CHORD Alto Headphone/Power Amp Review

[DSJR]

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!!

Chord's early electronics were in plain brushed finish black (usually) breeze-block boxes with an admittedly nice gold maker's label on the front. At some point a number of years ago, they discovered that adopting fancy clothes and (all but) doubling the price, sales went up I believe in their main markets, so why pander to fussy penny-pinching gits like us?

 

[solderdude]

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So does this amp have a built-in switching PS that boosts the voltage

Yes.

 

[BeeKay]

And when you look at the UI / display of a Chord Dave you seriously start to wonder what drugs are mandatory when working at Chord. I mean not even a bunch of pre-school kids could have designed such crap even if asked to screw it as bad as possible.

 

[VientoB]

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.

Yeah but the frequency response isnt even flat on the Burson. It's worse. Period.

 

[JIW]

Yeah but the frequency response isnt even flat on the Burson. It's worse. Period.

The point was never that the Chord is as bad as the Burson only that it is much worse than the Toppings and the VMV.

 

[VientoB]

The point was never that the Chord is as bad as the Burson only that it is much worse than the Toppings and the VMV.

Then why mention the Burson at all??

 

[JIW]

Then why mention the Burson at all??

I already told you.

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.

 

[Gorgonzola]

And when you look at the UI / display of a Chord Dave you seriously start to wonder what drugs are mandatory when working at Chord. I mean not even a bunch of pre-school kids could have designed such crap even if asked to screw it as bad as possible.

Indeed I really don't understand how Chord gets away with making such hideously overpriced junk, and for that matter how it continues to get good reviews from many subjectivist reviewers.

What exactly IS the relationship between severe distortion and perceived musicality?

 

[mc.god]

Indeed I really don't understand how Chord gets away with making such hideously overpriced junk, and for that matter how it continues to get good reviews from many subjectivist reviewers.

What exactly IS the relationship between severe distortion and perceived musicality?

you'd better ask for the relationship between extremely exaggerated prices, exclusivity feelings and perceived musicality.

 

[amirm]

I have doubts about the objectivity of some reviews.

My recommendations are subjective. Measurements are objective.

 

[VientoB]

I already told you.

Yes and it makes no sense as you're trying to compare its review to this one when the Burson is much worse.

 

[testp]

I am going to recommend the Chord Alto...

ahhh my_eyes..my_eyes..my_eyes "this is not critisism bdw.."

 

[threni]

And when you look at the UI / display of a Chord Dave you seriously start to wonder what drugs are mandatory when working at Chord. I mean not even a bunch of pre-school kids could have designed such crap even if asked to screw it as bad as possible.

"What does this monstrosity cost? Jerry, what's the sticker price?"

 

[lc6]

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Yes.

From a system design perspective, this makes no sense. It would be much better to provide a higher-voltage (and perhaps bipolar) external SMPS and have linear regulators for the low-power portion of the circuitry built into the device.

 

[Ismapics]

This brand always test fair but nowhere near their price tier. Why do people keep buying them, when there are som many better options.

 

[CedarX]

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?

Spec, linked by @AdamG, at the beginning of the thread, is 15 Vrms max. output voltage into 8 Ohm. This would be consistent with the measured power, and yes, it probably means a DC boost or charge pump circuit…

The Alto manual just says “Output maximum voltage 15 V RMS”, without saying if it’s for the speaker or HP amp.
I’ll be curious to know more about the internal design: knowing it’s Chord—not exactly known for convention designs—and it uses their “Ultima” technology where the feedback is prior to the final output stage, could it be a case where the HP and Speaker amp’s are one and the same… except for the final output stage?

 

[lc6]

Spec, linked by @AdamG, at the beginning of the thread, is 15 Vrms max. output voltage into 8 Ohm. This would be consistent with the measured power, and yes, it probably means a DC boost or charge pump circuit…

The Alto manual just says “Output maximum voltage 15 V RMS”, without saying if it’s for the speaker or HP amp.
I’ll be curious to know more about the internal design: knowing it’s Chord—not exactly known for convention designs—and it uses their “Ultima” technology where the feedback is prior to the final output stage, could it be a case where the HP and Speaker amp’s are one and the same… except for the final output stage?

If the spec max. output is 15 Vrms, then it is 21.2 Vp and 42.4 Vpp. Even if the final output stage actually consisted of two in a BTL config, the max. output would be less than 12 Vp. I'd be curious to learn if one of the speaker output terminals (esp. the "-" one) has a galvanic connection to the device ground. That would shed some light on how the device amp is designed.

 

[NDRQ]

Cannot understand the recommendation, thhis is mediocre garbage that ridiculously expensive too...

 

[solderdude]

From a system design perspective, this makes no sense. It would be much better to provide a higher-voltage (and perhaps bipolar) external SMPS and have linear regulators for the low-power portion of the circuitry built into the device.

Why ?
One can make any internal voltage one wants whether the input voltage is 12V, 19V, 24V, 36V or 48V.
The only difference would be the current draw from the DC input pins (at the same power levels).
There is no need to use power consuming linear regulators from higher voltages anyway.

The choice for 12V probably is related to the 12V DC feed through which one would only fit in there if it serves a purpose for other (Chord) devices.

The amp itself is very small in size so it needs an external power supply anyway.

Its a weird overpriced headphone amp anyway, totally in line with all the other overpriced products they sell. There obviously is a big enough market for Chord devices anyway.

 

[Shadrach]

I don't really understand why so many have a problem this unit. It does a lot of things well and what it doesn't I doubt many will be able to hear.
Yes, I think it's an ugly piece of kit.
Yup, someone shifted a decimal point on the price.
Just on performace there are a lot worse on the market.