[miketlse]

From what I understand Chord “locks down” a lot of their components with their proprietary code, so major modifications to the hardware is not possible. I don’t really know what’s possible and what’s not, but my friend’s Mojo had some problem with the power controller chip and there was nothing the local 3rd party repair shop could do

Four years ago, the initial Hugos had small apertures for the RCA outputs, so some owners experienced difficulty fitting RCA cables.
In response to this, Chord updated the case design to feature larger apertures, to allow all RCA cables to fit.

I assume that 4 years ago, an owner removed the original RCA sockets, and replaced them with external RCA sockets connected by a cable to the circuit board. This is an assumption, because we cannot see the photos.
If the Hugo still worked, and has worked ok for the past 3+ years, before the owner sold it to @bloodhound212 - then maybe the damage to components is cosmetic only.
On the other hand, if the mod damaged the circuit board and components, then the Hugo could have sat around non-functioning for 3+ years, before being sold to @bloodhound212 .

If the Hugo is non-functioning, then @bloodhound212 has two main options:

1. return the Hugo to the seller, and ask for his money back
2. contact chord support and ask for their advice. Chord support have a reputation for going the extra mile to try and solve issues, so maybe they could suggest something.

 

[bloodhound212]

Thank You very much for all your responses! I realy appreciate your assistance. I re-aploaded photos with another file hosting so that You can see them in appropriate scale.
Actually a microchip has a severe damage. So I don't think it works properly but Hugo works itself. I tested it with only a couple of hours before had it disassambled.

 

[miketlse]

Thank You very much for all your responses! I realy appreciate your assistance. I re-aploaded photos with another file hosting so that You can see them in appropriate scale.
Actually a microchip has a severe damage. So I don't think it works properly but Hugo works itself. I tested it with only a couple of hours before had it disassambled.

I have looked at the new photos.
I would be embarrassed if I had caused such damage when soldering.
This picture shows what the circuit board should look like.
I think the Hugo was popular with modders (especially regarding batteries), and it does look like the coil has been modded for some reason.

You say the Hugo works - have you checked all the possible inputs and outputs?
Was the Hugo advertised as damaged?
Only you can decide what to do - if the Hugo works properly, and was sold to you at an attractive price, then maybe you are happy to keep it.

 

[miketlse]

duplicate post

 

[Triode User]

Hi, guys!
I faced a problem with my Hugo which I bought from eBay a couple of days ago.
It was seriously modified with external RCA plugs. I wanted to check the internal condition of PCB as I did not know how accurately soldering has been done by the previous owner.
It appeared that the PCB had a damage to a chip of power charging controller (as I think) and to some kind of choke-coil.
Could somebody help me to identify this parts of PCB to find appropriate substitutions?
I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP!
Thank You in advance

P.S. Can somebody make and share a hi-res photo of this part of PCB?

I guess it depends on whether you are lucky and the damage is just superficial, which it might be. The damage to the coil/choke might just be to the cover. Likewise with the chip it might just be the case which is damaged. Obviously you don't show batteries attached to the pc board. Do you have them or new ones?

The basic question to ask you is whether it works? Sometimes beat up old cars work just fine. If it doesn't work then I doubt that it is economic to repair. If it does work then probably leave alone?

 

[adobotj]

Recently purchased a bnew hugo for a discounted price .Using both angie and layla I can hear a very audible, somewhat loud hiss right about 2-4min of listening from hugo using optical from a&k100ii. Most of the time after another 2-4 minutes the hissing disappears but sometimes it doesn't. Tried using micro USB but it doesn't change the situation.

Any ideas on a workaround for this? I really wanted to enjoy using hugo with my iems .Have the mojo since it's launch and it never gave me any hiss on whatever iem I use. I can't seem to figure out an algorithm to arrive at the no hissing part. I can wait for it to disappear but sometimes it doesn't disappear.

Any help would be appreciated thanks!

 

[mathi8vadhanan]

Hugo does hiss with sensitive multi-BA iems. But, it's continuous, not intermittent (for/after 2-4 mins).
Are you able to hear this hiss with any other dynamic driver iem/headphones?
Mojo was the iem friendly Hugo we were asking for back in 2015.

I looked at the SE846 user manual, the sensitivity is extremely high (114dB 1mW 9 ohms), so you will hear some hiss from Hugo. They seem to have an in-line attenuator, so try that - this will eliminate the hiss, but I can't say whether it will affect the SQ.

Rob

I have a pair of K10's and with the music muted, I can just hear Hugo's noise - but only when I switch Hugo off is it noticeable, it is smaller than background noise. But when you play CD, you can hear the master tape noise, due to Hugo's and the K10's transparency, but its not annoying, just a slight hiss and a rumble from the concert hall.

Rob

May be its the sensitivity and the fact that Hugo is too powerful. SE846 and V3s hiss when I plug them into my desktop amp (A28) as well, where as IE800 is silent and perfectly comfortable.

With the hugo and SE846, the hiss is mild, but you know its there. Its definitely not pitch black, like when I plug into my iPhone or AK120 II.

 

[x RELIC x]

Recently purchased a bnew hugo for a discounted price .Using both angie and layla I can hear a very audible, somewhat loud hiss right about 2-4min of listening from hugo using optical from a&k100ii. Most of the time after another 2-4 minutes the hissing disappears but sometimes it doesn't. Tried using micro USB but it doesn't change the situation.

Any ideas on a workaround for this? I really wanted to enjoy using hugo with my iems .Have the mojo since it's launch and it never gave me any hiss on whatever iem I use. I can't seem to figure out an algorithm to arrive at the no hissing part. I can wait for it to disappear but sometimes it doesn't disappear.

Any help would be appreciated thanks!

Hugo does hiss with sensitive multi-BA iems. But, it's continuous, not intermittent (for/after 2-4 mins).
Are you able to hear this hiss with any other dynamic driver iem/headphones?
Mojo was the iem friendly Hugo we were asking for back in 2015.

@mathi8vadhanan, the Mojo has the exact same power output as the Hugo(1) so from a noise floor perspective it makes no sense. Also, given that the hiss is intermittent I would guess something may be wrong.

@adobotj, I have the Angie as well and don’t hear any hiss with Mojo (reference above for why I mention the Mojo). When the Mojo was released I was heading up the Canadian leg of the tour and the tour-unit had intermittent hiss (loud-ish hiss) and it needed to be sent back to Chord before the tour could begin. Perhaps something similar is going on with your new Hugo. Before you go back to your dealer are you able to try connecting to a different source to check for hiss? It could be something (inconveniently) happened with the AK100ii.

 

[mathi8vadhanan]

@x RELIC x , Yeah the Day-1 Mojo's. Never head anyone with Hugo experiencing the same issue.

My Mojo has the dreaded startup hiss, experienced by @Ivabign and few others. It would normally go away, if I press the volume down button or plug-in a usb cable.
So, I decided to put up with it for 3 weeks. But, this week the hiss wouldn't go away at all, it would go away after a minute or after re-starting.
The workaround was too much of a hassle and not consistently reproducible, So I have sent it back to Moon Audio. But, Moon Audio is closing for the holidays (12/24 - 12/28), hoping to get it back by New years.

Time to dust-off the HUGO.

Again, same issue that I had. It's really unfortunate that these early ones got through but it's not normal and should be fixed/replaced. It took Chord a day to fix the tour unit and send it back (on top of shipping time of course). Too bad that the holidays schedule will keep you from using it for that long.

 

[adobotj]

Hugo does hiss with sensitive multi-BA iems. But, it's continuous, not intermittent (for/after 2-4 mins).
Are you able to hear this hiss with any other dynamic driver iem/headphones?
Mojo was the iem friendly Hugo we were asking for back in 2015.

There's a very faint hiss or maybe this is the noise floor I'm hearing that is continuous AND then there's this very audible hiss as I've described earlier that shows itself and then disappear after a few minutes and sometimes it stays that loud.

No hiss with dynamic or planers only with my angie and layla

 

[adobotj]

@mathi8vadhanan, the Mojo has the exact same power output as the Hugo(1) so from a noise floor perspective it makes no sense. Also, given that the hiss is intermittent I would guess something may be wrong.

@adobotj, I have the Angie as well and don’t hear any hiss with Mojo (reference above for why I mention the Mojo). When the Mojo was released I was heading up the Canadian leg of the tour and the tour-unit had intermittent hiss (loud-ish hiss) and it needed to be sent back to Chord before the tour could begin. Perhaps something similar is going on with your new Hugo. Before you go back to your dealer are you able to try connecting to a different source to check for hiss? It could be something (inconveniently) happened with the AK100ii.

Hi relic! Tried usb and it did the same. Will try and repeat this later.

Just now: turned off then on my hugo and set the volume to RED before I selected the input and so far... no HISS. Will continue observing .somehow when I select the xfeed the hiss will come out... weird.

 

[lurk]

hi, i am thinking to hv a simple wireless setup for my movie watching
will the bluetooth modules from Fiio eg btr3, btr1k work with the Hugo?

 

[x RELIC x]

Hi relic! Tried usb and it did the same. Will try and repeat this later.

Just now: turned off then on my hugo and set the volume to RED before I selected the input and so far... no HISS. Will continue observing .somehow when I select the xfeed the hiss will come out... weird.

Keep trying variables and hopefully you can nail it down. The big red flag for me is the louder hiss that comes and goes... this obviously should not happen. Given that the Hugo you purchased was new can you exchange it? As mentioned, this may be the only reported instance of the anomaly.

 

[adobotj]

Keep trying variables and hopefully you can nail it down. The big red flag for me is the louder hiss that comes and goes... this obviously should not happen. Given that the Hugo you purchased was new can you exchange it? As mentioned, this may be the only reported instance of the anomaly.

Further testing and observation revealed: (seems like a delayed start-up hiss)

TLDR; I might have a defective unit


1. Hiss is only temporary IF its not connected to a power source .

2. At full battery (blue), Hiss will show at about 3 minute mark upon starting up and playing some music and will last for about 4 minutes and disappear permanently .

3. At battery (green), hiss will show at about 2 minute mark and last for about 2-3 minutes and disappear permanently.

4. (start-up) Hiss is will increase if there's no music playing and will decrease progressively with music until it disappears .

This "delayed" start-up hiss can be consistently reproduced if I turn off hugo and turn it on again after a long time (about 10 minutes) and when it disappears it doesn't come back until you repeat the process (turn off then on).

My theory is the hugo is transmitting "excess" current that increases the floor noise and heard as a very audible hiss and recalibrate itself to a stable voltage to match the load's impedance. I think there's a problem in either the battery or the regulator (if there's some). But then I might be wrong. All of these are just my theories.

Instrument used:

A&K 100ii
Optical cable (mojo cable accessory)
Chord Hugo
Jh audio Angie1 and Layla1 (bass pod setting to 2pm for both)

In short... I might have a defective unit? Will try and bring it back to the dealer and try for an exchange BUT I think this is their last unit

 

[x RELIC x]

Further testing and observation revealed: (seems like a delayed start-up hiss)

TLDR; I might have a defective unit


1. Hiss is only temporary IF its not connected to a power source .

2. At full battery (blue), Hiss will show at about 3 minute mark upon starting up and playing some music and will last for about 4 minutes and disappear permanently .

3. At battery (green), hiss will show at about 2 minute mark and last for about 2-3 minutes and disappear permanently.

4. (start-up) Hiss is will increase if there's no music playing and will decrease progressively with music until it disappears .

This "delayed" start-up hiss can be consistently reproduced if I turn off hugo and turn it on again after a long time (about 10 minutes) and when it disappears it doesn't come back until you repeat the process (turn off then on).

My theory is the hugo is transmitting "excess" current that increases the floor noise and heard as a very audible hiss and recalibrate itself to a stable voltage to match the load's impedance. I think there's a problem in either the battery or the regulator (if there's some). But then I might be wrong. All of these are just my theories.

Instrument used:

A&K 100ii
Optical cable (mojo cable accessory)
Chord Hugo
Jh audio Angie1 and Layla1 (bass pod setting to 2pm for both)

In short... I might have a defective unit? Will try and bring it back to the dealer and try for an exchange BUT I think this is their last unit

Sounds defective and shouldn’t do that at all. It is under warranty so I’m sure your dealer will work with Chord to sort you out.