Desktop DAC, preamplifier and headphone amp
Chord Hugo TT 2 is a desktop digital-to-analogue converter with digital volume control and a built-in headphone amplifier: it works as a line-level DAC, with a mode activated from the menu, as a preamplifier or directly with headphones. It is developed from the transportable Hugo 2 and Chord Electronics places it just below DAVE, its flagship model.
The design was redone from the ground up compared with the first Hugo TT, with new casework by John Franks and, according to the manufacturer, five times the processing power of the original and double that of the Hugo 2. Chord states improved specifications and measurements across the board and playback of PCM up to 768 kHz and DSD 512.
FPGA, WTA filter and power supply
Instead of an off-the-shelf DAC chip there is a Xilinx Artix 7 FPGA coded by Rob Watts: 86 cores at 208 MHz run in parallel for a 16FS WTA filter with 98,304 taps, double the 49,152 of the Hugo 2. The converter goes from 4 to 10 elements, and a new high-power discrete output stage, with second-order noise shaping, serves to reduce distortion.
The lithium-polymer battery of the first Hugo TT gives way to six supercapacitors which, according to Chord, deliver high, linear dynamic currents when the music demands it, with peaks of 5 A and 9.3 V RMS. The TT 2 takes from the Hugo 2 the four-position selectable filters and keeps the three-level digital crossfeed, designed to give headphone listening a perception of depth similar to that of loudspeakers.
Connections and use
The digital inputs are one USB Type-B, two coaxial BNCs and two opticals; the analogue outputs are stereo XLR and RCA, alongside two 6.5 mm headphone sockets and one 3.5 mm. Two «DX» BNC digital outputs are provided as expansion outputs. DSD is accepted as DoP from DSD 64 to DSD 512, natively with Windows.
The stated power at 1 % distortion reaches 7.3 W RMS into 8 Ω unbalanced and 18 W RMS into 8 Ω balanced. The casing is precision-machined aluminium, with steel ball buttons and a dot-matrix display. The TT 2 can be completed at any time with the Chord M Scaler upscaler and is listed by the manufacturer as «Roon tested».
Technical data
- Digital inputs: 1 USB Type-B, 2 coaxial BNC, 2 optical.
- Analogue outputs: stereo XLR, stereo RCA.
- Headphone outputs: 2 × 6.5 mm and 1 × 3.5 mm.
- Digital outputs: 2 DX BNC (expansion).
- Formats: PCM from 44.1 to 768 kHz, from 16 to 32 bit; DSD from DSD 64 to DSD 512 as DoP, native with Windows.
- Filter: 16FS WTA with 98,304 taps, 10-element converter.
- Unbalanced output power (1 % THD): 288 mW RMS into 300 Ω; 7.3 W RMS into 8 Ω.
- Balanced output power (1 % THD): 1.15 W RMS into 300 Ω; 18 W RMS into 8 Ω.
- Dynamic range: 127 dB (A-weighted).
- Noise: 4 µV in high gain, 1.7 µV in low gain (A-weighted).
- Distortion: 0.00008 % at 2.5 V into 300 Ω; 0.00016 % at 6 W into 8 Ω.
- Output impedance: 0.042 Ω.
- Stereo separation: 138 dB (9 V RMS into 300 Ω).
- Power consumption: 30 W at full power, 10 W in standby.
- Dimensions: 235 × 238 × 52 mm (W × D × H).
- Weight: 2.53 kg.
- Finishes: black (satin black) and silver.
- Included: 15 V 4 A power supply, infrared remote control with 2 AAA batteries, USB Type-A to Type-B cable, optical cable.
