the TT2 given the role of the super-capacitors but was interested to learn how important running the SR7 at 15V was to getting a significant bump in performance with the M Scaler.  You didn't mention so I guess you did not try the SR4 used elsewhere in your chain, but from your experience would you hazard a guess that it (the 5V-12V version) probably wouldn't deliver a significant improvement over the supplied smps?  I wonder if the 9V-19V version might be a better bet, but probably too soon for anyone to be able to try that.

 

Also, I take from your equipment list that you used the Cardas Clear with the M Scaler's smps.  If that was the case, did you notice an appreciable difference compared to the supplied power cable?  I'm wondering if this would be a better and cheaper way for many to further raise the M Scaler's performance.

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2 hours ago, austinpop said:

No, actually I used the supplied power cable. The SMPS for the HMS and TT2 has a 2-pin C7 input, and all my power cables are the standard IEC. Good question - hard to say.

Yes, I imagine most of us have few if any good C8 cables to try. 

 

The purists will scoff at use of such cheap adapters but I found this £6 investment to be worthwhile - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07BRTN7YZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I’ve yet to listen critically with this adapter but I already know from a quick tryout while changing things around in comparing different bnc cables that there are differences to be heard with the M Scaler’s smps.

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I would encourage those who get or who audition a TT 2 to also experiment with the Lo- and Hi-Gain settings using their preferred headphones.  

 

With my analytical and highly revealing Focal Utopia/Prion4 combo I can clearly hear a difference between Lo- and Hi-gain, with both Amp and DAC setting.  For me, Lo-Gain is a little lighter, more open and transparent, while Hi-Gain delivers a slightly darker, fuller and more solid sound.  These differences are less clear on my warmer HE1000v2/Lazuli Reference combo.

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15 hours ago, austinpop said:

I checked with Rob about what this setting does. His words:

Lo gain and hi gain just involves a relay contact - with the relay open, it defaults to hi gain; with the relay closed a resistor is placed in parallel to the feedback resistor. I do not expect this to make any significant difference to the SQ.

No guarantees a difference will be heard by those trying this, let alone a significant difference.  These are not night and day differences by any means.

 

I would expect the level of significance to diminish, and perhaps preference to change, with warmer headphone/cable combos and with higher crossfeed and warmer filter settings (I might be wrong but I've gained the impression from reading Rob's posts over the last 2-3 years that he likes neutral to warm headphones, crossfeed set to 3, and green filter).  The difference was significant enough for me to clearly prefer Hi-Gain with both my Utopia and HE1000v2 headphones on crossfeed 0 or 1 and with the analytical filter.  I was less certain what setting I preferred with the Meze Empyrean I had on loan, which I felt benefited at times from the slightly more open and transparent, but leaner, Lo-Gain setting.

 

I first mentioned the differences I was hearing between Lo- and Hi-Gain settings on Head-fi back in October.  One or two others subsequently agreed that they were hearing the same.