You also get an amp. Not just a dac. And I really like the form factor/size. My stuff typically is on a desk or small shelf. I don’t or want to have a rack for large dacs like the lampizator I’ve been recommended. I’m sure the lampizator amber 3 is amazing. I trust the referrals, but I like smaller units. One reason I went with my MZ3. The smaller footprint was perfect for my setup.
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I say if you can swing it, why not?
At the end of the day you’ll know after having listened to it in your own environment with your own headphones and more importantly, your own ears.
As long as it makes you happy.
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But not like this…
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no no no no no no
20 character 
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Honestly if i were seriously looking at Chord product I would be looking at one of their “dac” only products, not one that is integrated with an amp that for some dont seem to up to many’s standards of exellence? This product the way its intergrated doesnt seem as flexible as it could be?
Alex
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Be nice if they released a tt2 dac only option 
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I agree on DAC only. From a system philosophy perspective, I favor dedicated separate components. Specialization of labor, clean power, clean circuit (irrespective of whether the DAC module here, e.g., is capable) etc.
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Qutest for the win! 
In all seriousness, the TT2 is a very good unit. I stand by my review, as I was fortunate to have a meetup shortly afterwards where the TT2 was the hosts source unit. It’s quite resolving, has a slightly exaggerated stage, but overall is very smooth (good and not so good, but mostly good), and has some of the best transients I’ve heard.
The amp is not to my preferences (think Phonitor, but not as bright) but it does offer both RCA and XLR outputs allowing for potentially two additional amplifiers. It even includes a remote control (though it is plastic).
If you like the sound which I do, and you can swing the asking price, then you’ll have yourself a very nice AIO with options to use external amplifiers (which I did, and enjoyed even more).
I liked it enough to want a Qutest.
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Someone on Drop created a thread about how the company could sell just the case for its line of desktop amps so that DIY folks could build a matching device of their own.
I propose a Drop x Glowball.
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Some great write ups and comments. I have recently obtained a TT2, but use it with a M-Scaler driving a Abyss 1266 phi headphones via XLR on Hi gain. My experience is a bit different than some others report.
I find the internal amp to be an outstanding match with the 1266 phi. Why would one want to add another amp gain stage? To me, that wouldn’t help the transparency, and would likely deter from it some. Maybe it’s just a synergistic match with the 1266, but I certainly don’t feel any need to add an external SS amp. If I want to add distortion, I’ll use an external tube amp.
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BTW, I hear a major difference between the TT2 and other DACs. Hard to fathom that others wouldn’t pick up on the deltas. The significant reduction in distortion alone is quite audible.
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Flexibility, more power for harder to drive cans, desire to use with speakers and, of course, flavor/color.
In the same vein, the most transparent output on the Hugo TT 2 (and in fact all Chord DAC/amps) is the single-ended headphone output (and by extension, the RCA outputs). That’s because they are innately single-ended DACs. The balanced outputs are derived by taking the single-ended output, splitting it via op-amps, and then adding the necessary current buffers for the extra phases.
With the AB-1266 Phi TC the single-ended output will push them to 119 dB/SPL. Or 115 db/SPL with 2x headroom. Not a lot of reason to, on a raw technical level, to use the XLRs for headphones this side of the HE6 or Susvara.
But as with most things, one should use their gear the way they like most and not worry about why others might do things differently.
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Thanks, Torq. Rob Watts said much the same thing over at Head-Fi. I was thinking that the amp operating at a lower output level would generate less background noise. Not having a full set of detailed specs, one is sometimes left to guess as to what combination works best for a given setup.
Now that I’ve have some time under my belt listening to the TT2, I’ll go back and give the headphone jack another go. I have some excellent XLR cables I can use to give the SE from the headphone jack another go.
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The following Is a review of the Chord Hugo Table Top (TT) DAC/Headphone Amp/Premap:
I’m going to preface the review with an observation from Rob Watts, the TT2 Chief designer:
“If you put 12 audiophiles in a room and had them evaluate a PERFECT DAC, there would be 13 different opinions on the DAC’s performance”.
Given that as a backdrop, lets crack on with the review.
The Chord Hugo TT2 is the second from the top of the Chord DAC line. It has the following features:
- Two operating modes: DAC and AMP. The DAC mode outputs a fixed voltage from the RCA or XLR outputs. The AMP mode acts as a preamp to an external amp. The single ended mode outputs up to 7.3 watts @ 8 ohms, while the XLR mode outputs 18 volts, which is enough to drive efficient speakers, or inefficient headphones.
- There is a HI gain and LO gain mode for the amplifier. The LO gain is 9 dB less than the high gain. This is achieved by inserting a resistor in the amp stage to reduce gain. The advice from Chord is to generally use HI gain, unless using a very sensitive set of IEM headphones.
- There are 3 headphone inputs, two ¼ jacks, and one 3.5 mm jack. Whenever the headphone jack is used, the amp outputs are muted.
NOTE: There is only one analog amplifier in the TT2. It is a high quality, very linear amp with excellent distortion numbers, and plenty of power via XLR to drive inefficient headphones or desktop speakers. The headphone jack has more than enough power to drive most headphones sufficiently. Will have more to say on the amp later in the review.
So, how does the TT2 sound? Let’s find out.
The review was conducted with the following configurations:
- TT2 standalone using Headphone Jack with Abyss 1266 or Sony MDR Z7
- TT2 standalone using XLR out with Abyss 1266
- TT2 standalone using SE out to the Kludge OTL Tube amp with Abyss 1266 or Sony MDR Z7
- TT2 with M-Scaler using XLR out with Abyss 1266.
Initially tried the TT2 with the Abyss 1266 using the Headphone Jack. The sound was excellent overall, with all of the strong points Chord DACs are noted for. Having said that, the dynamics seemed a bit restricted, so quickly went to AMP mode, connected the Abyss 1266 via XLR using MIC adapters and XLR cables, and again listened. The soundstage seemed to have added depth, the headphones played louder., more slam with bass notes. Have some back-and-forth correspondence with Rob Watts regarding SE vs Balanced connection. He explained that the DAC amp is an SE design, and that there is always a small loss of transparency with balanced, due to the extra circuitry with headphones. He also convinced me to try again the SE out for the Abyss 1266, assuring that the amp had more than enough power to drive the headphones to 120dB! At that point, went back the headphone jack in AMP mode, and conducted the listening test in that configuration. Of course, Rob was correct, the transparency is better out the headphone jack with the 1266. I think I fell victim to the volume not being level matched initially.
The TT2 octave to octave balance is first rate. Bass reproduction is the best I’ve heard to date. It’s the type of bass that one feels with the lowest registers, stand up bass has outstanding transient response, plenty of impact, but NOT overpowering or artificially boosted. The mid-range is without question the cleanest and most detailed I have ever experienced from a headphone or stereo setup with this DAC. What this DAC gets right that almost no other DACs achieve at this level of performance is the depth of soundstage, the ability to clearly hear ALL of the separate instruments with realistic sounding transient responses. Low level detail is incredibly transparent. The listener will hear nuances with this DAC that they likely have not experienced before. The treble from the TT2 is outstanding, digital glare from harsh distorted treble is almost nonexistent. The transient response with the treble adds to the sense of space and realistic sounding presentations.
This had me thinking about the talk Rob Watts gave at the RMAF:
I think this talk explains better that certainly I can how the Chord DACs work, and why they sound so damn good. One thing that really became apparat over time was that this DAC has significantly less distortion over most other DAC designs. The more I listened to the TT2 via XLR, the more I came to appreciate the sound from this DAC, and the near total lack of distortion characteristics. Rob states that many DACs have distortions that listeners tend to like, which makes the sound brighter, crisper, etc. In fact, many audiophiles actually like the types of distortions generated from these DACs.
The allure of tube amps, for example, is the distortion characteristics, which can be very pleasing to the listener. Which brings me to listening to the TT2 with the OTL headphone amp. This combination is quite seductive, with a bit more emphasis in the presence region, along with a slightly depressed treble. Audiophiles seem to love elevated bass, a bit extra presence, and slightly lower treble. This is exactly what the Kludge brings to the table. I found this to work best with older recorded music, where the slightly extra body provides a bit more warmth.
The filters and crossfeed functions work in the same manner as the Hugo-2. I tended to use the default filter for modern CDs, the warm filter for older CD’s, and the HF rolloff filter for SACD’s The crossfeed function was quite useful with old stereo recordings to adjust the soundstage.
Now, add in the M-Scaler, and things get REALLY interesting. All aspects of sound reproduction improve markedly. Bass gets additional resolution, with improved transient response. The midrange gets the largest amount of improvement, with increased clarity and better instrument placement. Treble also gets better, with any trace of digital glare removed. A 44.1 CD sounds as good as Hi-Res files on other systems. The soundstage gets much deeper, wider, and adds additional height.
In summary, I find the TT2 to be among the very best options for digital playback. The Chord approach definitely works as stated, and in my opinion, offers perhaps the cleanest, distortion free sound with depth, transient response, and spatial realism available. I’ve owned R2R DAC’s in the past, and the Chord approach just plain sounds better to me. It’s a lot easier from a technical aspect to get consistency from unit to unit with the Chord approach as opposed to R2R DAC offerings. The Chord DACs have proved to me that the key to getting digital right is reconstruction and filtering of the incoming digital data stream. So, given the technical challenges of decoding the bits, and then filtering the bits based on how they are decoded, one cannot assume that the bits are being decoded and then filtered correctly. The talk by Rob Watts outlines the shortfalls and challenges with DAC design. The TT2 is not perfect, but the sound is closer to reference than the vast majority of DACs currently available. The M-Scaler gets the TT2 that much closer to an absolute reference. The TT2/M-Scaler is closer to reference than the Dave standalone. That’s good enough for me for now.
One other item: The Amp section in the TT2 is among the cleanest and least distorted presentations I’ve come across to date. The approach taken with the amp section was the same as Nelson Pass: Make it as simple as possible, but no simpler. This experience has re-enforced an old axiom from the past: The less amp stages used, the cleaner the output. This is very true in spades with the TT2. To me, adding an external headphone amp will only add distortion and diminish transient response, the single biggest attribute of this product. Still, sometimes, distortion in the guise of an external tube headphone amp may be desirable on occasion.
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Which R2R Dac do you have? There’s someone on another forum that said the Holo Audio May Level 2 is not only better than the TT2, but it’s better than the Dave on its own, and just edges out the Dave+M-Scaler.
I personally don’t have experience w/ R2R DAC, having graduated from the Chord Mojo to Qutest to the TT2 + Cayin Ha-300 amp.
While I’m sure the Holo DAC is a fine sounding unit, the fact that one guy on another forum claims it’s better means nothing other than his opinion. I know what I hear with the TT2/M-Scaler. I also am familiar with Rob Watts explanations of the DAC technologies.
R2R is a very dated technology, and it’s very challenging to get it to work well, not to mention consistency of performance from unit to unit. I realize some audiophiles love the full sound or R2R, but there’s an argument to be made that the fuller sound is actually non linearity and noise floor modulation from the R2R design.
I don’t currently own any R2R DACs, and don’t plan to obtain one.
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I’ll chime in here with my experience driving the Susvara and the Abyss 1266 TC from the TT2. I have been very impressed with the ability of this thing to drive the Susvara from the rear XLR outs. The Abyss are not a difficult headphone to drive with the TT2, even from the single ended outs.
The transparency I get (with MScaler) from these two detail monsters being driven out of the TT2 is really enjoyable and really mind-blowing at times.
I have some bass heavy tracks I use to test and the TT2 passes all my tests with the Susvara and Abyss. Bass can be emphasized by the addition of amplifiers, but I would argue it would be less accurate than from the TT2 directly. The low and sub bass notes seem laser cut when listening out of the TT2 and more diffuse out of amps.
My tracks for soundstage sound better, more detailed, and expansive from the TT2 than any amp I’ve tried with it. I have tried amps the like of the Pass XA25 with these headphones and prefer the TT2 driving them directly.
I might be in the minority, but if you’re wondering, yes you can be perfectly happy with any headphone being driven out of the TT2 directly. It also makes for a nice and compact setup. I can have my Susvaras connected to the rear XLRs, my Abyss to the front and still have the RCA outs go to a power amp to drive speakers. It’s a very versatile AIO and I’m very happy with it (as you can tell).
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