gypsykirk

Excellent, I received something very similar from Colin this morning too.. All good then!

Yeah, for some reason I have it in my head that I should let my phone completely run out of charge about once a month which I generally do. I'm sure I read this somewhere on previous iPhone instructions and have just continued to do so. I've emailed chord again, so hopefully will get some clarification from them on it.

Hi again John769, I guess you could have 2 systems connected. To get the fixed output activated, you hold the crossfeed button (i think it is) when you power on, otherwise when you switch on the volume is set at about half way (yellow) where it can be adjusted to control all outputs from there. Switching inputs is simple enough and shouldn't provide any problems with connected equipment. No worries ted_b I have always left my digital sources switched on, but must admit i have been powering the hugo down, due to it being battery operated. I'll maybe send chord another email and see what they say to it. Can i just ask again guys, is it definitely better to leave the power supply in and trickle charging, rather than running the batteries down? Cheers.

Hi John769, thanks and yes, sure, I'd be happy to elaborate further It's a little bit of a fiddle to turn on and off. Basically the on/off is right next to the HD USB which will likely be left plugged in if you are using the dac as a stand alone dac in a home system. It may be handy to find something suitable to leave in/on the rack to help with switching it on and off. If using coax or optical it's round the other side anyway and a fingernail should suffice. Adjusting volume is easy, in fact, i am straight into my power amps which requires me to get out my chair to adjust the volume, however this doesn't bother me and is something i was aware of before i bought the Hugo. I guess if you use an integrated or a pre/power this won't be a problem. Changing source etc is simple enough too. Like I say, I'd have liked to have seen that little on/off switch as simply an on/off lock for the dac in portable use and a larger more accessible main on/off switch for everyday use. I will be using this dac in my home system 98% of the time and using the added portable flexibility for visits home, weekends away etc. This was another reason I went for this dac, the fact that it isn't taking power from the PC although i thought trickle charging the battery would maybe be worse for battery life, so thanks for the heads up there, i will now run with the charger plugged in. I received this response from chord prior to purchase too... "Thank you for contacting us about Hugo. To answer your questions... On start up the Hugo volume control is active and not only controls the headphone jacks but also the RCA outputs so you can plug it straight into a power amplifier. Should you wish to plug into an integrated or pre you can turn the Hugo into a line level DAC, so , nice and versatile! Yes, I would say that the Hugo is better than the Qute EX. Absolutely no noise from the USB input! I hope this has helped you, would you like help with your nearest dealer to try one?" My only concerns really with this dac were having to replace the batteries in the future and not having a remote volume control. It seems with all dacs, upnp setups, streamers etc, there are pros and cons and trade offs, whether it be, can't use this software, can't use this app, can't get gapless, internet radio etc etc etc or buy this dac with ££££'s of ancillaries or buy this dac then buy this power supply, then buy this even better power supply, have you heard x with y power supply or y power supply with z.... you get the picture. For me personally, i won't go back to streaming audio, it's too much of a pain in the a%@e. I like j river and j remote so i need a dac. I'd prefer a good dac pre straight into power amps and my personal opinion is even good power supplies are affected one way or another by the mains. Part of the reason i went down the streaming route was pc noise and noise in the listening room, with the caps and the hugo i am theoretically eliminating both. I have a selection of HD PCM albums but no DSD, but it's good to know i have the ability to now play them should i so desire in the future. The trade off?? ... No remote volume control (i'm young, i'll just get up off my chair for the time being, i can always get a pre if need be) and the probability of replacing batteries in the future....what for? endless wonderful music! For me personally, the trade off is having a better quality of listening experience, that was in theory and in practice, it's proving to be true and no doubt someone will come along and say i didn't like the hugo, or i don't like chord or the xyz dac is better or whatever but for the time being i think this little HUgo, as small and mind bendingly different as it is, is definitely worth a listen at least. Cheers. PS, If it opens up even more as described of the qute then I can't wait for that too!

I received my Hugo on Monday there and to be honest, other than to eat, sleep and do all the excruciatingly necessary things in life, I basically haven't stopped listening to the thing. It really sounds great! I can only imagine what it will sound like in front of some serious high end kit, pretty special I should think.. Even more addictive! I have it connected directly to my power amps, it doesn't seem to be affected by mains noise, from either the server/PC or from the charger, although I have been mostly listening without the charger plugged in and am waiting on a c.a.p.s v3 coming ( I sold my streamer) and should have a better idea then about PC noise as the PC I'm using in the meantime is a noisy old banger (admittedly with jriver 19) I spent a weekend looking into the chat here and the reviews online etc and with some people of the opinion the Hugo is expensive (for its size which I guess it is), I on the other hand decided I wanted to strike while the iron was hot as I could only foresee a price hike in the future, unfortuNately, I didn't quite get in on time, however still think it's worth the extra outlay for the features it provides. For me personally, I've read grumbles about the packaging, which to be fair probably isn't exactly the best but not really a concern of mine personally. My RCA fit so no problems there. I'd personally have liked the USB inputs round with the optical, coax and RCA connections and the headphone jacks with the buttons on the other side but never mind. The one thing I would probably change would be the on switch, I'd keep the sliding switch but make it an on/off lock and possibly see about making the sample rate light double as an on off, then it would be easy to operate as a stand alone dac and with the little toggle switch you could avoid inadvertently switching it off on the move. Just thought I'd post a little feedback. I won't get into the perceived sonics and leave that for anyone considering the dac to find out for themselves . It really has brought a smile to my face though and I think it probably will do for some time to come. Cheers.

I'm just wondering what the correspondence here was exactly? Are you saying here that they are saying the USB will be as good as the coax in the quteHD? (As well as the other upgrades) Cheers.

Thanks for such a prompt response Ted. Cheers!

Did you asses the optical input versus the bnc? and if so, how did that stack up? Does their literature not recommend an optical connection? Cheers.

Hi Chris, I was hoping you could maybe provide some insight for me regarding the issues I am having playing music files via J.River with J.Remote on my M1 CLiC. I currently have my working library ripped with dbpoweramp and stored on a readynas duo in WAV format as per the ripping strategy provided here. I've upgraded to a trial version of J.River 19 (from 16) and purchased J. Remote (after also trying out plugplayer, kinsky etc using j.river 16 as well as twonky and other servers running on the NAS and deciding that performance is poor this way and want to use J.river as my server with an iphone/android/ipad app as a control point). I love the app! It's great and exactly what I'm looking for, however, upon further inspection, or rather hours of tinkering and playing music, I've discovered that things aren't quite working exactly as I'd first thought. Let me give you an example..... Let's say I add Pink Floyd Dark side of the moon using "play all now" with J.Remote, The track begins and all i see on the clic is this buffering screen... The first track plays and moves gaplessly (something i couldn't get to work with j.river 16) through to track two, when i can now see the artwork and track info for the second track on the clic however j.remote and j.river still show track one as being played (albeit with the correct time bar for the second track 3:32). Then,.. when it's time to move onto track 3, track 2 repeats and all artwork and track details update on j.remote and j.river to track two, the clic goes back to a buffer screen and the process continues like this throughout the entire album. If I check "disable setnext support (for broken renders)" everything once again appears great at first glance, everything updates at the same time, ie, j.remote, j.river and the clic all display relevant track and album art together, however I experience a loss of about 5 seconds at the end of each track and gapless playback doesn't work. (like plugplayer). With J.river 19 the MF (stream700) app is slightly faster than it was with J.River 16 (albeit still pants) but it still plays gapless and both the app and j river update artwork and track details at the same time. It also doesn't matter how I add tracks to the J.remote playlist, (play now, play next, play all next etc) the behaviour is always the same. I realise J.remote and J.river are basically one and the same and that whilst I'm using J.remote as a control point, it isn't really controlling J.river as such, more mirroring it, I just can't understand why the mf app works with both J.River 16 + 19 and plays gapless, yet I can't get any other app to do the same as it, no matter what I do with the settings. One other thing... When I start dark side of the moon with the mf app, only the track that's playing is shown in j.river, even though it plays gapless throughout the remaining tracks updating the track being played on j.river each time it changes. Also, the mf app is the only app that pauses the track and resumes playback from where it was paused. Even if I pause a track on J.river on the PC, it will re start the track from the beginning (frustrating!). You may be thinking, the simple solution is just to use the mf app? I've an iphone 5 and i conducted an experiment the other day, admittedly with j.river 16, and it was to open each app and select the first track on dark side of the moon and how long it took from a standing start to playing the track...the results? MF app 87 seconds!!! plugplayer 35 seconds, Gizmo (from very basic low memory tablet) 20 seconds!!!! BubbleUPNP (same tablet) 33 seconds. Things aren't much better on J.river 19 although admittedly the mf app is slightly faster. The problem is the app is rubbish and I'm looking for a better interface for my control point, particularly as i have decided to have J.River running as a server when the idea of getting a streamer initially was for me was to play directly from a NAS. After my experience with that so far and after reading your excellent article on DLNA 'The complete guide' I'm convinced having J.River running as a server is the best all round long term solution. Incidentally Gizmo displays all the same characteristics as that of J.remote regarding buffering screens, gapless playback and tracks playing twice etc. I've had a couple of years away from hifi after having to sell off my old system. I decided, now I'm able to build a system again, to come back and try streaming as i like the idea of getting rid of computers in the listening room etc . I never dreamed I'd encounter as many problems as I have done, furthermore that with all the renderers on the market and for the time they have been, things like this haven't been ironed out yet! Seriously wishing I'd gone the async dac route again! Did you not experience similar with gapless using j.remote and j.river? Would you be able to shed any light on what may be happening here? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

After paying £30 or whatever it was for J.River, I'm looking at £6 for a remote that won't allow me to access my whole library? Would it be too much to ask for a free app remote (like the apple remote) that you download from the app store in 30 seconds FREE and works just like the apple remote? or am i missing something? (probably!) Also, what are you guys on about?? haha I've been looking through these links and pages and it's all just mumbo jumbo to me!...i can't get my head round it! i just want to control my library like the apple remote allows me to control itunes. This is in no way a dig at J.River. I've tried out all that's out there and subsequently bought jriver because it sounds far better than the rest by some way, i just think if you can make it sound so good, surely there should be a fully functioning remote as part of your buy!

was that reply in part to my last post? if so im sorry, i never made myself clear. i replied to a post about half way up but it's came up at the bottom here. my question is for the guys at item audio in relation to the mods for the w4s dac2..... cheers

How are these experiments/mods coming on then ??? Are we in Weiss202 territory here? How soon will the upgrades be available and have you heard the Dac2 next to the Audiolab cdq via USB yet? Cheers.

Thanks for the comments, glad there's a bit of debate and discussion as It's good to get different opinions and ideas. Cheers

I had a good listen to the 8200CD today and I'd definitely recommend a listen to it!!! I had fun Cheers.

I wonder if anyone can help here. I just have a query really, it's been niggling away at me recently, so I thought I would post up and see what kind of response I got. Q. Do you "need" memory playback if your DAC is Asynchronous ? Because if an async dac is telling a laptop say, when it wants the bits, doesn't that negate the need for memory playback? Maybe some of the technical minds could clarify. eg. Assuming for example you are using a dell mini 9, solely as a transport and the pc/laptop isn't multi tasking. Cheers.