Chord Huei Phono Preamp Review

[Robbo99999]

Not quite as bad as a $5000 dollar audiophile cable, but still! Having said that I guess you can still actually use the cable!

 

[beefkabob]

I want one... SIKE

Psych!

 

[DuncanTodd]

To make the answer short: You could be in for a revelation when you happen to have a cartridge that is optimally loaded or loaded in a specific way that you may prefer but does not have to be correct.

Thank you for the detailed answer. It seems extremely complex. I think I can go on living without one given it hasn't bothered me in the last 30 years.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

"Broken" is the first thing that comes to my mind when I see such abysmal performance... I am however constantly reminded that some people are more than willing to pay for such bad/broken performance. The audiophile landscape could be said, to be actually dominated by such. From $140,000 amplifers delivering less than 50 Watts per channel at around 3% THD (!!!! Yes !!! WTF??? ) to speaker cables costing well over $50,000

These are the specs for the >$140,00 ( One Hundred Forty Thousand U$, no typo)... amplifier ...

• 1 Watt into 16 Ohms, 0.3% THD
• 30 Watts into 16 Ohms, 3% THD
• 1 Watt into 8 Ohms, 0.3% THD
• 30 Watts into 8 Ohms, 3% THD
• 1 Watt into 4 Ohms, 0.3% THD
• 30 Watts into 4 Ohms, 3% THD

... Need I say more?

 

[BDWoody]

• 1 Watt into 4 Ohms, 0.3% THD
• 30 Watts into 4 Ohms, 3% THD

... Need I say more?

Wow.

Distortion can be very expensive.

I'm so glad transparency is the commodity these days. Of course, that makes it less desirable to many, apparently.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Too bad that Chord themselves don't publish noise/thd specs on their website.

 

[MusicNBeer]

POS. Audio engineering is pathetic on the whole. This stuff isn't even hard.

 

[dmac6419]

Psych!

Psych Nope Sike....Sike definitions. Filters. (slang) Indicating that one's preceding statement was false and that one has successfully fooled one's interlocutor. interjection.

 

[Harmonie]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Chord Huei phono stage/pre-amplifier.

Despite all of the above, the functional design of the Huei is a total fail! If you are familiar with Chord products you know that they use colored LEDs to communicate the status of some setting. That makes the device difficult to operate due to the need to then remember the color of the button meaning different things. Here, that design has been taken to level of insanity with many settings encoded into colors. Take the impedance settings for moving magnet mode. These are the color indicators:

View attachment 92132

Are they crazy? Who the heck remembers these colors?
/

I disagree strongly:
This is for medical reasons, it's a step to prevent Alzheimer !

 

[PuX]

I though it was a knock-off. Their "design language" is beyond ugly, even if that was the point for being different or grabbing attention.

 

[Nango]

Every Chord Amir touched until now was a pure fail.

 

[jtwrace]

Wow! What a POS!

 

[jae]

Not much of a surprise as it is a Chord product.

 

[nintendoeats]

Aside from being difficult to remember, those of us who are colorblind do not appreciate using colored lights to indicate things. In practice, nearly all of the colors on that card look similar to at least one (and typically 3 or 4) other colors. What I see is "blue", "white" and "other".

 

[tomtoo]

I disagree strongly:
This is for medical reasons, it's a step to prevent Alzheimer !

View attachment 92206

Haha, what was the code for +3db Bass? green-green-yellow-red. Oh shiit that was power off.

 

[burninggecko]

Aside from being difficult to remember, those of us who are colorblind do not appreciate using colored lights to indicate things. In practice, nearly all of the colors on that card look similar to at least one (and typically 3 or 4) other colors. What I see is "blue", "white" and "other".

I'm colorblind too so even if it measured well I would pass. It would stink to have to get someone to help me verify the color indicators every time I made a change

 

[Frank Dernie]

Wow, that's strange. How is the noise better in MC mode? Note hifi world did some tests where noise was OK. Also, it appears the anti-rumble does not filter but does "mono" below 200 Hz? https://chordelectronics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Huei-HiFi-World-Review.pdf

The kindest think I can think of to write is that is just stupid.
ALL the output of a seismic sensor below ~2Fn is inaccurate in phase and amplitude and should be filtered out.

 

[solderdude]

Every Chord Amir touched until now was a pure fail.

Most of them tested excellent.

Amir even said this:
From pure performance point of view, the CHORD Qutest nails all the tests I threw at it, garnering the top spot in DACs I have tested.

He just does not recommend them because of the price but performance is excellent.

Maybe you meant PS Audio?

 

[Veri]

Most of them tested excellent.

Amir even said this:
From pure performance point of view, the CHORD Qutest nails all the tests I threw at it, garnering the top spot in DACs I have tested.

He just does not recommend them because of the price but performance is excellent.

Maybe you meant PS Audio?

Yeah the Chord DACs have been pretty good (Mojo not so much especially when you hear about all the battery issues plaguing them), it's just the asking price that is a little.. intense. Why get the single-ended Qutest when there are perfectly good RCA+XLR DACs for a much cheaper price? :/

 

[gvl]

Nice way to enhance the audiophile vinyl experience.

Perhaps it's a plot to convert vynil aficionados to digital?