Chord Hugo TT & Naim poweramp combo

Ben please see my answer on this current thread...

https://forums.naimaudio.com/topic/chord-hugo-tt-dac

In short, it's not a good idea to use Naim amps without Naim pre-amps.

For assessing the quality of the TT as a pre-amp, you could give this a try yourself using an appropriate cable to connect the output from the TT directly into the power amp section of your Supernait, by-passing the Supernait's pre entirely. If you felt it wasn't as good as with the Supernait pre-amp and hicap in circuit then it will probably be even further behind compared to using a 282.

You would need an RCA to 4pin DIN cable. Should be able to get something suitable and cheap from Flashback Sales or similar and I think I've seen these sort of cables from Chord crop up occasionally on eBay.

I am using the Hugo TT straight into the nap 250.2. It sounds great.  My Harbeths are really singing.

Same as my experience of Hugo into Musical Fidelity P270 power amp.

i'm interested in Richard's caution against using a preamp, as at the end of the day, without going into the electronics, a power amp is simply something that takes an input signal and effectivey "magnifies" it to be large enough to drive a speaker. PROVIDED THAT the source device, if not a preamp, doesn't present too large a signal e.g. at first turn on, then I can't see the difference. Perhaps Richard would care to elucidate, unless it is just that concern that a signal might be too high when turned on.

Hugo has a built in volume control, but when first turned on doesn't default to zero, which is normal good practice, so I was concerned before first trying it myself. I therefore took care to turn on Hugo first and take it down to zero before turning on the power amp, whereupon I found that the default start level was not far off right - though I have always turned on components starting at source and working through in order, which avoids any switch-on 'thump' damaging anything, should any device create one.

i should have read the other post before asking Richard to elucidate, as I see it is to do with possible excessive bandwidth, which Richard says should be limited to 40khz, presumably Naim preamps doing that limiting.

I connected my Hugo into my 250.2 by bypassing the preamp stage, however although it sounded good, it was not a patch compared to the Hugo going actively to my 250.2 via my 252. I also use ATC speakers. Clearly if you were short of funds you could start by bypassing the NAC, but I would get a quality Naim NAC to go with the NAP when you can.. It will make a significant performance enhancement.

Simon

This rule seems to be broadly applicable.  I suspect it is because power amps are designed to be driven by a preamp.  Devices that are designed to go directly to the power amp almost do this as an afterthought it would appear.

Example from another brand.  Conrad Johnson CA200 is a 6.5K 300 watt power amp with a passive attenuator chip as a volume control ( they call it a control amp).   Run as an integrated it sounded very nice, bypass the amps attenuator chip and running a good digital volume control by Weiss directly sounded better.  But, add a 7.5K Conrad Johnson preamp ( with fully discrete attenuator, not some chip) and it walked all over the digital volume control solution.  Moving on to a big tube amp with fancy components ( Teflon caps) only emphasised this more.  Pre- amps give a power amp exactly the type of signal that they require. Multi tasking devices with typically weak ( by comparison) output stages do not do the job to the same quality.

At the end off the day hifi is about maximising quality.

Agreed - and in my case SQ was better without a preamp (I was running through preamp before trying without)

I ran a Hugo into a Nap100 and it worked pretty well although getting up every two minutes to change volume was irritating.  I also tried it into my SN2 by passing the built in pre amp and it was a step backwards compared to running it into the SN2 pre.

Never having had the luxury of a remote volume control before, I don't miss it!  I must admit, however, that there now seems to be more variation in volume levels between albums, and with being able to pick a new album without getting up it would be handy to be able to adjust the volume at the same time...

years ago, I run a Klimax Pre with an NAP180...it was not that bad.....