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Chord Hugo, overrated or DAC of the century

Yomanze said:
Marketing always tries to overrate something, to make it stand out, and thus for the price of the Chord Hugo there is some cottage industry dude somewhere that will kill it for the same money if not for looks, flexibility and brand. This doesn't mean the Hugo isn't an excellent DAC and ideal for peoples' wants, but at £1400 this shifts it into some very very serious competition from a purely sonic perspective.
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Have you heard one?

Chord seem to me to have spent virtually nothing on marketing; the enthusiasm for the Hugo has been generated mostly by it's owners, and the willingness of it's designer, Rob Watt, to engage with users on the Head Fi forum.

Would be very interested to hear of a cottage industry dude with a better product, or anything at a similar price that's better.
 
batleys said:
I agree it's about the musical enjoyment at the end of the day. Last year I bought a Hugo, and was so pleased with it I sold my Naim DAC and 555PS which I had previously preferred over an Naim NDS/555Ps and used the Hugo as my main system DAC.
A year on I am still immensely enjoying it.. It gets me closer to my music. Sure, I am confident there are better DACs out there, but for me on my system it gives me (when the recording allows) that hair tingly performance in a small, affordable and mostly convienience design.
If I am honest, I also like how it's designer talks about it on various web forums..
Simon
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Simon,
It can't be better It doesn't have a Din socket and runs off a battery .:D
 
Barry, well the Hugo design certainly challenges a few standards, and as you imply not least the PSU. Don't get me wrong I am fond of Naim, and use Naim amplification, but I found that little Hugo really just did it for me in a way I had not experienced in other DACs I had owned or auditioned.
Simon
 
eelmaster said:
Have you actually heard one?

Many who have (myself included) would say that it does indeed compete with some "very serious competition from a sonic perspective".

Do you know of any "cottage industry dude" produced DACs that are better at the same price or is this just surmising? I'd be interested to know if you have (this is not meant facetiously by the way).
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The cottage industry dudes often survive because they lash something together for peanuts, that sounds half decent but looks like it came from a Calcutta bicycle repair shop. Then a dealer will take it, present it to his customers with shamanistic ritual and sell it for a breathtaking margin, with a breathtaking price tag to the new believers. The maker can now buy himself a new Skoda and the dealer can get himself a bit nicer.
 
analogmusic said:
Barry Williams stop crapping on threads and stop trolling here.

you seem to be a Naim wannabe to me. Somebody who doesn't own any naim kit but wants to talk about it. Keep it up.
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I'd get your facts right before spouting off.

Also, the Hugo is a better digital source than anything Naim currently produce. Try one & you'll see.
 
Oh FFS, this is a relatively inexpensive and well designed DAC. If the OP was seriously interested he would have tried one by now. Even if you buy and move one on, you won't lose much. Jeeze, try one or move on to a topic more worthy of all this ****ing.
 
Suffolk Tony said:
I'd get your facts right before spouting off.

Also, the Hugo is a better digital source than anything Naim currently produce. Try one & you'll see.
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Honnestly, Hugo has a wow effect (and a great VFM as a lot of new generation dac). It is really good and I sold my ndac 555PS to take it. I wanted to try and needed some cash at the time, but when I received it, it was not better. With hugo you have plenty of details, good dynamic but in terms of instruments weight and swing you are so far from a ndac with a power supply.
They were fed by a top of the league I7 mac mini (os customised, audirvanna, mmk, ps, sd card, nas direct on mac...) ap2 pp and decend cables.
When financial situation was beter I took back a ndac with a xps2. Again I find Ndac xps2 a much better overall experience, better balanced, not more bass but heavier and natural, also slightly less harsh.
Bare Ndac may lack of detail (it gets better with ps), but music to my ears isn't just a question of information.
In a sense I can agree with you on better digital source than naim, where naim brings me more analogic charm.
 
PierciT said:
Honnestly, Hugo has a wow effect (and a great VFM as a lot of new generation dac). It is really good and I sold my ndac 555PS to take it. I wanted to try and needed some cash at the time, but when I received it, it was not better. With hugo you have plenty of details, good dynamic but in terms of instruments weight and swing you are so far from a ndac with a power supply.
They were fed by a top of the league I7 mac mini (os customised, audirvanna, mmk, ps, sd card, nas direct on mac...) ap2 pp and decend cables.
When financial situation was beter I took back a ndac with a xps2. Again I find Ndac xps2 a much better overall experience, better balanced, not more bass but heavier and natural, also slightly less harsh.
Bare Ndac may lack of detail (it gets better with ps), but music to my ears isn't just a question of information.
In a sense I can agree with you on better digital source than naim, where naim brings me more analogic charm.
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I can pretty much agree with that after my two trials of the Hugo. For me it didn't even better a CD5/FC2X, let alone some of Naim's finer devices.
 
Mongeddavid said:
How much was that combo new?
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Not relevant really as the Hugo is being touted as better than CD555's. If you really want to talk prices then how much is a Hugo, a Mac Mini and a Nas? Say near £3K. When new the CD player was still less than that and i still prefer the CD player. Now if you want to talk how much you could buy a CD5/FC2X for now, we are talking £650.
 
Never heard that particular combo and Naim is not really my thing from the few systems I have heard. As with everything systems synergy , room interactions and most of all personal preference will determine what you find better. HiFi really boils down to this as you are no doubt aware. I have heard some mega bucks systems that have done nothing for me ( and some that do ). I have found the HUGO so far very good and more flexible than my previous DAC not to mention dropping the box count from 6 to 2 for digital replay. It also sounds darn fine and i do believe it is competitive at its price from the DACs that I have heard.
 
AndyU said:
Have you heard one?

Chord seem to me to have spent virtually nothing on marketing; the enthusiasm for the Hugo has been generated mostly by it's owners, and the willingness of it's designer, Rob Watt, to engage with users on the Head Fi forum.

Would be very interested to hear of a cottage industry dude with a better product, or anything at a similar price that's better.
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At this budget & given the huge flexibility / headphone output of the Hugo I would be interested in:

http://www.tentlabs.com/page40/b-DAC_plus/b-DAC_plus.html - € 1238,84 excl. VAT
 
gary yeowell said:
Not relevant really as the Hugo is being touted as better than CD555's. If you really want to talk prices then how much is a Hugo, a Mac Mini and a Nas? Say near £3K. When new the CD player was still less than that and i still prefer the CD player. Now if you want to talk how much you could buy a CD5/FC2X for now, we are talking £650.
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I guess it's down to personal taste and the synergy (or lack of) in one's own system.

When I tried the QBD76 in my system I had no intention of getting shot of my trusty 555, but after extensive listening over many days I realised the Chord was better & I wanted to listen to it rather than the 555. It majors on all the things I like about the Naim sound with the convenience of streaming.
 
I agree Tony, the Hugo does seem to have a great synergy with Naim amplification, and strangely betters in terms of my musical enjoyment anything that Naim has in its digital source portfolio currently.. The better the Naim amp the more the Hugo seems to shine (probably stands to reason) .. Though I have yet to hear it with the Statement .....

I agree with SteveS1's earlier comment, the OP should get one, and if they don't like it then sell it on. (They seem quite rare and get a good price used on eBay) Relatively speaking for this hobby the Hugo is not that expensive.
Simon
 
Suffolk Tony said:
I guess it's down to personal taste and the synergy (or lack of) in one's own system.

When I tried the QBD76 in my system I had no intention of getting shot of my trusty 555, but after extensive listening over many days I realised the Chord was better & I wanted to listen to it rather than the 555. It majors on all the things I like about the Naim sound with the convenience of streaming.
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Tony,
I know three people that tried selling there CD555s a few months ago after hearing the Hugo and MacMini WD 8TB R drive in there systems.
They are stuck with them because they just don't sell.
The 555psu's fly out but people just don't want the head units now at £6 grand a pop.
Same with the NDS and NDX but they still sell and one does not loose to much money.
 
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