NDX and Chord Hugo
Posted by: Foxman50 on 18 April 2014
I have been contemplating adding a DAC to my NDX/XPS2 to see (or should that be hear) what it can bring to the party. And so thought it about time i made inroads into Having a few home demos. After looking around at products that are within my budget i came across the Chord Hugo DAC.
Although it is meant to be a portable headphone unit, it can be used as a full line level fixed DAC.
The dealer lent me a TQ black digital coax lead, which have twist grip plugs. This was required as the present batch of Hugo's have a case design fault that wont allow any decent cable to fit, soon to be rectified. Thankfully the TQ just manages to hang on to the coax port.
Once all connected and gone through the minimal setup procedure of the Hugo, what does the red LED mean again, i left it to warm up for half an hour.
Poured a beer and sat down for an evenings listening.
What was that, where did that come from, that's what that instrument is. OMG, as my little'n would say, Where is it getting all this detail from.
After spending last night and today with it, all i can say is that it has totally transformed my system from top to bottom. I never considered my NDX to be veiled or shut in, not even sure that's the correct terms. All i can say is its opened up the sound stage and space around instruments. Everything I've put through it has had my toes, feet and legs tapping away to the music.
Even putting the toe tapping, the resolution the clarity to one side, what its greatest achievement for me has been in making albums that I've had trouble listening too enjoyable now.
One added bonus is that it has made the XPS redundant. I cannot hear any difference with it in or out of the system.
While i thought a DAC may make a change in the degree of the jump from ND5 to NDX, i was not prepared for this. Anyone looking at adding a PSU to there NDX may want to check this unit out first.
For me this has to be the bargain of the year.
Who, me?
Indeed, many happy returns for your 50th 
And your screening kit 
I hope you get some time to enjoy (the Hugo that is). My brand new one is picked up on Saturday... So back to the burn in period. Listening to Mel Tormé right now.. Very relaxing.
Simon
I think we have pretty reached the limits of what is possible with DAC technology today
The next innovations will come from DSP processing. Some work has been by Naim already.
There is nothing much more that can be done with ADC and DAC technologies on the Hardware side.
Yes Chord will go on increasing the number of TAPS, but what is the point of climbing that huge ladder, if the ladder is going the wrong direction.
I have been listening to a few recording lately, and no amount of hardware excellence care cure a poor recording.
DSP, on the other hand.... 
I think we have pretty reached the limits of what is possible with DAC technology today
your basing this on what knowledge
The next innovations will come from DSP processing. Some work has been by Naim already.
There is nothing much more that can be done with ADC and DAC technologies on the Hardware side.
your basing this on what knowledge
Yes Chord will go on increasing the number of TAPS, but what is the point of climbing that huge ladder, if the ladder is going the wrong direction.
your basing this on what knowledge
I have been listening to a few recording lately, and no amount of hardware excellence care cure a poor recording.
what hardware have you tried
DSP, on the other hand....
I think we have pretty reached the limits of what is possible with DAC technology today
The next innovations will come from DSP processing. Some work has been by Naim already.
There is nothing much more that can be done with ADC and DAC technologies on the Hardware side.
Yes Chord will go on increasing the number of TAPS, but what is the point of climbing that huge ladder, if the ladder is going the wrong direction.
I have been listening to a few recording lately, and no amount of hardware excellence care cure a poor recording.
DSP, on the other hand....
I am not sure this is the case, yes the DAC/DSP theory is extremely well understood and established, but the implementation and design of its hardeare is something else.
As I have mentioned before on the forums, digital to analogue conversation in the real world is a compromise or approximation. Converting the discrete samples into a continuous analogue signal uses a reconstruction filter. This is usually done digitally and is implemented as an FIR aka 'moving average' filter or a recursive IIR filter and is the critical DSP in the DAC process. This theory of this is very well established, but the implementation is constrained by real world circuitry and computational limitations.
However the more effective and accurate the FIR filter the more stages or taps it needs. This takes more computational power and because of DSP convolution (sample multiplication) requires more precision so that information is not lost through compounded rounding errors.
This is where I feel advances in DAC technology including it's DSP are seemingly taking place, by reducing the power demands and increasing precision thereby allowing a more accurate reconstruction filter so more information is recovered into the analogue signal. It's not all about the number of bits and sample rate. To my ears Chord have demonstrated this admirably.
interestingly if one wanted to additionally use DSP to modify the data for other reasons such as dealing with room acoustics, one would also benefit from the above advances.
Simon
I think we have pretty reached the limits of what is possible with DAC technology today
The next innovations will come from DSP processing. Some work has been by Naim already.
There is nothing much more that can be done with ADC and DAC technologies on the Hardware side.
Yes Chord will go on increasing the number of TAPS, but what is the point of climbing that huge ladder, if the ladder is going the wrong direction.
I have been listening to a few recording lately, and no amount of hardware excellence care cure a poor recording.
DSP, on the other hand....
Rob Watts has always been ahead of the curve with very innovative solutions back in the original days of DPA and that carries on with his work with Chord. The low voltage implementation also has benefits with conducted and radiated EMI gives the design engineers a helping hand in a very complex mixed signal environment. It'll be interesting to see how this latest development trickles across to other Chord products.
I think we have pretty reached the limits of what is possible with DAC technology today
The next innovations will come from DSP processing. Some work has been by Naim already.
There is nothing much more that can be done with ADC and DAC technologies on the Hardware side.
Yes Chord will go on increasing the number of TAPS, but what is the point of climbing that huge ladder, if the ladder is going the wrong direction.
I have been listening to a few recording lately, and no amount of hardware excellence care cure a poor recording.
DSP, on the other hand....
Rob Watts has always been ahead of the curve with very innovative solutions back in the original days of DPA and that carries on with his work with Chord. The low voltage implementation also has benefits with conducted and radiated EMI gives the design engineers a helping hand in a very complex mixed signal environment. It'll be interesting to see how this latest development trickles across to other Chord products.
Having reflected on the experiences of folks so far, I am also thinking about what Chrod and Naim will do next.
The Hugo, to me, seems an excellent mobile product that can be adapted for use in the home and is great way for Chord to recoup their R&D expenses by selling in volume.
If I had a NAC or SN2 already, I guess I would auditon the Hugo and depending on the outcome, buy it to replace the V1.
J