Chord Hugo TT 2 DAC and Headphone Amplifier

Description

MY TAKE: Chord produces some most consistently impressive digital products. Their performance is heralded worldwide by the audiophile press and independent listeners alike. Very highly recommended! - Galen Carol

Hugo TT 2 has been radically redesigned from the ground up, not only with beautiful new casework by Chief Designer, John Franks but with 5x the processing power of the original Hugo TT and double that of the multi-award-winning Hugo 2. Hugo TT 2 distills over 20 years of digital development by Rob Watts and takes advantage of the very latest technology.

As expected, it delivers radically improved technical specifications and measurements across the board and exhibits drastic sonic benefits over its predecessor with 768kHz PCM and DSD 512 playback. Hugo TT 2 sets a new benchmark in table top audio, only being eclipsed by DAVE.

Delving deeper, in comparison to the 256-tap filters that traditional chip DACs may run at, Hugo TT 2’s beating heart is a powerful Xilinx Artix 7 FPGA, custom-coded by Chord Electronics’ Rob Watts, with 86x 208MHz cores running in parallel to create an advanced 16FS WTA 1 filter with 98,304-taps. Double that of its multi-award-winning transportable brother, Hugo 2 (49,152). Hugo TT 2 also benefits from an upgrade from a 4-element design to a 10-element design, which works in harmony with the radically upgraded FPGA and code to deliver unrivaled audio.

A brand new high-power discreet output stage coupled with second-order noise-shaping integrated between the DAC output and filter is also employed to reduce distortion massively. Further improvements have also been made to the power delivery. Hugo TT 2 eschews the Li-Po battery power supply of the original and ushers in six super capacitors capable of delivering huge, linear dynamic currents when the music demands it with a peak output of 5A, 9.3V RMS.

Hugo TT 2 also brings home the much loved four-stage user-selectable filter controls introduced with Hugo 2 and retains the three-stage user-selectable digital crossfeed function for headphone users who want to improve the perception of depth, similar to that of speakers.

REVIEWS:

Audiophilestyle: "I’ve decided to buy the HMS/TT2 combo. It is significantly over my original approx. $5k budget, so I have some saving up to do. Yes, I know: an audiophile who exceeded his budget - what a surprise. Hey - let he (audiophile) who is without sin (cost overrun) cast the first (Shakti) stone!
What clinched it for me was: *The transformational sound quality of the M Scaler *The fact that the TT2 as a headphone amp competes head to head with my Cavalli Liquid Gold, which means that the cost of the HMS/TT2 combo could partially be funded by the sale of my Cavalli, and the modularity, which would enable me to upgrade the scaler and the DAC incrementally.

"So does this mean I won’t be doing more DAC reviews? Not at all, but every quest must come to an end, and I’ve strung you, readers, along long enough. You deserve closure!" - FIVE STARS - austinpop

HiFi World: "Hugo TT2 resolves both CD and hi-res digital with breathtaking clarity, giving a starkly clear and concise sound unmatched elsewhere. It also has fantastic timing and almost peculiarly tight yet punchy bass. It is a little short on warmth, especially with DSD, majoring on deep analysis instead – undoubtedly its forte. 

"To hear CD and hi-res like you’ve never heard it before, and as you will not hear it anywhere else, this is the DAC to audition." - HiFi World

Podcast: Interview with Rob Watts

FEATURES:
 

Materials: Precision machined aluminum casing with steel ball bearing buttons, gloss black acrylic signal window, glass viewing portal, and dot matrix display. Available in a choice of two colors – silver, and satin black

Tap length filter: 98,304-tap 16FS WTA 1 – 10 element design

Connectivity (input): 1x USB Type-B, 2x Coax BNC, 2x Optical & Bluetooth

Connectivity (output): Stereo XLR, Stereo RCA, 2x 6.5mm Headphone jack & 1x 3.5mm Headphone jack

Connectivity (digital output): 2x DX BNC (expansion outputs)

Weight: 2.53kg

PCM support: 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, 358.8kHz, 384kHz, 705.6 and 768kHz

DSD support: DoP DSD 64 to DSD 512 – native via Windows

Volume control: Digital

Line-level mode: Activated within the menu

Driver support: Driverless with Mac OS X and Linux, driver required for Windows OS

SPECIFICATIONS:
 

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: 235mm x 223mm x 46mm