the Hugos method of recreating analogue sound isn’t accurate to the recording/source. (vs other ‘cheaper’/lesser DACs)
When comparing against some other products, the method that Chord uses obviously was shifting absolute locational accuracy in favour of ‘more natural sound decay properties’…
whilst musically speaking I find it very easy to fall in Love with the Chord ‘house sound’, the subtle shifting of locational cues that I am dependant on when gaming isn’t my preference, and so I found an iFi Diablo an improvement over the Hugo (1)…
(a Topping D90 being ‘trash’ for the same reasons/when compared vs these parts etc)…
Chord Hugo output sloghtly homogenising the location of some ‘point sources’, again, “I’m a gamer”, isn’t a detriment to 95%plus of DAC buyers and hence Chord DAC are easy musical DACs to choose.
any on the fence-this is super subtle stuff and not even noticeable to many (it would seem)…
subjectivity aside, we provably all have differing experiences given we may all seek different traits in a presentation.
I think Chord DACs are musical, but for gaming there is an obvious positional accuracy improvement from different DAC topologies…
(iFi and the ‘GTO’ filter, for bargain basement pricepoint is an incredible buy and can sound per poundwise ‘touch’ the value found from Chord DAC products.
That being said I am happy to mix my hifi separates and, that being the case, a Chord DAC and a Naim amplifier will always be on my shopping shortlists…