JaZZ
Headphoneus Supremus
Wait a minute! You can't simply add a headphone amp and think you now have bypassed the Hugo₂'s headphone output. You can't bypass its headphone output, since line out and headphone out are one and the same. Hence you can't speak of taking an unsufficient amplification stage out of the signal path and replace it with a better one, because it's still in it if you add another amp. Moreover, by doing so the benefit of Chord's «simple» output stage for ultimate transparency is lost, and some harmonic distortion is added, leading to colorations which you may like or less, in any event representing an objective signal degradation (think «double amping» in the sense of a needless amplification stage).