Wenge.
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yessss
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The Hugo is an amazing little box. I very happily ran it as a DAC in my main system, as have others. It’s very impressive regardless of form factor, even more so considering!
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Interesting. I do n’t have much space, so little boxes give me some opportunities. Could be interesting to link my ND5XS2 to such a separate DAC. I have read other threads where people are happy with their Hugo. Any idea if the DAC in the Hugo would sound better than the one in the ND5XS2?
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I think you already know the answer to this - you will have to give it a try. We all hear differently. I tried an ND5XS2 against a BS Node (N130) going into a Chord Qutest a while back. Both my daughter and I preferred the latter by some margin.
I would add that I’m really enjoying the Hugo2 atm but it is too early to say if the DAC-V1 is staying or going. The Limetree Bridge2 is rather impressive too if you really need to make space. 
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I auditioned exactly that (courtesy of The Audiobarn), with an XS3 and my own Neat SX3 speakers. I preferred my mk1 Hugo. The gap narrowed when they used a set of Superlumina DIN 2 DIN ICs between the ND5 XS2 and XS3, but not enough to beat the Hugo in my opinion/to my ears etc.
Edited to add: streaming front end was Primare NP5 into Hugo mk1, vs ND5 XS2. Bought used the NP5 was about £300, the Hugo £450. Both into NAIT XS3 and Neat SX3 speakers.
Interesting. The Chord Hugo will go on my list of possible improvements. I will first see what the upcoming firmware and Qobuz Connect is going to do w.r.t. SQ.
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When the Hugo first appeared some people liked it so much they sold their NDAC/555PS (an £8k DAC at the time) and used the Hugo instead, usually between a Naim streamer and amp.
I bought a used Hugo just to see what the fuss was all about, but I wasn’t that impressed. It was a clear improvement on the DAC in my NDX, so I had no regrets about buying it - but it wasn’t the massive upgrade I was expecting based on the experience of others.
With your ND5XS2 I doubt you would be disappointed by the Hugo, but you will need to make your own judgement.
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This and I’ve a K41 on order from my dealer.
I was that impressed with the K22, just more flow and sense of ease with this over my Innuos ZENith mk3, and a more focused soundstage as well.
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3m pair of Tellurium Q Silver Diamond speaker cable that I picked up second-hand for a very good price. Gave it a once over with some Deoxit Gold to clean the contact bananas.
It replaces my 12+ year-old Chord Co Epic Twin Reference cable which was long overdue considering everything in my system bar my preamp has been upgraded over the last few years.
Although it’s not exactly new I’ll let it bed in before listening in earnest but so far playing some jazz on the radio at low level it’s already rather impressive.
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What it is? Synergistic Research switch and cable?
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Looks like an Ethernet cable from Shunyata Research to me.
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Thanks to the recommendation of @Innocent_Bystander , I bought a much improved USB microphone compared to the previous one I owned. Tested it for the first time last night.
It is very much an improvement on the -1 variant (greater dynamic range, particularly at low frequencies, less spuri, options for changing the sample rate). Only negative is that the supplied USB cable is shorter than previous, and the termination type is different at the mic end so I cannot use the previous cable😢.
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Try using a USB extension cable, there are plenty on Amazon and like.
DG…
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The Tellurium speaker cables from the higher series are amazing. I bought Tellurium Ultra Black II second hand. They are so much better than all the cheaper cables I have tried. They are here to stay! Enjoy your system!
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And it’s quite a bit pricier than the UMIK-1, more than double the price. 
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Yes it is more than double in price. Actually I was not quite honest when I said I bought the microphone, it was actually bought by my wife as delayed gift from Christmas 2024 for me.
Also the cable specification of 2m is identical to the -1 variant. It is just that for my -1 variant microphone, in the box I got a cable that was closer to 2.6m in length.
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Today I did something I should have done years ago. I replaced the RJ11 telephone cable between my wall outlet and my modem with an RJ11 high speed internet modem cable. I am not going to say the change is transformative, but there is an improvement (lower noise floor, more detail).
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[quote=“badlyread, post:1453, topic:38349, full:true”
Chord Hugo2. See how it compares with the DAC-V1.
[/quote]
Thank you. I was wondering about a similar system next year ( if I move )
Are you pleased? Those small boxes and a Nait 50 would I think produce an excellent sound with little space taken up
Many thanks
Ian
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