[audionewbi]

   

---

 
 
Axpona Hi-Fi Show is up & running.

what optical cable is this?

 

[kh600rr]

what optical cable is this?

Black Dragon, over at Moon Audio

 

[seeteeyou]

.

 

[audionewbi]

But the entire purpose of HUGO is for use on the go. Once again the battery issue is something that is one of those rare theoritical even that have no significant practical basis. 

 

[elviscaprice]

  But the entire purpose of HUGO is for use on the go. Once again the battery issue is something that is one of those rare theoritical even that have no significant practical basis. 

 
Maybe so, but at some point we are going to get a Hugo + player all in one and at that point it may be beneficial to just retire the Hugo to the desktop as a dac/amp.  At that point I would be interested in any modifications that could enhance the capabilities of an already world class reference DAC. 

 

[Rob Watts]

I have been looking into the problems of RF interference with Hugo and BT.
 
When this problem was first reported, I re-checked my Hugo with a Sennheiser BTD 300 connected to my Win 8 machine. Running in DAC mode, and fully portable mode, it worked perfectly no problems, absolutely no noise.
 
So I asked Matt at Chord to re-run his tests on BT, specifically looking for noise with headphones, with current production units. Absolutely no problems with iPhone, IPad and Samsung phone BT sources.
 
By saying this, I am not trying to play down this issue, but in able to fix an issue we must be able to see it being demonstrated in mine or Chord's labs.
 
Upon talking to Matt, the thinking is that the 2.4 GHz BT signal is being amplitude modulated (AM) by the source transmitter with noise on it's local power supply. This AM modulation is being picked up by the headphone cable and either demodulated back within Hugo, or being demodulated in the headphone directly. If Hugo is close to the source then the problem gets better, this is due to the BT transmitting with lower power, thus reducing the feed into headphone cables. The reason that the issue is variable is that it depends upon the quality of the BT TX., and the headphone/cable RF characteristics.
 
An interesting post from Kantana confirms this - using an attenuator solves the issue. This would decouple the RF back into Hugo, or it works by decoupling the low RF OP impedance of Hugo from the headphone, thus reducing headphone pick-up directly.
 
Rather than using attenuators directly, it would be better if you experience this problem, to try cylindrical ferrite cores. You could try the solid cores, and push the headphone plug through the centre, then loop it over the core, then back through the centre. Or you can buy cores that have split sections, and you just open them up and place the cable in the centre, and close it down. I suspect this might solve the problems. Please give this a try and feed back the results.

 

[kantana]

  I have been looking into the problems of RF interference with Hugo and BT.
 
When this problem was first reported, I re-checked my Hugo with a Sennheiser BTD 300 connected to my Win 8 machine. Running in DAC mode, and fully portable mode, it worked perfectly no problems, absolutely no noise.
 
So I asked Matt at Chord to re-run his tests on BT, specifically looking for noise with headphones, with current production units. Absolutely no problems with iPhone, IPad and Samsung phone BT sources.
 
By saying this, I am not trying to play down this issue, but in able to fix an issue we must be able to see it being demonstrated in mine or Chord's labs.
 
Upon talking to Matt, the thinking is that the 2.4 GHz BT signal is being amplitude modulated (AM) by the source transmitter with noise on it's local power supply. This AM modulation is being picked up by the headphone cable and either demodulated back within Hugo, or being demodulated in the headphone directly. If Hugo is close to the source then the problem gets better, this is due to the BT transmitting with lower power, thus reducing the feed into headphone cables. The reason that the issue is variable is that it depends upon the quality of the BT TX., and the headphone/cable RF characteristics.
 
An interesting post from Kantana confirms this - using an attenuator solves the issue. This would decouple the RF back into Hugo, or it works by decoupling the low RF OP impedance of Hugo from the headphone, thus reducing headphone pick-up directly.
 
Rather than using attenuators directly, it would be better if you experience this problem, to try cylindrical ferrite cores. You could try the solid cores, and push the headphone plug through the centre, then loop it over the core, then back through the centre. Or you can buy cores that have split sections, and you just open them up and place the cable in the centre, and close it down. I suspect this might solve the problems. Please give this a try and feed back the results.

Hi Rob, thanks for the suggestion.  I just tried using the cylindrical ferrite cores from the Samsung MHL adaptor.  This uses the split half cylindrical cores but it didn't make any difference at all to the noise.  Tried moving it up and down the cable and no effect anywhere.  If you need to replicate the issue then my earphones are:
 
UE 18 Pro with original clear 48" cables
Sony EX1000 with original cables
 
Tried Samsung S5 and HTC one M8 android phones
 
Strangely the noise is only picked up from the right channel, left channel remains unaffected, the noise does not get affected by volume on the Hugo and remains consistent even when music is paused, stopped etc.   It lasts as long as BT is connected eg from pairing to when a connection is made until you disconnect from BT.

 

[kantana]

I just connected the Hugo to my iPhone via Bluetooth. Other than trying to figure out the four digit code there were no issues. Via onkyo hi fi player I streamed all types of music from flac to dsd. The light stayed red on Hugo so that shows lowest Rez. No noise or issues. Sounds fine to me. No buzz or hiss or background noise. So here is one Hugo unit that sounds just fine. Not as good as via HD USB or coax but for BT pretty darn good. No issues.

Podeschi, what earphones or headphones did you use for BT from the Hugo? I'm strongly suspecting the problem is more noticeable from earphones or lower impedance IEMs.  Pls let us know so we can test this on our units.

 

[kantana]

   
My Note 3 is APtX and still you get the interference. I bought a Bluetooth transmitter that support Aptx and still you get the same interference. 

Beemarman, what earphones/headphones do you hear the noise from BT/aptX?  I'm trying to work out if this only affects low impedance earphones.  All my earphones are showing the noise on the right channel only.  UE18 pro, Sony EX1000, UE TF10, earbuds supplied with HTC One M8 etc.  The sources I tried were from windows 7 laptop, Samsung S3/4/5, iPhone 5, iPad 3, HTC One M8.  Rob Watt can't replicate the issue in his labs so trying to gather more info here.

 

[bmichels]

   
Maybe so, but at some point we are going to get a Hugo + player all in one...
 
 

I wish also, it will be a killer, but.... Chord clearly stated that they will not develop a transport (a big mistake IMO, but it is their choice, and we must respect it), so a "Hugo + player" all in one... is not to be expected also I believe.
 

  UNFORTUNATELY !

 

[bpcans]

Hugo is up for sale at Custom Cable for £1,199 or about $2K. Original Chassis only. Hard to resist!

 

[zenpunk]

I knew it would happen! 

 

[joshuachew]

Hugo is up for sale at Custom Cable for £1,199 or about $2K. Original Chassis only. Hard to resist!

Are there any other chassis? What's original chassis?

 

[nOtEcH]

  I have been looking into the problems of RF interference with Hugo and BT.
 
When this problem was first reported, I re-checked my Hugo with a Sennheiser BTD 300 connected to my Win 8 machine. Running in DAC mode, and fully portable mode, it worked perfectly no problems, absolutely no noise.
 
So I asked Matt at Chord to re-run his tests on BT, specifically looking for noise with headphones, with current production units. Absolutely no problems with iPhone, IPad and Samsung phone BT sources.
 
By saying this, I am not trying to play down this issue, but in able to fix an issue we must be able to see it being demonstrated in mine or Chord's labs.
 
Upon talking to Matt, the thinking is that the 2.4 GHz BT signal is being amplitude modulated (AM) by the source transmitter with noise on it's local power supply. This AM modulation is being picked up by the headphone cable and either demodulated back within Hugo, or being demodulated in the headphone directly. If Hugo is close to the source then the problem gets better, this is due to the BT transmitting with lower power, thus reducing the feed into headphone cables. The reason that the issue is variable is that it depends upon the quality of the BT TX., and the headphone/cable RF characteristics.
 
An interesting post from Kantana confirms this - using an attenuator solves the issue. This would decouple the RF back into Hugo, or it works by decoupling the low RF OP impedance of Hugo from the headphone, thus reducing headphone pick-up directly.
 
Rather than using attenuators directly, it would be better if you experience this problem, to try cylindrical ferrite cores. You could try the solid cores, and push the headphone plug through the centre, then loop it over the core, then back through the centre. Or you can buy cores that have split sections, and you just open them up and place the cable in the centre, and close it down. I suspect this might solve the problems. Please give this a try and feed back the results.

I tried with my iPhone 4S and iPad Mini Retina earlier today, and these are my findings:
 
iPhone 4S stacked to Hugo's back worked fine. If I moved the iPhone just a little bit away from the Hugo the noise got back.
It seems to vary a little bit. If I set music at pause the noise is not that bad (some times), but if I started playing from the source the noise got worse.
So in my findings the noise do vary a bit.
 
And to my findings the noise do not vary with volume. You can more easily hear it with volume all the way down.
 
The noise was heard using the Beyerdynamic T5P with Moon Audio Black Dragon V2 cable.
I tried my Sennheiser HD800's too with the same cable and I could not hear any noise at all, even when placing my phone a couple of meters away.
 
 
With the iPad Mini Retina I had to place the Hugo on top of the iPad's front glass and on the bottom half to get the noise away.
Same experience with my headphones.. the noise was heard using the Beyerdynamic T5P with Moon Audio Black Dragon V2 cable, and not with my Sennheiser HD800's with the same cable.
 
 
I never really enjoyed the "Bluetooth sound" though (with or without the noise).. but as you (Chord) have stated before.. you will need aptx support to get the best out of the Bluetooth connection, and unfortunately for me iDevices don't support it. Luckily for me I have an USB cable and a camera adapter that I can use, and that sound I do love! 

 

[SleepyOne]

Are there any other chassis? What's original chassis?

 

Original chassis has smaller audio output RCA holes and due to this larger RCA plugs will not fit into the holes. The current revised chassis has larger audio output RCA holes which is approx. 13mm diameter.