LOVE this video: a really insightful look at how 2go brings wired and wireless high-res streaming and microSD library playback to an already class-leading DAC/headphone amp.
About your comparing inputs, Hugo 2 has noise filtering on its USB power rails input. (I still have a Jitterbug on my USB connection, for power rail noise filtering too.) .. Ground noise can be solved by either grounding the unit, or touching it.
Very nice Review, I enjoyed the review of the Dave in the forums as well. I am looking forward for your review of the Hugo tt2. I´ve read that with the Mscaler can beat the Dave. Your opinion would be interesting. Cheers..
Increbile coverage of this unit thank you. I experienced the glare you referenced in this review for the Hugo 2 during a dealer audition. I attributed to the pre amp (cambridge) or speakers (revel) they were running it through or a setting turned up or down too high. I am super interested in this unti mainly for it's size and features. Sound of it remains to be seen next to my existing Bel Canto 2.7 dac which is a ladder DAC. It's just so good to desktop use not sure i can pass up listening to it in my own system.
Hello- thank you for the excellent review and demo. 2 questions… 1) Once the 2GO is attached to the Hugo 2, can I still go w a wired connection from my source (like Fiio M17, smartphone, and computer)? I want the 2GO for certain conveniences, but for pure listening pleasure I prefer wired (and don’t want to have to detach the 2GO to use the Hugo 2 that way / wired to a source). 2) Can you charge the 2GO and Hugo 2 simultaneously w the same (a single) cable? Similarly, can the attached devices be run off usb power w a single cable? Again, thanks very much for the excellent video.
1. Other than the USB input (coax or optical) can still be used without disconnecting the 2go. However, the 2go uses WiFi, which is lossless. A computer to the Hugo 2 is more likely to lower SQ through noise entering via the ground plane, unless you use optical. 2. Only one charger is required, eg: the included Hugo 2 charger. It has to be at least a 2.1A charger.
Does the Studio Six have any balance inputs? or is it exclusively single ended for headphones? Also @currawong I'm assuming when you want some tube goodness your running the D8000 pro through the Studio Six correct?
Off-topic question....can you share what type of keyboard you’re using with your iMac? It fits well with the setup and I’d love something similar. Thanks in advance!
I really couldn’t tell any improvement from 2Go. Using a Curious USB cable directly attached to a laptop sounds better than using 2Go as a DLNA streamer. But I don’t know if Roon is better than DLNA because 2Go wasn’t Roon certified back then.
Hi. Thanks for your informative videos. Can either the Mojo2/Poly OR Hugo2/2Go works as a Roon Core Server? either wired or wireless? Without a Macbook Pro as the Roon Core? I travel a lot and would like to use Roon without a Notebook as the core. Thanks
No. You need a computer as the library/core. The only way to play music on a micro SD card on the Poly or 2go is via DLNA on your phone or a separate device. Streaming that way can work too though.
sorry for being dumb, I've never used dlna before so i need to ask if it is possible to delete or load new tracks onto the sd card using 2go device? i am in the habit to load new tracks and delete the ones ì don't like, making selections all the time. cheers
if you use headphones, just buy Hugo 2. The price difference won't make up for a headphone amp + interconnect combo that matches the performance of Hugo 2.
I was wondering if they solved the sound issue with the 2Go, which sounds like vinyl clicks and pops. Does it also still need a conection to a control like your DPA or phone, to play an entire album? Anyway no worries if you don't have the time to answer.
They've fixed the clicks and pops, though YMMV depending on what wireless access point you use. You need some kind of software to manage playback, either on your computer (eg: Roon) or on an iOS or Android device, yes.
@@Currawong Yes, I read that to play an album, you had to leave an gadget like a phone controlling playback. It would have to be there constantly to make the 2Go play the whole album. .. Or another option was to make albums into playlists. Then I think we could use our control device to make 2Go play the playlist, however then disconnect. The reason to doing that would be to be able to turn off wi-fi on the controlling device (phone etc), to save battery.
By the way, with the strongest recommendation, I think you should get some Shure KSE 1200 for review. I have them and am blown away by them, with Hugo 2 etc. The lucidity, full sound, timbre, and speed; I am not sure I would have believed it.
I almost just purchased this setup but looking at the power output I dont think it can drive my Abyss Diana V2 loudly the way I like it. Anyone have first hand experience? The V2 is 91db/mw with an impedance at 42ohms. the hugo 2 does 740mw at 32 ohm or 1050mw at 8 ohm.
Well, if you account for the TIDAL "Masters" being sonically degraded music (it has been run through some kind of DSP to make it sound different) Qobuz high-res sounds better.
Very disappointing that Chord still hadn't worked on adding higher quality Bluetooth input. LDAC is massively more capable than APTX/SBC and is supported on all modern Android devices, and they don't have AAC so the Bluetooth is almost unusable for iPhone. I understand that Bluetooth is not absolute "audiophile" level lossless, but at 990kB/s LDAC maximum rate it is easily hifi and hard to distinguish without direct A/B
It's still worse than wireless. Also, it very often falls back to 660 kbps or 330 kbps, so doesn't end up any better than APTx. In my tests, BT to the Hugo 2 sounded no better than the FiiO M11 I was using for testing, so it's a waste of their effort to even consider it. If it shows up, it'll be in a new product where it is one of the default codecs. Why even care about it when you can use completely lossless wi-fi?
@@Currawong You can set it to fixed rate 990kbps on almost every device that transmits it. LDAC is becoming the standard, and it's available in far cheaper devices. If it's not hard to implement, why throttle the BT performance in a $1200 adaptor? It's a valid use case, when you can't use the wireless, and they have no real reason to keep using such an outdated standard. I don't think it's unreasonable to still expect better, especially when it's a standalone streaming add-on and not the included BT.
Just because you can fix the rate, doesn't mean it will work without drop-outs. The 2go cannot receive BT audio -- that's only for the Gofigure software. The Hugo 2 can, and it was designed before LDAC became standard. Maybe if a future model is produced, it will have LDAC, since all the BT chips come with it as a standard, but, like I said, it's not the standard usage case scenario -- it's still a lossy codec and you can readily hear the loss through high-end headphones.
@@Currawong my mistake, from the product page for the 2go it seems like the A2DP Bluetooth is integral to the 2go and not just the original Hugo. Given that it's just the original Hugo 2 BT then it makes sense for there to be no LDAC, so I'll rescind that statement. I thought it was added onto by the 2go I do still think it's reasonable to push for products to be better at what they offer. Hopefully in future revisions it's something they look into.
They aren't really, as Audirvana will work with the 2go. There are other apps, but I haven't looked into them much as, prior to using Roon, I connected DACs directly to my computer.
With respect, the choice of 2.4GHz only WiFi is nothing to do with reliability, it’s because Chord cut corners with a bargain basement WiFi chip that cannot handle dual band. It is notoriously bad at staying connected over WiFi unless it has its own dedicated network.
@@Currawong It was published on the official head-if thread and the Roon forums a few months ago while a ton of users were investigating why the WiFi connectivity of the unit is so bad. I’ll have a look and get back to you. Meanwhile, are you able to connect via WiFi and wander round your house while listening the the Hugo2go? Does it work if you upscale using roon DSP? That was the use case I bought it for and it does not work at all because of the terrible WiFi connectivity..
I recall it being mentioned on Head-Fi, but I don't recall a cost and feature comparison of wi-fi chips. Such chips are ubiquitous nowadays and cost almost nothing, so I'm very doubtful about the validity of the accusation. As for up-sampling, you shouldn't use any up-sampling with the Hugo 2, as it will degrade performance. High-bandwidth wireless transmission, such as that for 768k PCM or DSD512 requires a few megabytes/sec of bandwidth, uninterrupted, which will definitely NOT be reliable over wi-fi.
@@Currawong Well, it is advertised as a wireless DAC capable of playing hi-res, so I don't think it's unreasonable to expect it to be able to do just that? Also, I won't argue whether upsampling sounds better or not but there are plenty of people who prefer the sound when upsampled from roon so I don't think it's accurate to state your opinion that it degrades sq as fact. You can see the full chipset analysis here: www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-2go-2yu-wired-wireless-network-streamer-and-s-pdif-adaptor-official-thread.925464/page-225 but the tl/dr version is that the chip only supports a single 20 MHz channel with a max bitrate of 65 Mbps - which in the real world, would equate to about 20 Mbps in utterly ideal conditions, and nothing else using the network, so anything from 384k PCM upwards is simply never going to work over wifi. Had Chord included a higher quality, dual band, 5 GHz chip, this may well be possible. I love the sound and build of my Hugo2Go but given that I can stream hi-res files to my laptop and ipad with no issues at all, I find it unconscionable that a luxury streaming DAC that costs £3000 is hamstrung over wifi by a bargain basement wifi chip and cannot perform it's main function, streaming music, as well as cheap consumer electronics are able to.
You're confusing the Hugo 2 with the 2go in your first statement about high-res. High-res files can be played from the micro-sd card, and the streaming services provided max at 192k PCM. I don't agree that, because a handful of people like to go against the designer's repeated statement about not up-sampling to the Hugo 2, that it's a failure of Chord to provide for a usage case outside the design intent of both the 2go and Hugo 2. Something else you may not have considered is, if a more powerful wifi chip were to be used, would it not severely impact battery life? It is most likely that the actual limitation is battery life, and that dictated what wifi options were suitable.
🦃🍷🍗🍁🍁🍗🍷🦃💕❤️🙏🙏🙏👍👍💪 Happy Thanksgiving to you and your whole family God's peace happiness and health and thank you for your contribution in audio and gear and the passion for music
This add-on approach is stupid. It's bulky and overly complicated. I refuse to believe this is the best they can come up to and there is no way to implement the same quality into a better, smaller and simplified user friendly device. They have the technology and resources to make a true portable device, but for some reason they don't want to.
Agreed the mojo/poly is for true portability, however for me the Hugo2go combo is perfect, as is usable in every part of my home including the garden and is transportable to other locations for example when I'm on holiday. I wouldn't want the combo any smaller and since having the 2go attached, it seems like it was always part of the device, not something bolted on.
@@Currawong MojoPoly sucks. It doesn't turn off automatically after some idle time, it takes too long to charge and you can't use it while charging. And it can't switch between modes automatically.
@@Currawong Its all relates to the chain. Chord dacs without tube amplification and /or good planar's is a formulation for space age sonics. Unfortunately i have not got the recourses to burn good $$$ on chord products.
LOVE this video: a really insightful look at how 2go brings wired and wireless high-res streaming and microSD library playback to an already class-leading DAC/headphone amp.
“hide an m scaler under my desk” hahaha
About your comparing inputs, Hugo 2 has noise filtering on its USB power rails input. (I still have a Jitterbug on my USB connection, for power rail noise filtering too.) .. Ground noise can be solved by either grounding the unit, or touching it.
very interesting! i wonder if going there from my lumin d2 would be a good move
They should totally release a Chord Amos :D
Very nice Review, I enjoyed the review of the Dave in the forums as well. I am looking forward for your review of the Hugo tt2. I´ve read that with the Mscaler can beat the Dave. Your opinion would be interesting. Cheers..
Looks incredible!! Incredible video from you like always :)
Please review T+A HA 200 amp if you can. Thank you
Hey amos, is there any reason why you haven't upgraded to a TT2 since its release ?
I haven't gotten around to it.
Increbile coverage of this unit thank you. I experienced the glare you referenced in this review for the Hugo 2 during a dealer audition. I attributed to the pre amp (cambridge) or speakers (revel) they were running it through or a setting turned up or down too high. I am super interested in this unti mainly for it's size and features. Sound of it remains to be seen next to my existing Bel Canto 2.7 dac which is a ladder DAC. It's just so good to desktop use not sure i can pass up listening to it in my own system.
Hello- thank you for the excellent review and demo. 2 questions…
1) Once the 2GO is attached to the Hugo 2, can I still go w a wired connection from my source (like Fiio M17, smartphone, and computer)? I want the 2GO for certain conveniences, but for pure listening pleasure I prefer wired (and don’t want to have to detach the 2GO to use the Hugo 2 that way / wired to a source).
2) Can you charge the 2GO and Hugo 2 simultaneously w the same (a single) cable? Similarly, can the attached devices be run off usb power w a single cable?
Again, thanks very much for the excellent video.
1. Other than the USB input (coax or optical) can still be used without disconnecting the 2go. However, the 2go uses WiFi, which is lossless. A computer to the Hugo 2 is more likely to lower SQ through noise entering via the ground plane, unless you use optical.
2. Only one charger is required, eg: the included Hugo 2 charger. It has to be at least a 2.1A charger.
Does the Studio Six have any balance inputs? or is it exclusively single ended for headphones? Also @currawong I'm assuming when you want some tube goodness your running the D8000 pro through the Studio Six correct?
Off-topic question....can you share what type of keyboard you’re using with your iMac? It fits well with the setup and I’d love something similar.
Thanks in advance!
It's a Keychron.
@@Currawong thank you!
Do a review on the Audeze iSine 10s!!! I want to see what you think about them
I really couldn’t tell any improvement from 2Go. Using a Curious USB cable directly attached to a laptop sounds better than using 2Go as a DLNA streamer. But I don’t know if Roon is better than DLNA because 2Go wasn’t Roon certified back then.
A laptop disconnected from the power should work well. The point of the 2go is if you want to stream to it and not use a direct connection.
Hi. Thanks for your informative videos. Can either the Mojo2/Poly OR Hugo2/2Go works as a Roon Core Server? either wired or wireless? Without a Macbook Pro as the Roon Core? I travel a lot and would like to use Roon without a Notebook as the core. Thanks
No. You need a computer as the library/core. The only way to play music on a micro SD card on the Poly or 2go is via DLNA on your phone or a separate device. Streaming that way can work too though.
sorry for being dumb, I've never used dlna before so i need to ask if it is possible to delete or load new tracks onto the sd card using 2go device? i am in the habit to load new tracks and delete the ones ì don't like, making selections all the time.
cheers
Hello with a personal audio setup at home on desktop would yo prefer cutest with sbooster power supply or hugo 2? thanks love your videos
if you use headphones, just buy Hugo 2.
The price difference won't make up for a headphone amp + interconnect combo that matches the performance of Hugo 2.
Will you be reviewing the Schiit Modius DAC and Magnius amp?
Hi, can you use this with Tidal, and how much better is it than something like an A&K SR25?
Yes Chord 2go can stream Tidal just keep in mind that Hugo 2 doesnt support MQA.
Try go2 playing SD card only. You will be surprised of sound quality improvement over ethernet/wifi connection.
Hi everybody, how does this compare to the Chord Mojo 2? I'm looking to make the upgrade from my cayin ru6 dongle, would love any opinion
What are you using to connect the usb from imac to 3.5mm coax input in Hugo2?
Most of the time, a Singxer converter.
Do you have any problem when connecting 2go with smartphone?
its not bulky.. your pockets just arent big enough
It’s bulky, unless you wear dungarees 😂
I was wondering if they solved the sound issue with the 2Go, which sounds like vinyl clicks and pops.
Does it also still need a conection to a control like your DPA or phone, to play an entire album?
Anyway no worries if you don't have the time to answer.
They've fixed the clicks and pops, though YMMV depending on what wireless access point you use. You need some kind of software to manage playback, either on your computer (eg: Roon) or on an iOS or Android device, yes.
@@Currawong Yes, I read that to play an album, you had to leave an gadget like a phone controlling playback. It would have to be there constantly to make the 2Go play the whole album. .. Or another option was to make albums into playlists. Then I think we could use our control device to make 2Go play the playlist, however then disconnect. The reason to doing that would be to be able to turn off wi-fi on the controlling device (phone etc), to save battery.
By the way, with the strongest recommendation, I think you should get some Shure KSE 1200 for review. I have them and am blown away by them, with Hugo 2 etc. The lucidity, full sound, timbre, and speed; I am not sure I would have believed it.
Tom hanks back at it again.
Looks interesting.
I almost just purchased this setup but looking at the power output I dont think it can drive my Abyss Diana V2 loudly the way I like it. Anyone have first hand experience? The V2 is 91db/mw with an impedance at 42ohms. the hugo 2 does 740mw at 32 ohm or 1050mw at 8 ohm.
You'd want an external amp with it, or buy a Qutest + powerful desktop amp of choice.
Anyone compared Qobuz and Tidal streaming on Hugo2+2go vs Hugo2+smartphone stack ?
Any sound quality difference ?
Well, if you account for the TIDAL "Masters" being sonically degraded music (it has been run through some kind of DSP to make it sound different) Qobuz high-res sounds better.
Very disappointing that Chord still hadn't worked on adding higher quality Bluetooth input. LDAC is massively more capable than APTX/SBC and is supported on all modern Android devices, and they don't have AAC so the Bluetooth is almost unusable for iPhone. I understand that Bluetooth is not absolute "audiophile" level lossless, but at 990kB/s LDAC maximum rate it is easily hifi and hard to distinguish without direct A/B
It's still worse than wireless. Also, it very often falls back to 660 kbps or 330 kbps, so doesn't end up any better than APTx. In my tests, BT to the Hugo 2 sounded no better than the FiiO M11 I was using for testing, so it's a waste of their effort to even consider it. If it shows up, it'll be in a new product where it is one of the default codecs. Why even care about it when you can use completely lossless wi-fi?
@@Currawong Agreed - BT is there as a convenience feature only.
@@Currawong You can set it to fixed rate 990kbps on almost every device that transmits it. LDAC is becoming the standard, and it's available in far cheaper devices. If it's not hard to implement, why throttle the BT performance in a $1200 adaptor? It's a valid use case, when you can't use the wireless, and they have no real reason to keep using such an outdated standard.
I don't think it's unreasonable to still expect better, especially when it's a standalone streaming add-on and not the included BT.
Just because you can fix the rate, doesn't mean it will work without drop-outs. The 2go cannot receive BT audio -- that's only for the Gofigure software. The Hugo 2 can, and it was designed before LDAC became standard. Maybe if a future model is produced, it will have LDAC, since all the BT chips come with it as a standard, but, like I said, it's not the standard usage case scenario -- it's still a lossy codec and you can readily hear the loss through high-end headphones.
@@Currawong my mistake, from the product page for the 2go it seems like the A2DP Bluetooth is integral to the 2go and not just the original Hugo. Given that it's just the original Hugo 2 BT then it makes sense for there to be no LDAC, so I'll rescind that statement. I thought it was added onto by the 2go
I do still think it's reasonable to push for products to be better at what they offer. Hopefully in future revisions it's something they look into.
Noob question: Why are streaming apps limited to mobile?
They aren't really, as Audirvana will work with the 2go. There are other apps, but I haven't looked into them much as, prior to using Roon, I connected DACs directly to my computer.
What keyboard is that?
A Keychron.
With respect, the choice of 2.4GHz only WiFi is nothing to do with reliability, it’s because Chord cut corners with a bargain basement WiFi chip that cannot handle dual band. It is notoriously bad at staying connected over WiFi unless it has its own dedicated network.
Do you have evidence of this? Do you know the model of the chip and can confirm it from published specs?
@@Currawong It was published on the official head-if thread and the Roon forums a few months ago while a ton of users were investigating why the WiFi connectivity of the unit is so bad. I’ll have a look and get back to you. Meanwhile, are you able to connect via WiFi and wander round your house while listening the the Hugo2go? Does it work if you upscale using roon DSP? That was the use case I bought it for and it does not work at all because of the terrible WiFi connectivity..
I recall it being mentioned on Head-Fi, but I don't recall a cost and feature comparison of wi-fi chips. Such chips are ubiquitous nowadays and cost almost nothing, so I'm very doubtful about the validity of the accusation.
As for up-sampling, you shouldn't use any up-sampling with the Hugo 2, as it will degrade performance. High-bandwidth wireless transmission, such as that for 768k PCM or DSD512 requires a few megabytes/sec of bandwidth, uninterrupted, which will definitely NOT be reliable over wi-fi.
@@Currawong Well, it is advertised as a wireless DAC capable of playing hi-res, so I don't think it's unreasonable to expect it to be able to do just that? Also, I won't argue whether upsampling sounds better or not but there are plenty of people who prefer the sound when upsampled from roon so I don't think it's accurate to state your opinion that it degrades sq as fact.
You can see the full chipset analysis here: www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-2go-2yu-wired-wireless-network-streamer-and-s-pdif-adaptor-official-thread.925464/page-225 but the tl/dr version is that the chip only supports a single 20 MHz channel with a max bitrate of 65 Mbps - which in the real world, would equate to about 20 Mbps in utterly ideal conditions, and nothing else using the network, so anything from 384k PCM upwards is simply never going to work over wifi.
Had Chord included a higher quality, dual band, 5 GHz chip, this may well be possible.
I love the sound and build of my Hugo2Go but given that I can stream hi-res files to my laptop and ipad with no issues at all, I find it unconscionable that a luxury streaming DAC that costs £3000 is hamstrung over wifi by a bargain basement wifi chip and cannot perform it's main function, streaming music, as well as cheap consumer electronics are able to.
You're confusing the Hugo 2 with the 2go in your first statement about high-res. High-res files can be played from the micro-sd card, and the streaming services provided max at 192k PCM. I don't agree that, because a handful of people like to go against the designer's repeated statement about not up-sampling to the Hugo 2, that it's a failure of Chord to provide for a usage case outside the design intent of both the 2go and Hugo 2.
Something else you may not have considered is, if a more powerful wifi chip were to be used, would it not severely impact battery life? It is most likely that the actual limitation is battery life, and that dictated what wifi options were suitable.
🦃🍷🍗🍁🍁🍗🍷🦃💕❤️🙏🙏🙏👍👍💪 Happy Thanksgiving to you and your whole family God's peace happiness and health and thank you for your contribution in audio and gear and the passion for music
Hey there
yo
This add-on approach is stupid. It's bulky and overly complicated. I refuse to believe this is the best they can come up to and there is no way to implement the same quality into a better, smaller and simplified user friendly device. They have the technology and resources to make a true portable device, but for some reason they don't want to.
They already have, it's called the Mojo + Poly.
Agreed the mojo/poly is for true portability, however for me the Hugo2go combo is perfect, as is usable in every part of my home including the garden and is transportable to other locations for example when I'm on holiday. I wouldn't want the combo any smaller and since having the 2go attached, it seems like it was always part of the device, not something bolted on.
@@Currawong MojoPoly sucks. It doesn't turn off automatically after some idle time, it takes too long to charge and you can't use it while charging. And it can't switch between modes automatically.
Still that much trouble? That's a shame.
Got to love the emergence of chi-fi on the digital audiophile world. Just have to look pass these toys from established companies
So far, the "measurement darlings" tend to produce sound that is flat and un-involving, unless, of course, you just listen to 1kHz sine waves. :)
@@Currawong Its all relates to the chain. Chord dacs without tube amplification and /or good planar's is a formulation for space age sonics. Unfortunately i have not got the recourses to burn good $$$ on chord products.
2nd!
What are the gold analogue rca adaptors you are using , I need some like that?
The ones I have that I can still get are made by Audio Technica. Not sure if you can get them outside Japan.
@@Currawong do they have model id ? Or some identification so I can try to source availability in oz
I found it. Not sure if you can order it overseas, but it's here: www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/gp/product/B0045GZEXI/
@@Currawong thank I found it on zen plus once you add freight to Oz it’s not cheap? Bit it will help with secure connectivity.