Chord Hugo ?

Wisnon, I was snide toward you for a couple of reasons.

First, your comment touting your expertise when it is obvious you haven't personally listened to a Hugo. That doesn't help your credibility.

Second, in reviewing your participation with these forums, you tend to shill a few products BEFORE ever hearing them, which you have done with both Lampizator dacs and Job amps. Both I'm sure are fine products, I'M JUST NOT QUALIFIED TO COMMENT BECAUSE I HAVEN'T HEARD THEM PERSONALLY.

I have no vested interest in whether you listen to a Hugo or not, couldn't care. Prior to commenting on performance though it would probably be commendable if you had listened to a product in advance of doing so.

I have had a Lampi for years and I "shill" as you say for Chord too.

I have many trusted pals with the Hugo and one is getting ready to sell it.
There are many convos with influential people behind the scene.

The Job was a no brainer, but I never commented on the sound, just the pedigree. In addition, people were staved for info on this mythical amp and I was the only "layman" to see the relaunched first production batch. Until I recently moved 2 months ago, i lived 5 mins drive away from Goldmund and have developed some good contacts there. Finally, I solicited design feedback from 2 MEGA ULTRA high-end designers in the industry (one workd on the Job circuitry years ago) and both gave the amp rousing paise, especially for the price!

In any case, there is never any reason to be snide. That is unbecoming and you seem classier than that.

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.

Rgs92 - thanks for the observations. FYI - you can get a micro usb Carbon cable so you do not have to use the adapter.

Wisnon, certainly no offense was intended personally with my snide commentary tossed your way. I use sarcasm often as a way of pointing out something that should be called out for its disconnect with logic. I was merely trying to point out that your hyperbole was a stretch in light of the fact that you have never even listened to a Hugo. Your intense desire to be a contributing poster to this thread that solicited hands on feedback on a product you have absolutely no experience with deserved mention, although I probably could have communicated in a better way. In addition, your statement that your friend may sell his Hugo, when balanced with your interraction with "Mega Ultra" equipment designers taken in the context of your own assertions that "we have no idea" the depth of your qualifications makes me chuckle.

I tend to trust my ears, in my system. I have no axe to grind, no financial motives in the industry. I care not whether one person buys one dac, amp, speaker or what have you. I enjoy tinkering with equipment. Ive never owned Goldmund, Job, Tekton, Lampizator or the other brands you mentioned and mention often. They all have great commentary by those who have heard them so I can only assume that for many they fill the need. But, and this is a big but.....you should not be analyzing the performance of a component you have never heard. It lacks credibility in every way.