I had a good time visiting the Chord booth at CanJam this year. The two British gents including sales manager Colin Pratt were very amicable, even a bit entertaining as far as booth-side stop-and-chats go. They have a lot to be happy about. Chords move into portable/transportable DAC/Amps has been a swift and successful one. While still choosing a slight premium route within the category, the community has responded in turn very favorably to the sound and technical backing of designer Rob Watts.
We got a chance to catch up with Rob himself at CES this year for a very detailed release announcement for the Hugo 2, a wireless Mojo attachment called Poly and his newest transport creation, Blue 2. The Poly has since seen an updated release time, moving back the launch date to the first week in July.
The show table was adorned with the company’s pinnacle DAVE DAC as well as a working prototype of Poly, Hugo TT (for table top) and the complementary TToby amplifier. The TToby (2,900 British lbs.) must have slipped under my radar at some point, but its proposal of class AB sliding bias, 100w into 4 ohms was a interesting one. The footprint matches the Hugo TT DAC in a similar fashion to some of the full size DAC amp separates efforts from digital-forward companies (like Benchmark) in recent years.
But all that product loveliness was tertiary to the Hugo 2 at the show. With the closest release date (two weeks) and crowds waiting with bated breathe, the next iteration of the successful transportable ladder DAC setup is a little piggy that is almost ready for market. But you may be asking yourself: “Self? what are the differences in the new model?” Not to worry, Colin is here to help with a handy presentation that outlines all the major changes, and there are quite a few. The team at Chord appears to be listening, watching and responding to market needs as they appear. Check it all out in the embed below.
More info: http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk
