If you own one of Chord Electronics' excellent Hugo 2 portable DAC/amps (£1,800), then you have now been joined by acclaimed British sound engineer/producer Dom Morley.

Morley is the latest award-winning music professional to embrace Chord Electronics' class-leading proprietary digital-to-analogue conversion technology for studio use. It follows Metropolis Mastering's Tim Young who uses the company's flagship DAC/headphone amp, DAVE, and Metropolis Studios' Stuart Hawkes who also uses Hugo 2.

Commenting on his Hugo 2, Morley told StereoNET:

The Hugo 2 sounds as good as everything that I have in my studio… it makes life easy, and it makes life simple. I use these (Hugo 2s) outside of the studio as well… the Hugo 2 can plug into my laptop, it sounds as good as being in my studio, but it also has a couple of features that are quite useful if you're monitoring on headphones.

Dom's career started at DEP International Studio in the late 1990s and progressed to Metropolis Studios, engineering for producers including Tony Visconti and Mark Ronson. His work with Ronson, on the Amy Winehouse album Back to Black, won him the 'Record Of The Year' Grammy Award in 2008. Since then, Morley has become a freelance engineer and producer working with such artists as Sting, Adele, Grinderman, Kate Walsh, and The Police. Other works include engineering or mixing for Rag'n'Bone Man, The Staves, Rumer, Keane, Birdy, Lemon Jelly, Jeff Beck, Sting, I Am Kloot, The Verve, Live8 (DVD) and Underworld.

Comprising a class-leading transportable DAC, headphone amp and digital preamp, Chord Electronics' multi-award-winning Hugo 2 is a complete and compact bijou package. Furthermore, the Chord Hugo 2 benefits from being either mains powered or, better still, battery-powered for over seven hours from one charge, thanks to 2x rechargeable custom Enix Energies 3.7V 9.6Wh Li-ion (lithium-ion, 2600mAh) batteries. The latter naturally bypasses any nasties coming in through the mains.

The device offers four digital inputs (optical, coaxial and HD USB) plus extended-range Bluetooth, with high-resolution file playback up to 768kHz and up to DSD512 (Octa DSD), via its HD USB input. Analogue outputs include 2x RCA, plus 3.5mm and 6.35mm headphone outputs.

Additional features include a four-function switch filter and a digital crossfeed function for headphone users that offers three operation modes.

Price and availability

Hugo 2 is available now priced at £1,800. The Hugo 2 is also streaming-capable and can be fed by microSD cards, thanks to the addition of the StereoNET Wildcard Award winning 2go streamer/server (£995), also available now.

For more information, check out Chord Electronics.