Chord Electronics

About this resource

Chord Electronics dates its inception to 1989 and describes John Franks’ aviation background as an influence on its engineering approach. Early amplifiers went to the BBC and studios including Abbey Road before demand developed for domestic products. The official homepage explicitly identifies design, engineering and manufacturing in Great Britain, connecting the professional origins to today’s hi-fi catalogue. ^[1]

Digital conversion is built around proprietary FPGA technology, with DACs intended for mobile, desktop and dedicated home listening. Amplification is a parallel focus: the product overview describes high-frequency power supplies and a dual feed-forward error-correction topology. Streamers, upscalers, phono stages and preamplifiers complement those two core areas. The Qutest family is positioned for desktop and home systems, while Mobile centres on a pocketable DAC/headphone amplifier. ^[2]

Useful family-level entry points are Mobile, Qutest, Hugo, Table Top, Choral and ULTIMA. The new Suzi power amplifier illustrates the modular approach: it can work with Suzi Pre as a pre/power system with phono capability, or with Hugo 2 and 2go as a digital streaming arrangement. The separate Legacy category identifies superseded equipment and states that in-house technicians can still service those models. ^{[1] [2]}