Chord DACs

Understood! If the timer is still plugged into the mains, just to keep its clock running, it’s conceivable that it still puts some electrical mush onto your mains, but I confess this might be bordering on paranoia! Easy enough to test for yourself, though. 

Nina posted:

ChrisSU posted:

Nina posted:

To allow me to have the Hugo switched on all the time and not to keep plugging it in/out of the mains supply I have purchased an electronic timer socket so I can plug it in all the time and just have the timer come on/off a few times throughout the day to keep the battery topped up

I predict howls of protest from those who predict that the timer will degrade your sound quality to mush! Maybe worth a careful listen with and without to establish if this is an issue for you, especially if the timer is on the same mains circuit as the rest of your HiFi.

Hi Chris

The idea I had was to have the timer come on to charge the Hugo when the Hugo (and the rest of the system) is not in use, say 3-5am each day 

If it is a simple device, essentially a timer with relay, the any interferebce would be primarily from the timer circuitrty, whauch would remain constant regardless of whether Hugo on or off. The relay being powered  shouldn''t be a problem.

Iirc  the Hugo's battery lasts something like 12 hours, so ifnyou do use a timer then i guess only one charge/discharge cycle is needed per day.

The volume colour is more turquoise than it shows

I am the previous owner of a Chord Hugo 1,which I sold a few months back,in anticipation of the Hugo 2.Today I finally picked up a black Hugo 2,and I am listening to it right now(at work) on my iPad,actually,Antonio Forcione Quartet In Concert...and it sounds stunning,to me it is much better than the Hugo 1,but now it appears I need better headphones.My only gripe,and it is a big one,the coaxial(RCA) digital input is now a mini-jack.The thing is,I do NOT have a cable that I can run from my Core to the Hugo now,you need BNC,or RCA standard size to 3.5 mm mini jack cable.My dealer did not have one either,so I have to order one,so I will try running off my iPad tomorrow,to the Hugo>272 analog input,what a pain!,why could they not just put a standard size input in the Hugo 2?...other than that,it sounds great,and I have to figure out a way to pry my dealers blu2 away from him to try.

No quarter posted:

I am the previous owner of a Chord Hugo 1,which I sold a few months back,in anticipation of the Hugo 2.Today I finally picked up a black Hugo 2,and I am listening to it right now(at work) on my iPad,actually,Antonio Forcione Quartet In Concert...and it sounds stunning,to me it is much better than the Hugo 1,but now it appears I need better headphones.My only gripe,and it is a big one,the coaxial(RCA) digital input is now a mini-jack.The thing is,I do NOT have a cable that I can run from my Core to the Hugo now,you need BNC,or RCA standard size to 3.5 mm mini jack cable.My dealer did not have one either,so I have to order one,so I will try running off my iPad tomorrow,to the Hugo>272 analog input,what a pain!,why could they not just put a standard size input in the Hugo 2?...other than that,it sounds great,and I have to figure out a way to pry my dealers blu2 away from him to try.

I've ordered a BNC to 3.5 mini jack coax and RCA to 3.5 mini jack coax this week at flashbacksales. I have asked 3 other audio dealers - my regular ones - and none of them could supply one.

Innocent Bystander posted:

Iirc  the Hugo's battery lasts something like 12 hours, so ifnyou do use a timer then i guess only one charge/discharge cycle is needed per day.

Well I've left the timer in charge of the recharging and it worked well however it seems that even if the Hugo isn't being used the internal battery still only lasts 12 hours 'ish

So I will now set the timer to come on a couple of times throughout the day to keep the batteries topped up and ready for me to use the Hugo at about 6pm onwards each day  

If the battery only holds charge for 12 hours with the hugo turned off, the battery probably needs replacing. How long does it take to go from fully flat to fully charged.

fatcat posted:

If the battery only holds charge for 12 hours with the hugo turned off, the battery probably needs replacing. How long does it take to go from fully flat to fully charged.

Hi fatcat thanks for your message

I was quoting 12 hours with the Hugo switched on but not actually being used.  I doesn't take very long, maybe an hour or so, to recharge from fully flat to fully charged and showing a nice little blue light

Nina

An hour doesn't seem very long, my Mojo takes four hours to charge. Short charging time could be an indication the battery is nearing the end of it's life.

Ardbeg10y posted:

No quarter posted:

I am the previous owner of a Chord Hugo 1,which I sold a few months back,in anticipation of the Hugo 2.Today I finally picked up a black Hugo 2,and I am listening to it right now(at work) on my iPad,actually,Antonio Forcione Quartet In Concert...and it sounds stunning,to me it is much better than the Hugo 1,but now it appears I need better headphones.My only gripe,and it is a big one,the coaxial(RCA) digital input is now a mini-jack.The thing is,I do NOT have a cable that I can run from my Core to the Hugo now,you need BNC,or RCA standard size to 3.5 mm mini jack cable.My dealer did not have one either,so I have to order one,so I will try running off my iPad tomorrow,to the Hugo>272 analog input,what a pain!,why could they not just put a standard size input in the Hugo 2?...other than that,it sounds great,and I have to figure out a way to pry my dealers blu2 away from him to try.

I've ordered a BNC to 3.5 mini jack coax and RCA to 3.5 mini jack coax this week at flashbacksales. I have asked 3 other audio dealers - my regular ones - and none of them could supply one.

Thanks for that info,I asked my dealer today,and he has not heard of that company,but he was sending out some emails to find me a cable.Does anyone know if the Naim DC1 comes in that configuration....BNC to 3.5 mini jack?,if so,are these considered to be quality cables,or should I look elsewhere?

Flashback sell direct to the public, just go to their website or phone them. That’s why your dealer hasn’t heard of them (or won’t admit it!) They’re a good company to deal with, and prices are very reasonable. 

There is no DC1 minijack cable (unless Naim can be persuaded to make one as a ‘special.’ Maybe worth asking Chord too. (That’s Chord Cables, not Chord Electronics who make the Hugo.)

Thanks Chris,on the Naim website,under DC1,it does say “BNC to variations of RCA”,so I thought maybe it is possible.

I have heard a rumour but cannot remember where I heard it that the Chord 2Qute will have an upgrade soon than can be retro fitted to existing models, is this true or just wishful thinking on my part.

Hmm. A device that relies on 3.5 mm mini jack for its SPDIF is going to compromise serious setups.. the CI of a 3.5mm mini jack is going to be in just about all the conceivable instances I can think well out from 75 ohms, which means the reflections and subsequent reduced efficiency energy transfer is going to increase physical transport noise in the SPDIF which in most systems will produce a degree of cross talk and digital noise.... To me 75 ohm CI BNC obviously is optimum, an acceptable compromise is RCA though not ideal, but 3.5 mm mini feels like it is asking for relative big compromises.

thats why blu2 will work best with Dave.... 

Simon how is 3.5mm minijack for audio purposes? 

The Chord Mojo doesn't have any RCA outputs.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Hmm. A device that relies on 3.5 mm mini jack for its SPDIF is going to compromise serious setups.. the CI of a 3.5mm mini jack is going to be in just about all the conceivable instances I can think well out from 75 ohms, which means the reflections and subsequent reduced efficiency energy transfer is going to increase physical transport noise in the SPDIF which in most systems will produce a degree of cross talk and digital noise.... To me 75 ohm CI BNC obviously is optimum, an acceptable compromise is RCA though not ideal, but 3.5 mm mini feels like it is asking for relative big compromises.

Yes, and it is rather surprising that its designer has gone for that as the connection, as, quite apart from my expectation that he would have a good grasp of cable transmission issues, he seems fanatical about listening to the effects of changes.

It would be interesting to compare the performance of Hugo2's SPDIF against its other digital inputs.

well he wasn't going to undermine his flagship Dave..... 8500 GBP

Now he does say the Hugo 2 works very well with Blu2 and no issues, but there's always that itch to upgrade to Dave if you got the Hugo 2.... 

analogmusic posted:

well he wasn't going to undermine his flagship Dave..... 8500 GBP

Now he does say the Hugo 2 works very well with Blu2 and no issues, but there's always that itch to upgrade to Dave if you got the Hugo 2.... 

Don’t forget, the hugos a portable headphone amp, space is obviously restricted.

I very much doubt, improving the coax dig input would take it above the level of dave.

+1 for Flashback cables , I bought an RCA to single XLR a couple of weeks ago and its great  . Very well made , sounds good and fast service . The 3.5mm connection put me off the Hugo2 for now . I'm using a Benchmark DAC3 HGC at the moment to save on box count whilst away and its very good . It beat the Hugo straight into 250 , I was drawn to it for its size and well respected adjustable gain Preamp which may explain the performance gain over my Hugo direct . 

fatcat posted:

analogmusic posted:

well he wasn't going to undermine his flagship Dave..... 8500 GBP

Now he does say the Hugo 2 works very well with Blu2 and no issues, but there's always that itch to upgrade to Dave if you got the Hugo 2.... 

Don’t forget, the hugos a portable headphone amp, space is obviously restricted.

I very much doubt, improving the coax dig input would take it above the level of dave.

 

 

it certainly won't as Dave got a different DAC. 20 element pulse Array, and Hugo got a 10 element pulse Aray

Mr Watts says the FPGA in Hugo 1 isn't powerful enough to drive the DAVE DAC, (let alone the WTA filters.)

The Hugo and Dave have 2 advanced processing stages, the WTA filter, and then the complex noise shaping part that drives the pulse Aray DAC.

that 10 vs 20 element in pulse aray difference will always be there, regardless of Coax input.

But then Hugo2 is 1800 GBP compared to 8500 GBP of Dave

pete T15 posted:

+1 for Flashback cables , I bought an RCA to single XLR a couple of weeks ago and its great  . Very well made , sounds good and fast service . The 3.5mm connection put me off the Hugo2 for now . I'm using a Benchmark DAC3 HGC at the moment to save on box count whilst away and its very good . It beat the Hugo straight into 250 , I was drawn to it for its size and well respected adjustable gain Preamp which may explain the performance gain over my Hugo direct . 

interesting post: the benchmark dac3 may sound better than the hugo.  Chord dacs are rarely compared to other dacs( just naim dacV or ndac).  I would be curious to know if some other members could have compared chord hugo with similar priced dacs from weiss, benchmark,moon, antelope, my2tech, rega.....

analogmusic posted:

Simon how is 3.5mm minijack for audio purposes? 

The Chord Mojo doesn't have any RCA outputs.

I guess  its ok,  contacts are really about having firm tight point connections for audio - where the CI is less important - my thoughts are over time the mini jack socket will loose its contact tension and so become less effective... certainly less desirable than a well designed RCA plug socket where the plug can be adjusted for tension and definitely less performant than a quality DIN plug socket

fatcat posted:

analogmusic posted:

well he wasn't going to undermine his flagship Dave..... 8500 GBP

Now he does say the Hugo 2 works very well with Blu2 and no issues, but there's always that itch to upgrade to Dave if you got the Hugo 2.... 

Don’t forget, the hugos a portable headphone amp, space is obviously restricted.

I very much doubt, improving the coax dig input would take it above the level of dave.

 

 

I think Fatcat is on the money - where space is at a premium compromises probably need to be made.

French Rooster posted:

pete T15 posted:

+1 for Flashback cables , I bought an RCA to single XLR a couple of weeks ago and its great  . Very well made , sounds good and fast service . The 3.5mm connection put me off the Hugo2 for now . I'm using a Benchmark DAC3 HGC at the moment to save on box count whilst away and its very good . It beat the Hugo straight into 250 , I was drawn to it for its size and well respected adjustable gain Preamp which may explain the performance gain over my Hugo direct . 

interesting post: the benchmark dac3 may sound better than the hugo.  Chord dacs are rarely compared to other dacs( just naim dacV or ndac).  I would be curious to know if some other members could have compared chord hugo with similar priced dacs from weiss, benchmark,moon, antelope, my2tech, rega.....

Lots was written about the Hugo on here when it first appeared.  Plenty of comparisons made against other DACs, in particular by a reviewer member here.  If you're still interested then it's worth doing a search and taking a day or two to read through.