Hi, 

 

I’m looking at portable headphone DAC / amps, and preferably with a Streamer to cut down on cables attached to my phone. 
 

The Hugo 2 with 2go looks great, but noting it is 7 to 8 years old, does it still hold up? I like that is portable, I want to be able to wear my headphones around the house, and in the office.  I also like the rca out as I could then use it in my stereo easily, I don’t currently have a steamer or DAC, so it could cover this too. 
 

What other options would you consider? The Mojo 2 is smaller and cheaper and it seems to be there are some who prefer the sound to the Hugo. I’m sure there others too. 
 

Thanks 

I think that there are far better options yes that present as substantially better value for money for better performance, but in saying that it’s not 100% clear what you are wanting to do.  Are you looking for a portable headphone dac/amp with wireless streaming to it?

That’s correct- my main need is a portable DAC / amp for headphone use. I’d prefer it to stream from my phone for the convenience of removing one cable, and to fit more easily in a pocket or bag. 
 

The ability of the Hugo 2 to do double duties in my loudspeaker system is really just a sweetener. 

I have the Mojo2 Poly combo which is great for on the go streaming. The Mojo 2 can be used wired as well also. Same goes for the Qudelix 5K which is very small, portable and lightweight and can be controlled via an app on your phone. Excellent value for money and great versatility and sound quality. Ideal for portable use.

Many thanks, I did end up getting a mojo 2 and poly. Had a a few weeks now and am really enjoying it. 

That's great - an excellent piece of kit. I love mine. I'm glad you are enjoying it. If you like playing around with EQ (more than you can on the Mojo 2) the Qudeilx 5K Is also worth looking at. What you get for your money is amazing. Take care.

Understand that you have already made your purchase and this is an older post by now, but if you are thinking of upgrading here are my thoughts. I think that if your budget allows it then Hugo2+2Go has great flexibility IMHO and is a step up sonically over the Mojo + Poly combo - but a little larger & heavier. I have the black models of the Hugo2+2Go. I purchased the Hugo2 initially around Dec '23 & then at the beginning of this year (2025) added the 2Go.

 

I mainly use it as a roon READY network endpoint point in my office via LAN cable.  Also, I have used it in other locations around the house as a WiFi roonREADY endpoint - particularly at night with headphones so as not to disturb the family.  I also have 3TB (1x 2tb & 1x1TB SanDisk Extreme PROs) of macro-SD cards in the 2Go for when I have travelled with it. I've never listened to the Mojo + Poly so can't comment on any comparisons but there are a number out there.

 

I also did some testing with a pair of active Acoustic Energy AE1 speakers setting the RCA out to fixed volume 3V mode on powerup. This was a great sounding option BTW, I've not connected it to my integrated amp or any AVR at any point since purchase.

 

So, it is fair to say I have tested the Chord Hugo2+2Go combo with most user scenarios. To me it is a very flexible bundle, with excellent dynamics and soundstage across all genres of music with the added advantage of portability. I have personally found some quirks which don't detract from the gorgeous combo, but, while they can be annoying to get used to there are viable workaround options that easily become second nature. I found esp. with the SD card usage using uPHP or DLNA specific music apps on android & iOS hit and miss at times - particularly with long term playback. This doesn't seem as stable to me and various in functionality and visual presentation depending on the application used for playback of music on the SD cards but there are factors that impact connectivity for this use case scenario. I particularly don't use this option very often, preferring playback via roon.

 

The main issue for me I found was switching between PCM & DSD tracks - observed by others as well.  There is a noticeable click or pop as the internal mechanisms change to process the new DSD data format after PCM. As a Roon endpoint/zone via USB from a windows machine, I also found a bug that occurs under specific scenarios.  Basically, when switching between higher resolutions of PCM & DSD tracks, which Chord can & has reproduce in their labs but have not yet fixed (more than nearly 2 years later) the DSD track playback corrupts and only noise is produced. I created a playlist that switched between the two DSD/PCM file formats of random resolutions to put the Hugo2 DAC & cables through their paces & for burn-in purposes. It's the Chord ASIO windows drivers for bit perfect native DSD playback when switching from PCM to DSD scenario that triggers the bug/behaviour that I reported and has been confirmed. The DSD track output was static noise & not music at random occurrences of the playlist during DSD track playback after switching from a PCM track.  Given that these were tracks I created in a specific order on a playlist for the device & cable burn-in, and that were DSD 256 & 512 formats & PCM above 24/192kHz and only using the windows Chord ASIO drivers (for Native DSD playback), it is not a common scenario for most ppl would encounter esp. at those resolutions and hard to reproduce on demand. It doesn't occur using the WASAPI driver as that is DoP (DSD over PCM) not capable of native DSD playback.

 

I have not been able to reproduce this scenario once I built a R.O.C.K (headless Linux Roon OS) on an Asus 13 Pro i7-1360P NUC and now pretty much only use the Hugo2+2Go via LAN cable as a Roon READY endpoint - which BTW the limit is DSD256 via the 2Go & is DoP as well. I've not done any real testing of the Linux ALSA drivers for native DSD playback as I think by default it is DoP as well. Besides, I have other network streamers & DACs that do native bit perfect DSD up to 512.

 

Fore reference I use the Hugo2+2Go with Dan Clarke Aeon2 open planar magnetic headphones with Nordost Heimdall 2 balanced cable with a Nordost XLR to 6.3mm adapter or 64 Audio A12t custom IEM using an Effect Audio 24C IEM headphone cable. In desktop mode I guess you can call it I use an iFi iPowerX 5V 3A power supply (used to use a Silent Angel Forrester F1 LPS when it I was just the Hugo2 but with the 2Go it requires more than the 2A the F1 offers) to transition to smart desktop mode - the supplied Walwart is 2.1A) and a curious cables ethernet cable to my Asus Mesh router mode powered by an Gieseler Kraftwerk II LPS that my NUC is plugged in to. 

 

I've not had any issues with either wired LAN or WiFi music playback on my network as a roon READY network zone - my preference is as a wired LAN connection but there isn't really much in it over a WiFi connection.

 

Hope this observation is useful to yourself and others.

Cheers

V/-

Id go DAP with appropriate spec to drive your headphones, it a convenient option to bring anywhere.  You can also do 3.5 to RCA out to connect to your system.  Some DAPs have 4.4 in which you can go 4.4 to XLR into your system as an option.  

 

 

Edited August 27, 2025Aug 27 by neehawerc

On 11/8/2025 at 4:36 PM, Sir.V.007 said:

Understand that you have already made your purchase and this is an older post by now, but if you are thinking of upgrading here are my thoughts. I think that if your budget allows it then Hugo2+2Go has great flexibility IMHO and is a step up sonically over the Mojo + Poly combo - but a little larger & heavier. I have the black models of the Hugo2+2Go. I purchased the Hugo2 initially around Dec '23 & then at the beginning of this year (2025) added the 2Go.

 

I mainly use it as a roon READY network endpoint point in my office via LAN cable.  Also, I have used it in other locations around the house as a WiFi roonREADY endpoint - particularly at night with headphones so as not to disturb the family.  I also have 3TB (1x 2tb & 1x1TB SanDisk Extreme PROs) of macro-SD cards in the 2Go for when I have travelled with it. I've never listened to the Mojo + Poly so can't comment on any comparisons but there are a number out there.

 

I also did some testing with a pair of active Acoustic Energy AE1 speakers setting the RCA out to fixed volume 3V mode on powerup. This was a great sounding option BTW, I've not connected it to my integrated amp or any AVR at any point since purchase.

 

So, it is fair to say I have tested the Chord Hugo2+2Go combo with most user scenarios. To me it is a very flexible bundle, with excellent dynamics and soundstage across all genres of music with the added advantage of portability. I have personally found some quirks which don't detract from the gorgeous combo, but, while they can be annoying to get used to there are viable workaround options that easily become second nature. I found esp. with the SD card usage using uPHP or DLNA specific music apps on android & iOS hit and miss at times - particularly with long term playback. This doesn't seem as stable to me and various in functionality and visual presentation depending on the application used for playback of music on the SD cards but there are factors that impact connectivity for this use case scenario. I particularly don't use this option very often, preferring playback via roon.

 

The main issue for me I found was switching between PCM & DSD tracks - observed by others as well.  There is a noticeable click or pop as the internal mechanisms change to process the new DSD data format after PCM. As a Roon endpoint/zone via USB from a windows machine, I also found a bug that occurs under specific scenarios.  Basically, when switching between higher resolutions of PCM & DSD tracks, which Chord can & has reproduce in their labs but have not yet fixed (more than nearly 2 years later) the DSD track playback corrupts and only noise is produced. I created a playlist that switched between the two DSD/PCM file formats of random resolutions to put the Hugo2 DAC & cables through their paces & for burn-in purposes. It's the Chord ASIO windows drivers for bit perfect native DSD playback when switching from PCM to DSD scenario that triggers the bug/behaviour that I reported and has been confirmed. The DSD track output was static noise & not music at random occurrences of the playlist during DSD track playback after switching from a PCM track.  Given that these were tracks I created in a specific order on a playlist for the device & cable burn-in, and that were DSD 256 & 512 formats & PCM above 24/192kHz and only using the windows Chord ASIO drivers (for Native DSD playback), it is not a common scenario for most ppl would encounter esp. at those resolutions and hard to reproduce on demand. It doesn't occur using the WASAPI driver as that is DoP (DSD over PCM) not capable of native DSD playback.

 

I have not been able to reproduce this scenario once I built a R.O.C.K (headless Linux Roon OS) on an Asus 13 Pro i7-1360P NUC and now pretty much only use the Hugo2+2Go via LAN cable as a Roon READY endpoint - which BTW the limit is DSD256 via the 2Go & is DoP as well. I've not done any real testing of the Linux ALSA drivers for native DSD playback as I think by default it is DoP as well. Besides, I have other network streamers & DACs that do native bit perfect DSD up to 512.

 

Fore reference I use the Hugo2+2Go with Dan Clarke Aeon2 open planar magnetic headphones with Nordost Heimdall 2 balanced cable with a Nordost XLR to 6.3mm adapter or 64 Audio A12t custom IEM using an Effect Audio 24C IEM headphone cable. In desktop mode I guess you can call it I use an iFi iPowerX 5V 3A power supply (used to use a Silent Angel Forrester F1 LPS when it I was just the Hugo2 but with the 2Go it requires more than the 2A the F1 offers) to transition to smart desktop mode - the supplied Walwart is 2.1A) and a curious cables ethernet cable to my Asus Mesh router mode powered by an Gieseler Kraftwerk II LPS that my NUC is plugged in to. 

 

I've not had any issues with either wired LAN or WiFi music playback on my network as a roon READY network zone - my preference is as a wired LAN connection but there isn't really much in it over a WiFi connection.

 

Hope this observation is useful to yourself and others.

Cheers

V/-

Thanks for the detailed response. One day I might be tempted to go for the Hugo 2, or 3 which I imagine must be in the works. .