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Chord Hugo TT 2 - A DAC, preamplifier & headphone amplifier


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Chord seems to have redesigned the Hugo TT with:

 

  • A new chassis
  • A more powerful Xilinx Artix 7 FPGA
  • Ability to play 768kHz PCM and DSD 512 playback
  • A WTA filter with 98,304-taps (double that Hugo 2 has)
  • Upgrade from a 4-element design to a 10-element design
  • Six super capacitors capable of peak output of 5A, 9.3V RMS
  • A new discreet output stage
  • A four-stage filter controls, like in Hugo2

 

AVAILABLE: AUTUMN 2018

 

Dynamic range: 127dB ‘A’ weighted

Noise: 4 uV ‘A’ weighted (high gain), 1.7 uV ‘A’ weighted (low gain) with no measurable noise floor modulation

Distortion: 0.00008% @ 2.5 V 300Ω; 0.00016% @ 6 W 8Ω

Output power (unbalanced): (@1% THD) 288 mW RMS 300Ω; 7.3 W RMS 8Ω

Output power (balanced): (@1% THD) 1.15 W RMS 300Ω; 18W RMS 8Ω

Output impedance: 0.042Ω

Stereo separation: 9 V RMS 300Ω -138dB

Dimensions: 130mm (L) x 100mm (W) x 21mm (H)

Boxed Dimensions: 220mm (L) x 122mm (W) x 85mm (H)

 

*My observation: The output power, if the spec is correct, is much higher than for DAVE which is good for us with hard to drive headphones and for those that drive their speakers direct*

 

http://chordelectronics.co.uk/product/hugott2/

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I don't get Chord strategy here at all.  Other than the power supply design, the TT2 looks nice and slightly improves on DAVE in some areas.  But if it is priced around 4K pounds, I don't see how it brings any new market share into play other than cannibalize on DAVE sales.  

They could have done a proper lower end full desktop DAC and gained far more in market share.  Forget the super capacitor design.

(JRiver) Jetway barebones NUC (mod 3 sCLK-EX, Cybershaft OP 14)  (PH SR7) => mini pcie adapter to PCIe 1X => tXUSBexp PCIe card (mod sCLK-EX) (PH SR7) => (USPCB) Chord DAVE => Omega Super 8XRS/REL t5i  (All powered thru Topaz Isolation Transformer)

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24 minutes ago, ElviaCaprice said:

I don't get Chord strategy here at all.  Other than the power supply design, the TT2 looks nice and slightly improves on DAVE in some areas.  But if it is priced around 4K pounds, I don't see how it brings any new market share into play other than cannibalize on DAVE sales.  

They could have done a proper lower end full desktop DAC and gained far more in market share.  Forget the super capacitor design.

 

From spec and design the Chord Hugo TT2 is very close to Dave and power and future wise even better. It has two BNC inputs so can be connected to an M-scaler. Let’s see how it sound, but yes if it’s close in SQ and sells for half the price, the future for Dave is maybe not so bright.

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16 minutes ago, mozes said:

I think that the success of TT2 will be heavily influenced by launching a dedicated M-scaler at a reasonable price. 

 

Maybe you are right, but I think the TT2 will be a success if it gets close in SQ to the Dave, with or without a reasonable priced M-scaler. With a good M-scaler at around half the price of the BLU2 the "success" will probably increase a bit more.

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Does anybody know the purpose of the 2 x DX expansion inputs on the TT2?  Or the power supply specs ... it says it comes with a 12V SMPS.

Pareto Audio AMD 7700 Server --> Berkeley Alpha USB --> Jeff Rowland Aeris --> Jeff Rowland 625 S2 --> Focal Utopia 3 Diablos with 2 x Focal Electra SW 1000 BE subs

 

i7-6700K/Windows 10  --> EVGA Nu Audio Card --> Focal CMS50's 

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15 minutes ago, rickca said:

Does anybody know the purpose of the 2 x DX expansion inputs on the TT2?  Or the power supply specs ... it says it comes with a 12V SMPS.

I believe those are for the future digital amps.  I see it says it comes with a 12V SMPS, but when I look at the photo it looks like an 18V or 19V input?  Either way, these would charge/power the super capacitors within the TT2.  It's going to be awhile before this is released.  Count on a 2 to 3 month delay, which has been the norm for Chord, lately.  So beginning of the new year?

(JRiver) Jetway barebones NUC (mod 3 sCLK-EX, Cybershaft OP 14)  (PH SR7) => mini pcie adapter to PCIe 1X => tXUSBexp PCIe card (mod sCLK-EX) (PH SR7) => (USPCB) Chord DAVE => Omega Super 8XRS/REL t5i  (All powered thru Topaz Isolation Transformer)

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21 minutes ago, rickca said:

Does anybody know the purpose of the 2 x DX expansion inputs on the TT2?  Or the power supply specs ... it says it comes with a 12V SMPS.

 

I believe the DX inputs are for M-scaler and the DX outputs are for the coming power amp.

 

Yep one external 12V SMPS to feed the six super capacitors. If you want I guess you can use an HDplex or similar instead.

 

“The only difference between Dave's DX output (that is the digital OP to connect to a DX power pulse array amp) and a regular 705/768 kHz signal, is the DX has volume control information embedded in the user data. So when Dave is used with a DX power amp then Dave becomes a DX pre-amp, as it controls the volume. Qutest will accept the DX data, but will ignore the volume data, as Qutest does not have a volume control - it is a fixed OP DAC.”

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8 hours ago, mozes said:

I think that the success of TT2 will be heavily influenced by launching a dedicated M-scaler at a reasonable price. 

I think all Chord DAC's capable of an M-scaler will be heavily influenced by the launching of a M-scaler at a reasonable price.  

With the TT2 your saving about 2-3k on a new DAVE, which could be awhile before actually going live to the public, seeing Chord's recent release delays.  I think TT2 is only going to cut into potential DAVE sales.  Worse than a wash for Chord seeing as they need to gear up for a separate component.

 

(JRiver) Jetway barebones NUC (mod 3 sCLK-EX, Cybershaft OP 14)  (PH SR7) => mini pcie adapter to PCIe 1X => tXUSBexp PCIe card (mod sCLK-EX) (PH SR7) => (USPCB) Chord DAVE => Omega Super 8XRS/REL t5i  (All powered thru Topaz Isolation Transformer)

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1 minute ago, ElviaCaprice said:

I think all Chord DAC's capable of an M-scaler will be heavily influenced by the launching of a M-scaler at a reasonable price.  

With the TT2 your saving about 2-3k on a new DAVE, which could be awhile before actually live to the public, seeing Chord's recent releases.  I think TT2 is only going to cut into potential DAVE sales.

 

If I were in the market for a dac now, I would buy the TT2 mainly because of its 7W output at 8Ohm. 

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2 minutes ago, ElviaCaprice said:

I think all Chord DAC's capable of an M-scaler will be heavily influenced by the launching of a M-scaler at a reasonable price. 

Where is it?  I haven't seen such an announcement yet.

Pareto Audio AMD 7700 Server --> Berkeley Alpha USB --> Jeff Rowland Aeris --> Jeff Rowland 625 S2 --> Focal Utopia 3 Diablos with 2 x Focal Electra SW 1000 BE subs

 

i7-6700K/Windows 10  --> EVGA Nu Audio Card --> Focal CMS50's 

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21 minutes ago, mozes said:

If I were in the market for a dac now, I would buy the TT2 mainly because of its 7W output at 8Ohm. 

Agree, if you are in need of the power.  I doubt you are with a DAVE in near field and Omegas.  

Wonder how those super capacitors are going to influence the sound?

Also with DAVE you can play DSD non decimated.  Sounds better.

(JRiver) Jetway barebones NUC (mod 3 sCLK-EX, Cybershaft OP 14)  (PH SR7) => mini pcie adapter to PCIe 1X => tXUSBexp PCIe card (mod sCLK-EX) (PH SR7) => (USPCB) Chord DAVE => Omega Super 8XRS/REL t5i  (All powered thru Topaz Isolation Transformer)

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3 minutes ago, ElviaCaprice said:

Agree, if you are in need of the power.  I doubt you are with a DAVE in near field and Omegas.  

Wonder how those super capacitors are going to influence the sound?

Also with DAVE you can play DSD non decimated.  

More power is always welcome. Practically speaking I don’t need it especially with the REL subs. After some time with Dave, I am too lazy to switch from PCM plus to DSD plus, so I am listening to DSD decimated ?

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20 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Is there a good explanation of DSD decimation somewhere? I have no idea what that means!

Here's a discussion in DAVE thread about it and a youtube source (Rob Watts) explaining it.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-dave.766517/page-8#post-11659920

(JRiver) Jetway barebones NUC (mod 3 sCLK-EX, Cybershaft OP 14)  (PH SR7) => mini pcie adapter to PCIe 1X => tXUSBexp PCIe card (mod sCLK-EX) (PH SR7) => (USPCB) Chord DAVE => Omega Super 8XRS/REL t5i  (All powered thru Topaz Isolation Transformer)

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22 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Is there a good explanation of DSD decimation somewhere? I have no idea what that means!

Will leave the answer to someone techy.

What I do know is that all DSD tracks sound richer with more layering under the DSD plus mode (no decimation)

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1 hour ago, austinpop said:

 

I don’t believe the US price had been announced. It’s not just the GBP-USD conversion of the UK price, you know!

Well considering the current chord Hugo TT is around $4750 us , $5400 seems right in the ballpark but I guess we wait and see.  I'd like to see mid $3k's but that's not going to happen . 

The Truth Is Out There

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1 hour ago, rickca said:

Where is it?  I haven't seen such an announcement yet.

It's coming.  Guess the Munich show Chord reps are excited about it's prospects, thus it's arrival to be.  But in what shape, form and most important, price????

(JRiver) Jetway barebones NUC (mod 3 sCLK-EX, Cybershaft OP 14)  (PH SR7) => mini pcie adapter to PCIe 1X => tXUSBexp PCIe card (mod sCLK-EX) (PH SR7) => (USPCB) Chord DAVE => Omega Super 8XRS/REL t5i  (All powered thru Topaz Isolation Transformer)

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10 hours ago, ElviaCaprice said:

I don't get Chord strategy here at all.  Other than the power supply design, the TT2 looks nice and slightly improves on DAVE in some areas.  But if it is priced around 4K pounds, I don't see how it brings any new market share into play other than cannibalize on DAVE sales.  

They could have done a proper lower end full desktop DAC and gained far more in market share.  Forget the super capacitor design.

I totally disagree.  The TT2 hits a price point missing in Chord's line.  With the new Qutest at around $2K USD, and DAVE up around $12K USD dollars or so, they are missing a DAC around $6K USD which is a very competitive price point (ie PS Audio DS, etc).

With Qutest-TT2-DAVE, Chord now has a coherent good-better-best approach to their home system oriented DACs.

SO/ROON/HQPe: DSD 512-Sonore opticalModuleDeluxe-Signature Rendu optical with Well Tempered Clock--DIY DSC-2 DAC with SC Pure Clock--DIY Purifi Amplifier-Focus Audio FS888 speakers-JL E 112 sub-Nordost Tyr USB, DIY EventHorizon AC cables, Iconoclast XLR & speaker cables, Synergistic Purple Fuses, Spacetime system clarifiers.  ISOAcoustics Oreas footers.                                                       

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