[WilliamLeonhart]

 
Yeah, using random pictures procured from the web gives me no confidence in the seller. Someone (probably Chord) should buy one and compare.

It's not uncommon practices actually. Pictures from the net almost always look better than what shop assistants can produce. And consider the price is high, I think those shops in China don't even have the Hugo in stock. I looked up the taobao postings and some say the product will take 1 month to arrive.
But I agree with you that this is something Chord should do to protect their users.

 

[chesebert]

Can someone please confirm the Line Level Output color on the volume wheel? Is it white or light blue like the manual says?

On mine, it's slightly light blue, not pure white. What I mean is there is another volume level higher than the line out color.

 

[WilliamLeonhart]

Can someone please confirm the Line Level Output color on the volume wheel? Is it white or light blue like the manual says?

 

 
On mine, it's slightly light blue, not pure white. What I mean is there is another volume level higher than the line out color.

Yeah it's lightly blue and not too different from white. But if you turn off your room lights you can see the blue more clearly and it's noticeably different from the actual white on the volume switch.

 

[PhiQuanTu]

Thanks for confirming, guys!

 

[PoorAudiophile]

Hi Guys,
 
I bought my Hugo one and half year ago.
I have asked one of my friend to buy it on Toaboa.
I paid 11,200 RMB (about 1,100 GBP) at that time. It was brand new. It is genuine good and works perfectly.
Now that the GBP has depreciated, 1,100 GBP is equivalent to 9,450 RMB. That gives you a reference price. 
 
I don't think it is easy to counterfeit a Chord Hugo. The chip has to be programmed and only the engineers from Chord can do it.
 
As a rule of thumb when you buy on Toabao:
1) Make sure that the shop has good rating and review.
2) Make sure that it is a brick and mortar shop
3) If it is too cheap, stay away.
 
Some genuine goods are really a bargain on Taobao. You need to spend time and check.
 
Happy Hunting.

 

[miketlse]

  Hi Guys,
 
I bought my Hugo one and half year ago.
I have asked one of my friend to buy it on Toaboa.
I paid 11,200 RMB (about 1,100 GBP) at that time. It was brand new. It is genuine good and works perfectly.
Now that the GBP has depreciated, 1,100 GBP is equivalent to 9,450 RMB. That gives you a reference price. 
 
I don't think it is easy to counterfeit a Chord Hugo. The chip has to be programmed and only the engineers from Chord can do it.
 
As a rule of thumb when you buy on Toabao:
1) Make sure that the shop has good rating and review.
2) Make sure that it is a brick and mortar shop
3) If it is too cheap, stay away.
 
Some genuine goods are really a bargain on Taobao. You need to spend time and check.
 
Happy Hunting.

yes.
I am sure that there are many legitimate businesses offering good products, at very competitive prices on Toabao - i see many posts about members who have bought cables, cases, DAPs etc from the site, and been delighted.
 
I myself bought a dac from a hong kong site, and was delighted with the price and product.
 
However for many western members, seeking to spend thousands of dollars/euros/pounds to gain a bargain, they are naturally wary of spending such an amount on a distant site.
 
I hope that the suspicions about fake chord dacs are unfounded, but in the short-term it is understandable for members to be cautious, until a supplier has developed an international reputation.
 

 

[elviscaprice]

Make sure to use a credit card for purchase.  Then you are the heavily favored party on all rights if the purchase goes wrong.  All risk is assumed by the seller.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Question on the Hugo's power supply/battery setup. I've read that the stock power adapter's job is strictly to charge the battery and not actually supply the unit itself, yes? Does this mean that the Hugo should not benefit in the sonic dept by upgrading the power supply to a linear 12V .5a unit? 

The 12V 500ma LPS units are so cheap I figured it may be worth the shot to experiment but then came across the power supply only charging the battery. Anyone know more into this?

 

[rkt31]

I have used 12 v battery to power arcam irdac to a great effect but not tried with hugo. in case of hugo the effect should be negligible. still there is no harm in putting few ferrite cores on the hugo charger cord near the charging plug ( hugo charger has no ferrite core )

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

I have used 12 v battery to power arcam irdac to a great effect but not tried with hugo. in case of hugo the effect should be negligible. still there is no harm in putting few ferrite cores on the hugo charger cord near the charging plug ( hugo charger has no ferrite core )

But isn't the actual dac unit itself isolated from the power supply since it only draws from the batteries and never the charging side?

 

[elviscaprice]

  Question on the Hugo's power supply/battery setup. I've read that the stock power adapter's job is strictly to charge the battery and not actually supply the unit itself, yes? Does this mean that the Hugo should not benefit in the sonic dept by upgrading the power supply to a linear 12V .5a unit? 

The 12V 500ma LPS units are so cheap I figured it may be worth the shot to experiment but then came across the power supply only charging the battery. Anyone know more into this?

​On the Hugo, an LPS is a waste of an LPS to charge the batteries.  No effect.  BUT, that doesn't mean a replacement of the batteries with an LPS at 8.1V (according to Chord) and more than 1.1 amps (how much?  Chord is not giving me this information) wouldn't benefit the SQ.  I suspect there may be a slight improvement but not enough to warrant a DIY.  Would be an expensive proposition for a well designed galvanic isolated supply.  Somewhere between $800 to $1000.

 

[Currawong]

I've switched from battery power to connecting the charger and back numerous times between both short a/b and long-term listening and there was zero difference. 
 
Quote:

  With a bit work you can likely reverse engineer an FPGA based on its bit stream output using known test case sets. You can probably get really close

 
The code on the FPGA is encrypted, and Rob has programmed in a custom output to an impulse response to stop people figuring out the filter coefficients, so given that the Hugo has a window allowing you the see the innards, even if someone tried to go to the trouble of making a fake, it would be very obvious what it was.

 

[WilliamLeonhart]

Can a fake be compatible with Chord official driver?

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

 
​On the Hugo, an LPS is a waste of an LPS to charge the batteries.  No effect.  BUT, that doesn't mean a replacement of the batteries with an LPS at 8.1V (according to Chord) and more than 1.1 amps (how much?  Chord is not giving me this information) wouldn't benefit the SQ.  I suspect there may be a slight improvement but not enough to warrant a DIY.  Would be an expensive proposition for a well designed galvanic isolated supply.  Somewhere between $800 to $1000.

Yea I don't think I'd want to go inside the Hugo, I figured that it was an easy swap trial so not much involved until I read the bit about the adapter not mattering for the hugo in stock form.

The thought of an LPS directly powering the unit is intriguing but to me would defeat the brilliant unit as the Hugo is for it's ability to be on the go.

 

[chesebert]

The code on the FPGA is encrypted, and Rob has programmed in a custom output to an impulse response to stop people figuring out the filter coefficients, so given that the Hugo has a window allowing you the see the innards, even if someone tried to go to the trouble of making a fake, it would be very obvious what it was.

You underestimate the power of Chinese counterfeit industry. Reverse engineer encrypted FPGA is old news appaarently. http://m.slashdot.org/story/155120

I have seen counterfeit iPhone that works just as well as the real one and they run the same iOS system (at least OS looks the same)