Great enjoyable review, if i didn't have one already i would be adding to basket now. Cheers!

Nice job. And thanks for linking the tube rolling article

Anyone do a comparison between the CDMA and the chord hugo?

Side note 5-6 hours battery is a deal breaker if you are on a long flight.

Great review. I really like your review style as it keeps it entertaining as well as informative. If only Ken did an amp only version.... sigh....

Great review, Michael.  The bit about "hitting you deep in the gut" made me lol at work.  I loved the CDM when I tried it at Canjam and I'm looking forward to bugging you to let me hear yours at RMAF.

great review...
 
might pull the trigger...!

nice write-up, I like the way you don't take yourself too seriously. good stuff bro.

I love your comment about the seeming paradox, the better something is, the less attention you pay to the details of sound quality. I just got a Chord Hugo, and I find myself listening to more complete albums than I have in a long, long time. Why? Simply because I enjoy the music more. Sure, if I put my attention on the sound quality, it's there to wow me, but the music becomes so effortless and transparent that I end up just immersing myself in it for longer than I have since I began getting into hi-fi. 

mmm.......woof! Hot review!

Thanks everyone for the kind words! It's a love-hate relationship in writing these reviews. I love sharing with others my viewpoints and getting to subject people to my brand of bad humor and pop-culture references, but I also hate how long it takes to write and edit and such and the fight for the proper ways to convey my thoughts and experiences adequately. Again another reason I don't write many reviews and only do so for the things I love. 
 
Regarding the amp-only version of the CDM, I would not be surprised if one of those came out from ALO eventually given how popular this model is and how much people also like the Rx. 
 
Thanks again everyone and happy listening! 
 
PS - If I find my CDM is missing at RMAF I'm coming after you Dan! 

A thoughtful review... and it takes thinking to separate praise from a sales pitch. "Why would I recommend this product = I can be almost anywhere with my favorite headphones, and I'll forget both things and place while simply getting lost in fun music sessions." 5-Star opinion is justified well Michael!

Only thing is, the "train of thought" writing style jives too similarly to my own!

Love the design with the window and the leds to light up the removable tubes (great idea) up to the small power block, the amp section, the balanced input/ourtput, works great and cool with sonotone tubes. Using the Hugo as a DAC. Used mainly with LCD3 which I transformed to make them very transportable. considering a computer fan to cool it down when working with double triodes...

I find the Sonotone not thin at all, this maybe related to tube variance... I have a second pair of it and will try it to check

@kikouyou - Any difference with the second set of Sonotones?

Ev - Thanks for the kind words and cool to see we're on the same wavelength. Say hi to your fiance for me. She was a sport for putting up with us all at RMAF.