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

[Norton]

Thank you for a great piece  Rajiv.  I’ve read few (any?) other reviews that give such a comprehensible impression as to what something sounds like.  I was struck by your comments about being able to maintain focus,  if you so chose,  on a particular instrument throughout a large-scale piece.  This is something I’ve also noticed, but via a very different approach to digital audio, with the inexpensive EC designs transport and DAC I’ve been using in the last month. I have a suspicion the ECD UPL might be a great optical  source for Chord  DACs or the HMS.

 

Going  shopping for a DAC and  ending up with a DAC, HP amp and something else unplanned is par for the course in this hobby.  Looking for a phono stage or simply getting my power amp serviced proved particularly  expensive in “knock  on” purchases in my case.

 

A DAC 64 and then ( 10 years later) Hugo were my first  “serious” DACs and Chord don’t seem to have put a foot wrong in recent years.  I’m intrigued by the M Scaler though and what it is doing that can’t be replicated by a pc running HQP etc, although my own experience with HQP has been a little underwhelming compared to what others report.  Maybe the HMS dual wire spdif output  has something to do with it?  On the one hand a cynic might say this is to lock the user into the Chord ecosystem, on the other hand it limits in turn  the likely use of (and sales) of the HMS outside of (some) Chord DACs. Why no USB output for example?

 

Enjoy your new purchases.  Looking forward to your big HP review.