Chord Electronics Ultima 5 Stereo Power Amplifier

Chord Electronics a British HiFi manufacture, develop award-winning proprietary processes without compromise; technology at the apogee of its game. They are unapologetically unique: they don’t follow convention, they provide extraordinary sound and a mechanical design to suit your lifestyle.

As with all Chord Electronics products, their avionics heritage inspires only the highest quality: all of their products start life as a single billet of aircraft-grade aluminium. This is just one of the hundreds of processes that help shape their multi-award-winning devices; the same standards, care and attention run through the production of all of Chord electronics units.

When you place an order for a device in the Table Top range and above, your purchase is assigned to an engineer who will begin the process of curating each individual component before carefully crafting the unit to the highest standards. Only once it has passed numerous measured and listening tests, will it qualify for a Chord Electronics name badge. Naturally, this is a bespoke process that takes time, however, during your products’ build, you are more than welcome to ask us any questions that you may have.

ULTIMA 5 is a progression of Chord's most famous stereo power amplifier, the legendary SPM 1200 MK II (widely considered to be the definitive Chord Electronics amplifier).

Now incorporating our latest-generation ULTIMA circuit topology, the new ULTIMA 5 is set to become a future classic. Considered to offer the ideal balance between performance and price, the ULTIMA 5 offers an impressively affordable 300 watts – enough to drive all but the most demanding loudspeakers.

The ULTIMA 5 has built upon the inherent strengths of the SPM 1200 MK II and taken performance to the next level. By implementing our advanced dual-feed-forward error-correction, topology incorporating our own advanced concepts in ultra-high-frequency power supplies, we have been able to deliver supremely fast and powerful performance, with an extraordinarily high peak output current (the speed at which dynamic peaks can be delivered), bringing astonishing dynamics, timing accuracy and, as a result, unrivaled musicality.

Add to that our low-distortion amplifier circuitry with our own proprietary lateral-structure dual-die MOSFETs and the ULTIMA 5 is able to drive loudspeaker loads effortlessly, with clarity and precision. The ULTIMA 5 has an incredible 32 proprietary MOSFET power devices which demand the most advanced and refined drive circuitry, suitably devoid of sound-degrading components.

ULTIMA is a truly unprecedented amplifier topology with exceptional performance and is one of the most advanced amplifier technologies in the world.

Benefiting from a redesigned fascia featuring John Franks’ latest aesthetic, the precision CNC-machined fascia is made from aircraft-grade aluminium and features a reassuringly solid 28-mm thick front panel, enhanced by a recessed spherical polycarbonate power button that illuminates for standby and operation modes; a discreet, hidden front panel switch, located in the vertical split line, enables dimmable lighting.

The amplifier’s rear panels contain both balanced and unbalanced connections, high-quality loudspeaker terminals, a 12 V trigger and a C-19-type IEC.

Specifications