[daveyston23]

What DAP are you using? Amplifiers can be very sensitive to radio frequency interference like a mobile phone. If I get my iPhone within a few feet of my RSA Lighting I pick up the RF interference.

 
Just using MBP with Audirvana -> Chord Hugo -> se846
 
Such a stark contrast compared to the Woo Audio WA7. After switching to the Hugo from the WA7, there seems to be crazy hissing going on.

 

[daveyston23]

My loan ex-demo Hugo unit (now posted off) had hiss through SE846 when no music was playing. This disappeared in all but the most quiet passages of songs.

Would not however describe it as "a lot" of hiss. By virtue you cannot hear hiss when music playing it cannot be described as "a lot". See for example Fiio amps which are quite hissy with a variety of iem in my experience.

Due to the status of the unit it is difficult to say further and I am informed by a dealer they do not encounter hiss with their later build demo unit

 
Phew..glad to know I'm not hearing things.
 
I think you're right regarding the absolute level of hissing. Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with hissing IEMs. This is pretty much my first experience with it. I guess I'm just used to a really dead silent background with my full size cans and the low level of background noise just really stood out from the beginning. I'm pretty sure I can live with it, because as you say, you don't really notice it when the music starts playing.

 

[truckdriver]

  Amazing how some hear hiss on the same units I have and I dont hear any hiss. I used the 801 many times and I am using the X3 with the 846 daily for 2 hrs a day and have yet to hear any hiss. Well I have not heard any hiss on any of my earphones. Crossing Fingers now.

 
I don't know either why some hear hiss and others don't. But, we have people here who use the white filter (or no filter) and listen to music with strident guitar play at moderate (to loud) levels. I can't imagine doing that, so.....

 

[Sound Eq]

   
I don't know either why some hear hiss and others don't. But, we have people here who use the white filter (or no filter) and listen to music with strident guitar play at moderate (to loud) levels. I can't imagine doing that, so.....

no hiss with chord hugo, but i am using fiio x5 and sometimes my iPod touch as players 

 

[hertzsogood]

   
I don't know either why some hear hiss and others don't. But, we have people here who use the white filter (or no filter) and listen to music with strident guitar play at moderate (to loud) levels. I can't imagine doing that, so.....

Haha no filters thats daring which I am not well not when dealing with electronics such as Earphones, amps and daps. I am ok with the Blue stock filter. At the store the demo 846 has the White filter because many in Hong Kong prefer brighter earphones to play Japanese and Korean Pop music. The white filter was nice but I will just leave the blue filter in place.

 

[truckdriver]

  no hiss with chord hugo, but i am using fiio x5 and sometimes my iPod touch as players 

I know absolutely nothing about the Chord Hugo. I suspect (though) that a device designed to power full sized headphones may not pair well with a 9 ohm earphone.
 
If you are suggesting that the Hugo is merely passing the hiss on from the player to the earphone, I wouldn't know anything about that either.

 

[daveyston23]

  no hiss with chord hugo, but i am using fiio x5 and sometimes my iPod touch as players 

 
Hi mate, I see you're a fellow Hugo + 846 owner 

 
If you don't mind, I would greatly appreciate it if you could try out a little test: if you disconnect the source, and just power on the hugo with the 846 connected, do you notice any background noise? 

 

[Sound Eq]

   
Hi mate, I see you're a fellow Hugo + 846 owner 

 
If you don't mind, I would greatly appreciate it if you could try out a little test: if you disconnect the source, and just power on the hugo with the 846 connected, do you notice any background noise? 

ok i did u ur test and i turned off the source and only kept the shure 846 connected and raised the volume of the chord and no hiss, it weird why u have a hiss, do u have another iem to see if the hiss coming from hugo 

 

[daveyston23]

  I know absolutely nothing about the Chord Hugo. I suspect (though) that a device designed to power full sized headphones may not pair well with a 9 ohm earphone.
 
If you are suggesting that the Hugo is merely passing the hiss on from the player to the earphone, I wouldn't know anything about that either.

 
I think the Hugo was designed to drive both full sized cans and IEMs. It has an output impedance of 0.075 ohm (according to its website), so one would assume it works well with sensitive IEMs. I've noticed that the Hugo has been showcased at meets with IEMs such as those from the Noble line. 

 

[daveyston23]

  ok i did u ur test and i turned off the source and only kept the shure 846 connected and raised the volume of the chord and no hiss, it weird why u have a hiss, do u have another iem to see if the hiss coming from hugo 

 
Thanks heaps for trying it out!!
 
Did you hear anything at all when the 846 was connected to the Hugo with no source? Or was it just dead silent? Because I'm definitely hearing noise even on the lowest volume and in fact, the noise is around the same level no matter where the volume is at.
 
Unfortunately, I've got no other IEMs. But when I listen to the 846 straight out of the iPod without music, all I get is a dead silent, beautiful background.

 

[truckdriver]

  Haha no filters thats daring which I am not well not when dealing with electronics such as Earphones, amps and daps. I am ok with the Blue stock filter. At the store the demo 846 has the White filter because many in Hong Kong prefer brighter earphones to play Japanese and Korean Pop music. The white filter was nice but I will just leave the blue filter in place.

 
It could be the case that FiiO put out a firmware update lately that fixed the hiss issue of the X3. I had the X3 last year. It would only require a change in software to fix hissing before music plays (and between songs). Viper4Android does this with Android devices. It merely cuts all sound as soon as a song goes off and there is no sound until a song starts.

 

[truckdriver]

   
I think the Hugo was designed to drive both full sized cans and IEMs. It has an output impedance of 0.075 ohm (according to its website), so one would assume it works well with sensitive IEMs. I've noticed that the Hugo has been showcased at meets with IEMs such as those from the Noble line. 

 
All these low impedance devices make me a little nervous about connecting them. The Sony ZX1 and iPod Touch make a little clicking noise when the amp goes off that is when I feel it is safe to disconnect. The iPod makes a slight connection noise, however. The ZX1 made no noise at all when reconnecting after the amp goes off. I turned the DX90 off to reconnect the 846. I just kept thinking about the sensitive electronics in these devices. The Note 3 (with the attenuator) makes no noise connecting or disconnecting.

 

[hertzsogood]

Well with my DX100 everything had a pop when I turned it off so I would remove my earphones then turn it off.

 

[Sound Eq]

   
Thanks heaps for trying it out!!
 
Did you hear anything at all when the 846 was connected to the Hugo with no source? Or was it just dead silent? Because I'm definitely hearing noise even on the lowest volume and in fact, the noise is around the same level no matter where the volume is at.
 
Unfortunately, I've got no other IEMs. But when I listen to the 846 straight out of the iPod without music, all I get is a dead silent, beautiful background.

here for me its dead silent, i wonder what is causing the hiss you hear . I even raised the volume of hugo to max and no hiss. And I am the first that would detect hiss as hiss drove me crazy in my car system and haunted me for 2 months till i found the cause. so the first thing i check is the hiss then everything related to sq

 

[Audiowood]

   
Hi mate, I see you're a fellow Hugo + 846 owner 

 
If you don't mind, I would greatly appreciate it if you could try out a little test: if you disconnect the source, and just power on the hugo with the 846 connected, do you notice any background noise? 

I just try the exact same set up as yours. MBP 15" + Chord Hugo + SE846 = Zero hiss.
 
Here is what I tried in my office this morning. I close my door and make sure my colleague talks quietly, so room is dead quiet.
There is an almost inaudible hiss.. very very faint. Almost nothing.. I did not really hear hiss, I heard a sense of space instead of hiss. This is done with music pause and volume at max.
 
I think its better to send it back for a re-check. The chord Hugo is design for IEM, there should not be any hiss.