Chord Hugo 2 USB DAC and headphone amp

Been listening for week or so while on vacation in Turks and Caicos. Did a quick test at home with Roon. Everything worked as expected. So far, big step up from Mojo and after very short listen in my main rig, a more modest, but not insignificant step up from 2Qute. Anyway, amazing portable DAC. Can’t stop listening to it. Here I am listening by the pool.

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I have the same DAC and it’s a big improvement over my old Hugo but I’m puzzled by the term Roon Ready. I use mine with a microRendu, so with that addition it can be used with Roon but the DAC by itself has no ability I’m aware to connect to a network and act as a Roon endpoint without another device in between it and the network that is the Roon endpoint. What am I missing?

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Yeh at this stage (until a RoonReady Hugo 2 Poly with WiFi comes along) it’s just a USB DAC (that works with Roon).

A great sounding DAC though.

Agreed this USB DAC is not Roon Ready (it does not support RAAT network protocol) I’ve updated the topic’s title to reflect.

Hi @gurerph,

Thanks for that image, I just had a look and I see that too on their site: https://chordelectronics.co.uk/product/hugo-2/

However as far as I can see, looking at the features list, there is no network connection or support for RAAT, so it can’t be a Roon Ready Device, but it may be Roon Tested. It’s probably just a marketing slipup.

I’ll leave a tag for @Mike / @Brian to follow up with Chord, should Roon wish to.

Thanks. We’ll follow up with them.

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Hi there. When connecting to the Hugo 2 via USB, can you control the volume from Roon? How about through a MicroRendu or other Roon Bridge?

I believe that the Chord Hugo 2 is Roon Ready in the sense that its companion add on unit will provide the Roon endpoint when they release it. In the same way that the Mojo has its Poly for a Roon Endpoint.

Hi @Ian_spector ,

As a combination that may be, but I still think it’s a bit of stretch to state that the Hugo 2 is Roon Ready.

I just had a quite look the Chord site again, and it looks like they have updated the Hugo 2 site page and removed the Roon ready Reference now.

Has a ‘poly’ unit for the Hugo2 been announced?

Nothing yet

Do you know if Poly (I have Mojo) will play nicely with Roon? RAAT maybe?

It says it’s Roon Ready, so that means it supports RAAT, right?

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I wrote here about the remarkable simplification afforded by the Hugo 2.

Wrt Roon Ready, I use the iPad for the network connection.

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