Chord Electronics has reduced the price of five of its most popular digital products, thanks to the decreasing cost of critical components post-pandemic.
High-end manufacturers took a royal beating during the pandemic even though sales were fairly robust; hundreds of millions of consumers stuck at home across the globe had to find something to do to pass the time with live music venues shuttered, offices and movie theaters closed, and vacation destinations off limits for the most part.
It was a great opportunity for the personal audio category with so many consumers transitioning to remote work, but all of that was also impacted by massive supply chain issues.
The global pandemic had an adverse effect on electronic component pricing, coupled with a scarcity of digital components. With the situation now easing, Chord Electronics has been able to improve the pricing on some of its best-loved devices by as much as 20 percent.
The following products now benefit from lower prices (effective September 1st):
- Mojo 2 (was £495, now £395/$650 at Amazon)
- Poly (was £495, now £395/$650 at Headphones.com)
- Qutest (was £1,395, now £1,195/$1,595 at Headphones.com)
- Hugo TT 2 (was £4,995, now £3,995/$5,295 at Headphones.com)
- Hugo M Scaler (was £4,195, now £3,495/$4,750 at Headphones.com)
Chord Electronics’ British-made DACs uniquely deploy powerful FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Aray) chipsets as a foundation for the company’s advanced proprietary digital-to-analogue code, and in 2021-22, these became four times more expensive.
As a responsible business, the Kent-based founder-owned company, which not only designs and engineers but hand-builds all of its products in the UK, has directly passed the savings onto its customers.
Not all digital component prices have come down, however, meaning some product prices, such as the Hugo 2 and the DAVE, remain unchanged. Build costs for the DAVE have, in fact, gone up in recent times, however, Chord Electronics has absorbed the price rises.
The improved pricing is effective immediately, globally.
The Mojo 2 and Poly have recently benefited from a summer promotion price of £395 (from £495), and the lower price of £395 has become permanent.
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Malcolm
September 4, 2023 at 4:27 am
Still over priced
Ian White
September 4, 2023 at 3:57 pm
Malcom,
The Qutest is really good and so is the Hugo TT. The other products are definitely $$$$.
The Huei phono stage is so under-the-radar good and very few have reviewed it. We did a review 2 years ago but it never caught on.
IW
Reademandweep
September 4, 2023 at 2:23 pm
Great article. But seriously, except for the mojo 2, all of these dacs are well past their expiration date given the state of digital today.
Ian White
September 4, 2023 at 3:59 pm
R,
Putting aside the specs, how do they sound? 95% of available music is 16-bit/44.1 PCM and I’d take the Qutest over a lot of DACs. I’m not saying it’s the best at its price, but I’ve heard it enough times to think rather highly of it.
I do wish that the Huei phono stage was cheaper. It’s really good. Underrated.
Best,
Ian White