Chord Electronics Hugo TT2 Review

Chord Electronics Hugo TT2

Build Quality

You can be a fan of Chord Electronics’ design language or not. But you can’t deny that their products have a unique look that is easily distinguished between all other products. Personally, I like the looks of my Hugo TT2. I like the curves, the see-through window on top, the illuminated volume ball. It just doesn’t look like any other product. That’s what I enjoy about its look.

The unit itself is made out of aluminum. There are two plastic parts on the top-plate. One is for the Bluetooth communication while the smaller one hides the screen that gives you info on the volume level, used input, filter, gain, dim level and used mode (amp/DAC).

One issue I am having with the Hugo TT2 is the recessed 3.5mm headphone output. The position of the output is not very optimal for most of my In Ears. If it were just positioned a bit closer to the edge of the TT2 it would make plugging/unplugging my cables a lot easier. That issue is not present with the bigger 6.35mm plugs, as their jacks in general are longer and bigger. For that reason I hardly ever used the 3.5mm output.

Something that might not reflect the price of the TT2 is the rubber feet it uses. I have handled my fair share of HiFi gear, and other products use better decoupling feet. In the end, however, the rubber feet of the TT2 do the trick. As long as they effectively keep the TT2 from sliding around and decouple possible vibrations I am fine.

Other than that I think the TT2 is finished superbly well. No blemishes that I could spot anywhere. Just like it should be for a product that costs 5,459 US Dollars.

Chord Electronics Hugo TT2

Control

The Hugo TT2 can be controlled by either the hardware buttons on the front of the unit, or via the supplied remote control. Which by the way, is the exact same as they ship with the Hugo2. It uses the same IR commands, so if you have the Hugo2 already, you can use the remote from this one to use the Hugo TT2. It’s a blessing and a curse really. I have my Hugo2 on my desk connected to my PC and a small speaker. When I want to turn on the TT2 I automatically turn on the Hugo2 as well with the remote. Unless one of the two is disconnected from the power outlet.

As mentioned, there are three hardware buttons on the Hugo TT2’s front. The left one lets you cycle through the menu, the middle one sets the input or changes values of the menu option you picked. The right button turns the Hugo TT2 on or sets it into stand-by mode. Turning on the Hugo TT2 takes about 20 seconds until it is ready for use.

You can switch between DAC and Amp mode by pressing the menu button and click the set button when you reached the option. Just know, that the Hugo TT2 will then again take about 20 seconds to switch modes. When you’re in DAC mode the volume ball will not illuminate and the output will be set to 2.5V on RCA and 5V RMS on the XLR outputs.

When you are in Amp mode you can control the volume with the volume ball on the TT2 or with the remote control’s corresponding buttons. If you want to use headphones you can just plug them in and the TT2 will change outputs accordingly. It also uses different volume levels for the RCA/XLR and headphone outputs. So don’t worry about blowing away your headphones when you plug them in, as long as your previous listening level was safe enough.

You can also dim the lights on the TT2 with the remote control, should the regular setting be too bright for you. When you are listening with headphones you can also change cross-feed settings (X-PHD) to alter the sound a little more. The Hugo TT2 has a total of four different digital filters which you can pick from.

There is one setting missing on the remote control. Which is gain. I can’t set the gain to high or low gain using the infrared remote. So getting up to the TT2 is mandatory for this one.

All in all using the Hugo TT2 is rather easy, especially with the remote control.

I encountered one issue with the Hugo TT2 though. Every now and then when I’m using the USB input, I get a high pitched distortion. This only occurs right at the start of the first song. Then I have to select a different input and change back to USB. When this occurs the TT2 shows a different sample rate than what it is actually fed. The solution to this problem is to turn on the TT2 before the ROCK server. Then everything is fine. I thought it’s worth mentioning, especially if anyone out there is having similar issues.

Chord Electronics Hugo TT2

Sound

I bought the Hugo TT2 primarily to use it in my two-channel system as main DAC. It is fed digital signals by my self-built Roon ROCK server and my CD transport. The Hugo TT2 fires directly into my Schiit Ragnarok II integrated speaker amplifier which power my Kef LS50 speakers. This was my main listening set-up, but I also used different headphones and headphone amplifiers with the TT2. More on that a bit later.

Learn more the Hugo TT2’s sound on page three!

4.4/5 - (265 votes)
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A daytime code monkey with a passion for audio and his kids, Linus tends to look at gear with a technical approach, trying to understand why certain things sound the way they do. When there is no music around, Linus goes the extra mile and annoys the hell out of his colleagues with low level beatboxing.

10 Comments

  • Reply August 12, 2020

    Hugo

    Thanks Linus, great review. I’d be keen to hear your thoughts on filter 1 vs filter 4. I have a tt2 into ttoby into ls50 and i found it very fatiguing. I then went from filter 1 to 4 and all the fatigue went away. It’s where i expected it to be now – ie remarkable. I never found much difference with the hugo2 fillers on headphones but maybe they make a bigger difference once a room is involved??

    Also why no use of the ragnorak 2 headphone amp?

    • Reply August 12, 2020

      Linus

      Hi Hugo,
      thanks a lot for your comment. Much appreciated.
      To be honest, I didn’t play much with the filters and left it mostly on Setting 1, but when I get home and have some time to sit down, I will check Filter 4 out for sure. Thanks for the tip! 🙂

      I am not a big fan of the headphone amp of the Ragnarok II to be frank. It’s a much better speaker amplifier in my opinion. For headphones I like to use the Flux FA-10. It’s exactly what I need and want.

      Hope that helps.
      Cheers!

  • Reply August 12, 2020

    Akshita Sharma

    Thank you for sharing the informative and valuable information.

  • Reply August 22, 2020

    Nico

    Hi Linus, why not get yourself an adapter 2x 3pin XLR to 4 pin XLR for balanced connection? I suspect the Susvara would benefit greatly. I connected my Abyss AB1266 Phi to the rear XLR connectors and the sound became faster, more dynamic and tighter, especially bass. Highly recommended!

  • Reply December 3, 2020

    Jack

    Hi, can you make a comparison between Chord Hugo TT2 and Burson Conductor 3X? I already have the 3X, but quite tempted to upgrade to the TT2. Hope this comment reach you soon.

    • Reply May 21, 2021

      Marco

      Yes please, that would be an interesting one!

  • Reply December 5, 2020

    Nikita Chauhan

    Thanks for sharing informative and valuable content.

  • Reply April 15, 2021

    Keith C Krieger

    Next review has got to be pairing it with the m upscaled.

  • Reply May 9, 2021

    Bob

    So let me understand this correctly, if I use the Hugo TT as a DAC I can’t use the preamp, all I have is lineout? And if I use Hugo TT as a preamp I can’t use the DAC as the selectable input?
    Am I wrong and misunderstanding or do I need an additional DAC and preamp to cover all permutations when using the Hugo TT?

  • Reply November 24, 2021

    Brian

    Hi Linus,

    Have you ever compared the TT2 to something like the Sonnet Morpheus? What has better soundstage?

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