Chord Electronics
BerTTi Energy Amplifier
£3,995 RRP
Over the previous many years, Chord Electronics has honed its design to the purpose that its merchandise come very extremely praised for his or her look, construct and end. The corporate has ploughed its personal furrow, so to talk, and intentionally prevented following the paths of its rivals so far as aesthetics and ergonomics are involved. The brand new BerTTi energy amplifier you see right here very a lot embodies this, being beautifully constructed each in and out – exactly what you’d anticipate for the upper-tier area of interest sector of the market that’s high-end desktop audio.
It’s a central a part of Chord Electronics’ so-called Desk Prime (TT) vary, becoming a member of the Hugo TT2 DAC/preamp and the M Scaler. These are midi-sized, strikingly styled high-end separates with varied brightly colored lights that imbue an virtually toy-like atmosphere. Collectively, the three make a compact but high-quality system, simply the kind of factor that so-called ‘premium luxurious’ clients crave. The Hugo M Scaler shouldn’t be mission-critical however does considerably improve the sound of the Hugo TT2 by upscaling the digital audio to 705.6kHz, which is sixteen instances that of Compact Disc’s native 16/44 decision.
Returning to the BerTTi energy amplifier, it is a totally balanced Class AB MOSFET design that places out a claimed 75W RMS per channel into 8 ohms and 110W into half that load. It sports activities a particular dual-feed-forward error-correction topology and twin switched mode energy provides, the latter being stated to have been improved over its TToby predecessor. The producer has, after all, included balanced inputs in addition to unbalanced RCAs, and the speaker terminals are good high quality varieties.
The first distinction between the older TToby and the brand new BerTTi is that the latter has two unbiased feed-forward error correction pathways inside the drive circuitry of every amplifier. Each screens the ability gadgets on the rear of the amplifiers and immediately compensates for any non-linearities. That is stated to be firm founder John Franks‘ personal model of an necessary topology theorised a few years in the past by Professor Malcom J Hawksford and developed in a compact 50W design by Robert (Bob) Cordell. There’s additionally a brand new 400kHz tremendous low noise auxiliary energy provide which is alleged to spice up the aux energy rails nicely above the primary rails, permitting for better voltage swing for extra headroom on heavy dynamic transients. Chord Electronics calls this new topology ULTIMA, and the BerTTi is the newest and smallest of its energy amplifiers to obtain it.
Total, the construct and end are wonderful, as you’d anticipate. Ten or so years in the past, a fairly industrious German hi-fi reviewer determined to drive a tracked armoured preventing car – mainly, one thing carefully resembling a tank – over a Chord hi-fi separate, as you do. Regardless of being squashed into the bottom, it did not break – and that fairly set the tone for the robustness of the corporate’s merchandise. The 2-piece metalwork is all UK-made, from precision machined strong aircraft-grade aluminium. There is a alternative of Jett Black or Argent Silver finishes – strong as they each are, neither would revenue from having a tank pushed over them, I might guess.
For the needs of this evaluate, I linked up the BerTTi to each my Yamaha NS-1000M loudspeakers and a pair of Acoustic Power Coriniums, and fed it by a Hugo TT2. This amplifier is extraordinarily simple to hook up and use, the one factor of word being the front-mounted button that toggles between standby and totally on. The rear-mounted IEC energy enter additionally has the grasp energy swap. Due to the 4 separate followers inside, this little energy amplifier runs fairly cool, making it appropriate for comparatively small, confined areas. Though the BerTTi is a so-called ‘desktop amplifier’, I used it in my primary system, generally at fairly excessive quantity ranges, with no sense of impending overheating.
THE LISTENING
It is a very succesful little energy amp. Furthermore, one which wants no excuses made for it on account of its small measurement. When you’ve heard any of the newest technology of Chord Electronics amplifiers, its sound will not come as an entire shock. It gives up an unerringly clear and detailed efficiency, allied to a grippy, sinewy means of music making. You’d by no means name it a romantic-sounding amplifier; it is tonally lean and crisp, with no fats on the bone, so to talk. But it marries up very nicely with the matching Chord Hugo TT2, delivering a extremely even and open window on the musical world.
Tonally it is a fraction on the spry and dry aspect – name it ever-so-slightly ‘nicely lit’ however not aggressively brilliant. This makes it appropriate for a variety of loudspeakers – even my very own fairly stark Yamahas sounded good, however it proved even higher with the tremendous clean Acoustic Power floorstanders. These it appeared to ‘get up’, forcing them out of their shell. Even with brilliant loudspeakers, the BerTTi by no means descends into hardness or sibilance – it is simply that some flavours of speaker go well with it higher than others.
Cue up Primitive Painters by Felt – an impressive slice of nineteen-eighties indie rock with edgy-sounding jangling guitars drenched in results – and this energy amplifier hits the nail on the top. It would not attempt to clean issues out however fairly focuses on the mesmeric-sounding guitars and vocals; even backing vocalist Liz Fraser (she of Cocteau Twins fame) can’t make the BerTTi screech. As a substitute, this energy amp digs deep into the dense combine to disclose giant quantities of element and retains doing so even because the music will get extra complicated. The result’s a glowing, vivid and sonorous rendition of this music, but it stays completely clear even at excessive volumes.
Whenever you mix this amplifier’s innate readability with its tight and taut portrayal of rhythms, you have got the nice mixture of skills that defines the sound of the BerTTi. Typically, grippy and fascinating amplifiers can sound tonally ahead and even harsh, however not right here. Its crystal clear midband makes for a really detailed rendition of the post-punk basic The Day The World Turned Day-Glo by X-Ray Spex. Regardless of being recorded in a small 8-track analogue studio within the mid-seventies, this observe captures what a music journalist again within the day referred to as the “effervescently discordant” sound of lead vocalist Poly Styrene. But it is not the tonal accuracy or perception that basically impresses right here; it is the way in which her phrasing is conveyed. This music has large drive and power, and this amplifier works skilfully to convey it. Louche and laid again it isn’t!
This mix of perception and grip actually will get underneath your pores and skin. In comparison with the cheaper however extra highly effective Publicity 3510 energy amplifier – a terrific worth full-size product, as anybody who’s heard it should agree – the BerTTi lacks sheer guts and glory. It is a extra exact, tidy and ordered sound, but it rapidly and deftly factors out what the Publicity is doing unsuitable, making it sound opaque throughout the midband and stodgy within the bass. The Chord energy amp’s sheer perception turns into arduous to reside with out on complicated music – the crashing eighties stadium rock of Easy Minds‘ Pace Your Like to Me can sound imprecise and in all places on lesser amplifiers, but this one is rarely lower than composed and managed. It is solely at actually excessive quantity ranges that questions could also be requested concerning the BerTTi’s skills, do you have to be driving difficult loudspeakers.
If there is a criticism to be fabricated from this energy amplifier, then it is the fairly unromantic supply of its sound – it’s a tad matter-of-fact and would not flatter to deceive in the way in which that the aforementioned Publicity does, or, certainly, equally priced tube amplifiers similar to Prima Luna’s EVO400. That is largely a matter of style although, and people who love the rosy, heat soul music of Alphonse Mouzon‘s By All Means might imagine it sounds much less ‘plush’ than nature meant. This mid-seventies soul basic has a fulsome tonality, and the BerTTi would not fall over itself to convey this. It does, nevertheless, get a vice-like grip on the rhythms; it locks down the bass drum and recreates all the things round this with metronomic precision. The result’s big enjoyable to listen to.
THE VERDICT
Chord Electronics’ new BerTTi is a wonderful new energy amplifier. One that gives engaging but compact and ergonomic styling allied to severe punching energy and a extremely musical disposition. Though it’s crushed by some rivals in outright energy phrases, there’s nonetheless a terrific deal to love about its styling, ease of use and, after all, sound. It is a great match for the corporate’s excellent, class-leading Hugo TT2 DAC, however will even shine brightly wherever it makes its dwelling.
