Chord Hugo ?

It's just funny how the hugo thread has 4500 posts on the big
headphone site, and there is little here. It is said to be
better than the Auralic Vega, Lampi 7, Ayre qb9, and others,
maybe on par with the Meitners.

I love my Chord Hugo on my desktop system with a Rudistor headphone amp. It is stunning. An Audioquest Diamond usb cable really works well with this system and brings it up a level.

Well, now that I have my hands on it, I would say it I enjoy
what I'm hearing quite a bit more than the Playback Designs
MPS5, Burmester 001, and original EMM CDSA and
Modright-Sony 5400ES cd players
I used to own a few years ago. It has more refinement, less
glare (especially in vocals), less digital pain from
something suddenly jumping forward unnaturally, a more
balanced sound from the nice deep transparent bass to the
sweet highs, and lots of detail and focus. The soundstaging
is good too, with good layering, and decent depth. (I would
not call the staging excellent, but certainly very good and
not compressed at all.) But the tonality is superb, along
with image definition and silky but well defined boundaries.
I was listening to some vintage live Joni Mitchell (BBC
1970), live Beach Boys, and live Beatles on youtube, and it
was entrancing. It's amazing I could get sound like this
from youtube. I'm just mainly using this thing as a DAC with
and external headphone amp/preamp (along with Fostex TH900
phones and Quad 12L speakers), an Audioquest Carbon USB
cable, Stealth Indra ICs, and a Shunyata Anaconda Alpha
powercord to my (ancient) Headroom Max amp. I have a Windows
7 desktop. It combines great detail without fatigue to my
ears, which I think is always the primary goal of digital
components.
It's kind of a pain with the usb cables and power wire
coming out of one side and the interconnects on the opposite
side, but maybe there will be a better future bigger version
with a more elegant design for desktop/home use. And the
micro-usb input is also a pain (the Audioquest cable needs
an adapter and is a bit awkward).

I should mention that my main system has an EMM Xds1, and
that to my ears it is the best I have heard, with so much
insight, layering, depth, and ambiance I am not considering
replacing it ever. I have not used it as a dac, just for
cds.

Dtc, thanks for the tip, but I did not see an AQ Carbon
cable with a USB micro-B 2.0 plug anywhere in my websearch,
just the 3.0 micro-B plug, which is the wider one that will
not fit in a 2.0 B port.
But thanks anyway and please correct me if I'm mistaken.
Best to you.

After some experimentation, the Hugo varies in fullness with different USB cables. It sounds very full and sweet and not lean at all with my AQ Carbon. Also, it needs to break in for about 12 hours. It doesn't have a trace of leanness.
(My Oppo 105D can tend to this and therefore I need a Shunyata Anaconda VX power cord and Cardas Golden Cross interconnects on it, then it's pretty much fine. The Hugo resolves things much better than the Oppo.)

Yep, I concur from my year and a half with one. I do find it's better with an external amp (for headphones), but the built in one is pretty good also for portable usage. It really is a great, pleasant, sweet but detailed and impactful DAC that makes it a real bargain in the DAC world.