Search results for 'Chord Electronics'

We saw this first at the Munich Hi Fi Show last May and have been greatly anticapating it's arrival. Chord have consistently broken new ground with their DAC technology and this is the top of the class in the world today. Amongst it's peers ithis is the smart and healthy sixth former who is going to get into Oxbridge without even revising, and who hopefully goes on and finds a cure for cancer. We expect great things of you DAVE. 

Instead of traditional off-the-shelf solutions, Chord use an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) in its high-end DACS and their own software to do all the number crunching. And DAVE is no different. This newest arrival also features a high-grade filter with enhanced processing powers and full high-res audio support, including DSD and DXD files up to 768kHz. Outputs include XLR and standard RCA connectors, plus an advanced headphone output. Inputs include USB Type-B, two optical and four coaxial digital sockets.

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Chord Electronics has generally steered clear of full size integrateds prefering to manufacture separate pre and power amplifiers. There are many advantages with the separates design but many HiFi enthusiasts will appreciate the convenience and simplicity of the single chassis.

This is still a 'no compromise' sort of integrated amplifier. The focs is on the very best of components especially the power supplies to create that Chord Electronics signature resolving sound. We find the new Ultima range though is warmer than its predecessors making it more forgiving and suitable to a broader range of speakers.

At the moment, we are love the Ultimas with Spendor D-range and Dynaudio Contour and Confidence.

This unit is expected to arrive in Australia in September/October 2023.

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Available for audition in-store, with the Chord DAVE. The Blu MkII is a compact, FPGA-based upsampling CD transport which offers the world’s most advanced filter technology. Used with DAVE, the combination delivers class-leading CD sound quality and technical performance. At the heart of the Blu MkII lies an enormously powerful Xilinx FPGA. Rob Watts’ (Chord’s Digital Design Consultant) has used this to create his exclusive WTA M-Scaler technology, which incorporates the most advanced filter of its kind in the world. The Xilinx FPGA has also enabled a key breakthrough in tap-length (the technical indicator of how complex the interpolation filter is) taking Blu MkII to an unprecedented 1,015,808 taps. Learn More

Miles Davis said that "it is not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play".

This system lets you hear that inky blackness inside the music that audiophiles crave. It is quite unique but perhaps not as well known as it should be. 

We have it set up with a pair of Dynaudio loudspeakers and the for absolute purity of reproduction it is exceptional.

Chord Electronics Ultima 5 Power & Ultima 3 Pre In-Depth Review – Hit Me Baby One More Time (soundnews.net)

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It took a while to get here but its very good ....The Hugo 2 is uprated from the first version ... It's smaller and more expensive!

The Hugo was a problem for us. It was so good that people stopped buying our other inventory of DACs. Although ostensibly a portable product it sounded so very lifelike that it was being used as the main engine in peoples home audio setups.

This new one is just an exquisite bit of crafted alloy. When you hold it you dont want to let it go ... the glowing buttons while slightly Flash Gordon are delightful in operation and make perfect sense ... after a while.

The Hugo 2 has four digital inputs. seven hours of battery life, and does the numbers up to 768KHz digital ...

Official website for the Hugo 2

"What Hi Fi?" on the Hugo 2

"Hugo 2 user manual PDF

 

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For the uninitiated in the digital realm of HiFi, the exact purpose and functionality of the M Scaler can seem perplexing. A unit that sits between your digital source and your DAC to drastically improve the digital signal....isn't it all ones and zeroes at that stage? How can you make ones and zeroes better?

Well, it's all about the Taps...the digital Taps that is. Taps refers to how many times and therefore how accurately the unit revisists the algorythm that's going to create the analogue Wave Form from the sample rate that's given by the source. Normally DACs would perform this function themselves but no DAC, not even Chord Electronics very own Dave comes even close to the amount of Taps that the M Scaler has. Normally an ordinary DAC would have a 100-tap filter, the Dave has 164,000-tap filter but the M Scaler has 1,015,808-tap filter!

In Rob Watts own words "If you have a conventional filter with 100 taps, you will recover some of the transient information. A 100-tap filter gives you sufficiently good frequency-domain performance, but not in the time domain. . . . Every time you increase the number of taps, you improve the perception of pitch, timbre gets better—bright instruments sound brighter, dark instruments sound darker—the starting and stopping of notes becomes easier to hear, the localization of sounds get better. There is less listening fatigue—the brain has to do less processing of the information presented to it to understand what's going on." 

And that perfectly sums up what you hear when you add an M scaler to a Chord Hugo TT2 or the Dave. It's an opening up of the musicality getting this normally step wise wave form of a CD player or 44kHz back to the most accurate analogue Wave Form you can possibly get. 

And this is where the M Scaler is particularly special because it's the most accurate digital device out there by a long margin. And that's because of the Taps. Turn on the Taps!

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Typically known for their digital products in particular their DACs, Chord has surfaced with a product for all of those Vinyl enthusiasts that are jealous of their friend's aircraft grade aluminium DACs. Like their digital products, the Huei not only has that super cool casing, it also has the pretty LED lights and funky buttons...

...but of course the aesthetics of the Huei aren't the only important thing here!

The Huei is a MM/MC phono stage with all of that tinkering capability for any type of cartridge. Impedance, Gain and Rumble (!) settings are all at your fingertips (coressponding to different coloured lights in the chassis). It also has Balanced outputs for those who are serious about Hi-Fi...and not just the coloured lights...

It produces an incredibly clean sound almost completely devoid of noise floor resolving the image beautifully.

We would recommend it to go with Soundsmith, Rega and Van den Hul cartridges.

Click here for Chris Kelly's glowing review in The Ear 

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Chord's Toby is a dedicated power amplifier designed to match the Hugo TT. It's a sleek design that's done in Chords trademark Aerospace grade Aluminium chassis and will even fit nicely on a desktop.

Not that this power amp has the pedigree of a desktop amp...this is a serious Greyhound...fast and clean...don't let your fluffy bunny rabbits out near this guy.

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The Chord Electronics streamer that pairs perfectly and conveniently with a Hugo 2 so that it's portable and delectable just like the whole Chord range.

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The English brand Chord Electronics have taken the HiFi world by storm in the last couple of decades. Their new Pre 3 and matching Ultima 5 embodies their progress over that time.

It was emblematic to see Chord Electronics Pre and Powers on a whole range of systems at the most recent Munich Hi-End HiFi show. Most notably Monitor Audio chose Chord to power their brand new Concept 50 Loudspeakers even though they own a not to shabby amplifier brand, Roksan.

Chord produces equipment on another level. There is no trial and error, snake oil or guesswork that goes into Chord. It's cold hard engineering, knowledge and a dedication to simply producing exceptional quality units - with no compromise.

 

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350W of serious power amplification. This unit is not only a work of industrial art, it's everything and more than what you'd expect in terms of grip, control and musicality.

I've been pleasantly surprised with the new versions of Chord Electronics Pre and Power combinations. I found many of their previous models of stereo power amps harsh and brittle but this is different - this sings. 

This is a must listen if you're looking for a beefy power amplifier.

It has had some stellar reviews, unsurprisingly and it's no wonder that there were lots of Chord Power amplifiers powering speakers at the latest Munich HiFi show earlier this year.

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The brand new Chord Mojo 2 has some sweet new features and connections and still retains it's FPGA  DAC processor, the best in the world at this price point!

A new USB-C connection will make I0S users very happy. As well as a separate micro USB port dedicated to charging. 

You can pair this unit with the Chord Poly for a completely wireless streaming experience in a portable package.

Read more about the new Mojo 2 here at the Chord Electronics official website.

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A small yet powerful and very resolving sound, this power amplifier is a classy option in that $10K price point.

The perfect unit to pair with Chord Electronics Prima Preamplifier.

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Manufactured by legendary English HiFi company, Chord Electronics, this little desk top amplifier is at home driving speakers and Headphones.

A cute yet substantial amplifier packed with a lot of smart technologies in its circuitry. This unit self-monitors and corrects for any errors leaving a super clean and detailed sound.

 

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EpicX speaker cable images beautifully with tight bass and a lot of detail.

A fabulous option for a range of HiFi to get the most out of your system.

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We have two pairs of 2m Sarum T Speaker cable which we purchased at a very special price. These are As new and were unboxed for the Australian Hifi show. Available to audition in our 164 Lygon street Showroom and our 121 Drummond st showroom. 

Sarum T builds on the success of its award-winning predecessor and introduces our breakthrough proprietary insulation material, Taylon®, bringing a major performance upgrade. Sarum T brings the remarkable benefits of our proprietary dielectric at a new, more accessible price level. Previous generations of Sarum Super ARAY cables have featured a PTFE dielectric. The upgrade to Taylon® introduces a raft of performance benefits.

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Chord Rumour has been our go to speaker cable for reasonably priced systems for over 20 years. Incredible detail with no harshness and a very audible soundstage.

Now evolved into Rumour X with new insulation

"Previous versions of Rumour speaker cables used PTFE insulation (often referred to as Teflon™) and until the arrival of Taylon®, this was our “go to” material. Although expensive, PTFE offered the best performance.

Material technology is constantly developing and improving and alternatives to PTFE are now available. While the high cost of Taylon® prevents us from using this in all of our ranges, we were able to find a suitable family of insulation materials known as XLPE (Cross-linked Polyethylene). One version of this material looked particularly interesting and following listening tests, proved to be clearly better than the PTFE in Rumour speaker cable – now known as Rumour X."

 

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About twenty years ago, Bi-wiring speakers was all the rage. That's where you run one set of speaker cable to the high frequency input on your speakers and a separate set to the low frequency input. In this process you do away with the high to low frequency metal jumpers on the back of the speaker.

Normally the jumper links that come with a set of speakers are bits of metal and not made to perform well sonically. The positive effects of Bi-wiring were 90% the effect of getting rid of those crappy jumper links.

These days when a client comes in asking about Bi-wiring, we make sure they first try some good quality jumper links.

Like a good quality speaker cable these will define the image, you'll hear more of the tail-end of the notes - the ringing of the piano strings dying slowly away into silence...

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A good quality optical cable that's particularly useful for audio applications but can be used just as easily on surround sound systems as well. 

It's available in toslink to toslink ends or toslink to 3.5mm. Please call for specific availability on lengths and terminations.

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