CHORD Alto Headphone/Power Amp Review

[Rja4000]

I can always imagine a nice RME pro with comparable power on top of their amazing stuff with a little higher price than this, that would be a killer

Well, the RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE gives you up to around 1.4W at 300 ohm, 5W at 50 ohm and 4W at 32 ohm (<1% THD) and is less expensive.
What do you miss ?

Picture from RME user manual

 

[Adis]

Nope, wouldn't buy even if I had the money.

 

[lordhumungous]

Garbage .

 

[Sokel]

Well, the RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE gives you up to around 1.4W at 300 ohm and 4W at 32 ohm.
What do you miss ?

Personally nothing, all I have for HP is my really ancient (40 yo) Audio-Technica ATH-M2 orthodynamics (which have no serious bass but the best mid in the multiverse ) and the LCD-X which can even be driven by a phone.

It was more in a general term, for those that go to extremes with those dead inefficient new headphones which are trending.
I see they get 100W power amps for them, seriously!

 

[DSJR]

Disappointed in Amir's review. It doesn't show us what is going on at -300 db. Every Chord owner knows that is the most important part.

Subjectively, Chord's amp 'systems' sound so dead and lifeless, as in 'back of venue' disappearing or at least, being hard to hear, I doubt they even do -60dB that well And no, I have no objective proof of that at all, just attending tons of their dems in various venues over thirty years or so! Not sure Rob Watts has anything to do with the amp side though.

If this thing was $300 - 400, it would be criticised for distortion performance. At ten times the price or thereabouts, they're once again having a laugh and I'm certain, know that their fan-bubble wouldn't look at our sub $500 favourites, let alone invest in any of them.

It's the right price for their fan-bubble to spend their pension-pot money in and the rest of us can safely ignore it, I reckon

 

[FrenchFan]

Overpriced product, low quality.

On the other hand, Amir's presentation is
excellent as usual.

Here, we see that ASR can be used to select its equipment.

 

[Multicore]

A few really crazy headphones need inordinate power... they also tend to cost a crazy amount, so there's at least some market for this thing.

So you avoid a number of problems by choosing other headphones.

 

[Robbo99999]

Interesting review because slightly unusual product. After reading the whole review I thought the only real useful aspect was the ability to drive multiple headphones at the same time & drive them hard too. How useful is that aspect, maybe in a professional environment, but it measures pretty poor? Speaker amp looked lacklustre in all results. It's bloody expensive too. I had to vote it Poor as very expensive & I saw only one redeeming niche useful factor which is driving multiple headphones at same time whilst driving them all with much power, albeit with pretty poor quality measurements. For the average headphone enthusiast it's a no buy product.

 

[lc6]

Something does not compute here: The power supply is unipolar 12 V / 12.5 A, so the output signal cannot exceed 6 Vpp. But the measured output power into 4 Ohms is about 44 W, which implies min. 13.3 Vrms = 18.8 Vp = 37.6 Vpp. So does this amp have a built-in switching PS that boosts the voltage (and maybe makes it bipolar) at least for the final output stage?

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

Not sure Rob Watts has anything to do with the amp side though.

No.
He is not a chord's employee. He is working as a consultant and only dacs are made by him. He has no influence on other of their designs.

Actually some years ago Rob designed a dac for other company with the same pulse array technology just with tube output stage - I forgot the name of the company.

Ps. Found it Fulcrum Zia

 

[Chester]

I think he worked for YBA previously too. There’s an old DAC floating around that looks almost identical to the DAC64, think that was a YBA product. May be remembering wrong though.

 

[VientoB]

But still substantially worse than the Toppings and the VMV which were not reviewed before the Burson.

Still this has more power. The frequncy response is flat and the distortion is most of the time inaudible so it's an ok product. The Burson is not. it was a poor comparison by whoever brought it up.

 

[JeremyFife]

Thanks for the review, this time it's a perplexing one (for me).

A headphone amp that prioritises power over low distortion and can drive speakers (sort of) as a bonus. Not sure of the use case.
I forgive the odd UI as a Chord quirk.
Can't forgive the price.

 

[Purité Audio]

Garbage .

Expensive garbage.
Keith

 

[BeeKay]

Expensive garbage.
Keith

Expensive awkward garbage.

 

[mermayer]

I am going to recommend the Chord Alto on the basis of its copious amount of power.

I have doubts about the objectivity of some reviews.

 

[Egoist]

Chord UI is awful for everyone except for their users. I have a Chord Mojo 2 that I use while falling asleep listening to music through headphones (and in other situations too, naturally). I am able to set the volume with my eyes shut and control every other setting with the lights off, just by looking to the colors and knowing by memory the function of each one of the four buttons. With every other DAC/Headphone amp I own, I have to turn the lights on and face the unit to me. Chord UI is actually one of their strongest selling points, but you do have to use it for some time so you can appreciate that.

 

[Jasperous]

As we used to say in the 90s, “ewww, just ewww. Definitely not”

This is the rich kid, being rich, but can’t do basic high school math.

 

[JIW]

Still this has more power. The frequncy response is flat and the distortion is most of the time inaudible so it's an ok product. The Burson is not. it was a poor comparison by whoever brought it up.

Compared to the Toppings, only below 32 Ohm and only below 16 Ohm compared to the A70Pro. Compared to the VMV, it has just slightly more power between 12 and 32 Ohm while also having more power at high impedances. For any impedance, the Topping LA90D has more power as does the Benchmark AHB2.

The Burson was reviewed before the Toppings and the VMV and got no recommendation although being very powerful. Hence the comparison. It is worse, but there were fewer good alternatives reviewed.

 

[Herbert Shooler]

Another thunderbolt of truth, another brilliant revelation, this amp should go well with the equally overpriced underperforming Chord Dave and the equally useless Mscaler. Honestly it time Chord threw in the towel,overpriced and fancy looking junk is not what we expect and deserve in 2025.I have a feeling this will cause some serious rumbles in the audiophile community. Thankyou Amir!!