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"There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind," Duke Ellington is famously supposed to have said. But that doesn't tell us how to recognize "good music," and it doesn't define good. Nor will this essay. Many have described the music of, say, Mozart or J.S. Bach with such phrases as the music of heaven or the mind of God or—especially Bach's music—that it embodies the basic structure of the universe/existence/reality. I've said such things myself. But if such analogies are to be made, I think they better suit Haydn. Any god I would think worthy of worship would not be pious,…
The British company Chord Electronics has always seemed to me to be audio's crazy uncle: Crazy like a fox, maybe, but definitely marching to their own tune. Their casework design often borders on the gratuitously provocative, challenging audiophiles' ideas about good taste. Yet many of my audio pals swear by the sound of Chord components, and I've heard them shine in many respectable showrooms.
The lineage of Chord's new Hugo TT DAC and headphone amplifier can be traced through several typically idiosyncratic Chord products, including the QBD76 HDSD DAC, Chordette QuteHD DAC, and Hugo…
Then JA asked if I'd like some more DACs to compare. First to arrive was the Auralic Vega, then Ayre Acoustics' QB-9DSD. A few weeks later, Philip O'Hanlon, of distributor On a Higher Note, asked if I'd like to hang out with the Luxman DA-06, which Art Dudley reviewed in the July 2014 issue. Add to that growing stack my trusty Benchmark DAC2 HGC, and I was searching for a way out of the DAC maze.
Relief came in the form of Tony Holt, cofounder of the Central Coast Audio Club. We quickly devised a plan for comparing several DACs with a custom Pipeline set—as in the surf tune "Pipeline,"…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Desktop D/A converter and headphone amplifier with Bluetooth receiver. Inputs: optical TosLink (24/192), coaxial RCA (24/384), driverless USB (16/44/48), HD USB (32/384, DSD128), A2DP/aptX Bluetooth (16/44/48). Outputs: two ¼" (6.35mm) headphone jacks, 1?8" (3.5mm) headphone jack, 1 pair stereo phono (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR). Power supply: 12V 0.5A. Lots of multicolored lights. No other specifications supplied.
Dimensions: 9.2" (235mm) W by 1.8" (45mm) H by 8.8" (225mm) D. Weight: 6.6 lbs (3kg).
Finishes: Black, Silver.
Serial number…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Apple MacBook Pro computer (2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) running OS 10.10.4, Roon V1 Build 30, JRiver Media Center 19, iTunes 12, Amarra Computer Music Player, VLC, Reaper 4.78, XLD; Western Digital NAS Device (2TB); Oppo Digital BDP-103 universal BD player; Meridian Sooloos Control 15 music server (QNAP TS-669 Pro NAS); Apple iPad Air & iPod Touch 1G & iPhone 6.
Digital Processors: AudioQuest DragonFly USB DAC, Auralic Vega, Ayre Acoustics QB-9DSD, Benchmark DAC1 USB and DAC2 HGC, Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS,…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Chord Hugo TT with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"). Sources were S/PDIF on TosLink and coaxial from the SYS2722, and USB from my 2012 MacBook Pro running on battery power. (I didn't test the Bluetooth performance.) Macintosh's USB Prober utility reported the Chord's product string as "HugoTT" from "Chord Electronics Ltd," and confirmed that the USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. Except where noted, all measurements were taken from the Chord's balanced outputs.
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Nuvistors—miniature, small-signal, vacuum tubes made of metal and ceramic—were introduced by RCA in 1959, at the dawn of the transistor revolution. RCA used them throughout the 1960s in its New Vista line of television sets, mostly in the tuner section. But by the early 1970s, solid-state devices had all but replaced tubes, nuvistors included (with a few notable exceptions). Ampex based the electronics of its well-regarded, late-'60s MR-70 open-reel tape deck on nuvistors, which were also used in microphone preamplifiers—in both cases for their very low noise and reputation for reliability…
One time, a cable manufacturer added to my system, one by one, various of his cable models. After each successive installation, we listened to the same recording. When several of his cables had been installed, he exclaimed, "Now it's starting to sound like music!"
"I've got news for you," I said. "It was sounding like music before your cables were installed. Please—I've been doing this for almost 30 years. Save that line for a kid, okay?"
Sure enough, when we first played music through the Nu-Vista 800, Michaelson gave me that old, familiar look of "Well! There you go!" While I…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Hybrid integrated amplifier using both nuvistors and bipolar transistors. Tube complement: 4 JAN 7586. Inputs: 4 pairs unbalanced (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR). Line-level outputs: 1 pair fixed (RCA), 1 pair variable (RCA). Speaker connections: 2 pairs 4mm banana plug/binding posts. Output power: 330Wpc into 8 ohms (25.2dBW). Output voltage: 52V RMS, 20Hz–20kHz; onset of clipping, 147V peak–peak. Damping factor: 200. THD+N (typical): <0.005%, 20Hz–20kHz. Signal/noise: >107dB, A-weighted. Input impedance: 40k ohms. Frequency response: 10Hz–30kHz…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn turntable, Cobra tonearm, Castellon stand; TechDAS Air Force Two turntable; Graham Engineering Phantom Elite, Kuzma 4Point, Swedish Analog Technologies tonearms; Air-Tight PC-1 Magnum Opus, Fuuga, Lyra Atlas & Etna, Miyajima Labs Zero (mono) & Madake, Ortofon Anna cartridges.
Digital Sources: Lynx Hilo A/D–D/A converter; Meridian Sooloos Digital Media System; Simaudio Moon Evolution 650D CD transport–DAC; Pure Vinyl, VinylStudio LP-ripping software.
Preamplification: Ypsilon Electronics MC-10L…