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Stars Pickers Audio in Damansara, Malaysia witnessed a packed house yesterday as the founder of Chord Electronics, John Franks, and their product designer, Rob Watts, took centre stage. The occasion not only served as a platform to unveil their new Chord ULTIMA integrated amplifier but also provided a unique opportunity for the audience to gain insights into the company's future product plans.
Previously, Chord had hinted at a modular product known as the Suzi but had not disclosed any additional details. Yesterday, Rob Watts finally presented us with 3D renders of the product, revealing that the Chord Suzi will be a modular power amplifier designed to connect seamlessly with the Chord Hugo2. Additionally, he introduced another upcoming phono pre-amplifier, the Chord Suzi Pre, which will also be compatible with this modular system.
Rob Watts has this to say about the inspiration and design of the Suzi, “The kids have building block toys and I thought that’s a good idea for a modular product. And the shape itself is based on my kid’s shoe box. By making it modular we can make it a standalone product and at the same time provide a stackable form factor with compatible devices.”
The upcoming Suzi Pre will serve as a phono stage for both moving magnet (MM) and moving coil (MC) cartridges. It will also have various loading and impedance settings to better match it with your phono system. It can also be used as a standalone phono stage using a small attachment that converts the RCA output from the side to the rear. When paired with the Suzi power amplifier, it will receive power from the Suzi.
Unlike other audio companies that focus a lot on linear power supplies, Chord has been firm on their stand that a good SMPS power supply is better than a linear power supply. “Linear power supplies are very transparent,” Rob Watts explained, “So there’s a lot of electronic interference beyond the human frequency range that can pass through. Even if it is within the megahertz range, it can introduce modulated interference in the audible range.”
“With a properly made SMPS there are filters on the input and output so we can reduce the interference drastically.” he added.
I asked them why they use colours to show bitrate, inputs, and volume instead of position or text indicators for most of their products, “Well think of it this way, you’re standing from across the room and you look at the amp. You will know exactly what is going on based on the colours on it,” John Franks answered with that end note.