Chord "blu" CD transport

Thanks to Robbo for pointing this out to me yesterday. I just found some more info about it:

http://195.40.133.90/website/news/news-text_2.html







Have a cloth to wipe that dribbling off your chin Read, look, and weep - a definite contender for the most gorgeous transport out there. Allthough, it's slightly concerning that as yet all they have is CAD images and no real photos...

Wonder how much it will cost...and will it be worth it? Personally, one of the reasons I got my DAC64 was so that I could eventually not bother with a dedicated CD transport and have a universal player for DVDs, SACD etc and use the DAC64 to get the best CD sound aswell. We shall see.

Michael.

 

I may be on my own here, but I think it looks tacky. Its got a playstation1 look to the CD 'lid', its got waay too many LEDs and those buttons and case screws look like a Musical Fidelity design rip off.

At a purported 6K I would expect CLASS not BRASH.

Chord used to be masculine and beefy, now they are a little too 'lifestyle', but hell whats wrong with that? Its just not my cup of Kenya 'AA'.

I wonder what the sound will be like? Will it be SACD or DVDA? Will they be bringing out a DVD-V player to compliment the range?

 

Based on the pricing of the rest of the range apart from the DAC, I'm guessing it will be very expensive.

Seems to me that they underpriced the DAC, got carried away with its success, and massively overpriced the rest of the components in the range to take advantage of the fact that some people would want the matching set of components.

Personally I'm not very fond of the look, it's a bit ostentatious for my tastes, and I don't think I'd want a whole set of matching boxes. The DAC64 on its own (in black, of course) looks quite good though. Shame it sounds like a bag of spanners.*

-- Ian

* That was a joke.

 

For me great overall shape but yeah, too many buttons. Worthy rival for to the Sonic Frontiers IRIS transport for coolest looking transport.

 

I feel this is not the one they were woking on last time it was 'alledged' how fads and fashions change, what a dis-appointment

 

I'm not keen either, sorry Michael.

 

I guess it all depends how it sounds in the end. One thing that struck me as not too clever about the design is the location of the track readout - bit tricky to see if it's in a normal rack! I suppose it might be angled forward (hard to tell from the image) but still...

I somewhat agree with you Ian on the whole "Choral" range. I think the only bit that anyone has bought is the DAC64 - no idea what the rest of the range costs and not particularly interested in it either. I like the look of the transport, but even if I had the money (well over £3K if WM is right ) I don't think it would be remotely good VFM.

It's not even clear from the info whether the clock link is compatible with the DAC64 - bit silly IMO if it isn't! Maybe the DAC64 will get a software upgrade to support it?

Michael.

 

Mike, I think, it's designed to complement the Dac 64 MKII, notice the 'Twin digital outputs', I think you'll be able to buy a Clock line upgarde' for a mere £1k a feel strange they feel the need to put one on with the FIFO buffer and all
Whats the betting you'll see a DVD-a version not long after

 

If you've ever owned a top load CD player, you'll have discovered pretty damn quick that trying to use it on anything other than the top shelf is a royal pain in the butt anyway, so most users will use either a top shelf and/or a new rack for the transport if they're currently using a front loader...

Besides, a top loader gives vinyl users more fun as well - so that's cool

 

chord always seemed to have an industrial look to their kit i think they've not gone far enough. top load is cool but it needs a pair of hydrailic rams at the back for remote controllable motorised open / close complete with pssst sound effect and maybe even some steam / smoke.
agree with the too many buttons thing. and blue led's are a chord trademark so it was inevitable.
also that display is positioned so it;s totally useless.

i think there are nicer looking transports out there, the sf, the orelle? (spider looking thing) and even the shanling all have equally strong styling.
of course if you've got the rest of the chord range then it's going to fit right in.

cheers

julian

 

Dom - even if it's on the top shelf though, it's still going to be hard to read the display if it's facing upwards!

Michael.

 

Not forgetting the Metronome Kalista

...my personal favourite but just a tad beyond my budget

Michael.

 

I think the orelle is an Oracle. Probably one of the most eye catching I've seen, shame there's no decent front loaders (for us rackular challenged individuals)

 

"Just a tad..."(Gulp!)

 

True - but why would you be looking at the display if listening to music? My display is off all the time and I couldn't read it from my seating position even if I wanted to, so it's kind of irrelevant to me

 

If it is really £6K, +2K for the dac, I think one would be far better off going for a Wadia 861. With the 861 you dont need a preamp either.

Shame its so expensive cos it looks nice.

Its probably designed to go with the choral range matching stand, which tips everything forward at an angle. The odds are you will probably be able to read the display when its on this stand.

cheers, Robbo

 

I'd love to know the, ahem, "technical" reasons for a transport costing 3x more than the matching, buffered, error-correcting DAC, which I distinctly remember being trumpeted as so good it would work brilliantly with even a cheap CDP as a transport. If it really is £6K for the transport it's extremely cynical in my view.

-- Ian

 

I couldn't agree more Ian. Very cynical.

Michael.

 

Hi

Popped into my dealer today. (had the day of work). He told me the the estimated target price was to be under £3000. This was to put it in line with the rest of the range.

I look forward to getting my hands on it at some stage.


SCIDB

 

ah thats more like it

let us know what you think of it when you have had a play.

Cheers, Robbo