Chord Hugo TT2 - My experience so far

As an owner of this DAC, I am curious about your mention of the output. I too am using XLR cables and I want to make sure that I understand that you were able to reduce the output form 5v to 2.5v (or so I assume). In looking at the manual, it seems that is only available in amp or headphone mode. If I understand your statement correctly, can you explain in further detail how you accomplish this? To me the Chord manual is pretty vague on this topic.

thank you, and I too had considered the Bricasti M3 but was unable to obtain a sample for audition. I did trade a Cutest in and Have been very happy with the results. But always looking for improvement.

@theo you would typically see a 4v output from XLRs. I’ve switched the DAC to AMP mode, set it Low Gain and attenuated the volume to minus 10 which sounds best with the Boulder integrated. With Coda I like the volume at minus 7 on the TT2. Unfortunately I have no way to measure the voltage at these levels but clearly it is lower than the 5v you get in DAC mode.
I would recommend you try it. But have the amp off and you should not have the signal going into the DAC.
So to summarize ny settings:

Mode - AMP

Gain - LowG

Volume - minus 10

Filter - Fil1

Keep in mind…the DAC mode can work well - it all depends on the input sensitivity of your preamp or integrated. It’s worth a shot to try the above settings. If I am not mistaken, DAC mode provides volume attenuation of minus 5. So start at minus 10 in amp mode. You need to be careful and respect the high output of the TT2 when switching settings. So make sure nothing is playing. 

It might not always work, but logically most of the signal gain should be obtained in quiet environment (preamp or DAC) and not in the power amp (heavy currents, more noise) - that's at least what Benchmark recommends for my DAC3+AHB2 combo.

I had Benchmark DAC 3 set at -10db when I had it (HGC version). It sounded best that way. The 0db setting produced results similar to TT2 in DAC mode although not quiet as bad. I don’t mean any disrespect but recommendations from Benchmark are nothing but basic guidelines. They say USB cables make no difference on their DAC 3.

B.S.

They recommended I run DAC 3 HGC direct to amp bypassing my preamp (Pass Labs) as Pass is too noisy and colored according to them. Not even remotely as good as with preamp. They say XLR cables make no difference. Another false statement.
System synergy is what will determine what works best. Tune iand voice it all by ear and use what works best in your setup.

@audphile1   I agree - it is only recommendation (it works for me).  As for USB, they likely stressed out the fact that in async USB there is no possibility of jitter (since clocks are asynchronous) - ignoring possible indirect source - an electrical noise injected into DAC.

Audphile1, thank you for responding. I probably should have mentioned my pre-amp is an Audio Research LS28SE, I doubt that it makes any difference, but thought I’d throw in to the mix. I will try this and see what results I get, it’s a shame that Chord doesn’t explain this a little more in-depth. But ARC doesn’t make any mention of voltage limitation of inputs in their manual either. 

@theo definitely worth a try. Give yourself some time to adjust to new sound after you make the change. You might get more volume range on the ARC preamp as well
 

audphile1, Yes I plan to listen for at least a week and then switch back. I find that the best comparison is returning to "pre-change" and see if I miss the previous setting. I recently changed out my speaker cables and have been re-adjusting my speaker placement as it made some dramatic changes in room interaction. 

I will let you know my findings, and again thank you for your help and bringing this to my attention.

@theo that is a good plan and is how I usually go about comparing changes. 
please keep me posted