Dead Hugo
Posted by: dayjay on 12 October 2016
Had planned on listening to a little music this evening and selected a nice Sheryl Crow album which strangely refused to play. Upon checking I discover that the lights on my beloved Hugo are not lighting up properly, or at all wihtout the charger connected, and it would appear to be dead! I'm ever so slightly gutted, even though I can still play vinyl and have access to my tuner I do love my digital system and the Hugo. I'll contact my dealer tomorrow and see if Chord can have a look at it for me and, as it's well outside its warranty, what it would cost to get it repaired if it can be repaired. Bugger!!!
engjoo posted:Gary Shaw posted:dayjay posted:I hope that it the case here Simon, I thought the warranty was much less than three years and was expecting to have to foot the bill. Must admit I had a little chat about the TT whilst I was at the dealers earlier but I can't imagine that the extra £1500 would be value for money to me. The Hugo remains the best piece of hifi kit I have ever bought so I am looking forward to it coming back all working again, fingers crossed.
As I mentioned in my (now sadly and infuriatingly deleted) review of the Dave, the Hugo gives amazing bang per buck, and on that basis the Dave doesn't compete. But...
So did you like the Dave ?
I got Hugo recently as my head-fi set up. Couldn't be happier and I hope this little ting is reliable or at least cost less to repair in the future.
Pending the arrival of the necessary cables, I will hook it up between NDX/SN2 to hear if a move to Hugo TT/Dave can be considered for my main rig.
I did the review in two parts, firstly against the CD555 (as the Hugo was off being fixed). There was a bunch of detailed musical blurb but the summary was:
"Conclusion (Part One)
Apart from the above direct comparison listening, I’ve had the Dave playing a lot since Thursday, and I can’t find fault of any kind. As it stands, it’s a lot better than the 555 in every way. I preferred the Hugo to the 555 too but my memory of tat difference was that it wasn’t that big.
I am due to get the Hugo back tomorrow (Monday) and that is when the serious decision will have to be made. I’ll report back after I’ve done the comparisons (probably Tuesday)."
A few days later Hugo returned and tests were done mostly between Hugo and Dave, though with reference back to the CD555:
"Conclusion (Part Two)
I started off scratching an itch, and asking if the Dave was worth over 5 times the Hugo. Well, the Dave isn’t 5 times better than the Hugo – we all know about diminishing returns. If I’m honest it isn’t even twice the DAC.
But, and it’s a big but, do I want to live without Dave? Though it wasn’t night and day better than the Hugo it did just about everything better to some degree (pace and rhythm I’d count as a dead heat), I don’t want to lose what it did. So it’s staying.
This series of tests over the last four days has underlined a couple of things for me - firstly, the Hugo is, as the converted already know, astonishingly good value for money.
Secondly it’s time to say goodbye to the CD555 I think. I’ve already digitised all my 6,500+ CDs and am playing almost exclusively through the NDX/Hugo as my premier source anyway. The Dave makes it even more secondary and I can no longer justify it, beautiful thing that it is. Sniff."
Subsequent to buying it I've just been utterly delighted by it and the rather fearsome cost forgotten. There was another incremental increase in sound quality when I gave Dave the CD555's place on one of my mains spurs. The CD555 hasn't been used since - I'm having a hard time filing for divorce though 
Simon-in-Suffolk posted:I had a brief encounter with DAVE on a Statement /500 series system, it had sounded detailed and resolving, but the music seemed 'lost'.. possibly accentuating too much detail?.. perhaps a synergy thing. I might see if I can have a listen sometime this weekend..on a lesser resolving system DAVE might be superb... I don't know...
But again this all plays to my system synergy theory.. and I am sure as I travel this hifi path, that that becomes the dominant consideration for the best musical enjoyment...
Hi Simon,
I noted well your comments in that earlier thread (particularly as you'd led me so unexpectedly to the Hugo through your advocacy) and before I bought I tried very hard to find this lack of musicality, and failed - not saying you didn't hear that though. My experience over the subsequent weeks has been that, once you get over the "Wow, where did that come from?" effect, I'm continually bowled over by extra emotion and expression I get from all kinds of music, but particularly evident through mid-range stuff like vocals and piano. Pieces across all genres that I knew so well are bringing tears to my eyes (for all the right reasons, though old age might be a factor)
Cheers, Nick
Frank F posted:The only problem is that now if I put some music on intending to do something at the same time as listening, I often end up forgetting to do the something and instead just listening - and each time when I finish marvelling at what I've heard.
That's called Alzheimer's
I don't remember having an album called Alzheimer's. Who's it by?