Soundstage, D/A, Amplification, Space/Time, and Why I Won’t Be Buying the Hugo2


Background: My Subjective Perspective

This is my Hugo2 Tour review. We’ve been rightly cautioned against making our Hugo2 review about other gear, but at the same time I know we’d all agree that it’s important to give context. If we say the Hugo sounds transparent or lush it’s helpful to have points of reference. Also, writing more broadly gives the reader some insight into the psychology of the reviewer so the reader can evaluate their evaluation. I open this way because I feel I may get into a little bit of trouble with this review. So….

I’m not someone who gets excited over new gear and then starts to cool on it as the novelty wears off. Case in point, two new pieces of gear recently came into my system: the Audeze LCD-i4 and the Hugo2. I’ve gotten to know the Audeze pretty thoroughly by now as it’s reacquainted me with large sectors of my music library. I loved it from day one and I still think: the wheel, sliced bread, the i4. I used the i4 exclusively for this review as it is the most talented, revealing transducer I currently own, especially with the Uber Too cable. However, my path with the Hugo2 has not been so linear (foreshadowing).

When I first plugged In the Hugo2 my immediate thought was “Oh no. I’m in trouble.” I think many of you know what I mean. I knew I was in trouble because somewhere in my head I clutched the Hugo2 and took off running. Running from what, you ask? Also in my head are voices of sanity that routinely plague my thoughts, voices that say horrible, nasty things like: “You don’t really need this.” You already have great gear.” “You just bought the LCD-i4.” “You can’t buy every new thing?” Even as I listened to the Hugo2 I was desperately trying to get my hands on a unit of my own and drafting a letter of complaint to Chord. “Why can’t you all just produce a bad piece for once? Can’t you guys just be cool like that and let us have money for other things?” However, after comprehensive testing, I regrettably won’t be buying one.


The Hugo2 Is More than a Pretty Face

Don’t get me wrong the Hugo2 is spectacular. If all I did was listen to it and review it In isolation I would just gush effusively. It is capable of inflicting upon you an audio amnesia that temporarily makes you forget that other gear exists. First of all, the casing design and machining is gorgeous. If the Hugo1 was mocked by some for its Fisher Price “My First DAC” aesthetics, the Hugo2 suffers no such ridicule. It remains true to Chord’s unmistakable design language and conveys it with premium quality and covetable appeal (my unit had no bad gap tolerances). The Hugo1 did engender some resentment for making you learn its operation instead of conforming to your sense of familiarity. The Hugo2 is likewise controlled by unmarked marbles that you navigate by remembering ROYGBIV from 4th grade. So when I volume match I have to remember 63.4 on my other DAC is blue-indigo on the Hugo2. You forgive this conceit because, well, it’s just so darn beautiful. (Of course you chastise yourself for being shallow and remind yourself that good looks aren’t what’s essential. But, the Hugo2 is “really really good looking.”)

How sad would it be if it were just pretty face with nothing inside? The Hugo2 sounds better than it looks. How good is that? A good point of reference would be to put it up against the already impressive Hugo1. This is a simple comparison to make. The Hugo2 is very much like the Hugo1 except better in every way. It carries the same house sound and philosophy (more on that later), but improves tonality, transparency, dynamics, and especially soundstage. When the first Hugo was released you could readily identify it by its effortlessly natural and flowing presentation. The Hugo2 improves on these characteristics and betters it by throwing a larger more incisive image. If you only compared the Hugo1 and Hugo2 you would think the latter just sounds spacious and vast.


Soundstage, D/A, and Amplification

I have to offer here that personally I’m a soundstage addict. Soundstage gets weighted for me disproportionally over against aspects others seem to care more about. I describe myself as an addict because I don’t understand headfiers that say that certain gear like the HD800s sounds too large. Again, compared to what reference? If you were there at the studio or venue the singer would not sound as if he/she were in between your eyes or the bass as localized somewhere between your throat and upper chest. For me, when I listen to music I want to close my eyes and be “taken there” immersed in sound in front of the stage. So, I’m a soundstage addict. I can’t get enough. Too much is never enough. The Hugo 2 is not enough. I doubt many will share this assessment and so I’m comfortable sharing this as a “minority report.”

So to back up, going from Hugo1 to Hugo2 I thought: “vast,” and would’ve continued thinking this if I did not move to the Simaudio Moon Neo 430HAD. When I did I immediately thought, “Oh, not vast. I forgot. This (the 430HAD) is vast.” I should add that I’m running the Moon balanced with a Synergistic Research USB cable and an Audiophilleo USB to S/pdif convertor. The Audiophilleo does the DAC in the 430HAD quite a few favors one of them being expanding soundstage. Contrary to expectations, the Hugo2 was also not immune to its charms, and the Audiophilleo aided both units with its re-clocking and galvanic isolation. (6moons has a great article on why re-clocking convertors help reportedly jitter-free devices http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/audiophilleo/1.html.) Even so, the 430HAD presented a more open soundstage with greater air and separation between instruments/voices. I went back and forth again and again, checking and re-checking levels, and this was verified for me over days across various genres and instrumental/vocal arrangements and recording venues. The Hugo2 made the throughly capable Hugo1 sound a bit claustrophobic and now the 430HAD made the Hugo2 actually sound compressed. The dimensional layers did not unfold dynamically and find distinct architectural placement as with the Moon Neo.

Now, the first thing that should jump to mind is the fact that that 430HAD is twice the price of the Hugo2. This is not exactly a fair shootout, but it is informative. Firstly, because it’s not just a matter of comparative costs and components but distinctive design philosophies. Chord has repeatedly stated that the Hugo, 1 or 2, functions best when used without additional amplification. The gain stage is not a separate discrete module that can be bypassed but is integral by intent. Without understanding the technicalities involved I have to respect this approach as the results speak for themselves. At the same time this limits the ability to use the Hugo2 as a DAC and compels it to be compared with other high caliber DAC/amp combos. Among portables I can’t help but think it rules the roost, but I can’t agree with those that claim it can replace full home units.

In terms of D/A conversion, I think the Hugo2 performs about as well as anything short of the topmost tier of DACs, and far away better than the prosaic D/A of the 430HAD. However, at least to my ears, it cannot equal the dynamics and soundstage brought into play by a great fully differential desktop amplifier like the 430HAD. Compared to the Moon, the Chord is also missing some high end sparkle in the brilliance/air frequencies but it’s not just a matter of tonality. The well delineated sonic layers of the Hugo2 pump and breath in a more condensed, coalesced way whereas the individual elements rendered by the 430HAD are able to move independently and expand freely. Moreover, there is a transparent clarity to the Moon Neo that makes the creamy transparency of the Hugo2 seem ever so slightly cloudy by comparison. The Chord’s sound is more digitally delicate, detailed, and nuanced but the Moon Neo provides an invisibly crystalline amplification. As for imaging, the Hugo2 finds its sonic components by pen light, in comparison, the 430HAD by a pinpoint laser.

Again, I understand this is not an apples to apples comparison, but the Hugo2 is not just a portable all-in-one. It is a superb DAC, which is by turns equally impressive and frustrating to me. Even at half the price the Hugo2 is worth comparing to the Moon Neo 430HAD because this brings its weaknesses into sharp relief and also its strengths. As easily as the Moon outstages the Chord with the benefits of its world class amplification, the Hugo2 obviously outclasses the 430HAD in the digital realm. The 430HAD employs a lovely implementation of an off the shelf delta sigma chip, but its nothing special like the proprietary genius of the FPGA in the Hugo2.

Going from the Moon to the Chord is like going from video that is shot at 24fps to 60fps. It’s not that the 430HAD stutters in deciphering its samples. The sonic images are perfectly smooth and flowing listened to on their own. The Hugo2 however produces images that are beyond perfectly smooth and move with an almost impossible fluidity. Switching back to the ESS chip in the Moon you now find a slight “temporal granularity.” What I mean is that there is a comparative roughness as your mind finds a graininess from missing frames of sound you previously thought were traveling by too fast as to be perceptible. As a result the Hugo2 fleshes out sonic elements in way that makes the 430HAD sound slightly degraded, less substantial, and less detailed by comparison. It sounds as if in any given bar of music the Hugo2 is simply decoding more information and rendering a fuller portrayal because, you know, it is. The thing is the sound of the Chord flows like digital water but it doesn’t have the analog air of the 430HAD. The 430HAD is better at filling the “space,” and the Hugo2 is superior in terms of filing the “time.”


Space + Time = Peanut Butter Sushi and Why I Can’t Get a Hugo2

Well, you might think the answer would be to combine the two and take the signal out of the Hugo2 and amplify it with the 430HAD. You might think that if you’ve never read a Chord thread where many voices including Chord’s own recommend you not do that. I’ve verified this before with the Hugo1 but of course I have to try again. I keep premium silver wire from a top cable builder on hand for just such purposes. It’s the caliber of wire they don’t sell you. O’ sure they’ll sell you the copper and the silver-plated copper, but their OCC pure silver secretly sourced from aliens crash landed in Shangri-La, they understandably keep for themselves. So a while back I resorted to cannibalizing an expensive custom made cable. I reterminate it with top-tier connectors and Mundorf silver solder as I have need to test gear. This is to ensure that the cabling is not where the comparison is falling down.

So I spent a day making.a pristine connection between the Hugo2 and the 430HAD and testing it out. You know two great tastes that go together to make something even better like peanut butter and chocolate. This was like peanut butter and sushi. I happen to like both but not together. Rob Watts and everyone is right; amplifying the Hugo2 works like whatever the opposite of synergy is. I could still parse out the wonderful sound that the two units bring to the equation but you end up losing the great sound of them both. You can bypass the DAC on the Moon but you can’t bypass the amp on the Chord. As mentioned before, there is nothing to bypass. I know some headfiers are using the Hugo2 with an external amplifier, but to my ears I seem to lose vital degrees of transparency on both components. My frustration in this review is that I really wish I could’ve found a place in my system for this unit I really want, but can’t.

I freely admit I don’t understand any of the engineering decisions that make the Hugos a uniquely integrated unit that don’t give themselves to being used as a DAC only. I accept that for my part I cannot seem to successfully pair the Hugo2 with an external amp. I do wish then that Chord would make a Hugo2-TT with all of its prodigious digital talents integrated with a balanced amplifier that had an equal amount of resources expended upon it. I would pay the double price for such a unit. Alternatively, if I needed a hifi portable instead of a grab-and-go portable I would choose the Hugo2 without a second thought. As it stands I’m looking to optimize home gear these days and, so sadly, reluctantly, I’m going to unclench and let go of the Hugo2. What do you know I am able to listen to those horrible voices of reason in my head.