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Chord Hugo, overrated or DAC of the century

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.
No thread crapping involved Ali.
My reply to Simon was using the exact words you used in many posts last year.
IE, It can't sound better because it doesn't have a Din socket and uses a battery.
And regarding Naim wannabe?
I have 8 Naim boxes plus Naim SL2s and 40m of Naim NACA5 in my main system.
 
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.
Gary a little over 2 grand will buy that great sounding digital jukebox.
I had a CD5X and Flatcap 2x just after they came out.
Sold both a short while later after hearing what the then new Lavry DA10 and a MacBook could do when SteveS1 and Peter from Igloo came round for a great day of music.
LP12 is still my main source but digital is catching up.
 
Barry,

I hear ya, man, but your comment suggested your speakers might be in a nearby city.

Joe
 
OK Barry but can we move on from last year?

I am honestly looking forward to purchasing the Qute Hugo without hearing it.

If it is really a giant (NDS CD 555 or KDS) killer then why not?
 
It's a very good DAC. You won't be disappointed I'm sure. Personally for red book I prefer a 555 but that's just me.
 
Analogmusic, I look forward to your comments and feedback if you do purchase. I found the Hugo needed a few days constantly operating from new to stabilise its performance .. But there after works great, whether PSU connected or on batteries (unless the batteries are near exhausted I can hear absolutely no difference between these two modes).
I use Naim Hiline audio interconnects and use either Gotham or Naim DC1 SPDIF interconnecs
Simon
 
I've heard a friend's Exasound E22 using the Sabre DACs but haven't done a head-to-head with my Hugo. Gonna do so tomorrow when (if) I get the E28.

My impressions are that the Sabres are super-duper clean and precise.

Its not what you would get with the Hugo.

The Hugo essentially tries to replicate an analog sound. It was interesting when I gave my impressions of how the Hugo made a poor analog recording sound pleasing to Rob Watts, the designer. He mentioned he mostly listens to Radio 3's mono recordings. And he basically tries to make a DAC that gives the most analog sound. Or musicality.

The Exasound is a bit analytical.

I think they are both good, but depends on material.

The Sabre looks to be the pinnacle of current DAC technology.

The Hugo takes a different approach. Its all about time discrimination. Its somewhat similiar to Meridian's take on pre-ringing although Rob will probably splutter if he knows I reference it as such!

The Hugo tries to fill in the temporal gaps in digitally sampled sound. The theory comes from the fact that human hearing has a time discrimination of 0.04ms (I may have gotten the units muddled up). While there's a lot of argument about audible frequency etc, Rob is looking at how closely spaced, or spread out a bunch of sounds need to be to sound natural.

44.1Khz I think is works out to be around 0.2ms. So while we may hear all the 20Hx to 20khz range, (there's some dispute to how ultrasonics and subsonics interact with our hearing of the "audible" bit), our ears can tell the gaps between the samples and perceive that as being unnatural.

The Hugo tries to fill in these gaps with its propietary algorithm to make sampled sound more natural. And it applies to all resolution.

And while high res stuff certainly has that temporal information, Rob was really trying to make 16/44 sound good.

Why? Because there's more music in 16/44.

At the end of the day, you may have great kit. But its got to play stuff you enjoy.

Did you manage to compare Exasound and Hugo? What did you think?
 
Hi Simon

I would rather post a more detailed reply here than the other forum.

Yes the hugo is a very good source for the money and I heard all the things you have been talking about in terms of textures and additional detail.

I feel that this needs quite a resolving system, I know we say source first but now I feel more comfortable aspiring to a 282.

For the cash I am very pleased with the results and am really enjoying music played on it.

I had some concerns about my preamp, and speakers, but seems the Hugo has resolved all of them.

The learning is that good hi fi doesn't need to cost the price of a car, and I feel a sense of relief that I have arrived at a place where I can be happy for some time, and not have to spend tons of money at a top level Naim or Linn source.

My system now sounds similar to some very well tweaked kit I have heard at some friends homes. Again having heard my dealer naim setups, I would say that system balance is the key. I have heard a stunning UQ2 with PMC Db1 gold speakers and I have also heard a Linn DS Klimax renew all active system, of course the linn can do things the other cannot, but both were very enjoyable to me.

And I feel my system has now become enjoyable.

Not sure why, but when I plug in DAC v1 into NAP 200 it sounds good, but somehow into 202/HCDR I had some reservations. Maybe having 2 naim preamps in the chain (V1 and 202) isn't the best use of the V1.

Anyway as I said I find a sense of relief as I simply was not prepared to invest in an XPS DR or 555DR with an NDX/NDAC or NDS or a Linn DS Klimax.

I am not saying that the Hugo is at that level, I'm only saying it has now put into place the system balance that was needed.



Analogmusic, I look forward to your comments and feedback if you do purchase. I found the Hugo needed a few days constantly operating from new to stabilise its performance .. But there after works great, whether PSU connected or on batteries (unless the batteries are near exhausted I can hear absolutely no difference between these two modes).
I use Naim Hiline audio interconnects and use either Gotham or Naim DC1 SPDIF interconnecs
Simon
 
after spending some weeks with the Chord Hugo, I find it to be uniquely musical, similar to live music and immensely enjoyable. My biggest problem with the Hugo will be this. Once I start listening to it, I don't want to switch it off and hours pass by. I am not getting enough sleep now !

This is a true game changer for people like me who love music. We are lucky that Rob Watts understands music as well as his huge expertise in technology.

I would high recommend the Hugo to anyone who wants to get closer to a live performance in terms of enjoyment and musicality.

It is my best hi-fi purchase ever made.
 
after spending some weeks with the Chord Hugo, I find it to be uniquely musical, similar to live music and immensely enjoyable. My biggest problem with the Hugo will be this. Once I start listening to it, I don't want to switch it off and hours pass by. I am not getting enough sleep now !

This is a true game changer for people like me who love music. We are lucky that Rob Watts understands music as well as his huge expertise in technology.

I would high recommend the Hugo to anyone who wants to get closer to a live performance in terms of enjoyment and musicality.

It is my best hi-fi purchase ever made.

I'm very happy you got there in the end.

It's a superb, even stunning product, and actually pretty difficult for Chord to follow-up on, even with the 2Qute in terms of sales etc., let alone bettering the performance. I'm looking forward to hearing the Hugo TT and DAVE by comparison, more suited to using active ATCs.

All the best,
Peter
 
My problem is the price. It sounds great, but it's roughly what I wanted to spend on headphones + headphone amp + DAC together :(
 
I will weigh in here: having listened to Chord's Hugo and exaSound e22 sound by side on NUMEROUS occasions for extended periods of time:

Its not that one is "better" than the other, but rather what I find to be more pleasing to my ears and of equal importance in the context of my system:

Bel Canto S300 integrated amplifier, Audio Physic Tempo speakers - the playback/source a Mac Mini running Audirvana Plus

I prefer the exaSound and have no reservations about the purchase. Would i pay good money for the Chord Hugo... NO!!!! but that is what makes this hobby/pastime/obsession so much fun. We all have different viewpoints/perspective/ears.

And as I noted in earlier threads about my exaSound purchase last year, the fact that it is so AMAZING (to my ears) and is capable of 110/220 auto switching simply sealed the deal. That being said so many more DACs have come on the market since my purchase, but i have no reason to switch, am enjoying the music far too much. :)

PS, Loky, stop by with your Hugo over here, I got a ton more music for us to listen to.
 
after spending some weeks with the Chord Hugo, I find it to be uniquely musical, similar to live music and immensely enjoyable. My biggest problem with the Hugo will be this. Once I start listening to it, I don't want to switch it off and hours pass by. I am not getting enough sleep now !

This is a true game changer for people like me who love music. We are lucky that Rob Watts understands music as well as his huge expertise in technology.

I would high recommend the Hugo to anyone who wants to get closer to a live performance in terms of enjoyment and musicality.

It is my best hi-fi purchase ever made.

I agree totally, it is an absolutely outstanding DAC. Still sometimes can't quite believe how wonderful my music is sounding through it.
 
In terms of sound quality, is the Hugo any different to the 2Qute? Anyone heard them both?

I've compared both via the ATC SCA2 preamp into ATC active 40's and overall I felt they sounded pretty much the same. I was using the Auralic Aries bridge/streamer via USB to the Hugo and the Mac Mini via USB to the 2Qute, so it was a near fast A/B with tracks in close sync.

What HIFI has just given the 2Qute 5 stars in a rave review btw.

Regards,
Peter
 


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