The Chord Alto headphone amp/integrated amp/preamp was launched at Stars Picker in SEA Park, Petaling Jaya, yesterday.
Before I went there, I had read a few reviews and all of them said it was a very powerful headphone amp which can play four pairs of headphones simultaneously and can handle even the most difficult-to-drive headphones.
When I met Willy of Stars Picker, I immediately asked for a pair of HIFIMAN Susvara headphones as these are really hard to drive.
The Chord Alto was connected to a Chord Hugo TT2 DAC. Immediately, I could hear that the HIFIMAN Susvara sounded better than in previous sessions when they were driven by other headphone amps.
I needed to turn the volume knob to around 11 o’clock and it already sounded quite loud.
Overall, the Chord Alto had a very detailed sound with a neutral balance, but the bass was outstanding. The bass was powerful, tight and textured. At home, I played the same test tracks on Tidal using a laptop with a Furutech USB cable, an iFi ZEN DAC 2 and a pair of AKG K240II headphones and could not hear the textures and punch in the bass.
At the Stars Picker showroom, I decided to also try the HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled, the new edition of HIFIMAN’s flagship headphones.
In comparison with the original Susvara, the Unveiled version sounded a bit brighter with a more expressive mid and open, extended treble. I felt that Susvara Unveiled sounded extremely good with Chord Alto. However, it sounded quite loud with the volume knob at around 10 o’clock. Other reviewers have noted that it took only a small turn of the knob to increase the volume dramatically.
Thus it is obvious that the Chord Alto is a beast of a different level — if it can take the HIFIMAN Susvara and Susvara Unveiled to great levels of sonic bliss, it has to be really outstanding.
The Chord Alto is also a unique component as it offers four fascia-mounted headphone outputs — one 3.5 mm output; two 6.35 mm (1/4-inch); plus a single 4.4 mm Pentaconn. It is Chord’s first product to include a 4.4 mm Pentaconn TRRRS output (pseudo balanced). On top of that, all four can be used simultaneously.
If that’s not enough, the Alto is also an integrated amp delivering 25 watts (8 Ohms) and 50 watts (4 Ohms). And the final function is its preamp feature with a pair of XLR outputs to connect to active speakers or a power amp.
The Chord Alto retails at RM16,300. Drop by Stars Picker’s showroom for a test run.
