Chord Hugo 2

Agree here completely. Have to admit that I got swallowed up by the Mojo hype-train and used it for quite a while in my portable stack. It worked better with a good portable amp, specifically the ALO CV5, but then when paired with the AK100 source the three-piece AK/Mojo/ALO stack was more of a brick (remember the old "luggable" PCs?). Then I heard the Sony NW-WM1Z and the stack has been sitting on the bench since. For desktop use, the Holo Spring (mine's the L3) is clearly superior than the Mojo, and I never liked the Hugo's (V1 or TT, haven't heard the V2). The addition of the Singxer SU-1 to run the Holo via I2S helped as well. As Marvey said, I know I'm lucky to afford this gear (and the Cavalli LAu that drives my desktop set) - it's an embarrassment of gear in many ways. When I do suggest desktop stacks to my friends who either don't have or don't want to spend as much $ I almost always recommend one of the Schiit MB's for DAC duty - either the Gungnir or Bifrost. Really can't beat them pound-for-pound in my experience.

 

Re #2 What a load! But you are entitled to your opinion since this is your site.

All Hail, the magnificent OZ

For another view:
I am, therefore, full of shit, have bad ears, and use mediocre dacs like Schitt Multibit Gungnir, Metrum Musette, Matrix, Lavry, Apogee, Benchmark and other Schiit dacs with and without deeffifieers.

I prefer the Mojo in my speaker based setup and in HP setup. Is it perfect, f**k no, nothing is.

 

Not sure who you're asking.

If it's me, there's no Chord DAC that I've heard at this point that I would buy over Yggdrasil or, at least right now, over Gungnir MB either.

I don't see Hugo 2 changing that.

 

From a different perspective, I was chatting with a friend of mine in the UK that say's he received his Hugo 2. He wants it for his commute (via train), so is looking at it as a (trans)portable unit primarily. His initial comparison is to his Sony WM1Z ... and the highlights of that brief discussion would be his comments to the effect of:

• Well, it (Hugo 2) plays louder.
• So far, the battery life sucks.
• It isn't any lighter.
• I like "Mojo-mode" the best so far, so maybe I should just get a Mojo instead.
• I think I like the Sony better.

Again, his comments not mine - I just removed the profanity and captured the highlights.

 

Great post.

Yeah I love my Chord Mojo with my ie800s (lol two things a lot of people here don't like). I use it in my pocket on the go. I could tell without too much time that Mojo isn't as resolving as the Bifrost multibit, but it has a very nice smoothness that I appreciate when I'm on the go anyway, and not as easily able to listen to the really minute details. It's also definitely lighter on bass than all my other dacs I have/had. That's fine for me with the ie800s though.

But I thought it was just awful with my HD800s and ZMF Atticus both as a dac/amp and as a dac. Getting a real desktop dac was a huge improvement.

Yeah right...

As someone who owns one that's total bull. I do like my Mojo, but it's not some perfect device, and it's value for the money is questionable. I mainly got it to see what the big deal was and was not liking my Oppo HA-2s sound signature. It's certainly not a shitty dac, but it may not be great for the price. Idk for me those Black iDSD's are way to big to actually count as portable, but they do sound good.

If you're looking for a desktop set up I agree with Torq that Yggdrasil is almost certainly the better bet. I've been having the same decision and crossed out Hugo 2. The Holo Spring Dac L3 was the only other real competitor with Yggdrasil but doesn't make sense for my purposes.

 

In some weird reverse karmic twist, the universe has rewarded (rather than punished) my sarcastic post in that other thread. A Hugo 2 just landed at my local dealer. I will try to arrange a quick listen to it this week. Will be sure to include the packaging and instruction manual in any review

I can also do a more extended audition over a few days (and compare it in "DAC mode" vs Yggdrasil SE output), although this would probably involve, at least, a very hefty deposit on my credit card...

Maybe my true punishment will be listening to the thing, although the impressions I get from others' comments on Hugo 1 are more 'meh' than 'aargh'. I should add that I have not heard any Chord gear myself, although so far I generally prefer good R2R DACs (either OS or NOS) to any delta-sigma (or PWM, PAM, etc).

 

Very unlikely to be "argh"; you're more likely to be underwhelmed than horrified, except at the value proposition. We're talking about Chord, not Audio GD, here

I'm not convinced that it's worth the portable price premium. The battery life is pretty poor, and it's a really clumsy shape for portable use, banded to a phone or DAP. It's possibly usable as a "transportable" thing, as long as you don't try to charge and play at once on a warm day. Worse yet, you really need a separate DAP to drive it over S/PDIF, as using it via USB is horrifically flaky in your pocket. I ended up building an ugly polymer putty "gumshield" around a short right-angled USB cable so that it could retain connection most of the time when banded to an old phone.

(Oh, and if you use a phone to drive it, it needs to be flight mode, as the thing has the worst RF rejection that I've seen in a while)

All of that is stuff unrelated to the sound, of course- which is.. inoffensive, possibly a bit too easy going. I thought it lacked extension even more than a Modi Multibit, but also seemed to lose out in separation and timbre etc. too (as well as sounding a little odd at what passed for its high frequencies). The sound was OK, but very unspectacular. I think I'd be more tempted to look for the recent variant of the Fiio X5 or something for a cheap mobile unit, and just learn to love the 4490 sound if I was interested in a Mojo on the move.

(I bought a WM1A and sold my Mojo. Very happy with the decision.)

 

Or Benchmark. I don't think I made it to the end of my standard audition playlist, which was only 8 tracks at that time. My ears are still sore! How something can measure well, but simultaneously sound so godawful, is a true mystery to me.

I find in general that most DACs do fine on more minimal tracks which leave enough space for instruments to breathe, while it tends to be busier stuff (rock, metal etc) that really trips them up in a big mush of monotone digitus - just try a Foo Fighters track on the DAC2 to see what I mean.

 

Looking forward to your impression, bengo

 

I believe Hugo 1 was just hype... It's not like horrendous, but it doesn't beat the desktop level machines in the price range.

Hugo 2 is getting rehyped because of its similarities to Dave, which is admittedly TOTL. But It's unlikely to sound like dave at its pricepoint with its specs and the fact that it's also got a battery taking up space. I mean most of that is just second to the fact that its specs just plain aren't going to be as good as Dave's.

Also people hyping it up from conventions. I had another person tell me how much they liked it at an audio show that was in LA this weekend. Which isn't exactly optimal testing conditions. But he did seem to genuinely enjoy it at least.

I'm just very very skeptical it is better than Yggdrasil.

 

Wow... To follow up @David De Lucena Someone one headfi just said that their ie800s with Hugo 2 sound better than their Stax setup...

Like I enjoy the ie800 a lot unlike most, but that's just hilarious.

 

I saw that post. Have you heard QBD76, Marv? What is your impression between the 2?

 

I spent a few weeks time with the original Hugo after reading praise. It didn't live up to hype for me. It felt really outdated. It wouldn't remember the last input you used. It had multiple unlabeled buttons. You had to memorize the color of the internal three LED to know what setting you were using.

The form factor wasn't great either. In my opinion it didn't work as a transportable DAC, and wasn't the best at being a desktop dac. It had some inputs, and outputs on the same side. I used a lifatec toslink cable paired with my HD800. I was initially impressed, but my enthusiasm waned only after a week. It could of been poor synergy between the HD800 and the Hugo, but the initial extra detail I thought I was hearing became pretty fatiguing. HD800 might not have the best bass quantity, but I felt like the Hugo never improved anything in the bass department.

I no longer own the HD800. Also, after attending a couple of meets, I feel that the Hugo didn't offer much for the price.

Ps. From what I've seen there has always been a glut of used Hugos for sale. They don't seem to sell even when discounted to $1000 from their initial price of $2,200.