The Chord Alto is marketed as a professional headphone and speaker amp offering the possibility of driving four pairs of headphones at the same time. The speaker amp part has 40 watts of pure ULTIMA power into 4 ohms. (Note: The Chord website mentions 40 watts and 50 watts into 4 Ohms. I am not sure which is the correct figure.)
Actually the Chord Alto offers three functions — headphone amp driving four pairs of headphones simultaneously, an integrated amp offering 40 or 50 watts into 4 Ohms, and a preamp.
From the outset I have to state that the Chord Alto functions best as a headphone amp.
Also from the outset I have to address an issue with the volume control — when driving headphones, setting the volume at 7 or 8 o’clock was already loud enough for some headphones and just turning the knob a little bit would make the volume too loud. However when using the Alto as a preamp, I had to turn the volume knob to 2 or 3 o’clock to get decent loudness. And it was the same when using the Alto as an integrated amp.
I used a WiiM Ultra as streamer/DAC and a pair of WyWire Platinum RCA interconnects to link to the Chord Alto and a pair of Audience AU24 SX XLR interconnects to link the Chord Alto to the Bryston 4B SST power amp with Kimber 12TC cables linking to the ATC SCM50 floorstanders.
Chord Alto as headphone amp
When it was launched, I had already confirmed that the headphone amp section was very powerful (2,250 mW into 100 Ohms) when I plugged the hard-to-drive HIFIMAN Susvara into it (read https://www.av2day.com/2025/11/chord-alto-launched-at-stars-picker/).
The Alto has a 4.4 mm balanced output and when I found out that my old Sennheiser HD600 could be fitted with balanced cables, I headed to Stars Picker Audio Library and had the headphones fitted with balanced copper cables.
The Alto has 2 x 6.35 mm (1/4 inch), 1 x 4.4mm balanced jack and 1 x 3.5 mm headphone outputs. I managed to plug in only three — the Sennheiser HD600, an Audio Technica ATH-M50x and the Sony MDR-M1 Professional — because I could not find the screw-type 1/4 inch adapter for the AKG K240 Mk II.
My conclusion is that the headphone amp section is the best functionality of the Chord Alto. The old Sennheiser HD600 with balanced cables sounded really good with a deeper-than-usual and tighter bass and lower noise floor.
As for the marketing hype of being able to drive four pairs of headphones simultaneously, I feel it is feasible only when you use four identical pairs of headphones. This is simply because of the different sensitivities of different makes of headphones. The Sennheiser HD600 sounded loud enough with the volume knob at around the 9-10 o’clock position, the Audio Technica ATH-M50x was loud enough at around 8-9 o’clock while the Sony MDR-M1 was loud enough at around 7-8 o’clock. So it is not practical to plug in four different pairs of headphones.
Chord Alto as preamp
For some reason or other, the Chord Alto as preamp sounded soft. I had to switch the Bryston 4B SST power amp to high gain to get decent loudness from the system.
Also I had to turn the volume knob to 2-3 o’clock to get the music to sound loud enough for casual listening.
My conclusion is that the music sounded a bit too polite with not enough drive, pace and slam.
Chord Alto as integrated amp
Initially I used it to drive the ATC SCM50 floorstanders and again I felt that the sound lacked drive and pace.
Then I had an idea — since the Chord Alto was designed for studio monitoring work, it ought to work with studio monitor speakers.
So I plugged in the Falcon LS3/5a Maida Vale edition placed on TAOC AST-60HB speaker stands. These are 15 Ohm models and the Chord Alto outputs 40 or 50 watts into 4 Ohms, and honestly I had some doubts if the combination would work.
Surprisingly the Chord Alto-Falcon LS3/5a combination sounded good, but I had to turn the volume knob to 3-4 o’clock to get the music to rock and roll, with no evidence of clipping.
So would I recommend buying the Chord Alto? If you have HIFIMAN Susvara headphones and are frustrated by futile efforts to get them to sound good, then buy the Chord Alto. Other headphones sound good too when driven by the Chord Alto. The preamp and integrated amp functions can be considered as options that you can utilise when needed. And if you own LS3/5a speakers, you can use the Alto to drive them satisfactorily.
The Chord Alto is priced at RM16,300. Call Stars Picker Audio Library at 012-3392040 for more information.
