I purchased 3 Chord amps and a preamp for various systems. Pre amp magnetic function selectors failed, making preamp useless. Stereo amp 1. one channel failed. Stereo amp 2. one channel failed. Stacked stereo amp, one channel in each amp failed. Remaining channels emitting shriek. As pre and amps were used in Central Europe repairs would have cost massive 2 way transport and insurance to UK for repair plus heavy repair/testing bills. Went to DIY tubes, Transcendent Sound, SE OTL. Realized the best full range speakers need 1/10 of a watt! Audio Nirvana, AER etc. Good luck with your Chords!

1. Nuances, nuances, nuances. Especially in things like discerning musicians increasing or decreasing the intensity of their playing. 2. Precise, three dimensional imaging. 3. Warm, rich deep tones. 4. Plenty of power.

None of which I can think.

Caveat: My review is actually for the Chord 1200E which is a 350 Watts into 8 ohms product. In a word I can summarize the Chord 1200E: AMAZING. Nuances Revealed! The evening that I plugged in my new amp I immediately starting hearing nuances in beloved old recordings that I had never heard before. The extra roll of a cymbal here and the slight vibration of vocal chords there. That was the obvious stuff, but what floored me was the fact that I could finally here the muscianship of performers coming through. Case in point was listening to the Police's "One World (Not Three)" and hearing the band start playing more intensely after the first chorus. Mind you, they didn't start playing faster, but with a greater passion and the entire band did so in unison. This is something that the Chord immediately brought to light. Pulling back the abstruse layers of a piece of music and hearing the raw humanity of a performance is what buying high end equipment is all about. Imaging: The Chord brought an extra dimension to my already impressive imaging. My B&W Nautilus 802s are renowned for their imaging and formerly I had awesome detailed imaging, but only in two dimensions. That is, I could place instruments in the sound stage perfectly left to right and top to bottom. But there was no front to back - until Chord, that is. Now I hear beautiful detailed full three dimensional imagery. Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up" was revelatory and you could place Mayfield easily in front of his drummer, instead of on top of the drummer. Spectacular Low-End: My 1200E also brings out the full rubbery richness of deep bass. Larry Graham's bass (of Family Stone fame) finally sounds like the real thing. What is more drums normally have a snap to them or a peak sound that was previously not reproduced well on my system, but now they are there in full rich technicolor. Live, that is, real bass sounds are very complicated and the quality of a single note changes slowly as it decays and most stereos do not reproduce bass in a warm fashion. My old system was boomy. Power: In short, the Chord is very neutral and very powerful, consequently you hear music. Comparisons: I travelled around the country a bit and listened to many other amps before selecting the Chord. Most folks that I talked to recommended Mark Levinson (which is more expensive by the way). The Levinson was the proverbial analytical amplifier. I was listening to "Let Down" by Radiohead wherein Thom Yorke (singer) is pouring is guts out for the listener and even my old Adcom revealed the raw emotion. But the Levinson was absolutely lifeless. I was hearing everything, but not feeling everything. Conclusion: With the Chord I am no longer thinking about my componentry and instead am obsessing about the soul of the musicians. Its like casting a spell and commanding history's best performers to play for you in your living room. I must commend my fellow reviewers on this site who mentioned that the Chord 1200E was the ideal mate for B&W Nautilus 802s as that is my speaker of choice and the match is flawless.

Similar Products Used:

Levinson, Linn, Krell, Adcom

absolute transparency and neutrality as well as incredible detail and effortless power delivery

speaker terminals are too close

this is actually a review of the spm1200e which is the latest version of this model. i've tried out krell and bryston before and found these two sounding hard and unmusical. mark levinson was better but i found the yba more natural sounding though it was short of power at times. the chord however, beat all these in terms of speed, detail, control and musicality. the spm1200e sounded as if it wasn't there at all! this is the only amp i've heard so far that managed that. though the krell and bryston had more bass slam but i think it was not natural as the bass didn't gel well with the rest of the music and when it came to the mids and highs the chord was superior in every aspect. i guess this is the reason why chord amps are used by the world's leading studios

Similar Products Used:

amps that i've tried include bryston, krell, mark levinson, yba

absolute transparency and neutrality as well as incredible detail and effortless power delivery

speaker terminals are too close

this is actually a review of the spm1200e which is the latest version of this model. i've tried out krell and bryston before and found these two sounding hard and unmusical. mark levinson was better but i found the yba more natural sounding though it was short of power at times. the chord however, beat all these in terms of speed, detail, control and musicality. the spm1200e sounded as if it wasn't there at all! this is the only amp i've heard so far that managed that. though the krell and bryston had more bass slam but i think it was not natural as the bass didn't gel well with the rest of the music and when it came to the mids and highs the chord was superior in every aspect. i guess this is the reason why chord amps are used by the world's leading studios

Similar Products Used:

amps that i've tried include bryston, krell, mark levinson, yba

Soundstaging, authority, transparency, detail

None

I am using the Chord with JM Lab Mezzo Utopia speakers (see my separate review). This amplifier fulfils my needs perfectly- it combines a rare ability to soundstage as well as a valve amp (I came from valve electronics) with the power and authority that only a very few amplifiers can provide. It is essentially neutral, there is no detectable 'sound', what it does do is pass the signal through unfiltered to produce a detailed, natural sound picture with immense clarity.
For those occasions when I want to rock, the power seems limitless (450W per channel into the 4 Ohm Mezzos) with huge depth and power in the bass. The fine detail and presentation never breaks up, it just gets louder until I realise that I am playing at very high volume and there is still no distortion.
Highly recommended with good partnering speakers (the combination of Chord and Mezzo is made in heaven) and source components.

No character that can be detectable. Superb control of speakers

Pricey perhaps.

I have used Chord amplification from one form or another for the last 6 years or so. Initially I started out with the 1000B model. This is a very good product , producing 200W per channel. I then moved onto the 1200C about 2 years ago. This produces 340 watts into 8 Ohms.

I had been using Tannoy D700 speakers for a while now. These speakers are power and current hungery, but the Chords had no problems delivering that.

The Chords are essentially very very neutral and has lots of power and has no character at all. Recently the speakers were updated to B & W Nautilus 802. This is a marriage made in heaven!

Great snergy!. No wonder this combination and above is used by Abbey Road for their mastering suite.

I have no hesitation in recommending Chords. They are finished suberbly, and the company's after sales is exemplary. Check out their website for more infor www.chordelectronics.co.uk

Similar Products Used:

None

super detail, tranperent and control

binding post too close dificult for spade lugs

I have borrowed this amp from my friend. After connected the amp, I am very impressed by detail resolution and control which is far better to my krell. it has big power which no require for more. The sound just absolutly exellent. I nerver heard the amp has much detail, tranperent and control at this price before

Similar Products Used:

krell fpb 300

I have been fortunate to own the Chord SPM1200C amplifier and Chord CPA2200 preamp for several months now and I feel that I am now in a position to post a review of these excellent products.
Chord Electonics is a small UK company that supplies many recording studios, film industry sound studios and professional musicians with amplification of the highest quality. The stereo SPM1200C amp delivers over 300W per channel into 8 Ohms and the CPA2200 preamp is in the mid range of the Chord preamp products. The build quality is exceptional and the post sales support from Chord electronics is very good indeed.

I use B&W Matrix 802 speakers and a Marantz 72SE CD player that is seven years old. The DVD player is a Pioneer 515 and is fed into the CPA2200 via the analogue audio outputs. I also connect the TV into the preamp via it's audio outputs. The system sounds fantastic!!. The Chords are probably the most neutral sounding amps that I have ever heard, creating a sound that is completely natural allowing incredible insight into the music.

The "HiFi" qualities are all there: transparancy, speed, timing and resolution, however what really catches my attention is the way in which you are drawn into the music forgetting that the electronics are there at all. It's a cliche, but you really do hear details on your CD's that you have not heard before. A decent HiFi system will allow you to tell that a sound is actually a musical instrument, the Chords go one better in that you realise that that instrument is actually being played by a skilled and talented musician (most of the time!) or that a singer has put real feeling and power into the performance. This, luckily, applies to both good and bad recordings.

I was listening to a Lynyrd Skynrd album (sad, I know) album recently which is not well recorded, but is still good to listen to occasionaly. The piano solo in "Call me the breeze" suddenly caught my attention. I have heard this solo loads of times, but have never actually listened to it. It has always been "there's the piano - so what?" With the Chords I suddenly realised that the piano playing was exceptional, I could hear Billy Powell's fingers on the keyboard, hear his skill as a keyboard player and realised that he was a skilled professional musician. He was playing with real vigour and feel. I played that solo five times, sorry neighbours!

An example of a good recording is kd Lang's Ingenue album. Everybody knows what a fantastic singer she is, but until I heard that album through the Chords I hadn't realised how skilled she is as a vocalist. The acoustic guitar on the album is awesome. You can hear the plectrum strike each string in a controlled and skilful way and realise that considerable care has gone into both the composition and playing of the music.

The soundstage produced by the Chords and 802's has to be experienced to be believed. When listening to the TV through the Chords, with the speakers either side of the TV, the speakers really do seem to "disappear". I have frequently thought that the sound was coming directly from the TV and not the HiFi and have tried to turn the TV volume down. Broadcast sound is very natural, but at times it is amazing how the recording enginers have missed extraneous background noise, as revealed by the Chords. The stereo sound from the DVD player is also awesome, even as a two channel, rather than a 5.1 system. Again it's a cliche, but at times the walls do seem to disappear as sounds seem to be coming from outside the room, so good is the sound stage. I heard this on the Crimson Tide DVD in which the sound of the sub under attack seemed to be coming from the right hand side, not in the living room, but the kitchen!. During the opening credits of Spielbergs "The Colour Purple" birds are twittering as the credits roll. I could have sworn that those birds were actually in the living room. An HT system based round Chord amps and B&W speakers would be incredible.

I hope this has conveyed some of the attributes of this gear. There appears to be a real synergy between Chord amps and B&W speakers (Chord use B&W speakers for their product development and many recording studios, such as abbey Road use this combination too). The amps are expensive (SPM1200C costs £4,200 and the CPA2200 costs £2,500 in the UK) but if you are looking for high end amplification, you should defuinitely audition them. I just hope that you can buy them in the States.

A definite 5 stars!!!