Chord Electronics Alto Review
I saw the new Alto amplifier at the Bristol HiFi show back in February. It was on one of the Chord Electronics stands, and it featured a perspex lid that showed off all the beautiful electronics that make up this stunning piece of kit. As usual, the stand was extremely busy, so I did not get a good chance to listen to the Alto at that time, but I shot some video of the unit in action.
The Alto was originally designed for the Chord Electronics PRO market, as it is ideal for near-field monitoring, featuring Chord's latest Ultima amplifier technology with the ability to drive 4 headphones simultaneously, It really does pack some punch when it comes to driving the most demanding headphones in a studio or home environment. Chord Electronics was continuously asked for the Alto to be released for the consumer market, as there was some great appetite from audiophiles for a product of this calibre to be made available to the masses. So Chord Electronics bowed down and made it available for us consumers, too.
Like all of Chord Electronics' products, the Alto is a stand-out and beautiful piece of kit to look at, featuring the signature coloured and illuminated lights, but because it features Ultima amplifier technology, it is styled in the Ultima design and fashion just like the bigger preamps and amplifiers, with the main power on button dead centre of the Alto.
I have been using Chord Electronics in my main systems here at The Speaker Shack for a good few years now in one form or another, whether that be the Mojo2, Hugo2 or the impressive Hugo TT2 and M Scaler, accompanied by the smallest Ultima power amplifier, the BerTTi. I have also reviewed quite a few of their products, including the impressive Ultima Integrated amplifier last year.
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Build Quality and Features
The build quality of Chord Electronics preamps, amplifiers and DAC is second to none, and the Alto is no different, even in its small form factor. It is slightly smaller than the TT range but sits nicely within this group of products and looks perfectly placed when working next to the Hugo TT2 DAC. The front of the Alto is machined out of a solid piece of aircraft-grade aluminium with a volume dial, and the main power-on button, which is placed front and centre in the Ultima style of products, with 2 buttons that sit on either side for input and output selection. To the right are the 4 x headphone sockets: 2 x 1/4 inch, 1 x 3.5mm and 1 x 4.4mm balanced jack output. On the rear of the Alto, it is a very tidy affair with 2 inputs, 1 XLR balanced input and 1 x RCA input. Then you have the speaker outputs, which are for banana plugs, allowing great flexibility for different speaker cables. There is also 1 x XLR output for passthrough and even features a 12v DC output for connecting and powering other products.
The main Ultima amplifier technology, which has been developed by the legend that is John Franks, features his High-Frequency switch-mode power supply and dual-feed-forward error correction, which continuously monitors the input signal with the output signal and adjusts where necessary. Chord Electronics uses a class A/B MOSFET design with an extremely low THD at 0.003% into 4 ohms. My own experience with these amps shows that they allow for superb fidelity and excellent dynamics, which manage to reproduce every type of music with stunning realism and musicality. Bass, in particular, is presented with an immediacy and clarity which defines the Ultima amplifier sound and how it delivers the lightning-fast transients in the lower frequencies. Power output is rated at 50 watts into 4 ohms and 25 watts into 8 ohms. Although it might not sound like much in theory, this amplifier technology has plenty to power a pair of bookshelf monitors.
Having the ability to connect 4 different headphones allows for excellent A/B comparisons to be made with different types of headphones, and you can certainly see why it was originally developed for studio use, but it also happens to have a potent amplifier for near-field monitor usage.
Attention to detail is superb, even down to the Alto's feet, which are machined beautifully as can be seen in my pictures below. The Alto also comes with a small remote which offers all the essential functions needed to operate the Alto and is a similar design to the Hugo TT range.
I have been streaming a lot of music lately from Qobuz and found a brilliant new release from Royksopp, a Norwegian electronic duo who I have listened to for many years, and this album, which has just been released, is from their 2023 True Electric tour which is only available to stream atm but will be released on CD and vinyl on the 9th May 2025 and seeing as I like it so much I have preordered the CD version which is a double CD with 19 tracks. Track 1 The Ladder is such a beautifully presented piece of music with an ambient and melodic mix that the new Alto presents through the ProAc D2R speakers perfectly, building in a crescendo of sounds, the electric guitar has a great immediacy to the sound as well as the chimes and electronic effects which have their own space in the soundstage, the Alto certainly has plenty of power to effectively recreate this music with precise imaging through my speakers, equally impressive if not more so is how it is presented in my Beyerdynamic T1 headphones, this is one hell of a powerful headphone amplifier which really does bring the music to life in the T1's and they play loud with plenty of bass and snap when the drum beat kicks in, this is one of my favourite tracks from this new album.
Track 5 Here She Comes Again steps the pace up a bit with a fast and dance club feel to the music, with some wonderful vocals from Jamie Irrepressible, and the Alto manages to power through this track with superb dynamics and energising my space which is full of sounds moving around the soundstage at lightning speed, the transients and shifts in tone is instantaneous. This is what I love about the Ultima amplifiers, it is their musical ability in re-creating such a vivid and dynamic sound from the speakers with a fast, punchy and snappy bass response from the ProAc speakers. It manages to reveal all the layers of the music it is being fed with great accuracy, presenting it with stunning clarity. It is just as good, if not better, when connecting up the headphones with probably the best Head-Fi experience I have had, proving this is one talented amplifier, which can make your headphone listening to be of the highest calibre with the new Alto. Switching to my Sennheiser headphones once again proves how capable they are, and although not of the same quality as the bigger Beyerdynamic T1, it is the best I have heard them sound; every nuance and detail is revealed in the music and from the headphones. I am not a big headphone listener, as it is usually only when on the move that I listen with headphones, but this has to be the most enjoyable time I have had listening to new music through my different headphones and the new Alto. This is a great album, and I strongly recommend picking up a copy, especially if you love electronic music.
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