Hugo TT 2 DAC & Headphone Amplifier

Following the release of the Hugo 2, Chord has announced the second generation of the tabletop version, the Chord Hugo TT 2. The Hugo TT 2 is bigger, better and more advanced in every way and it sets a new benchmark for tabletop DACs, eclipsed only by Chord’s flagship DAVE.

The Next Generation of Tabletop DACs

The Chord Hugo TT 2 has been radically redesigned from the ground up. It features beautiful new casework by Chief Designer, John Franks, as well as 5 times the processing power of the original Hugo TT — double that of the multi-award-winning Hugo 2. Hugo TT 2 includes over 20 years of digital development by Rob Watts and takes advantage of the very latest technology.

As expected, it delivers radically improved technical specifications and measurements across the board and exhibits drastic sonic benefits over its predecessor with 768kHz PCM and DSD 512 playback. This powerhouse DAC supports most headphones, including harder to drive ones like the Sennheiser HD800S and most planar magnetic headphones, such as the Audeze LCD-3 and LCD-4.

Compared to the 256-tap filters of traditional chip DACs, Hugo TT 2 is an infinitely more powerful Xilinx Artix 7 FPGA, custom-coded by Chord Electronics’ Rob Watts with 86x 208MHz cores running in parallel to create an advanced 16FS WTA 1 filter with 98,304-taps. That doubles the power of its multi-award winning transportable brother, Hugo 2 (49,152). Hugo TT 2 also upgrades from a 4-element design to a 10-element design, which works in harmony with the radically upgraded FPGA and code to deliver unrivaled audio.

A brand-new, high-powered discrete output stage coupled with second-order noise-shaping integration between the DAC output and filter massively reduce distortion. Further improvements have also been made to the power delivery. Hugo TT 2 eschews the Li-Po battery power supply of the original and ushers in six supercapacitors capable of delivering huge linear-dynamic currents when the music demands it with a peak output of 5A, 9.3V RMS.

Hugo TT 2 also brings home the beloved four-stage user-selectable filter controls introduced with 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.

The Power of Upscaling

To upgrade your Chord Hugo TT 2 to the next level, we recommend adding the Chord Hugo M Scaler.

The M Scaler is an instant upgrade to any existing DAC you have. It has the ability to upgrade your standard definition digital input signals and output them to your DAC at a max resolution of 352.8 or 384kHz via a single BNC SPDIF output or via a 176.4 or 192kHz via an Optical SPDIF output. If you have a Chord Electronics DAC that utilizes Dual Data Digital inputs, such as the Chord Qutest, Hugo2, Hugo TT2 or the Dave, then you can increase this output resolution to 705.6 or 768kHz via the M Scaler Dual BNC SPDIF outputs.

Keith Howard wrote a wonderful profile on Rob Watts' theories of why the upsampling filters are so critical to remarkable digital audio playback. Read the Hifi Critic article here.

Materials

Precision-machined aluminum casing with steel ball-bearing buttons, gloss black acrylic signal window, glass viewing portal, and dot matrix display. Available in a choice of two colors – silver and satin black

Cable Recommendations

We recommend dual BNC connectors for maximum resolution. Our Silver Dragon Digital cables are available with Furutech FP-3-117 (R) connectors and will enable output of the full audio resolution to your Hugo M Scaler, DAVE, or other high resolution device.

What's in the Box?

• 1.5m 12v Switching power supply
• 1.5m Type A to Type B USB cable
• Toslink Digital Cable
• Compact remote control
• 2 AAA batteries
• Hugo₂ TT Owners manual
• 3-Year Warranty