Chord Anni Review: The smallest big amplifier around
Verdict
As long as you're non expecting Anni to be a full-size integrated amp squeezed into a box smaller than a carton of milk, you'll be fine. This is a remarkably authoritative and revealing lilliputian amplifier
Pros
- Organised, detailed and confident audio
- Singular artful
- Sturdy build quality
Cons
- Just two inputs
- Gets warm
- Atypical ergonomics
Key Features
- Trickle down Ultima technology Claims to be able to drive any headphone load
Introduction
These days, the products turned out by Chord Electronics tend to fall into one of two categories: large, significantly over-designed and expensive, or small, significantly over-designed and expensive. The Chord Anni desktop amplifier falls into that second category – just with only a hint of the first category.
Desktop headphone amplifiers are far from a novelty, merely more usually they a) incorporate some digital-to-counterpart conversion and b) aren't designed to also work as full-system integrated amplifiers too. Just and so Chord Electronics was never a 'me besides!' visitor, so while desktop headphone amps aren't uncommon, desktop integrated amps are.
Anni promises to make a far better fist of amplifying your headphones or your desktop speakers than an unassisted computer can manage. It as well thinks it can slot into a full-size organization and do a worthwhile job in that location too… in exchange for quite a lot of coin, of course. Does this make Anni sense at all?
Availability
- UK RRP: £1195
- USA RRP: $1795
- Australia RRP: AU$2500
The Chord Anni is on sale now, and in the Uk it sells for £1195. In the United States you should expect to part with $1795 or thereabouts, while Australian Chord-fanciers will take to fork out AU$2500 or so.
Obviously, you're not short of choice where integrated amplifiers at this sort of money are concerned. But if you're subsequently something that's of tidy enough proportions to function as a desktop amp, well, your shortlist is considerably shorter.
If it'due south a venerable British hi-fi brand you lot're afterwards, both Cyrus and Rega will sell you a relatively small integrated amp. But adjacent to the Anni they're still both biffers. There'southward a chance that Anni is currently your own choice where super-compact desktop amps are concerned.
Blueprint
- CNC-milled aluminium casework
- the usual Chord 'coloured balls' command system
- integrated fan
Safe to say you'd be difficult pushed to mistake a Chord Electronics product for that of whatsoever other brand. No matter if information technology's a £400 DAC or an £18K monobloc power amplifier, the company has developed and refined a distinctive await – information technology's a bit similar I imagine H.G. Wells' hi-fi might have looked.
Anni is a modest box, but that hasn't stopped Chord deploying its signature pattern flourishes. From the milled aluminium casework (which feels as skilful equally it looks) to the pair of spherical acrylic controls that light upward in unlike colours depending on what they're upwardly to, it'due south Chord business equally (un)usual. Even the model name itself is reliably daft – just have a wait at the Company's other desktop-orientated equipment and you'll meet what I mean.
Features
- headphones and speaker outputs
- 10 watts of ability
- runs warm
Chord has deployed its fearsomely complicated and demonstrably constructive ULTIMA dual feed-forward topology as the efficient, loftier-functioning cherry on superlative of Anni'southward Form A/B amplification. In theory, this offers mistake-monitored power, and though measured output is a less-than-promising 10 watts, Chord is determined Anni can drive pretty much whatever headphones or desktop speakers you intendance to mention.
In terms of getting information into Anni, in that location are two analogue RCA inputs on the rear panel. The volume command on the front panel too functions equally a push/push button selector between inputs 'ane' and '2'. Also on the rear panel are a couple of 4mm banana plug-friendly outputs for utilize with a pair of speakers, forth with a power output port for connectedness to the mains. At that place's as well a 12V DC output for connecting Anni to the identically proportioned Qutest desktop DAC and/or Huei phono stage.
Aside from the volume command, the front panel as well features half dozen.3mm and iii.5mm headphone outputs – they can exist used simultaneously if required. One of the coloured balls controls power on/off, while the other is a gain control intended to requite Anni the best chance of adapting to the different electrical loads of headphones of differing sensitivities.
Naturally enough, given the dimensions of the box, on the within Anni is pretty much full of essential equipment. This includes an integrated fan merely despite this and the generous number of ventilation holes in the casework, the Chord is a warm operator.
Audio quality
- detailed and revealing presentation
- frankly startling scale and dynamism
- tin can run out of breath quite hands
The Chord Anni is intended to suit a few dissimilar applications, and and then for this examination it's used as a stand up-alone headphone amplifier attached to a MacBook Pro, as a headphone amp when fastened to a Chord Qutest DAC, and to ability a pair of modestly demanding (85dB sensitivity) ELAC Solano BS238 standmounting loudspeakers. In every circumstance, it proves worthwhile.
If you're familiar with the sound of Chord Electronics distension, the level of item retrieval and transparency the Anni deals in when treatment a TIDAL Masters file of Kendrick Lamar'south King Kunta won't come up as all that much of a surprise. Neither volition the forensic levels of insight into the dense, patchwork mix. What might crusade a raised eyebrow is the assertiveness of the Anni'due south sound, and the relative burliness of its presentation. 10 watts doesn't sound like much (because information technology isn't), just the Chord has no difficulty in showing a recording who's boss.
Obviously in that location are limits, especially when driving loudspeakers. The Anni can't go especially loud, and when you do wind the volume up towards 'max' a fair corporeality of its sonic sophistication abandons it. But as long as y'all're sensible, and remember your amplifier has its ceiling, the Anni is a gregarious and musical companion.
And no thing if yous're listening to headphones or a pair of speakers, the Chord presents a conceivable stereo prototype and a frankly unlikely impression of scale. It revels in the dynamism and drive required to bring a file of Charles Mingus' Boogie Terminate Shuffle to life and has the dexterity necessary to let the recording flow rather than stomp. It'south an eloquent performer, and if you don't await window-rattling volume levels it'southward utterly fit for purpose.
Latest deals
Should you buy information technology?
Yous're serious about desktop audio Looks expensive if judged in purely physical terms, simply the audio is worth every penny
You lot tend towards the fatter-fingered Anni's book control is uncomfortably close to both headphone outputs
Final Thoughts
'Niche' only begins to describe the Chord Anni. But if yous accept desktop sound seriously, and especially if y'all're already sold on Chord's range of miniaturised howdy-fi powerhouses, yous'll find Anni's got exactly what you need.
How we test
Nosotros test every amplifier we review thoroughly over an extended menses of time. We utilise industry standard tests to compare features properly. Nosotros'll ever tell you what nosotros find. We never, ever, take money to review a product.
Find out more virtually how we test in our ethics policy.
Tested using different file formats
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FAQs
Does the Chord Anni feature a DAC?
No, in order to catechumen digital files to counterpart, yous'll demand to partner the Anni with a suitable DAC.
Full specs
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UK RRP
Us RRP
AUD RRP
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Size (Dimensions)
Weight
DAC
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Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/chord-anni
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