Happy New Year 2020!
Starting in this new year, I got this Chord Hugo loan by my friend and I absolutely thrilled on how this things perform in my audio system.
This Chord Hugo on my hand is the earliest model, yet the production is earlier than the Chord Mojo. No wonder at the first look, this device looks quite ancient. Especially for the silver color. Maybe if this comes in black, it will be a different story I guess.
This Chord Hugo still built by solid aluminum chassis just like Mojo. It has good weight and doesn't feel cheap at all. The material have a great finished, no edgy or rough feeling when holding this big portable device. Yes, this is still nominated as a portable device because it is battery operated DAC, preamp & headphones amplifier just like the Mojo.
On the top chassis, it has a scroll control for volume control. The level of the volume control is indicate by the light color. Red for the lowest loudness to purple blue color for the highest loudness.
There is a circle in the middle which you can see through the glass inside. There is three LED light for battery indicator, input position and cross-feed filter position. For this cross-feed filter I will talk about it later. All indicator are indicate by the LED color and I should having some time to used to read it. This LED indicator more complicated than the Mojo for sure.
Peek inside, there is a good wording tells that this Chord Hugo is designed by Rob Watts using pulse array DAC with 26,368 tap WTA filter. You can find the information about this technology explained by himself at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest articles.
Looking to the right side panel, there is input and output connector. The audio line output are located in this side. There are full size RCA connector for line out, two 3.5 mm headphones out, and one 6.3 mm headphones out.
By default this Hugo output is set to the headphones. This can be act as line output as well by holding the cross-feed button while turn on the power switch at the same time. This method is explain on the Hugo manual.
The inputs are digital coaxial input in full size RCA plug, and the optical Toslink input. Those connector are not flushed with the chassis panel which on some cases like big connectors on hi end cables will become problematic to the fitment.
On the left side, starting on the far left, there is a two push buttons. One for manual input selector and another one for choosing cross-fed filter position. Yes, this Chord Hugo doesn't automatic sense the input like Mojo, but you should choose the input manually.
The next micro USB input is for connecting directly to smartphones or PC. Still confusing because there is two micro USB input that one for standard resolution audio files, max 16 bit, and the others is for higher resolution audio files. Why don't just make it one USB input only?
Then the last toggle switch is for power this unit ON. I can tell you to powering this things on is quite difficult because I have big fingers and should dealing with small tiny switch inserted deep the chassis. Then the last connector is for charging DC input. Honestly I prefer the Mojo USB style charging compare to this one. But perhaps because the Hugo is bigger in size, so this full type DC connection is a better implement in this device.
Bluetooth lover will excited to see the logo at the label on the bottom of this unit. This Chord Hugo is support Bluetooth connection but it is not my favorite feature especially for my serious listening session.
So I will skip this Bluetooth feature anyway.
Comparing the size, you will find that this Hugo is big. I guess Hugo means big right? Or the Mojo is actually too tiny? Holding them both is not an issue anyway. So no worries to brings the Hugo or either the Mojo for portable use.
The last things that make the Hugo different compares to Mojo, is the cross-feed filter option. Just like I said earlier, this filter is include to higher grade Chord DAC product like the Chord Dave. You can find the explanation for this technical of the cross-feed filter by open the manual, but for the real sound difference, I really hard to tell the different between cross-feed OFF, step 1, step 2, up to step 3. What I hear is the step 3 cross-feed filter give more ambiance and fuller sound-stage to the music. But the difference is so subtle.
Overall sound for this Chord Hugo is great. It is very musical, detail and presenting the music very coherent in all frequency.
Anyway, while I review this Chord Hugo, my daughter often saw me serious listening the music with this device for quite long time. So she made me this Chord Hugo clone design originally by herself.
So cute:)
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