Chord Electronics Alto Review

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Build Quality

The Alto’s casing is fully made of aluminum and features Chord Electronics’ unique design. Love it or hate it, but I think the illuminating marbles on the front of the unit look gorgeous. Even if they are not intuitive, they are just beautiful to look at to me.

On the left-hand side of the front you will find the volume knob, behind which is a motorized control for when you adjust the volume with the remote control. In the middle of the unit sits the biggest of three light-balls, which tells you if the unit is powered on or off, or at what volume setting you are.

This is not new to existing Chord Electronics users, as all their products use color-coding information to display the state of the units.

Left and right of the volume ball you have two smaller ceramic balls which can be pressed. The left one switches inputs and the right one switches outputs. A small sticker will tell you what color corresponds to which input/output.

The unit itself is very compact in size, measuring only 215 x 200 x 57 mm (DWH), which translates to 8.46 x 7.87 x 2.24 inches. It puts a mere 1,946 grams on the scale, which is 4.29 lbs.

On the bottom of the unit are four feet with rubber padding. These can be removed, should you want to rack-mount the Alto in your studio.

Alto itself feels very robustly made and I think the build quality speaks for itself.

Usability

Thanks to the supplied infrared remote control, using the Alto is very easy. Although you will have to learn the color-coding system Chord Electronics use.

To make it a little easier for you, here’s a color-coding breakdown for you.

Input:

Green XLR input
Red RCA input
Cyan XLR input with XLR bypass
Purple RCA input with XLR bypass

Output:

Blue XLR output
Red Speaker output
Green Headphone output
Cyan Headphone + XLR output
Purple Speaker + XLR output

You can easily switch between the inputs and outputs by either pressing the corresponding button on the Alto’s front, or on the remote control. When the Alto is in stand-by mode, the center ball will be lighting up in red. Once you turn it on, it will change to green when powering up and teal once it’s ready to use.

On the remote you will also find a button to dim the lights. While it does take away some brightness, the dimmed lights are still at least as bright as the non-dimmed ones of my Hugo TT2.
You can set the Alto to use the XLR output together with either the headphone or speaker outputs. To enable this, you will need to long-press the Output button on the unit. The color will then change according to the sheet above.

If you want to enable the XLR bypass, you have to press the Input button on the front for a bit until the color of the input changes. See the table above to know which input is used in bypass mode.

Although I love the design choice of Chord to go a different route than most other manufacturers, I cannot ignore the usability is not intuitive. Once you know the color system, it’s easy though and the remote control really makes life easier with the Alto.

On the back of the unit, you will also find a 12V trigger output. This is not your standard 3.5mm trigger socket though, so it will require a special trigger cable to connect to your other HiFi gear. I assume this is what the Pro Audio scene uses for their trigger connections.

Sound

During the past months I used the Chord Electronics Alto as a headphone amplifier, being fed by my Hugo TT2 or the Eversolo DMP-A8 and A10. I also placed the Alto in my speaker setup and paired it with my KEF R3 Meta, DALI Rubikore 2, DALI Epikore 3 and Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2.

The Alto is far too powerful for In Ear Monitors, and I don’t recommend using any with it. Headphones wise I used the HIFIMAN HE1000SE, Arya Unveiled as well as the Palma Audio DHS-1. All of which are not hard to drive headphones, and I reached comfortable listening volumes early on the volume dial.

Speakers that require higher wattage, like the Clarity 6.2, should be paired carefully though, as the Alto might not deliver best results with them. It is better suited for speakers like the KEF R3 Meta, the DALI Rubikore 2 or probably the KEF LS50 (Meta). The Alto couldn’t contain the Clarity 6.2’s bass response.

Alto is a highly transparent and detailed amplifier, that can be compared to a pure river flowing down the mountains. It delivers heaps of grip and control throughout the entire frequency range. The Alto produces a clean sound with outstanding dynamic range, a smooth top end and finesse in the mids. Its resolution and stereo staging are simply fantastic.

Let’s dive in a little further. Click here to continue reading about Alto’s sound, or use the links below.