Chord CPM2600 integrated amp - Review & Blog
I've had a valve amp based system for quite a while now and felt that it was time for a bit of a change.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, perhaps.... Perusing eBay I came across this little baby.
Bright & soulless are often descriptors used for Chord amps. Well, if I wanted a change from toobs this seemed an ideal candidate!
Picked it up a few days back.
and from the rear ...
In a blingy way, it looks stunning, imo.
Note that there are no connector name labels by the sockets. None at all!No documentation came with the amp, but it is available for download from the Chord website and luckily, in my Googling research prior to purchase I had come across a photo of the rear of an example from later in production when the numpties had been harangued into providing decent labelling!
There is a HiFi News review of the amp here http://www.davewhitter.pwp.blueyonde...mpllifiers.pdf. It's, err, rather positive! - and also influenced my buying decision!
... oh, and the remote is massively impressive, too.
The main operational oddity is that there are two independent input 'buses' - this to ensure that with 2 tape loops you cannot get that speaker destroying feedback howl. Doesn't take long to get it sussed though.
First impressions, just swapping out my old UnicoPRE valve hybrid pre and Melody valve amp, were of a very transparent and detailed sound. But too bright, a bit of a sting at the top for classical listening anyway - I know some rockheads who would fall in love with it straight away!
I've been using some 5N purity silver balanced cables between my DAC and amp with a very clean sound. Out they came and in went some warm & fruity Cambridge Audio Azur balanced cables - better but still too bright. So, out with the Silver High Breed silver plated speaker cables and in with my old Arrow bi-wire copper cables. Yup, much better. Pure copper cables all the way are the secret of success for me with this amp. (Sorry cable unbelievers, that's just the way I hear it!).
Listening the first night to a staged production on DVD of Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta Patience. Lordy - I was hearing small details (the rustle of clothing etc, background footsteps) that I had never noticed before and that made the musical experience so much more real - and I've played this on all manner of systems in the past. The retrieval of fine detail is second to none from the Chord, imho.
The soundsatge was a bit flat, but pointing my speakers in a bit (unusually ime, they had sounded best with no toe-in before the Chord amp came) has sorted that reasonably well - still a bit of speaker tweaking to do probably, but the system is sounding fab. Even at very high levels there's no harshness, but there was still a bit of brightness. Finally swapping in some (previously shunned and hated 'cos it sounded so boring) Van Damme cabling has sorted out the tonality pretty much perfectly, I think. Must admit, I never thought I'd have kind words to say about Van Damn cables, but synergy does seem to be the watchword here.
Lots more listening to do - and probably a fair bit of system tweaking! - but this is off to a very good start. If I wanted a change from a valve-based sound, it delivers that in spades! Must admit I am enjoying it enormously at the moment.
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In fact, I have a suspicion that it is continuing to improve and that it will exceed my system's pre-Chord abilities all-round in fairly short order.
Originally Posted by jandl100
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