[joshuachew]

Original chassis has small 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. 

So if we don't plan on using it with RCA cables we are fine to get it?

 

[SleepyOne]

If you don't plan to use it with desktop amp (both headphone or speakers systems) in the future, sure, it is the same unit but with smaller audio output RCA holes. There are interconnects with plugs that will fit it but your choice will be more limited.

 

[OK-Guy]

  If you don't plan to use it with desktop amp (both headphone or speakers systems) in the future, sure, it is the same unit but with smaller audio output RCA holes. There are interconnects with plugs that will fit it but your choice will be more limited.

 
I think the Chord Co. RCA's should fit... any 'traditional' ones should fit, it's the ones with the unnecessary bulk at the 'fixing end' where you'll have probs.
 
I'm sure Phil at Custom-Cable will advise you well.

 

[OK-Guy]

  My good man, you have to please tell me, what is a ~~Hammers beanie? it's been bugging me all day.

 
a beanie is a bobble-hat without the bobble... a ICF one is the mutts-nuts, it's protection from nasty-types who inhabit this planet, those tough Mexicans become Mexican'ts at the mere mention of those three letters.
 
I digress... back to the amazing Hugo.

 

[kantana]

  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! 

I don't have any full size cans at home so I went to my dealer and tested with their HD800 which had no noise.  I think the impedance is what makes this noise, the lower the impedance the more it is noticeable.  I used my HTC One M8 so android with aptX.  It was quite good quality listening with tge HD800 but it kinda kills the portability which is when I would want to use BT eg with my phone outside.
I'm hopeful this can be fixed by Chord since the only solution I could get to work was to increase the impedance with an attenuator but that affects the sound quality.  The highest impedance earphones I have are 32 ohms and it still happens on those.  Would be interested to know at what impedance level the noise becones unnoticeable.  The attenuator I used was from UE TF10 with a value of 100ohms.
If more people can post back with their earphones used and whether they hear the noise that would be most useful to get tgis resolved, thanks in advance.

 

[audionewbi]

Here is my beef I do not like the volume knob, it is hard to use at time and it does not give me as much control as I want, this is the only reason why now I am after an amp as good as chord, its headphone out has bested all my current headphone amp

 

[kantana]

Just looked up the impedance of the T5p @32 ohms and the HD800 @300 ohms.  It explains why the difference between these 2 cans.  So looks like not just IEMs affected but all earphones/headphones with low impedance.

 

[OK-Guy]

  The attenuator I used was from UE TF10 with a value of 100ohms.
 
If more people can post back with their earphones used and whether they hear the noise that would be most useful to get tgis resolved, thanks in advance.

 
I'm not one to plug our products (I do promote our Events with Chord) but I think it is ok to advise people to what is available when certain situations arise.
 
as far as I know there are very few high-impedance IEM's available, Noble have recently added two such examples for people seeking a reference-level neutrality, the added bonus is that you get a completely separate sounding IEM by flicking a switch on the ear-piece, it's a first using completely separate drivers for each headphone (hope that makes sense).
 
If you're off to Axpona (Chicago), they will be on the Noble/Chord stand for a demo with the Hugo.
 
Products: http://nobleaudio.com/products/universal/switch/

 

[Rob Watts]

  Just looked up the impedance of the T5p @32 ohms and the HD800 @300 ohms.  It explains why the difference between these 2 cans.  So looks like not just IEMs affected but all earphones/headphones with low impedance.

 
It does seem that it's only low impedance that is doing it, but we have tested with 33 ohms headphones too, and it's fine. So it very much depends upon the headphone as well as the USB source.
 
What I would like to do is test with the noise on the headphones, then listen on the RCA through a desktop. If the desktop is OK, then it shows that the problem is the headphones, coupled with Hugo's low output impedance as we know attenuators solves the issue.

 

[audionewbi]

   
It does seem that it's only low impedance that is doing it, but we have tested with 33 ohms headphones too, and it's fine. So it very much depends upon the headphone as well as the USB source.
 
What I would like to do is test with the noise on the headphones, then listen on the RCA through a desktop. If the desktop is OK, then it shows that the problem is the headphones, coupled with Hugo's low output impedance as we know attenuators solves the issue.

Yes that is what I did using the infamous objective 2 amp and it shows that the issue was the pairing of the IEM. But as I stated those IEM have always had this problem with other gears and therefore it was quiet normal to me.
 
Not a major concern for me and I am more than happy to live those few issue. 
 
My only issue is the BT which seems to an issue that appears and disappears on different occasion. I live a heavily wifi populated neighbourhood so I cannot complain much, but it would be nice to see in future a revision where BT is dropped and the extra space inside it is used for some other upgrades. I for one do not really need BT and can live without it. However if I was to had one request it would be that the LED light could be modified so the user can turn them off and on with their own will. I at times find it hard to listen to music at night in dark, had to cover the HUGO in order to go into my so called "mood".

 

[beemarman]

  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.

Roxanne
 
AKG 3003i
 
Logitech Ue6000
 
Monster noise cancelling headphones.
 
Samsung Note 3
 
Ipod using a Aptx supported bluetooth adapter
 
itouch 5th
 
All the above and I still get the noise when using Bluetooth.

 

[asiano]

   
It does seem that it's only low impedance that is doing it, but we have tested with 33 ohms headphones too, and it's fine. So it very much depends upon the headphone as well as the USB source.
 
What I would like to do is test with the noise on the headphones, then listen on the RCA through a desktop. If the desktop is OK, then it shows that the problem is the headphones, coupled with Hugo's low output impedance as we know attenuators solves the issue.

Just curious if you could answer whether DSD is converted to PCM?  If so, are there any benefits to that approach versus a pure DSD process?

 

[kantana]

   
It does seem that it's only low impedance that is doing it, but we have tested with 33 ohms headphones too, and it's fine. So it very much depends upon the headphone as well as the USB source.
 
What I would like to do is test with the noise on the headphones, then listen on the RCA through a desktop. If the desktop is OK, then it shows that the problem is the headphones, coupled with Hugo's low output impedance as we know attenuators solves the issue.

Sorry Rob, at home with the RCA connected and earphones connected on Hugo.  I still hear noise on my amp through the RCA as well as through the earphones using BT.  The same if I disconnect the earphones from the Hugo, still noise from RCA.  Using an amp and speakers it's not noticeable but through earphones from the amp still the same noise.

 

[audionewbi]

  Just curious if you could answer whether DSD is converted to PCM?  If so, are there any benefits to that approach versus a pure DSD process?

I think you have mis-understood him, HUGO supports DSD natively and when he says feed the desktop via RCA he meant use the RCA out of HUGO to connect it to an external desktop amp and test whether you get the same issue (assuming the amp use has silent background).

 

[audionewbi]

  Sorry Rob, at home with the RCA connected and earphones connected on Hugo.  I still hear noise on my amp through the RCA as well as through the earphones using BT.  The same if I disconnect the earphones from the Hugo, still noise from RCA.  Using an amp and speakers it's not noticeable but through earphones from the amp still the same noise.

What amp are you using? There is a chance that the hiss coming out of RCA of HUGO , here is a post I found very useful explaining it all:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/708051/recommendations-is-there-such-a-thing-as-hiss-less-portable-amp#post_10326970