Because I have a feel that was not Amir's conclusion style based on previous reviews. I mean based on measurements and measurements/price ratio.
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CHORD Alto Headphone/Power Amp Review
- Thread starter amirm
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As has been explained multiple times, this is not the first time Amir has had a "controversial" final recommendation where he found a product amenable despite what appeared to be questionable measurements or vice versa. Ultimately the recommendation is his personal opinion. In this case, he quite clearly stated the recommendation was based on this device ability to output power to drive not just one but multiple low-sensitivity/high-impedance headphones simultaneously. And despite the less than stellar noise/distortion, audibly it was clean.
If you ask Amir directly whether most people should purchase this, I'm quite certain you'll get a resounding no since most people don't need that much power and can get objectively better headphone amps for much cheaper.
FFS...
Interesting.. I would like to see Amir's reviews where he recommended power without numbers (measurments)....
Thank you in advance
OP
- Thread Starter
- #164
What does this mean?
It is mean that you were
This means that you were particularly critical of very expensive devices that did not meet the highest measurement standards. But not in this case. But anyway, I've already said that I have the utmost respect for your mission here in general. All best
OP
- Thread Starter
- #166
I still can't figure out what you mean. As has been repeatedly explained, this amplifier produces a ton of power to drive headphones. I have said many times in reviews that amount of power is one of the most important measurements in my review of headphone amplifiers. And this amp aces that. So it is not at all a case of it failing measurements. Examples:
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Shanling UA2 Review (portable headphone amp & dac)
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You want me to keep going???
VientoB
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I have heard Blaine at Headphones.com state that you really don't need a powerful amplifier like this for headphones. What volume are you expecting people to listen at?
Granted this one has 4 headphones outputs so for that purpose it covers that but how many people are going to use that feature with 4 headphones used at once. Seems quite a niche thing. I suppose if you need that then it would be easy to recommend this amplifier but for most people I remained puzzled as to why they would go for this with so many better value options.
Granted this one has 4 headphones outputs so for that purpose it covers that but how many people are going to use that feature with 4 headphones used at once. Seems quite a niche thing. I suppose if you need that then it would be easy to recommend this amplifier but for most people I remained puzzled as to why they would go for this with so many better value options.
solderdude
Grand Contributor
The issue here is that a music signal consists of an entire spectrum of signals that are all added (summed).
This means that at specific short moments in time the phase of signals comes together and a peak SPL is formed.
That, however, can consist of bass notes, voices, instruments etc that when they would be reproduced individually would be very loud but all summed reach -0.1dB peak level.
Now... if we consider most of the energy is in the bass and less for all the other sounds and, due to Equal loudness contours, and even rolled-off transducers would even mean an increased output level then it is not very hard to see where this is going.
To go loud, have high dynamics and impressive bass all the combined signals will have to be reproduced without the chance of clipping the amplifier.
So... when we have a momentary peak in recordings hitting 0dB SPL and that recording has, say, a DR of 15 and we like to play it loud with 'Harman' bass from say ... a hifiman HE6 or LCD-2 then the amp must be able to let a headphone reach 115dB SPL peak.
Now... most people confuse this with the 'exposure charts' and look at 115dBA exposure of noise levels (not music) and say ... wow what an idiot that thinks he needs an amp that can make the headphone reach 115dB. That, however, is a peak level and there might well be a +5dB low bass boost (for Harman compliance lovers at around 80dB average).
This means that when reaching 115dB peak levels the average level is around 95dB.
Sure this is loud but visit any pop live event and realize much higher levels are blasted at you for 1 or more hours.
The thing is... when someone occasionally likes to play a song 'at impressive high levels' reaching 95dB average (for which safety guidelines say 1 hour exposure time = safe) then the amp needs to be able to provide enough voltage/power (and have a few dB headroom to ensure no clipping at these levels) then enough power should be available to reach 118dB SPL (3dB headroom, 5dB Harman bass correction for the below mentioned planar headphones).
Then going of sensitivity numbers for HE-6, Susvara, LCD-2 for instance the amp needs to provide respectively 25V, 20V and 13V.
This amp provides 18V max (and then it is already clipping) and 14V on the cusp of clipping.
Even the HD600 would need 6V to reach that level.
So... sure most headphones will likely hardly ever see 1V on its input so this kind of amps is not needed for that and agree with Blaine that these amps are not needed to enjoy music with sensible listening levels.
However, people that fork out for say Susvara, HE6 (not even that expensive) or LCD-2 and want to occasionally like to enjoy music a bit loud they will need something like this amp or some other amp that can reach 12V or 15V.
For those folks, that may also own a DAVE and all kinds of other gear this amp could well be 'a ticket' that can bring them there.
But yes ... agreed... most people won't need a powerhouse like this nor ever fork out that kind of money but that is not what ASR is about.
And obviously Amir (as well as me) recognizes that for some headphones powerhouses like this (or Emotiva or Topping etc) are fine.
Would be great if it were $ 400,- but it isn't ... get a Topping for that and that will even perform better.
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The only problem I see with the prior comments saying this level of headphone amplification can only be generated with high noise and distortion is that it’s not true. I revisited the measurements of the A90 Discrete and found that it makes the same 6W at 32ohm. Also it has a max of 49Vpp (17.32 Vrms). This power is provided with far cleaner levels of noise and distortion. Also, the A90 Discrete is far cheaper.
Unless you are talking about the power amplifier output being used to drive headphones, nothing in the headphone output makes it special going by the measurements provided.
Unless you are talking about the power amplifier output being used to drive headphones, nothing in the headphone output makes it special going by the measurements provided.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #170
As @solderdude explained, he is mostly wrong. I have heard this claim so many times that I produced a video on it:
solderdude
Grand Contributor
Sure... A90 is objectively (technically) much better performing.
But... to reach the same wattage you would need to use it balanced, the Chord (being a 'speaker amp') does this in SE as well as balanced connectors and can drive 4 insensitive headphones at the same time (assuming they have the same efficiency and all have different connectors). The A90 in SE 'only' reaches 1.5W in 32ohm
My choice, if I HAD to choose between the A90 and the Chord, would be the A90 and have funds left to boot but would be missing out on the colored illuminated balls (which I don't like so no harm done).
b.t.w. I just assume the distortion 'crap' below 5uW is measurement error.
caocaolatre199x
Member
In 2025, with such a bad measurement result, I was really surprised when you recommend it. This doesn't seem like your style.
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