Description
The all new Hugo TT 2 is a DAC, Headphone amplifier and preamplifier and has been radically redesigned from the ground up, featuring beautiful new casework and with five times the processing power of the original Hugo TT. The Chord Electronics Hugo TT 2 distills over twenty years of digital development by Rob Watts and features the very latest digital to analogue conversion technology.
As expected, the Chord Electronics Hugo TT 2 delivers radically improved technical specifications across the board and exhibits significant sonic improvements over its predecessor, with 768kHz PCM and DSD 512 audio playback. The Hugo TT 2 sets a new benchmark in table top audio, only being eclipsed by the Chord Electronics DAVE.
Delving deeper, in comparison to the 256-tap filters that traditional chip DACs may run at, the Chord Electronics Hugo TT 2’s beating heart is an infinitely more powerful Xilinx Artix 7 FPGA. This chipset has been custom-coded by Chord Electronics, with 86x 208MHz cores running in parallel to create an advanced 16FS WTA 1 filter with 98,304-taps. Double the amount of its multi-award winning transportable brother, the Chord Electronics Hugo 2 (49,152). The Hugo TT 2 also benefits from an upgrade from a four-element design to a ten-element design, which works in harmony with the radically upgraded FPGA and code to deliver unrivalled audio quality.
A brand new high-power discreet output stage coupled with second-order noise-shaping integrated between the DAC output and filter is also employed to massively reduce distortion. Further improvements have also been made to the power delivery. The Chord Electronics Hugo TT 2 eschews the Li-Po battery power supply of the original Hugo TT and ushers in six super capacitors capable of delivering huge, linear dynamic currents when the music demands it with peak output of 5A, 9.3V RMS.
The Chord Electronics Hugo TT 2 also brings home the much loved four-stage user-selectable filter controls introduced with the Hugo 2 and retains the three-stage user-selectable digital crossfeed function for headphone users who want to improve the perception of depth, similar to that of speakers.
Specifications
Materials: Precision machined aluminium casing with steel ball bearing buttons, gloss black acrylic signal window, glass viewing portal, and dot matrix display. Available in a choice of two colours – silver, and satin black
Tap length filter: 93,304-tap 16FS WTA 1 – 10 element design
Connectivity (input): 1x USB Type-B, 2x DX (expansion inputs), 2x Coax BNC, 2x Optical & Bluetooth
Connectivity (output): Stereo XLR, Stereo RCA, 2x 6.5mm Headphone jack & 1x 3.5mm Headphone jack
PCM support: 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, 358.8kHz, and 384kHz.
DSD support: DSD 64 to DSD 512 – native via Windows
Volume control: Digital
Line-level mode: Activated via dual press of Input and Crossfeed upon startup
Included Accessories
Technical Specifications
Dynamic range: 127dB ‘A’ weighted
Noise: 4 uV ‘A’ weighted (high gain), 1.7 uV ‘A’ weighted (low gain) with no measurable noise floor modulation
Distortion: 0.00008% @ 2.5 V 300Ω; 0.00016% @ 6 W 8Ω
Output power (unbalanced): (@1% THD) 288 mW RMS 300Ω; 7.3 W RMS 8Ω
Output power (balanced): (@1% THD) 1.15 W RMS 300Ω; 18W RMS 8Ω
Output impedance: 0.042Ω
Stereo separation: 9 V RMS 300Ω -138dB
Dimensions: 130mm (L) x 100mm (W) x 21mm (H)
Boxed Dimensions: 220mm (L) x 122mm (W) x 85mm (H)
Home Media –
I haven’t had a really good listen yet, but what I have played WOW!
It is a completely different picture, I think I must have a different pair of speakers. I’ve played different types of music and it is just all there, a bigger stage, more control and very pleasing to listen to. Can’t wait to hear the Chord power amp with the TT2.
Home Media –
What Hi-Fi – Jan 2019