Chord 2go Review - High-end Audio On The Go. 

It’s bulky, unless you wear dungarees 😂

I haven't gotten around to it.

A laptop disconnected from the power should work well. The point of the 2go is if you want to stream to it and not use a direct connection.

It's still worse than wireless. Also, it very often falls back to 660 kbps or 330 kbps, so doesn't end up any better than APTx. In my tests, BT to the Hugo 2 sounded no better than the FiiO M11 I was using for testing, so it's a waste of their effort to even consider it. If it shows up, it'll be in a new product where it is one of the default codecs. Why even care about it when you can use completely lossless wi-fi?

@@Currawong Agreed - BT is there as a convenience feature only.

@@Currawong You can set it to fixed rate 990kbps on almost every device that transmits it. LDAC is becoming the standard, and it's available in far cheaper devices. If it's not hard to implement, why throttle the BT performance in a $1200 adaptor? It's a valid use case, when you can't use the wireless, and they have no real reason to keep using such an outdated standard. I don't think it's unreasonable to still expect better, especially when it's a standalone streaming add-on and not the included BT.

Just because you can fix the rate, doesn't mean it will work without drop-outs. The 2go cannot receive BT audio -- that's only for the Gofigure software. The Hugo 2 can, and it was designed before LDAC became standard. Maybe if a future model is produced, it will have LDAC, since all the BT chips come with it as a standard, but, like I said, it's not the standard usage case scenario -- it's still a lossy codec and you can readily hear the loss through high-end headphones.

@@Currawong my mistake, from the product page for the 2go it seems like the A2DP Bluetooth is integral to the 2go and not just the original Hugo. Given that it's just the original Hugo 2 BT then it makes sense for there to be no LDAC, so I'll rescind that statement. I thought it was added onto by the 2go I do still think it's reasonable to push for products to be better at what they offer. Hopefully in future revisions it's something they look into.

It's a Keychron.

@@Currawong thank you!

1. Other than the USB input (coax or optical) can still be used without disconnecting the 2go. However, the 2go uses WiFi, which is lossless. A computer to the Hugo 2 is more likely to lower SQ through noise entering via the ground plane, unless you use optical. 2. Only one charger is required, eg: the included Hugo 2 charger. It has to be at least a 2.1A charger.

Yes Chord 2go can stream Tidal just keep in mind that Hugo 2 doesnt support MQA.

if you use headphones, just buy Hugo 2. The price difference won't make up for a headphone amp + interconnect combo that matches the performance of Hugo 2.

No. You need a computer as the library/core. The only way to play music on a micro SD card on the Poly or 2go is via DLNA on your phone or a separate device. Streaming that way can work too though.

You'd want an external amp with it, or buy a Qutest + powerful desktop amp of choice.

They've fixed the clicks and pops, though YMMV depending on what wireless access point you use. You need some kind of software to manage playback, either on your computer (eg: Roon) or on an iOS or Android device, yes.

@@Currawong Yes, I read that to play an album, you had to leave an gadget like a phone controlling playback. It would have to be there constantly to make the 2Go play the whole album. .. Or another option was to make albums into playlists. Then I think we could use our control device to make 2Go play the playlist, however then disconnect. The reason to doing that would be to be able to turn off wi-fi on the controlling device (phone etc), to save battery.

By the way, with the strongest recommendation, I think you should get some Shure KSE 1200 for review. I have them and am blown away by them, with Hugo 2 etc. The lucidity, full sound, timbre, and speed; I am not sure I would have believed it.

Well, if you account for the TIDAL "Masters" being sonically degraded music (it has been run through some kind of DSP to make it sound different) Qobuz high-res sounds better.

Most of the time, a Singxer converter.

They aren't really, as Audirvana will work with the 2go. There are other apps, but I haven't looked into them much as, prior to using Roon, I connected DACs directly to my computer.

Do you have evidence of this? Do you know the model of the chip and can confirm it from published specs?

@@Currawong It was published on the official head-if thread and the Roon forums a few months ago while a ton of users were investigating why the WiFi connectivity of the unit is so bad. I’ll have a look and get back to you. Meanwhile, are you able to connect via WiFi and wander round your house while listening the the Hugo2go? Does it work if you upscale using roon DSP? That was the use case I bought it for and it does not work at all because of the terrible WiFi connectivity..

I recall it being mentioned on Head-Fi, but I don't recall a cost and feature comparison of wi-fi chips. Such chips are ubiquitous nowadays and cost almost nothing, so I'm very doubtful about the validity of the accusation. As for up-sampling, you shouldn't use any up-sampling with the Hugo 2, as it will degrade performance. High-bandwidth wireless transmission, such as that for 768k PCM or DSD512 requires a few megabytes/sec of bandwidth, uninterrupted, which will definitely NOT be reliable over wi-fi.

@@Currawong Well, it is advertised as a wireless DAC capable of playing hi-res, so I don't think it's unreasonable to expect it to be able to do just that? Also, I won't argue whether upsampling sounds better or not but there are plenty of people who prefer the sound when upsampled from roon so I don't think it's accurate to state your opinion that it degrades sq as fact. You can see the full chipset analysis here: www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-2go-2yu-wired-wireless-network-streamer-and-s-pdif-adaptor-official-thread.925464/page-225 but the tl/dr version is that the chip only supports a single 20 MHz channel with a max bitrate of 65 Mbps - which in the real world, would equate to about 20 Mbps in utterly ideal conditions, and nothing else using the network, so anything from 384k PCM upwards is simply never going to work over wifi. Had Chord included a higher quality, dual band, 5 GHz chip, this may well be possible. I love the sound and build of my Hugo2Go but given that I can stream hi-res files to my laptop and ipad with no issues at all, I find it unconscionable that a luxury streaming DAC that costs £3000 is hamstrung over wifi by a bargain basement wifi chip and cannot perform it's main function, streaming music, as well as cheap consumer electronics are able to.

You're confusing the Hugo 2 with the 2go in your first statement about high-res. High-res files can be played from the micro-sd card, and the streaming services provided max at 192k PCM. I don't agree that, because a handful of people like to go against the designer's repeated statement about not up-sampling to the Hugo 2, that it's a failure of Chord to provide for a usage case outside the design intent of both the 2go and Hugo 2. Something else you may not have considered is, if a more powerful wifi chip were to be used, would it not severely impact battery life? It is most likely that the actual limitation is battery life, and that dictated what wifi options were suitable.

A Keychron.

They already have, it's called the Mojo + Poly.

Agreed the mojo/poly is for true portability, however for me the Hugo2go combo is perfect, as is usable in every part of my home including the garden and is transportable to other locations for example when I'm on holiday. I wouldn't want the combo any smaller and since having the 2go attached, it seems like it was always part of the device, not something bolted on.

@@Currawong MojoPoly sucks. It doesn't turn off automatically after some idle time, it takes too long to charge and you can't use it while charging. And it can't switch between modes automatically.

Still that much trouble? That's a shame.

So far, the "measurement darlings" tend to produce sound that is flat and un-involving, unless, of course, you just listen to 1kHz sine waves. :)

@@Currawong Its all relates to the chain. Chord dacs without tube amplification and /or good planar's is a formulation for space age sonics. Unfortunately i have not got the recourses to burn good $$$ on chord products.

The ones I have that I can still get are made by Audio Technica. Not sure if you can get them outside Japan.

@@Currawong do they have model id ? Or some identification so I can try to source availability in oz

I found it. Not sure if you can order it overseas, but it's here: www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/gp/product/B0045GZEXI/

@@Currawong thank I found it on zen plus once you add freight to Oz it’s not cheap? Bit it will help with secure connectivity.