Yes I thought 6 ohms and 86dB would be too much. Poor old Hugo can "only" deliver 0.5A - that would limit it to 3v peak into 6 ohms, rather than 7v peak it can do unloaded. When I have done it, its been with 8 ohms and very efficient horn loudspeakers - well into the 90's. And yes agreed about the 3D sound stage - the depth was extraordinary driving the Axjet horn loudspeakers.
No stick with Hugo rather than Qute - downside with a traditional DAC is then you have to do volume conventionally, which will have an impact on transparency.
Hugo has just one active stage with one global feedback loop - exactly as per Qute, as this also needs an active stage for setting the gain, buffering and DAC I to V function. It just so happens that Hugo's active stage can deliver 5V RMS and 0.5A, running it into a line level input has zero downside compared to a traditional DAC. Indeed, I am now using the same topology for DAC line level only outputs, as the Class A discrete hybrid operation gives better sound and measurements than using a op-amp only for the active stage.
Rob