[Christer]

Never mind double battery life... Hugo 3 needs a battery compartment containing user replaceable lithium ion batteries that are readily available now. Then the battery life issue goes away once and for all.

This time around I will not regret liking your post unless Rob says it is not doable and no suitable ie current swing-wise and wattage wise powerful enough, batteries are avaiiable.
And I still like your" not barking dog" from the one where I changed my mind a bit.
Having said all this I have to confess that my old Hugo 1 in spite of a couple of possible near fatal cardiac arrests, still works after all these years, with the orginal battery onboard and via my now very recently refurbished iMac with a new Samsung SSD onboard sounds better than ever before.
And showing none of the many weird RF issues I used to have with it via my MBP.
Then again with a new very expensive 15€ ! 3 metre long made in China Logic usb cable and my i Mac connected to my main system and Mscaler I do not need Hugo. Qutest with my Mscaler is simply way better.
I have said so often before and let me repeat it again: Mscaler transforms all three Mscaler compatible Chord dacs and makes inherent differences between them less obvious than without HMS.
Cheers CC

 

[jlbrach]

what would make a hugo 3 a big improvement is additional power to drive some of the more difficult to drive HP's

 

[Slim1970]

what would make a hugo 3 a big improvement is additional power to drive some of the more difficult to drive HP's

Yes, the Hugo 2 is an awesome transportable. Having additional power would be a welcomed addition.

 

[Lohb]

Currawong's mapping out of power output in graphs for recent summit-fi cans at various volumes in another thread (maybe recent camjam thread) is interesting....Focus on not so much raw power, but a synergy of voltage and mWatts at the most likely volume dB you will listen at - e.g. synergy of those 2 input factors in plain English...I make the mistake of asking "Will unit X power Y ?" even now, when I should ask "How about the synergy of dac/amp X with can Y ?"...
A patchy grasp above, yes.


Loudness just determines loudness, not that X factor mix of the audio chain and how it sounds subjectively all fused together.

 

[nicholas1213]

While posting this, I am also searching back in the forum.

Any idea why my hugo2 still drain battery till flat under desktop mode (magenta colour at power button)? It happened recently and I noticed this issue when the hugo2 auto shutoff during listening session under desktop mode. Tried to power up again only come to realize that the battery is flat. Just before auto shutdown, the power button was flashing in white colour with the power supply still plugged in (I wonder what does it mean).

I permanently connect the rca out to my tube headphone amp, and the 3.5mm jack out to my bose speaker. Also, I normally just leave my hugo2 on without power off (with the power supply plugged in all the time).

 

[Progisus]

Hope the TT2 tech trickles down to Hugo3,..I see the taps are double after pulling up the specs... this H2 device is truly fantastic for its size....shot in the arm for all my cans...wish list for H3 would be - double battery life, a 'better' form factor, low level lighting a bit brighter, LDAC at least for its wireless internal protocol....that LDAC incorporation does not step on toes of wireless ability of 2go - as it can still do pure lossless.

Ditch the micro usb.

 

[Lohb]

Ditch the micro usb.

Did you go optical or coax ?

 

[Progisus]

Did you go optical or coax ?

When using in desktop mode with usbridge signature I used the usb. When going transportable as a dac for my SP1000 I used optical. When I had an mscaler I used the coax for dual bnc input to mscaler. My gripe with the micro usb is for charging as I was worried it will fail with constant reconnection.

 

[miketlse]

While posting this, I am also searching back in the forum.

Any idea why my hugo2 still drain battery till flat under desktop mode (magenta colour at power button)? It happened recently and I noticed this issue when the hugo2 auto shutoff during listening session under desktop mode. Tried to power up again only come to realize that the battery is flat. Just before auto shutdown, the power button was flashing in white colour with the power supply still plugged in (I wonder what does it mean).

For several chord dacs, the flashing white usually means that the power supply current is too low. Can be caused by owners using 'smart chargers' that switch to trickle charge mode, before the battery is fully charged.
Desktop mode should mean that your hugo2 battery is well charged, but if your charger is in trickle charge mode, then your battery could easily be near flat, when you expected it to be close to fully charged.
Anyway check your charger, because trickle charge mode could help explain some of the context, and the symptoms that you are experiencing.

 

[548184]

But there are lots of powerbanks at usb 'round over the world.. Why do we need any replacable 16850's???
The only feature we need is the external power mode with turning the charging off to play on the go without simultaneously charging internal 16850 elements

18650 batteries are actually quite beautiful and robust. With USB powerbanks, down converting to 5V is a bottleneck and possible noisy process. I try to avoid 5V at all cost. I would never use a down converted 5V for audio, but I would use a Super Capacitor @5V direct instead. 3.3V - 3.7V is where it's at as you can just use direct with no conversion. With Hugo2, it's 3.7V x 2? That's actually quite a nice design. That's why it sounds so clean, direct batteries for a total of 6.4V versus having to use subobtimal 5V. I see no reason why a battery compartment would not work out depending on strong contacts or just plugging and unplugging the JST 2-pin connector.

But I prefer the 26650 over the 18650 if there are no constraints:

https://www.18650batterystore.com/collections/18650-batteries

The thing though is Rob Watts did the Math, by the time the cycles are up it would likely be obsolete for it's original purpose:



But not all batteries have this large of a Cycle Life, only premium batteries. Maybe if your on the road and want to swap batteries to extend the Mobile Joy, that's a good use case for replaceable batteries.

Found a photo with a 18650 battery compartment:

EDIT: OIC, just re-read the 2nd part of your question. Although that's fine, it's going to take 8 hours or so if you charge on the go. It will also overheat if you are charging while operating. If you want to somehow bypass the charging and want to power directly from the USB powerbank, it's going to have to up convert to 6.4V. It's going to cause too many issues. Unless you can build a external 6.4V battery bank to directly power the Hugo...

 

[rodel808]

18650 batteries are actually quite beautiful and robust. With USB powerbanks, down converting to 5V is a bottleneck and possible noisy process. I try to avoid 5V at all cost. I would never use a down converted 5V for audio, but I would use a Super Capacitor @5V direct instead. 3.3V - 3.7V is where it's at as you can just use direct with no conversion. With Hugo2, it's 3.7V x 2? That's actually quite a nice design. That's why it sounds so clean, direct batteries for a total of 6.4V versus having to use subobtimal 5V. I see no reason why a battery compartment would not work out depending on strong contacts or just plugging and unplugging the JST 2-pin connector.

But I prefer the 26650 over the 18650 if there are no constraints:

https://www.18650batterystore.com/collections/18650-batteries

The thing though is Rob Watts did the Math, by the time the cycles are up it would likely be obsolete for it's original purpose:



But not all batteries have this large of a Cycle Life, only premium batteries. Maybe if your on the road and want to swap batteries to extend the Mobile Joy, that's a good use case for replaceable batteries.

Found a photo with a 18650 battery compartment:



EDIT: OIC, just re-read the 2nd part of your question. Although that's fine, it's going to take 8 hours or so if you charge on the go. It will also overheat if you are charging while operating. If you want to somehow bypass the charging and want to power directly from the USB powerbank, it's going to have to up convert to 6.4V. It's going to cause too many issues. Unless you can build a external 6.4V battery bank to directly power the Hugo...

I run my Hugo 2 straight off the charging port with the internal batteries disconnected and it sounds the same as when my batteries were good. I'm using a power supply rated at 5V 3.5A originally used for my Raspberry Pi 4.

At the time I contacted Chord about getting my unit serviced, they verified my unit was still under warranty but due to covid lockdowns and being located in Hawaii they could not find a repair agent. The Hugo 2 (which I got 2nd hand) now is only used strictly as a desktop dac.

 

[548184]

I run my Hugo 2 straight off the charging port with the internal batteries disconnected and it sounds the same as when my batteries were good. I'm using a power supply rated at 5V 3.5A originally used for my Raspberry Pi 4.

At the time I contacted Chord about getting my unit serviced, they verified my unit was still under warranty but due to covid lockdowns and being located in Hawaii they could not find a repair agent. The Hugo 2 (which I got 2nd hand) now is only used strictly as a desktop dac.

Oh, very nice to know this is possible. So this basically makes it similar to the way the Qutest is powered. Yes, 3.5A is a solid choice. Did you end of with the white charger or black?

I recall there's a large Chord repair shop in Los Angeles. George Meyer? Did Chord ever recommend you send to Los Angeles?

Tidying up some comments. Going to take a month break....

 

[Lohb]

Ditching the iPurifier 3 and trying out a DDC to coax/optical on H2 asap.
Can DAPs as transport and a linked phone be used like 2go ? Is there anything like that possible ? If not, probably look at 2go soon.

 

[technobear]

Ditching the iPurifier 3 and trying out a DDC to coax/optical on H2 asap.
Can DAPs as transport and a linked phone be used like 2go ? Is there anything like that possible ? If not, probably look at 2go soon.

I use a DAP as a transport. The Cowon Plenue R2 has optical out and works brilliantly.

 

[Lohb]

I use a DAP as a transport. The Cowon Plenue R2 has optical out and works brilliantly.

Can you then control the R2 from your phone with HibyLink etc ?
So the phone is untethered from those 2...