Chord Electronics

Ultima 3 Pre

£6,000 RRP

If you only heard about Chord Electronics in the past decade or so, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the company is a digital-to-analogue converter specialist like dCS, such is the attention that its recent range of DACs has attracted. This is well deserved, of course, but the company originally made its name for high-quality amplification back in 1989 – and despite its DAC successes, hasn't looked back…

Founder John Franks has recently been busy beavering away in his workshop supervising a major redesign of much of his company's electronics range. One result of this is the new Ultima Pre 3 preamplifier you see here. It's said to be largely a clean sheet design – rather than a lightly tweaked previous model – and comes complete with fancy new styling, which some will surely adore.

John tells me that his design philosophy as far as creating preamps is, “to keep all selectable audio signals perfectly preserved and buffered to ensure they are not contaminated in any way from each other, or from external or internal radio-interference.” He has deliberately kept things simple with the Ultima Pre 3; “At this level, our customers are typically not looking for those types of solutions (with bells and whistles). I see our customers seeking individually selected audio devices for all of those separate functions.”

Technologically speaking, the new Ultima Pre 3 comes out with all guns blazing. “It uses some of the most advanced high-performance amplifier circuits that we have ever assessed and measured,” says John, “along with good sound engineering practices. Also, keeping the digital controls separate and well away from the pure audio signal paths, controlling sealed-gold contact relays with DC control lines, plus input buffering and RF filtering and DC servos without having to resort to any inline capacitors to control DC level-shifting.”

This, John tells me, “is really just what I've learned from several decades of good audio engineering practice, plus fully utilising the multi-layered circuit boards to include screening layers.” This includes his trademark high-frequency switching power supplies, which he's been designing for his whole career, “since my days in avionics”. Asked why he doesn't use conventional power supplies, he says a little flippantly: “I don't use gas lanterns to light my home either!” Actually, he points out that the use of his bespoke switching power supply, “would not have offered any technical advantage”, but would have been large and bulky. “Plus, it would have flooded the inside of the unit with 50Hz mains fields unless I resorted to Mu metal screening, etc.”

These days, Chord Electronics is far from a one-man band and has a sizeable design team at its disposal. As a result, the Ultima Pre 3 came into existence as one of John's conceptualisations, and he did the fundamental design work, “but I was well supported by my great engineering team – Sam, Tom and Johnathan – in areas of component selection, mechanical and electrical drafting, and digital design.”

All well and good on the engineering front then, but another design criterion for John was that this preamp would be, “enjoyable to use, of course!” That's very much a theme with all modern Chord Electronics products, with their quirky visual language and whimsical, almost toy-like user interfaces. That's why an elaborate light display is part of the Ultima Pre 3 user experience; its new fascia centres around a circular power on/off sphere, complete with the company's trademark polychromatic indicator lighting. There's a combined volume and input selector, and combined balance and AV bypass control; both are simple to use but don't feel as silky as the sort of conventional controls you find on most high-end preamps.

I do like the Ultima Pre 3's general lack of clutter; I'm very much into the idea of bespoke, purpose-designed preamps that fully focus on the job at hand. No DACs or streamers come fitted to this; instead, this is an old-school box with inputs, a volume control, a minimalist active gain stage and a power supply – and that's yer lot! This preamp sports five analogue ins – two balanced XLR and three unbalanced RCA – plus a separate AV bypass input. There's no quibbling over the build quality, as it feels reassuringly expensive, as someone once said. The box is made with the usual Chord Electronics aircraft-grade aluminium, which even extends to the case's legs.

THE LISTENING

There's nothing worse to write about for hi-fi reviewers than a great preamplifier – as they don't do anything. That's just the point, and the Ultima Pre 3 is a quintessential Chord Electronics product since it's very self-effacing and stealthy. When plugged into my reference system, I found myself listening to the music rather than the actual thing I was supposed to be reviewing; such is its ability to dissolve into the original recording.

I've reviewed my fair share of high-end preamps over the years, and you'd be surprised how coloured many of them are. Of course, if they're tube-based, then they've got a ready-made excuse as people often buy them to introduce some or other sonic characteristic into their systems rather than remove the colouration. But even solid-state designs can be surprisingly intrusive, often bringing a slightly mechanical quality to the time domain, a somewhat chrome-plated upper midband, or even a foggy, grey 'mushiness' to the recording. The Ultima Pre 3 does none of these things, preferring to step out of the way and let the rest of the components in the system do the talking…

Indeed, ironically, this preamp is so transparent that if anything it shines some light on the ancillaries in your system. If you've got an iffy streamer, a mediocre DAC, or an also-ran power amp, then the Ultima Pre 3 is going to remind you. This doesn't mean your system has to be expensive, just capable. Driven from a Chord Electronics Hugo TT2 DAC switched to line-level output mode, I was genuinely surprised at the resolution that this preamp achieved when feeding my Sony TA-N86B power amp [in Class A mode], driving my Yamaha NS-1000M loudspeakers.

This is a very open-sounding preamp that can take you right back to the studio – and its translucent midband pretty much defines the sound. For example, cue up the classic techno of Ballet by Yellow Magic Orchestra, and you can clearly hear the quirky production. The album that this track is from was recorded on one of the first 3M 32-track digital recorders, but producer Haruomi Hosono – who I once interviewed in Tokyo – decided to record the drum parts on a TASCAM 80-8 analogue open reel first, to give them more weight and body, before bouncing them over to the 3M. With true top-tier preamps, you can hear this warming, softening effect on the electronic percussion, whereas, with lesser designs, it's much of a muchness. You'll need a really revealing system to make sense of such trickery, of course.

Whilst that lovely, glass-clear midband is joyous to behold, this preamp's handling of rhythm is better still – and a little more universal in the sense that you don't need forensic ancillaries to appreciate it. As well as making a great fist of the aforementioned YMO track, it was great with the modern jazz of Herbie Hancock's I Have a Dream. This lovely flute and flugelhorn-dominated late-sixties Blue Note recording meanders along in a beautifully lilting way when allowed so to do by the hi-fi playing it; it's one of the most rhythmically supple pieces of music I've heard. The Ultima Pre 3 just relaxed and got into the groove, letting the drum kit do its thing magically – playing off against Hancock's dreamy piano playing. For many, music is all about evocation of mood – and this transported me far away from the Wiltshire winter of 2023, I can tell you!

Another of this preamplifier's talents is its ability to convey the music's dynamic light and shade. It's one of the reasons that it made the Herbie Hancock track so special, but it does its stuff with any other type of programme material too. Take the classic rock of Wings' Band on The Run, for example. The hi-res PCM version has far superior dynamic range to the standard 16/44 remaster, and the Ultima Pre 3 really tells you all about this. The quiet sections of the recording fall back into the proverbial inky-black silence, while the crescendos go really loud and sound very expressive but without a hint of strain. This reminded me just what a good recording the original was, from all those years ago.

THE VERDICT

Although designed to work hand-in-glove with Chord's Ultima 5 and 6 stereo power amplifiers, or Ultima 2 and 3 monoblocks, there's nothing to stop you hooking up the Ultima Pre 3 preamp up to any top-tier power amp. This done, it really delivers – giving an extremely open sound that nevertheless doesn't appear too forensic or 'hi-fi' in its nature. It's certainly one of the best preamps I've heard for a while, and I doubt it would disgrace itself in the company of designs costing quite a lot more. Although expensive for a line-only preamp, its performance is such that it's still great value for money.

For more information visit Chord Electronics