WCDchee
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I'm all about balanced today (just picked up the Effect Audio balanced cable this afternoon) so haven't tried the DX-P1 with the Lavricables OTG interconnect and Hugo yet. I will do so soon and post impressions.
I've always said that I think Chord missed a trick not having a balanced option with the Hugo (and yes I love the Hugo - I bought it to stack with an iP6 and have always been blown away by the sound. It's amazing. However, as a guitar player I like tubes, so the arrival of the ALO CDM, and some playing around with different tubes, meant the Hugo has been having a rest lately).
The Hugo has stunning clarity but the soundstage is not massively wide (I haven't tried a Mojo to compare). I was already getting a wider soundstage with single-ended output and CDM than single-ended Hugo. The DP-X1 soundstage running balanced out is wider than Hugo, and the CDM makes it a touch wider still, I think.
Is the DX-P1, with or without CDM, better SQ than Hugo? Almost certainly not. But I'm a soundstage junkie and have been ever since I added a Glove A1 to an AK120 - the Glove has 2.5mm balanced out and i loved the new soundstage.
I know what you mean. Unamped the Hugo's soundstage is not huge (I'm a soundstage junkie too ) but it is so well layered and well placed. Separation is top notch despite not being the widest sounding.
What really gets to me though is the scale and authority, it really hits hard and full of authority