Kyle / MrHeeHo
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2018
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I assume measuring the M2s would be just as difficult
They are just as heavy but much less slippery and less tall. As such, they would be easier to manage, in relative sense. We used to have a pair at work but no longer.I assume measuring the M2s would be just as difficult
I have always wanted to have a forklift. This may be the opportunity. It will even be tax deductible business expense!
I read you loud and clear, no pressure. I'll bring it up again when "this" is "over"
Looking forward to the data! It should be interesting to see how they fit compared to the new Revel "Be" story.
Some of you should get Pulitzer award for the fiction you write. I have not at all dumped on Chord DACs. Here is an example:Ok, here’s my take on Amir. I respect the fact that he really trashed some of the Chord products Almost every reviewer that critiques them gives them absolutely top marks. Amir, however, is highly critical of the Dave and especially that add on, the chord scaler. After that review I don’t see manufacturers running at him with their high end products.He does say,however, that he can only review what members submit to him.A lot of guys who have invested huge money in their gear wouldn’t feel good about it getting trashed. I know I wouldn’t. Just a couple of things he does that make me wonder a bit. Instead of doing comparisons with some lesser piece of gear and not referring to any brand I keep hearing the name TOPPING coming up. Check the number of videos you hear that name come up.. Another one I hear a lot is BENCHMARK. I also feel he is a big admirer of the HARMON group. Has anyone seen him trash a Revel product. Think he’s be willing to dump on his Salon 2’s if they didn’t measure up. Makes you wonder about reviewer’s If that highly touted Chord Dave and Scaler didn’t measure up. Why was it that none of these golden ears didn’t hear it. Maybe our buddy at GR research had a point. Just Saying. Art
Conclusions
Putting aside the functionality and look of the unit, the electronic performance is generally excellent. [...] For multiple reasons, from design to cost and performance, the Chord Hugo TT2 is not for me so I can't recommend it. If you own it though and it is a sunk cost, then you have a high performance DAC+Amp so I see no reason to be worried about it.
Conclusions
As a portable DAC+headphone amplifier, the Hugo 2 has superb performance. As a Desktop product, its USB noise sensitivity is disappointing but otherwise performance is very good. Mind you, desktop products at far, far lower costs run circles around it. So if that is your application, I highly suggest you look elsewhere.
As a portable product, I can highly recommend the Chord Hugo 2. For desktop, it is a pass for me especially at the astronomically high retail cost.
Of note, Harman has not supplied me one single piece of equipment to review. I have literally had to purchase my own samples including the expensive Revel F328Be. I asked for a review sample and they basically politely told me go lost.Conclusions
After seeing rather poor performance form many AV products, many of us were holding hope that Arcam would do better. Company has a great heritage of caring about measurements and superb performance. Alas, whatever pedigree was there, is no longer found. Maybe they and us are victim of one million logos on these devices, forcing the project to be mostly software/firmware development and hardware execution has become an afterthought. Regardless, for a multi-thousand dollar device, our expectation should be very well engineered AVR but we don't remotely get that.
In some sense, the AVR10 is worse than the last generation AVR390 which had great amplification stage. Seems like Arcam took the only thing that was good there and messed that up too.
Needless to say, I cannot recommend Arcam AVR10.
And what would you do if, subsequent to such a return and cancellation of review, an individual loaned you his or her copy of the same product, for review?As to companies not sending me product, a $20K DAC was sent to me for testing by a high-end company. Alas, it measured very poorly and I let them know and cancelled the review (a courtesy I offer to companies that send me products).
lol. I'm not even going to pick this apart.Ok, here’s my take on Amir. I respect the fact that he really trashed some of the Chord products Almost every reviewer that critiques them gives them absolutely top marks. Amir, however, is highly critical of the Dave and especially that add on, the chord scaler. After that review I don’t see manufacturers running at him with their high end products.He does say,however, that he can only review what members submit to him.A lot of guys who have invested huge money in their gear wouldn’t feel good about it getting trashed. I know I wouldn’t. Just a couple of things he does that make me wonder a bit. Instead of doing comparisons with some lesser piece of gear and not referring to any brand I keep hearing the name TOPPING coming up. Check the number of videos you hear that name come up.. Another one I hear a lot is BENCHMARK. I also feel he is a big admirer of the HARMON group. Has anyone seen him trash a Revel product. Think he’s be willing to dump on his Salon 2’s if they didn’t measure up. Makes you wonder about reviewer’s If that highly touted Chord Dave and Scaler didn’t measure up. Why was it that none of these golden ears didn’t hear it. Maybe our buddy at GR research had a point. Just Saying. Art
It hasn't happened. In a couple of cases, the person had not yet bought it and I warned them about my testing and they went a different way. If it does happen the way you mention, then I will retest and publish the report.And what would you do if, subsequent to such a return and cancellation of review, an individual loaned you his or her copy of the same product, for review?
Clips of what? Videos? If so, I have done very few videos on Topping. For reviews, the company sends me everything they make so they account for certain amount of volume. But so does their direct competitor, SMSL. What are you suggesting? That I penalize them for their willingness to send me products that perform great engineering just because other companies don't try to do what they do?I am sure you have reviewed a lot of similarly great little dacs but like it or not that is the name that comes up repeatedly in you clips.
Welcome to ASR, though from this post (in a thread about Amir's speakers, BTW) it sounds like you joined just to trash the place, and/or him. Manufacturers don't provide him with products, or rarely, we (the members) do, making this one of the most impartial sites around. A plus IMO.Ok, here’s my take on Amir. I respect the fact that he really trashed some of the Chord products Almost every reviewer that critiques them gives them absolutely top marks. Amir, however, is highly critical of the Dave and especially that add on, the chord scaler. After that review I don’t see manufacturers running at him with their high end products.He does say,however, that he can only review what members submit to him.A lot of guys who have invested huge money in their gear wouldn’t feel good about it getting trashed. I know I wouldn’t.
Topping did well in tests, but you can also find several threads discussing their issues (problems). Nothing's perfect. Benchmark components and Revel speakers have done very well on objective tests, but other Harman (not "HARMON") products not so much. Particularly their receiver/AVR lines, which have been ranked poorly by Amir (and others).Just a couple of things he does that make me wonder a bit. Instead of doing comparisons with some lesser piece of gear and not referring to any brand I keep hearing the name TOPPING coming up. Check the number of videos you hear that name come up.. Another one I hear a lot is BENCHMARK. I also feel he is a big admirer of the HARMON group. Has anyone seen him trash a Revel product. Think he’s be willing to dump on his Salon 2’s if they didn’t measure up. Makes you wonder about reviewer’s If that highly touted Chord Dave and Scaler didn’t measure up. Why was it that none of these golden ears didn’t hear it. Maybe our buddy at GR research had a point. Just Saying. Art
Speaker measurements are authoritative but not 100% definite. There are characteristics of speakers which we can't fully quantify yet. I say predictive ability of measurements is about 80% for speakers. Indeed, I have liked speakers that didn't measure well in a few instances. And a couple that measured well but I did not like.You haul them out do all your measurements and they turn out very poorly.And according to your theory if they measure poorly they should sound that way. Would you want to air that video. It could shoot all kinds holes in the old listening and measuring theories.
Conclusions
No, you would not run out and buy the Mark Levinson No 360S today.