Chord Qutest vs Hugo2

Hi-Fi Corner
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Which Chord did you demo?

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TT2 and Ultima 6 amp

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Yeah, see I had an Mscaler and Wave Storm cables with my TT2. All these different components will give you different sound.
I think Simon and maybe ChrisSU used the Ultima Amp for a while, but both went back to Naim amps. Chris even got rid of his Dave I think.
A lot of this comes down to wanting to try new gear for me. I find that to be part of the fun.

4 Likes
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I once owned an MScaler / Wave Storm (with Dave) cables using an ND5XS2 as source, in the end I moved on the MScaler and kept Dave / ND5XS2, felt the Dave on its own sounded more muscular, warmer and natural. Since the Naim firmware debacle Iā€™ve ended up with an Innous Pulse feeding the Dave. To me this is the best Ive heard from my streaming setup, but I do occasionally wonder how an Mscaler would perform with a Pulse feeding it.

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A few months ago, I listened to music stored on a Grimm MU-1 feeding DAVE, with & without M Scaler, into a Dan Dā€™Agostino pre-amp, Chord Ultima 5 power amp and Kudos Titan 808 speakers.

The bare DAVE set-up sounded a bit synthetic, slightly coarse/granular and failed to let music flow. It was somewhat disappointing, reminding me of bare DAVE when I first heard it in a Naim 500 series system.

Then the dealer put the M Scaler back in and pressed play. We just looked at each other, very surprised. Given the claims made about the Grimm MU-1 making M Scaler redundant, this experience was the very opposite. Streamed music went from synthetic hifi to wonderful, immersive, engaging music. I could have listened to music via that set-up for hours on end.

Each to our own, I suppose.

Best regards, BF

2 Likes
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I think the Chord amp was the Etude, I also had one with the Dave/Mscaler. I went to active ATCs and also moved on my Dave/Mscaler. I preferred the Mscaler in the chain.

1 Like
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IMG_0802
IMG_08024284Ɨ5712 2.46 MB

Just arrived. Letā€™s see how this plays outā€¦..

10 Likes
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Let us know!

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Iā€™m going to just play the Hugo 2 for a while before switching in the DAC-V1 again. Could be some time though as there is a little plastering that I need to do and the Hifi will be removed from the room for that.