Love the review as always. Good to listen to your scientific approach and research while finding your voice very relaxing. If I had one request, I’d love to see a video where you compare your documented findings on the Neumann KH line of monitors and how they differ, your personal impressions as best you can recall 🙂 The KH80 DSP, KH 310, KH 420. I would eat that up! Thanks any case for your diligent and passionate work as always! -Jesse
That's absurd. A 'good Dell' or even many other PCs with the AD1984 chip sound very nice, but from personal experience I guarantee the Dell OptiPlex 755 sounds totally realistic =) Other models include OptiPlex 330, 360, 760, 780, 960 or Precision T3400, T3500, T5400, T5500, T7400, & T7500, as they use the AD1984 chip that sounds totally natural.
Amir, would you please consider making a 2022 end-of-year RU-vid video of an audio product(s) that meet or exceeded your expectation for price/performance ratio and/or anything that has intrigued you even if you were not able to review it. This years lineup seems to have been a dud! Thanks in advance!
I have a pair of unashamedly class d Hypex Nord mono blocks. I bought them reading up a lot, & one of your reviews, on the stereo power amp around 3 years ago & couldn't be happier. Is it possible to find amps that measure the same, or beyond human perception, & do a community blind test between class d, ab & a? This would be reallly interesting since a lot of people assign a signature to certain classes.
Great review, bit of a mixed bag this one on performance I don't think I will be changing my RME just yet. It does look cheap even the power supply but at least it performs relatively well.
There used to be a banner on the forum that had instructions on how to send you gear to test.. are you putting that on pause for now, or am I missing something? I'd like to send a phono pre in for testing :D Thanks!
Oh, I deleted that a while ago as I thought everyone knew about it. But I will put it back in. For now, please sign up as a member and start a conversation with me and we take it from there.
@@AudioScienceReview Sent a message a few weeks back, but assumed you don't read them too often these days. In the video it looks like you have 20 unread conversations. Thanks for the info!
I remember owning the Mojo (original) and liking the sound well enough on my budget hifi. Then I upgraded to find it noisy beyond excuses. I bought a Qutest and am still using it. Online measurements confirmed my ears. The Mojo was indeed noisy and especially hummy in the lows. To now realise that even more expensive Chord products also suffer from kid's diseases is most disappointing
Amir can u help me here. I purchased a aavik D180 dac. And its pushing 4.5vrms through rca. Quite high. It distorts easily on my av at 2v rated. It has no gain. What can i do to fix this? Thanks
Lots of references to other state of the art DACs at a 1/10th of this price. Where can I find a list of such products? I was looking at this TT2 as option for my 2 channel system. Benchmark DAC3 was another I was considering.
To be significant, scientific tests of perceptual phenomena need to be randomized and applied to a broad set of test subjects. Simply not feasible in general ; but there were tests conducted by some researchers and produced at the Audio Engineering Society, that show the overwhelming majority of users, including audio professionals, can rarely distinguish between a commodity Red Book CD played back by a commodity computer part, and an ultra high end system, or a high-speed analogue master.
Hi Amir, Thanks for this detailed review. It was very informative. I will watch some of your other DAC reviews because I'm in the market for a gently used DAC. I am considering this Cord DAC you reviewed here and others such as a Topping. I have a fairly revealing stereo system that I slowly purchased pre-owned. I was curious to find out the 1 or 2 top DACs that you recomend... based upon both your testing results and personal listening sessions. I'm looking for a DAC that provides an excellent cost-to-performance ratio. I am in the $3,000.00 (US) and under price range for a used DAC. I really appreciate whatever information you can provide me. As you probably know, the used electronics marketplace is now flooded with DACs designed for home use with passive speakers like I use. Thanks Amir, David-
So many forget to include the cost/ratio performance analysis, to which you never fail to take into account. Sure some might say there is no price for the best, but this is still far from the best and overly expensive . Even if most of the details end up being inaudible, at that price range and with the claims of the brand .... good stuff Amir ! Thanks for keeping it real and down to earth ...No place for some religion/sect thing in audio
A week late. Just got a used TT2 last week. Well, at least I can sell it without loosing any money if it's not as good as the DAC in my OPPO blu-ray player. What's the best DAC not made in China?
I have tested some of their products: www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/violectric-hpa-v550-pro-review-pre-amp-headphone-amp.24974/ www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-violectric-hpa-v281-hp-amp.9331/
Amir, I personally wanna thank you for your reviews and efforts - it's so great to have you doing what you do since years and years - just amazing - Thank You very much !!! ❤️🎶🙌 I wanna do mastering and mixing pro audio on headphones like the Audeze LCD-5, MM-500, MX-4, LCD-X and maybe the Stealth that you own. I am searches ng for the right combination of DAC and headphone Amp. Somehow I feel stuck somewhere between RME Adi Pro 2, Ifi Diablo, GS-X Mini, Rupert Neve RNH and theTopping A90D, and considerably fitting DACs. High technical performance is as important as natural sound in depth, transient and frequency presentation to me. Mastering grate sound that is a good balance between technical and musical, inspiring. I also consider to get a hi end studio converter to render the masters thru, like a lavry satvir or merging hapi Really trying to find the right tools. Of course the buget plays a role but is adaptable towards quality and needs,but not for some hidden "magic" that doesn't add up to the real values in ratio for money. I would be so grateful to hear your opinions with all the experience you have. Thank you, Cheerio!
Thanks for the kind words. Best to post on ASR forum and ask for feedback there. For now, you can't go wrong with RME. That is what I use for my everyday desktop DAC and HP amp.
His site is completely useless. Nobody ever does any kind of 'sound quality ranking list' like comparing 'imaging' & 'midrange clarity' & 'bass clarity' & so on so people can choose what they want 2 buy quick & E Z. It's just a troll fest where people compare notes on 'test results = pathetic.
@@Deathrape2001 Can you prove any claims of sound differences like "imaging", "midrange clarity" are actually being heard? Or are we just supposed to take peoples word for it? Can these difference be heard when the listener isnt aware of what equipment they are listening too?
I have RME ADI 2 FS (AKM chip), should I expect much SQ upgrade / improvement with TT2? I'm looking for sound realism (to get some kind of feeling I'm on real concert :D)
You got one of the best DAC/Amp on the market, on options side the best at all, aside from a professional point of view. So really no means of getting a Chord, put that money on other worthy things, like a fine tuning of your room acoustics and speakers (or a good pair of headphones)
Nice to see these bunch of companies are seeying now as '' good but for the money but you can get something better for less money", instead of '' you need to pay the hi-end tax ''.
Yes, I can see why these tests gat such a backlash. When your whole business model of the past 40 years has relied on the customer mostly having to believe your marketing or having to go the the efforts of physically auditioning gear (which is now harder to do). Then you and everyone in the community seeing how poor your product is at a technical level...ouch. Well, just try harder guys.
Hy please can share from your experience with so many dacs and amps . A pair of dac/pre/amp that you like the sound after best measurements or close to the best. I understand that you use for yourself a 1000$ dac with 10.000$ amp. Many thanks for great content and healp in finding better sound with right amount of €$
Hi Amir, I hope you see this message. I know this product is mostly junk for the money it costs but I just purchased the Focal Celestee headphones and would love to get a headphone DAC/Amp for it. Do you have any recommendations? Would also love to see reviews of headphones in the future.
Mr Audio science. So I have a Chord TT and I would like to upgrade to something better and state of the art as you put it so do you have any recommendations ? I’ve always been dubious about the performance and the quality of my Chord TT, The headphone output has never been very good. so I feel it’s time to upgrade any suggestions , Love your show you can’t argue with science. All the best Clint.
I am obviously not Amir and I don’t know much about absolute top end stuff but it’s hard not to recommend toppings high-end gear. Measure great and sound great. Amir has reviews of most of them if not all of them. However, there are many other good brands and models to consider as well, this was just my 2cnts.
I don't have one. One was promised a long time ago but did not come in. If you know someone who owns one, please push them to loan it to me for testing. For now, their products seem to measure well.
Thanks Amir,the saint of audio scientific analyses has given us another thunderbolt of truth, Chord need to drop their prices and get rid of those cheap vulgar housings, looks like a Poundland DAC.
Bottom line: the halcyon days of huge profit DAC/HPAmps are over, eh? The new-and-expensive has worn off of good digital-audio conversion about 2 years ago and designers have devised models of better performance for $200-800 versus this $8700 model. It was a high profit run while it lasted. Me? I'm gonna slide over to playing vinyl a bit more, and telling strangers how much better it is than anything else. They'll buy in (or just think I've lost my everlovin' punkin' like other 'vinylphiles'). Ya jus' caint test vinyl and prove me wrong. :) [That's supposed to be cynical. Jerk that knee, pull out that keyboard and start typin'. I've changed my name and moved to a favela in Brazil.] ..... But I'm STILL waiting for a combo-in-one-box DAC/HPAmp/SpeakerAmp for my desk. Current, fairly priced (MX... for example) models still get terrible reliability reviews all over the Nonsensenet. ..... Topping: wake up your engineering group and get us desk jockeys something that works! 😲
In the listening tests where you determined "there was no discernable difference" was that done via blind A/B testing? I didn't hear that part. Is that information available?
Excellent review Amir. I agree that the price is way overstated, but I think most of the price is in the machining of the housing. Many "hi-end" stuff is about the artistic machining or aesthetic design which is never really practical at best and the measurement is, well, better than mediocre. I have been a design engineer for 50+ years and I must admit, writing an impeccable design/user requirement and exceeding it is not very difficult, especially coming from the aerospace and military industry. For that kind of money, I will design you a product that even your AP will have a hard time measuring.
I agree a lot of money goes toward the case. Here though, the TT2 looks like it is made of plastic. So doesn't give you that luxury feeling that you get out of typical high-end execution. And for sure there is so much low hanging fruit on executing a nice and easy to use interface/design. After all, this is just a DAC and amp without a lot of complicated functionality.
It is very interesting to compare this review with older reviews when this unit was just released. Traditional designers of expensive high end DACs must be worried quite a bit, because products that are orders of magnitude cheaper now have comparable performance. Buying a very expensive DAC is sort of the same as buying the fastest video card for your computer - you pay premium, and before you know it your card is outperformed by cheaper cards.
It's called commoditisation. What was esoteric technology in times past, becomes not only routine, but producible at bulk prices. One Gb of RAM in 1990 cost 50,000 dollars and had the size of a large motherboard. Today you have 64 Gb in your pocket for the price of a meal. There's nothing wrong with this, as this is the natural course of things. Engineers who complain that they aren't getting their effort's worth should simply apply themselves to problems that still need bespoke solutions - of which there are an infinity. DACs are past the tipping point and there's no turning back. Even a supremely well-engineered DAC like that of Bruno Putzeys, is not worth the price, and he knows it himself. It's more a statement ; an itch he was probably glad he dealt with, and in the end, it's a museum piece ; the worthy end of an era ; like valve and core memory-based computers were beautifully engineered but useless today.
Producing a DAC that is 10 times more expensive than the competition, while claiming superior performance--yet it still does not outperform the competition is NOT 'commoditization'. You may loosely wish to use the word to explain what has happened to audio market DACs since, say, the late 80s, but it's needlessly didactic and somewhat practically inaccurate here. Sounds like you are purposely ignoring the value of Amir's review.
@@tdw57 well, I think that he has a point with the term. When Chord started making their high end expensive DACs, quite a while ago now, there wasn't any competition from DACs that were a lot cheaper. Now there is. That's why I think that traditional expensive high end DAC manufacturers should be worried. But you are right that claiming apparently nonexistent superiority in the current field shows either ignorance or - worse - fraudulent intent.
This reminds me of crm guys telling me why I should change my work to make it look their way because data suggests so. End product ends up looking generic and doesn't stand out. Here is data for you in a field where emotion rules.
I own and love my d90se. At these prices typically buyers are looking for some kind of flavor to the sound to balance out some part of their chain not surprised at the measurements. The people with the money and alot of other gear don't care. The people that own gear that measure better at much cheaper price scoff at it thinking that users and owners are delusional. I really wish that a test music track one day can be used for measurements.
For some that is true. But there are many others who want reliable data on the performance of these products. I was watching another youtube review where the guy claimed the TT2 was better than D90se. I then see a guy in comments saying he was consider the two and was now going to buy the TT2! Folks are influenced easily.
DAC and amps are not tone control, they are supposed to transmit a signal. People paying insane prices for a magic box that provide "warmth" are delusional. Tone control can be achieved perfectly with DSP for free.
So happy to see that my incoming 200 USD DX3 Pro + that is sitting in customs right now has better performance then Chord products that cost like a usable car.
Chord unfortunately continues the tradition of overpriced British audio gear. The device is generally well engineered but in no way justifying its asking price. The reality is that this level of DAC has now become commodity, and it's a good thing. Maybe they should sell the unit gold plated with encrusted diamonds, for the "lifestyle" crowd.
@@alkestos - well for many rich people showing off with bling bling is very important - helps them to cultivate their imago - expensive cars for example. To me Chord was always more a bling bling brand than anything else - I prefer understated performance.
Comparing a UK made product to Chifi gear then saying it's expensive is not fair my friend . Do you realise how bad UK is now for trying to produce stuff it's not like USA where you can get cheap raw materials free next day delivery.
Because then you would add room acoustics into the equation which would be different for everyone and which clouds the actual sound produced by the device. Also this was a headphone amplifier.
The gold standard for detecting very small impairments is headphones. The ones I use block outside noise and have the lowest distortion of any transducer. As I noted in the review, Rob Watts, the designer likes the very headphone I used for testing. That aside, I am testing the headphone amplifier in this. So using headphone is natural.
:) I was not going to do a video review of TT2. But then saw a number of youtubers gushing over its "magic" that I decided to do the review here. I will post other product reviews in the future.
There’s no magic like audio magic. No other tech branch has so much superstition, false beliefs, and myths surrounding it as high-end audio. It boggles the mind.
Though I think I would like to have seen your face while reviewing the crazy oversampler they have that raises the bit rate by like 6x. But please don't. It isn't worth it.
As Woflgang said, I am not in charge of that. It is the measurements that determine that. Company is driven by that so it is surprising that they are not able to keep up with the best there is. Audio market remains quite irrational this way as far as cost vs performance.
I'd love to see any of the industry (career) audiophiles, you know the one's I mean....blind testing a £600 and then a £6000 DAC!! I'll show my arse on the town hall steps if they can tell the difference!!
No. They are simply living in the past. They have no intent to defraud you - they are trying to make a good living designing and selling stuff that has now become irrelevant.
This was interesting and provocative, as Amir’s reviews tend to be. But, I don’t know what we are to come away with. Is Amir correct, and all of this high-end stuff just waste of money? And, moreover, are we all just people with deep pockets, company fan boys, and are we just shelling out the money mindlessly? Is there truly no difference in performance and this is just audio jewelry? Amir says “It’s all about measurements”, whereas many in the industry claim otherwise. Are others fooling themselves, hearing things that are simply not there, or ??? What I would love to see is Amir attending Can Jam events and doing round tables with manufactures, like Chord Electronics, to “try” to get to the bottom of it all. Subjective aspects aside, seems unbelievable that thousands of people lack sense and love to waste money, when they happen to be so passionate about audio.
@i-mm-o res I get you, and I wasn’t thinking that Amir needs to prove anything, but it’s just good citizenship for the industry. Even the DC Stealth at $4K, some might call a wast of money. Yet, Amir put his own money down for it. Also companies like Dan Clark, Audeze, Abyss, and many others have Chord products on their tables at industry events, so that their wares can be heard through them. Why would they do that? Do they not know better, are they paid off, or are they just catering to the sheep that think a $4K headphone should not be driven by a $500 DAC/AMP combo? Is the whole [or at-least most of the] industry in on the deception?
I have only tested a fraction of high-end products so can't make a statement about all of them. I can say with products like this that I have tested, none of the marketing magic is there. Please note that I also listened to the device so it was not all measurements. This aside, yes, it is so easy to arrive at wrong conclusion about performance of an audio device in the manner other people evaluate them (online and youtube reviewers). As noted, those tests need to be blind and controlled to be reliable. Until then, prudence calls for relying on what we can prove with measurements against unreliable subjective reviews.
@@AudioScienceReview Fair enough, Amir. I just think that we can all stand to benefit, if we would continue the dialogue, otherwise we are going to continue to have [camps]. 😉 ✌️
How are you gonna debate with someone who brings nothing but “I can hear/feel it” to the table? You can’t disprove their subjective beliefs with measurements especially if they don’t believe that science is any use in this case. As long as the subjective crowd are not willing to attend (double)-blind testing, there’s no ground to be gained.
How things look is a very personal opinion. It should not affect a very unbiased scientific review and documented measurements. One can certainly have a bias how well the equipment is made in terms of fit and finish. Outside of that it is not an unbiased scientific opinion. This channel is absolutely amazing however staying above the personal feel is a necessary paradigm.
@@amirmajidimehr2283 Thank you Amir for your reply. I thought that scientists are generally unaffected how things look only how well things work, how well they measure and how well they are designed ergonomically. My bad! Sincere apologies!
i wonder about your energy testing this kind of ugly Chords. For me it is like a Rolex watch. Its ok, does what i think it should do, but for the same price i get a bunch of high end Seiko models which are in the case of a Spring Drive the top end of the mechanical world. so for the money of this Chord i can have a bunch of RME, and Loxjie units and a set of Headphones and a set of active Monitors without having less quality. thats just crazy. i just always wonder what the chord customers expect from them weird looking boxes. ;-)
I have to test them because a bunch of other youtubers are convincing people there is some kind of magic here. Without a dose of objective reality, that myth is sold to people resulting in folks buying them for wrong reasons. "Good news" is that we are done testing all of their DAC products so onto other things! :)
@@AudioScienceReview it’s not your problem though if people are buying based on hearsay but regardless, I think these reviews serve a wider purpose, that is, showing everyone that all things that glitter aren’t necessarily gold!
@@AudioScienceReview Can you do Mcintosh products? I'm curious about their C53 preamp and some of their amps. I've always been looking through your site hoping one has been measured. I found the new MA12000 to have a very high noise floor. The C53 I got has a higher/louder noise floor than my 900usd marantz. Makes me wish Mcintosh could hold themselves to a higher standard.
Interestly what seems to measure extremely well, never seems to sound very good, for me it is all about the music and having tried so many different DACs, little at this price point sounds so good. $300- $700 headphone amp/DACs sound poor in comparision, but if you are all about the measurements and not the music, then you can save yourself a lot of money, best of luck....
I don’t put much stock in this measuring game, it’s amusing but you can find 50yo equipment that measures well yet is obviously inferior to today’s technology. Just find a decent amp or headphone that doesn’t break the bank and has alot of real verified people praising it. You can go nuts looking at these gobbedly gook graphs all day.
I listened to the Chi-fi stuff that is rated so high in the site and find it to sound like dog crap, how can this be as the measurements are so good???? 😂. I don't know what the deal is with all the sterile-dead-sounding excellent-measuring equipment.
The deal is that they lack the reactive interference "coloration" of the sound (that's something Amir unfortunately doesn't measure or talk about in his reviews), the point is that you can get whatever sound you want from a neutral "uncolored and sterile" device and with a little knowledge adjust the sound just as you like it.
Well, not everyone has good enough ears to perceive the beauty of transparent sound. Or perhaps the rest of your gear is so poorly resolving that you can't hear what they do! Or perhaps you are conditioned to think what you wrote, from reading uniformed opinions elsewhere. You pick which is the case while the rest of us enjoy the transparency of our gear that allows us to hear what is really in the music....
I don’t understand, why you would want your gear to color the music? With transparent gear you can use dsp, or whatever you wish to modify the output the way you feel like, without being tied to it on the hardware level. Some distortion can sound good, but after all it is distortion, not like “the artist intended it to sound**”, and you are now forced to listen to it that way even with songs that may not sound great with that kind of distortion. Maybe that’s your cup of tea, but I personally prefer to have fully transparent audio chain I can add effects into if I feel like it, still always being able to listen the song the way it’s coming out of the source. **I realise this whole claim is invalid for multiple reasons, but it’s used as one of the justifications for MQA etc.
" you don't come to my reviews to hear about my opinion of the hardware itself" So why bother with your negative comments about the hardware then? It colours your subsequent statements about the subjective performance and the relevance of your measurements with respect to performance where appropriate.
hahahhahaha just to claim that the Chord Hugo TT2 "sounds like any other dac" is just hilarious... when are you start listening to music? Of course if you test this dac in a budget system like I see on the desk in the video, of course you don't hear any difference.
😂😂🤣🤣😂😂Your crazy if you think sound quality is measured in specs. You look like you should be old enough to remember the Japanese spec wars in the seventies when the ultimate specs delivered that bleached & bland sound that lasted a decade, they finally came to their senses in the eighties and realised they haven’t the tools to correlate music and realism with specifications. Specs should only be used to test if the products are not broken and the manufacturer has met it’s design brief. Your so blinked, if you just want to really on specs just put all your products together that have all the best in class specs and see what a synergistic sounding mess you have, good luck with that. 😂🤣😂
@@analogueman5364 Sounds like you have never seen Rob Watts talk. Suggest you do that and see the sea of technical terms/measurements he throws at you.
These 'test' are so laughable and at the same time a bit sad. Fortunately, the author represents a minority and I wonder if there is even one music lover among them.
Or you could jsut get a cheap or free Dell OptiPlex 330, 360, 755, 760, 780, 960 or Precision T3400, T3500, T5400, T5500, T7400, & T7500, as they use the AD1984 chip that sounds totally realistic, & the analog section is GR8 2, though not quite as awesome as the headphone amp in the IBM S50 =)
