Or MScaler
As T-elmi has already stated , they do not have an SPDIF output.
I used a Gustard U12 USB to SPDIF converter very successfully when I used my Sonore microRendu along with a Chord Hugo. The Chord Hugo’s USB input was not particularly well thought of.
I’ve now replaced the Hugo with a Mytek Brooklyn DAC + and reverted back to a straight USB connection.
I was rather fond of the Hugo udb connection. You can over think these things
I think that it was Rob Watts himself who stated that the Hugo’s USB input was compromised by its lack of galvanic isolation, and that he recommended using SPDIF.
However, I do agree that it’s very easy to over think these things.
Good for Rob, I rather liked mine
So think just how much better it would have been if you had used the SPDIF input! - Just joking!
I think that Rob Watts stated that he hadn’t envisaged the Hugo being used as a DAC in high end systems, and didn’t feel that a portable headphone DAC needed galvanic isolation.
I ran my (mk1) Hugo for quite a while using USB, and I really can’t remember if switching to SPDIF with the Gustard made a massive difference.
I’m not sure about the Hugo Mk 2, but I’m pretty sure that the TTs and Dave are not similarly compromised.
Of course one needs to be careful with galvanic isolation. Ideally you want only one end isolated… and the Naim streamers are… so Hugo 1 was ideal… I think however the HMS, TT2 and Dave have galvanic isolation on their SPDIF inputs.
The main purpose of galvanic isolation of course is to avoid earth/ground loops. Inductive galvanic isolators will introduce transport clock jitter, albeit at minute levels.
Running my Hugo1 from a Mac Mini/Audirvana (fully optimised and with dedicated USB bus), Gustard U12 isolator made a major difference. But it will depend on the specific renderer & platform, some much ‘cleaner’ than others.
I recently compared a Qutest vs a Naim DAC.
Both fed by an ND5XS2.
I prefer the Naim DAC and returned the Qutest.
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Party pooper🤪 I guess since there are no Ndac threads currently active, we have to deal with the non-believers on the Chord thread. Just joking JimDog, I have never heard an Ndac myself, but owned an NDS. I felt that adding a Chord Dac to the NDS was an improvement over the NDS with XPSDR.
I was not going to spend 14k on a 555DR just to see if it was better than what Chord did for me. There is no possibility of demoing a 555DR where I live, but I was able to home demo a Hugo2 and a Dave.
This convinced me to go all in with a Chord Dac, and I have heard my dealers Dave with blu2 many times, so my path was settled.
The price of an ND555 with two 555DR’s is mind boggling to me, no way I could ever go there.
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Just for clarity, I preferred the bare nDAC to the Qutest.
Adding a 555DR to the nDAC brings the system up a long way.
(I feel no need to get an ND555.)
I’m not trying to persuade you or anyone else to do anything, just reporting what I did to someone on this thread who was asking about dac options with an ND5XS2.
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That’s why it’s good to have choices, to suit people’s preferences. I went in the other direction though.
I tried Naim DACs but felt there was something missing for me and then tried the Qutest, which was excellent which led me to the TT2, MScaler and now Etude. This is why it’s important to demo DACs.
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Yes I found the NDAC/555PS rather special and used that combo for a while … it wasn’t until the Hugo mk1 came along and extensive home demoing… of which the comparison notes and write up are in this forum archive … did I decide to swap.
My main fondness of the NDAC/555PS was a kind of organic analogue sound… which had a slightly noisy texture or organic roughness to it (ie making it sound analogue like tape) that was attractive with many genres… but ultimately didn’t offer the insight and layers of detail the little Hugo brought in its rather warm and smoothed audio wrapper.
I found the NDS ‘cleaner’ than the NDAC, so it lost that organic textured analogue feel which was a downside for me, but provided more detailed layering… it was superior to the NDAC for choral music for example… but to my ears I preferred the little extra lower mid warmth and smoothness and further insight detail (what I referred to the Mandelbrot effect) from that little Hugo.
At the time I commented that I thought the little Hugo built on the positive sonic characteristic strengths that I liked from both NDAC and NDS … whilst on the whole removing the negatives.
The one area to my tastes where the NDAC/555PS continued to dominate over the little Hugo was bass drive and punch… it wasn’t until later Chord DACs came along that I felt this area was addressed.
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And different budgets too, I haven’t priced up a NDAC + 555 PS pairing, but I suspect the cost would be a far greater consideration for me when comparing it to a Chord Qutest.
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I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t hear a huge sound quality difference from a Naim DAC to the Qutest. I thought I was loosing my hearing or something not being completely won-over by the Chord DAC. Don’t get me wrong it is very good, and am sure much better still with an mScaler.
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Yes, I found the Qutest clear and detailed and smooth and sweet in tone.
But the Naim DAC brings the music to life for me.
With Qobuz into ND5XS2, nDAC/555DR, 252, SL2s I’ve got a sound I’ve always dreamed of.
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interesting - after over a year’s worth of evaluation, I came to the conclusion the only DAC from Chord that really gelled with Naim NACs was the Hugo 1 via a Highline… to my tastes none of the successors did.
Completely different into headphones or Chord amplification however - but certainly a synergy thing going on here.
I am fairly sure I would not now swap out my then NDAC/555PS into a NAC with any of the current Chord DACs… but feed a current high end Chord DAC into a Chord Amp - then wow, you then understand what they are all about.
Unfortunately as sources current Chord DACs are not good partnering sources for Naim NACs in my experience - even the Dave and 552. Perhaps it’s a bandwidth thing, or frequency impedance thing, I don’t know, but something is going on there that is not fully optimum.
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I haven’t compared with Chord amps, but for me the wow factor was there from the first moment with Bryston! One would of course imagine that Chords own amps would be a perfect match.
Sure - I readily accept there are other pre-amps or amps that partner well with current Chord DACs- its just with Naim NACs I find the overall result a little under whelming compared with other options and my trusty old Hugo 1. I am curious as to know why… as I say i suspect its something like a bandwidth or frequency impedance mis match thing.
I think at these levels source / NAC synergies/matching become important.
Edit - although the Chord Qutest is one of the current Chord DACs I have NOT personally evaluated. DACs I have evaluated with Naim NACs (252 and 552) are Hugo 1, Hugo 2, TT, TT2, Dave
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Maybe thats were you are going wrong Simon after all this time all you just need a Qutest, lol 
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