Chord Drops Prices

We are at pre-pandemic levels

Remember the pandemic? Remember the Ever Given? Remember the price increases?

Back when we were stuck at home, and there was a container ship blocking the Suez Canal, many of you must have said, "I'm sure these brands will never drop their prices even if costs go down."

Chord Electronics is here to prove you wrong. The British company's costs have dropped, so its legendary DACs. from the Mojo 2 to the Hugo TT 2, are back down to pre-pandemic prices.

Chord Player Level 'A Major': $650

A year ago, Kevin and Kat posted the world's first review of the Mojo 2, as we were able to get our hands on a pre-production piece. They absolutely loved this portable DAC, the follow-up to the original Mojo, which pretty much created the high-end portable DAC genre. Hi-fi enthusiasts love how the Mojo allows their desktop, office, and on-the-road setups to share the same sound and quality as their main systems.

The $650 Chord Poly adds wireless streaming to the Mojo 2. It will connect to Wi-Fi and offers Bluetooth, AirPlay, and server music connectivity. It is a Roon endpoint, so it fits right in with your home music network.

Chord Poly $650.00	Chord Mojo 2 $650.00

Chord Player Level 'G Major': $1,595

The Qutest is Chord's "pure" DAC without headphone amplification and rechargeable batteries. This is one dense little brick of an audio product, carved from an aluminum billet with Chord's obsessive FPGA DAC technology nestled safely inside. The Qutest offers Hugo 2's proprietary user-selectable frequency-shaping filters and input selection controls via two fascia-mounted spheres. It also features RCA analog outputs for connection to integrated amplifiers, preamps, and headphone amps, plus high-resolution dual-data digital inputs for connection to future Chord Electronics products.

Chord Player Level 'G7': $2,500

While the Hugo 2 is still technically a portable DAC, many happy customers have one permanently in place on a proper audio rack. It offers 7 hours of battery playing time and an extended Bluetooth range. There's an onboard headphone amp (with crossfeed function) and a digital volume control, so it can be connected directly to a power amp.

Chord Player Level 'F Major': $5,295

The Hugo TT 2 is the best exemplar, bar the $14,000 Dave, of Chord's clean, hyper-detailed, yet emotionally engaging sound. It offers double the processing power of the Hugo 2, with a powerful oversampling filter that has nearly 100,000 taps (coefficients that improve the sound as you add more, with the price of needing higher processing power).

Adding the M Scaler, essentially a standalone rocket-powered engine for the output filters, takes the number of taps to an impressive 1 million. This means that sound seems to coalesce and emanate from the very air between, behind, and far in front of your loudspeakers. Even after hearing hundreds of high-end systems, our team was amazed by Chord's ability to magic sounds out of corners of our demo room, like that uncle who plucked coins out of your ears when you were a child.

Chord Hugo TT 2 $5,295.00	Chord Hugo M Scaler $4,750.00

Pass the A.1. Teak Sauce

Upscale is one of only two or three dealers in the country where you can get the teak finish SA750 to match the 75th anniversary L100 speakers.

We listened to the JBL L100 and SA 750 on our recent trip to Harman, and all agreed that this was, depending on your age, the Frank Sinatra, Jim Morrison, or Harry Styles combo: Good looks and great sound.

The current SA750s are shipping with the walnut side panels, which makes our teak-finish stash an instant limited edition.

The SA750 might look like it's straight from 1970, but inside, it's all 2023 with a class-G network streaming DAC, wireless services, DIRAC room correction, and Roon readiness. It comes with a five-year warranty.

Hot-Rod Your Rega P3

These lightly blemished dual-layer platters are a serious upgrade for the Planar 3.

Recently, Rega received a shipment of cosmetically imperfect Rega platter kits. Intended to be a direct replacement for the Planar 6 platter, these come highly recommended as upgrades to the Planar 3.

The Planar 6 platter is a unique dual-layer design made from float glass and manufactured using an innovative UV bonding process. This bonds a secondary ring to the underside of the main platter. This creates more mass towards the outer edges, achieving a flywheel effect, which improves stability, accuracy, and consistency.

The aluminum sub-platter adaptor uses a six-point mounting system to ensure the platter and vinyl are presented as flat as possible to the stylus.

Platter and sub-platter upgrades significantly improve pitch stability, bass performance, detail retrieval, and enjoyment.

Calling All Headphone Enthusiasts

Headphone expert Grover Neville shows off the Pathos Inpol Ear Reference, which he calls "a beast of a headphone amplifier". Come hear it at CanJam.

Come see us at CanJam SoCal in Irvine. We will have headphones from Focal, HiFiMAN, Abyss, Meze, Dan Clark, Sennheiser, T+A, and Audeze. Headphone amp brands will include Feliks Audio, Pathos, Chord Electronics, and PrimaLuna. Bring your own source, use a phone with our AudioQuest Cobalt USB DAC, or enjoy our Aurender A15 and A20 streaming DACs.

CanJam SoCal 2023 will be on September 30 and October 1 at the Irvine Marriott, Orange County, California.

Breaking News: Kevin to Part with His Precious Tube Stash!

At long last, Kevin is ready to tell his tube stories and sell some of his coveted stash! His wife Laura found some rarities in a box recently, reminding Kevin that he just has too many of these things. It’s time to lighten the load and let some of his most collectible tubes go to good homes.

Be sure to tune in as Kevin regales us with the stories of how he came across these gorgeous vacuum gems.

Top Sales and Deals!

Here are the noteworthy sales and offers we have going right now. Note: there are further terms and conditions; this is just a summary. To get all the details, contact our sales crew on website chat, via email (info@upscaleaudio.com), or call 909-931-9686.

Upscale Labor Day Sale: Continuing until Kevin taps out. A huge range of products on sale.

Free Cartridge with Purchase: From now until October 31st, Clearaudio is offering a free cartridge with the purchase of select turntable packages. Contact an Upscale Audio sales team member for details.

JL Sale:Take $400 off the JL Audio Dominion d110 10" subwoofer.

Until September 21: Arcam summer sale. 20% and more off the SA10, SA20, SA30, and PA410.

Until September 30: Balanced Audio Technology is offering a full original retail price trade-in on your old stereo electronics for any new BAT product.