As part of its ongoing 30th-anniversary celebrations in 2019, Chord Electronics has unveiled Huei, an all-new phono preamp that distills three decades of amplifier development and audio engineering expertise into a high-performance yet space-saving chassis. Entirely conceived, engineered and manufactured in Great Britain, the new microprocessor-controlled Chord Huei has been carefully designed to provide turntables with the same high standards of amplification the company has become known for over the past 30 years.
As part of its ongoing 30th-anniversary celebrations in 2019, Chord Electronics has unveiled Huei, an all-new phono preamp that distills three decades of amplifier development and audio engineering expertise into a high-performance yet space-saving chassis. Entirely conceived, engineered and manufactured in Great Britain, the new microprocessor-controlled Chord Huei has been carefully designed to provide turntables with the same high standards of amplification the company has become known for over the past 30 years.
The new Huei phono preamp was a major highlight of Chord's press event at the High End 2019 show.
Benefitting from both Moving Magnet and Moving Coil functionality, the new Chord Huei offers compatibility with a huge range of cartridges thanks to comprehensive gain and impedance-matching options. High- and low-gain switching settings are easily accessible via front-panel controls, introducing welcome flexibility for vinyl enthusiasts who still haven't decided about the best way to play the records and keep fiddling with their precious collections of turntables, needles and cartridges (hey, the best thing about vinyl is the inconvenience, right?).
To support all the different options, Huei’s advanced design offers (for the first time in a Chord Electronics phono preamp) an ultra-low-noise microprocessor to handle the control of its main features, including a convenient memory function. With multiple options for impedance-matching, seven-stage switchable gain and a switchable rumble filter, the new Chord design offers comprehensive compatibility.
The equipment itself follows on the line of Chord's popular headphone preamps, precision-machined from solid aircraft-grade aluminum, and a similar form factor to the company’s Qutest DAC, even offering a top-mounted viewing window into the illuminated electronics within. The design also shares the same polychromatic control spheres the company has become known for in its digital products. The illuminated front-panel spheres offer direct access to Huei’s gain and impedance settings, selection for MM/MC cartridges and access to the on-board rumble filter.
Huei is a high-performance solution for integrating turntables into Chord Electronics’ (and any other) systems and features both balanced (XLR) and unbalanced outputs (RCA) with RCA inputs. A high-quality 12V external power supply is also supplied. It is priced at £990 (approx. US$1,200) and will be available in late summer 2019 (black only). www.chordelectronics.co.uk
