Electronics assembled to sell supercars meets speakers
designed to bring pro audio to the home.
What you see here may be a first on the Beautiful System
pages – a professional offering. By this, I don’t mean that it is comprised of
pro-audio electronics (although all the brands concerned have pedigree in this
area), but that the components in this system were originally assembled for a
reason other than your edification – vital though that is too, of course.
This extraordinary collection of electronics – half hi-fi
system, half art installation – is a Chord Electronics Choral system, but one
that differs from the norm (if anything that hails from Chord can ever be
described as normal), as it was built for a specific reason. This very system
has been used to provide some suitable sonic for the Bugatti showroom in
London.
When your customer base is weighing up the pros and cons of
one of the most extraordinary cars ever made, an old mini system pumping out
commercial radio isn’t really going to set the right tone.
This is a system
that is crying out to be is crying out to be displayed in full view displayed
in full view and not hidden away
Broom, shake the room
To this end, Chord worked with Bugatti to create a system
that wouldn’t be shown up by a $1366881.1 supercar. The main point where this
system is different to the norm is the color. These units are finished in
titanium that better matches the visible metalwork on the cars. These
unique-looking units are then mounted in an Aspire rack. This older design has
since been replaced by the new Modular rack, but in a room full of supercars
Bugatti felt the older design had more presence.
The electronics themselves are – finish aside – conventional
members of the Choral family, but this still means they are fairly
extraordinary devices. Take the digital front end. The combination of Blu CD
Transport and QBD76 DAC is a phenomenally advanced paring. The Blu offers
selectable up sampling over the various multiples of 44.1kHz and then outputs
the digital signal over a pair of 37.5ohm BNC outputs instead of a single 75ohm
connection (although one of those is fitted, too), which means that the QBD76
is similarly equipped. The DAC doesn’t stop there at unique ways to receive CD
data either. The USB input is naturally 192 kHz-capable, but also allows for
the transfer of DSD – the native encoding of SACDs – as well.
Chord puts its
electronics on display via viewing windows
Horsing around
The horsepower comes courtesy of a pair of the Mezzo 50
power amps. As the name suggests, these will deliver an ‘unconditionally
stable’ 50W in stereo or – as used here – 100W in bridged mono. Marshalled by a
Prima preamplifier, the trio is able to handle the output from the QBD76 DAC
and there is even an example of the fully balanced and endlessly adjustable
Symphonic phonon stage as well.
Exactly what speakers this system made use of in the Bugatti
showroom is unclear, but this stunning combo is completed with a pair of PMC
fact.8 in the new white finish. The fact.8 is the embodiment of PMC taking
everything it has gleaned from pro audio designs and squeezing it into a design
that is elegant, bordering on minimalist. Within the slim cabinet is the same
transmission line technology that allows a relatively discrete loudspeaker to
generate the sort of bass output that we’ve come to know and love from PMC.
As you can see from the images above, this is a seriously
impressive system to look at, but I can assure you that in the metal it makes
even more sense. The titanium finish is absolutely fantastic and in certain
lighting gives the Chord stack an almost otherworldly appearance. I find it
amusing that Hollywood has countless people engaged in making the props for
sci-fi films, but a small company in Kent has made something more convincingly
extra-terrestrial than pretty much anything seen in the movies. There is always
the slight sense when using the Chords that you might be selecting a track on a
CD or about to punch a hole in the fabric of space-time. Special mention also
needs to go to the complete suite of Atlas cables that are made to specific
lengths to keep the back of the system looking as tidy as possible. With the
slender fact.8 on either side, this is a system that is crying out to be
displayed in full view rather than quietly tucked away.
The Choral system
is small, but connectivity is substantial
Chord equipment comes in for critique from people that feel
that the company puts too much emphasis on the external appearance of its
equipment – and for those who feel that the UK peaked in design terms with the
tweed jacket, the styling can be a bit much. After spending some time with this
partnership of components, however, I would urge anyone to try and listen to a
Choral system blind. Yes, it unquestionably looks extraordinary, but it really
does sound extraordinary, too. Starting with the Blu CD Transport and cueing up
the latest offering from the White Lies, Big TV, it only takes a few bars to
realize that this beautiful combination of components is something very special
indeed.
