I would like to replace my nDAC (fed by ND5XS2) with one of the Chord DACs as I love their sound presentation.
System is 282/HicapDR/250DR with Sonus Faber Sonetto V speakers.
Which of the Qutest or Hugo 2 will give the best sound? Unfortunately I can’t audition both of these items so I’d be happy to have your feedback. If I go for Hugo 2 I will only use it as a desktop mode and I am concerned about battery life…
There is also the Hugo TT2 but it’s significantly more expensive, almost twice as expensive as the Hugo 2. But is it twice as good?
What I prioritise is soundstage depth, texture, energetic and punchy bass with no listening fatigue.
These DACs have been out for a couple of years now, and I haven’t heard anything about Chord releasing newer DACs soon…
I had a Hugo1, which I found a great improvement on the ND5XS’s DAC. In the couple of years I had it I hadn’t needed to replace the battery. @Simon-in-Suffolk is one person who has noted in the past about changing batteries.
I did compare TT1 with Hugo1, primarily prompted because it had balanced outputs: it was better, but I didn’t feel hugely so (then I heard Dave, and there was no contest – and I doubt there will be ever again!)
I haven’t heard Qutest so I can’t comment on sound differences, but one limitation Hugo one had, and I suspect Hugo2 the same, is the input is not galvanically isolated, and is very susceptible to RF superimposed on the digital, adversely affecting the sound. When I first tried it fed from a Mac mini running Audirvana the sound was very veiled and I I would have given up on it, but tried a USB-S/PDIF isolator/converter (Gustard U12) which did wonders at cleaning up the signal letting Hugo do its job. The Qutest is galvanically isolated on the inputs and shouldn’t have that problem.
Ok, thank you for the info about Galvanic Isolation on the Qutest. It’s an important factor as I will use Coax and not Optical.
@GraemeH I think it could probably be question of taste and system matching. I heard the Hugo TT1 a while ago and preferred the clarity and precision of the a Hugo 2. The TT1 was more natural and relaxed but I missed the precision. Can you elaborate more about your findings between TT1 and Hugo 2?
The galvanic isolation may not be anywhere near as critical with ND5XS2 - I didn’t detect anything negative when I first connected Hugo1 to ND5XS(1), it was only when I tried Mac Mini/Audirvana as renderer in place of ND5XS that I experienced the RF degradation. That’s not to say that RF isolation wouldn’t have improved on the sound with ND5XS feeding Hugo.
Hi… the Hugo line of DACs are very good indeed.
The original Hugo started it off with Chord for the most part.. it was incredible and still is very good, I still use mine. Yes it’s a bit reigned in the frequency extremes .. but that can sometimes help system synergy. It was the first DAC I heard that exhibited what I describe as the Mandelbrot effect.. that is you can listen into the music in multiple layers… just like real life.
The TT1 was a bit of a lemon in my opinion.. it didn’t build on the Hugo and possibly went backwards.
The Hugo 2 was again very good … quite different presentation from the original Hugo.. the frequency extremes were not slightly curtailed this time, but still had a great Mandelbrot effect. It was more powerful as a headphone amp than the Hugo. I liked it… but not enough to give up my Hugo 1… which perhaps still has a certain je ne sait pas over the Hugo 2.
The TT2 was good, it had the characteristics of the Hugo 2, but had a very powerful headphone amp to suit tricky headphones and you could drive even high efficiency speakers with it. It had fantastic sub bass weight, not dissimilar to the NDAC/555PS in that regard.
Yes then there is the DAVE, as a DAC it’s simply on a different planet .. you move beyond the analogue vs digital debate with that as at that level it’s irrelevant… it’s now more about mixing and production style. Having said that I think the Hugo TT2 headphone amp is more versatile.
With regard to galvanic isolation, I know DAVE is fully isolated.. I can’t remember measuring my Hugo 1.. but it’s moot with Naim streamers as they are fully isolated anyway.
The Hugo 1 does need its batteries replacing every few years… very easy and relatively cheap to do.. or you can pay for Chord to do it. I’m on my third set…
The other later Chord DACs were re engineered to circumvent this.
I moved from an nDAC to a HugoTT2 a few months ago, following a home trial. It has been a significant improvement in my system and room so can thoroughly recommend that route.
I am pretty sure the Qutest and Hugo 2 have the same innards, thus same sound signature. The Qutest does not have a headphone amp, where H2 does. Qutest is cheaper, so if you don’t use headphones, go for that one. I owned Hugo 1 and TT2, also home demoed H2 and Dave.
I had a Qutest and Hugo 2 at the same time. The Qutest was clearly better to my ears. More prat and vitality. The Hugo 2 lacked some vitality by comparison.
The Hugo TT2 is clearly better than the Qutest. Is it worth the extra money? It depends (sorry).
Feb last year I found a good deal on a Chord 2Qute and I immediately grabbed it and literally in two days a 2014 nDAC appeared for a bargain price and I could not resist, so in a few days I had both dacs in my house. For like a month I had the opportunity to extensively compare both dacs side by side, both have their strengths, I really liked the small footprint of the Chord, it is a very detailed dac, very clear sounding, and as much I as I wanted to keep it, at the end I found myself listening much more to the nDAC.
If I have to generilse the Naim DAC sounds more natural to me, there is more weight to it than the Chord DAC, the 2Qute sounds almost thin when compared to the nDAC. Should I have kept the 2Qute if I had not bought the nDAC, who knows, maybe I would have, prior to it I had Naim DAC V1, so I was accustomed to the Naim sound already, meaning I might be biased towards the Naim and that factor might have helped in making the decision.
I assume the sound signature of the Qutest will be similar to the 2Qute, so be prepared to accept thinner, but more detailed sound sig in case you decide to switch to Chord. My system (82/HC/250) is almost like yours, so you might have similar experience with the Chord DACs, if this is your preference, you will probably find any of the Chords better than the nDAC, I prefer the latter.
The 2Qute and Qutest are completely different. I have not heard the 2Qute, but a friend who bought my original Hugo 1 demoed one and said it was really bright, he hated it.
