Chord Electronics Étude Reviews

5 Rating 2 Reviews

About The Audiobarn:

We are passionate about helping you find the best Hi-Fi to bring musical enjoyment. Customer service is our highest priority.

Visit Product Page

Phone:

01279 454 860

Email:

info@theaudiobarn.co.uk

Location:

2 Feltimores Park,
Chalk Lane,
Harlow
Essex
CM17 0PF

Visit Product Page

“Surprisingly powerful for such a small amp. No complaints at all. Considering buying a second one for my system, which speaks for itself.”

1 Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Once against first class service from Jack means I’m now happily using Chord Etude to complete my Chord Choral system (Blu2/DAVE/Etude). Lead time for Etude is shorter than for other Choral components (Blu2 & DAVE) so it arrived in no time at all. I found the Choral system easy to put together using my customary non-exotic inexpensive studio quality power, coax, XLR interconnects & speaker leads. My Choral system sits on Naim Fraim. Magnepan quasi-ribbon planar-magnetic speakers complete the setup (not everybody’s first choice, but work well in my room). DAVE serves as the pre-amp, but beware its display is in negative decibels so I set it to -50dB. I had it on -30dB when I first switched on, which is much too loud. The Etude is conservatively rated in my opinion. I didn’t need a dedicated pre-amp as there are no analogue sources connected to my Choral system - only CDs from Blu2 & streamed music from USB connected JRiver media centre. The Etude is a superb amplifier. It's unobtrusive & drives my speakers (nominally 4ohm with sensitivity 86dB/500Hz /2.83v) with ease. The Choral system has no obvious sonic signature, it simply lets me listen to the music. Everything I have played sounds very natural. From Vaughan-Williams to Van Der Graaf, from Holst to Hawkwind, from Purcell to Planxty, if you close your eyes, it’s easy to imagine you are at the venue with the performers. With the full Choral system CDs have never sounded better in my home. I also stream music using JRiver MC24 (as recommended by Mr Rob Watts) from albums stored on my network music server and am delighted with the results. CDs do sound slightly better than streamed rips of those CDs, but the new (December 2018) high resolution remaster (24bit/96KHz) of the Wings Wild Life album is so real, I felt Paul McCartney was playing live in front of me. With JRiver you can use its DSP Studio to provide room correction if you need to - previously I used this to good effect, but the need for it has vanished since I switched to the Etude. I can only assume it has more control over my speakers than my previous amplifier (or perhaps I have them in a better position now). I have tried the Etude in a non-Chord system with more conventional speakers, Spendor D9s, and single driver speakers, Eclipse TD510s. In both cases it performed impeccably. At least the equal of the well regarded amplifier in that system, which was twice its price. In terms of build quality I cannot fault Chord - I do wish they spaced out connection sockets on Blu2 a bit more, but on the Etude everything is ergonomically perfect. It also runs relatively cool. I power it down when not in use as it only takes around 10 minutes to warm up. One last point is you can run it as a mono amp in bridge mode, so you could employ two Etudes if you had a big room or insensitive speakers. Though for me, a single Etude in stereo mode is ideal. Jack has a number of very fine sounding systems at The Audiobarn. I could easily enjoy music on any of them. The Chord Choral system is one of the best in my opinion. I’m unsure what is happening inside the Etude, but whatever it is the results are exceptional. Of course, all my views are subjective, but it is definitely worth a listen if you are looking for a top class amplifier at or even above the price of the Etude.”

5 Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago