Watts and Chord Electronics

Watts, Chord, community and miscellany

Answers on this topic

Is Rob a Chord employee, and which Chord products (Poly, 2go, the amplifiers) did he not design?

Everything he said on this topic (142)

One-line summaries in our words, oldest first. Each link opens the original.

2014-04-16Watts says he consults on custom silicon and designs for Chord using his IP, and explains why FPGAs suit low-volume high-end designs like Hugo better than custom chips. Head-Fi, Apr 2014
2014-06-08Watts says Chord Electronics is John Franks' company and he is an independent design consultant with Chord as a client. Head-Fi, Jun 2014
2014-07-02Watts rebuts a poster: he consults for silicon companies, Hugo's 16 cores at 208 MHz dwarf ASIC DACs, and FFTs at -40 and -140 dB show no distortion or NFM. Head-Fi, Jul 2014
2014-10-10Watts says he designs for Chord because he wants the products; Chord was 10% of his income during Hugo; Hugo amp targets his office and lounge, with mono-block mode. Head-Fi, Oct 2014
2015-10-03Watts says Dave's UK retail price remains £7,995, production is on schedule for release later this month, and local pricing is set by distributors. Head-Fi, Oct 2015
2015-10-03Watts criticizes uncritical acceptance in high-end audio, recounts leaving audio after DAC64 in 2001 for silicon work, and says Hugo's success led him back full time. Head-Fi, Oct 2015
2015-10-03Watts says Chord initially objected to him giving away information, but he posts because he enjoys it and no one else pursues long-tap WTA filters. Head-Fi, Oct 2015
2016-02-14Watts says Dave's price came from the bill of materials and Chord's multipliers, recounts a dealer calling Dave too cheap against $50k DACs, and calls hi-res results mixed. Head-Fi, Feb 2016
2016-02-27Watts says the upgrade will improve sound with the upsampler, is priced as multiples of parts cost after the prototype meets target, and should be available later this year. needs context Head-Fi, Feb 2016
2016-03-01Watts says he often loses on LED colors or connector placement, but audio decisions are all his. Head-Fi, Mar 2016
2016-03-31Watts says he is independent of Chord and owns his WTA, noise-shaping and pulse array IP, so he can discuss projects like Davina and the power amp, not future products. Head-Fi, Mar 2016
2016-12-29Watts says Davina is performance driven, Chord will set its price from the bill of materials (vaguely around Dave retail), and he is finishing its first PCB layout. Head-Fi, Dec 2016
2017-01-09Watts says Davina's cost is unknown with no BOM costing done, Chord sets prices, and he will try to make M scaler technology widely available. Head-Fi, Jan 2017
2017-05-18Watts explains Chord's supply problems: post-Brexit exchange-rate volatility led distributors to order for currency rather than schedules, plus a general parts shortage including ceramic capacitors. Head-Fi, May 2017
2017-05-26Watts says he is an independent design consultant living some 250 miles from Chord, so he cannot give shipping dates. Head-Fi, May 2017
2017-08-31Watts says Chord's production director puts Hugo 2 failure rates near 0.1%, describes its manufacture alongside Mojo, and argues no other or chip-based DACs match Chord's measured performance. Head-Fi, Aug 2017
2017-12-05Watts says Europe and Asia have no review problem, half a dozen reviewers bought DAVEs at a discount, and the only problem is mainline US magazines. RMAF 54:08
2017-12-05Watts says Head-Fi forums have been Chord's savior, since owners' genuine enthusiasm builds word of mouth, and Chord's success is solely down to forums and customers. RMAF 54:43
2017-12-05Watts says skeptics bought Chord and upgraded Mojo to Hugo 2 to DAVE, every DAVE buyer buys a Blu 2, and this first show presentation aims to explain his technology. RMAF 55:28
2017-12-05Watts recounts a would-be dealer joke about Chord's market share, says over seventy thousand Mojos have sold, and that Chord customers could fill two football grounds. RMAF 56:42
2017-12-05Watts says Hugo was a fun project for hotel listening, expected to sell a couple of hundred, that he designs for interest not money, and refuses some Chord requests. RMAF 57:27
2017-12-05Watts says John Franks opposed Blu 2, but Watts wanted a million taps, expected a small gain, spent six months, and got a tremendous change, which only listening reveals. RMAF 58:11
2017-12-09Watts says he has no other partners at present but has had several digital audio semiconductor clients in the past. article, Dec 2017
2017-12-09Watts says the idea came from John Franks and calls it a very neat solution to control and display simultaneously. needs context article, Dec 2017
2018-01-16Watts says the finish is a Chord (John Franks) decision, but he understands Qutest will only be black. Head-Fi, Jan 2018
2018-02-23Watts recounts telling John Franks the million-tap version would take three months more, noting its marketing appeal; it took longer and needed half a million lines of code. needs context MajorHiFi 16:55
2018-02-27Watts says he does not design to a price point but to a performance level, doing the best components and his knowledge allow for each design. Head-Fi, Feb 2018
2018-03-31Watts says he is an independent consultant, not a Chord employee, working with Chord since 1996; increasing taps improved accuracy from 8 to 9 bits in 1999 to 16-bit today. article, Mar 2018
2018-04-04Watts says he was not involved in the Poly project, but its rationale was 768 kHz operation, which only Wi-Fi allows. article, Apr 2018
2018-04-27Watts responds to a review calling Hugo 2 merciless, contrasts live drums with reproduction, states Davina's goals of depth and speed, and says all design is his. Head-Fi, Apr 2018
2018-05-14Watts says machined metalwork is the largest bill-of-materials cost but nowhere near 50%, and lists its benefits: no steel hysteresis, RF rejection, heat removal and vibration control. Head-Fi, May 2018
2018-10-23Watts says he is independent of Chord, and his understanding is that US warranty repairs go through Chord's US service center via the dealer. Head-Fi, Oct 2018
2018-11-11Watts says he does the whole electronic design, PCB and FPGA coding, while Chord's subcontractors build prototypes that he tests; shows are mostly on weekends. Head-Fi, Nov 2018
2018-11-11Watts says no, he designs only products that have FPGAs inside. needs context Head-Fi, Nov 2018
2019-02-19Watts says Qutest is designed to stay on 24/7 at 2.25 W, and rejects the idea he cripples products for upgrade paths, describing designing for maximum quality at each price. Head-Fi, Feb 2019
2019-03-28Watts says electronic design is his alone, cost limited TT2 with a higher than expected BOM, he hit the price-performance sweet spot, and demand exceeds Chord's expectations. Head-Fi, Mar 2019
2020-02-21Watts says he had no involvement with 2Go, which has the same developer as Poly. Head-Fi, Feb 2020
2020-02-21Watts says he was not involved with 2yu either, and that 2yu contains no DAC. Head-Fi, Feb 2020
2020-06-25Watts says it would be commercially better if he were a Chord employee, but he is not Chord. Part-Time Audiophile 3:49
2020-06-25Watts says he is an independent design consultant, designing Chord's digital products since 1997, though semiconductor design dominated his work from about 2001 for 14 to 15 years. Part-Time Audiophile 3:56
2020-06-25Watts says his Chord work was a non-commercial side activity until Hugo, when Chord's business took off and he spent more time on high-end design. Part-Time Audiophile 4:40
2020-06-25Watts says his Chord work went from a hobby to substantial royalties as product volumes grew, letting him focus all his activity on high-end audio. Part-Time Audiophile 6:57
2020-09-02Watts says Poly was not his project and quotes Chord's Matt Bartlett explaining it was designed from scratch as a low-power battery streamer, which is why it costs more. Head-Fi, Sep 2020
2020-09-09Watts says John Franks designs the amps; Hugo 2 sounds slightly warmer after ten minutes, and he lists RF, capacitors, bias and jitter as variability causes, mostly eliminated. Head-Fi, Sep 2020
2020-09-20Watts says a phone playing bit-perfect local files is the best source, being low-power and battery-run, advises matching a streamer to it, and had no part in 2go or 2yu. Head-Fi, Sep 2020
2020-10-08Watts says he does not want the worries of manufacturing and would rather spend his time engineering better sound, though the feedback is useful to him and Chord. Head-Fi, Oct 2020
2020-10-09Watts says Dave sales numbers are confidential but large in high-end terms, and sales are still increasing after over five years in production. Head-Fi, Oct 2020
2020-11-27Watts says he has had no experience with 2go at all. Head-Fi, Nov 2020
2021-07-20Watts says he cannot comment on Chord's launch plans, Covid strains complex supply chains and events, and Chord keeps large stocks for current production. Head-Fi, Jul 2021
2021-08-07Watts says he had no involvement with Poly, so does not know its charging requirements, but suspects it would be fine. Head-Fi, Aug 2021
2021-08-24Watts says the item asked about is not one of his projects, and repeats that he is working on much more complex M scalers among other projects. needs context Head-Fi, Aug 2021
2021-10-20Watts uses Dolby off on Shield, says 2go is not his project, recommends a power bank for Hugo 2 desktop use, and describes his DIY solid-core PTFE interconnects. Head-Fi, Oct 2021
2022-01-28Watts confirms 44.1 kHz goes to 705.6 kHz on dual BNC, and says the chart in question was not his since manuals come from Chord. Head-Fi, Jan 2022
2022-01-31Watts says he is not employed by Chord; he is independent. Darko.Audio 48
2022-02-12Watts explains why his digital DC servo avoids analog servos' capacitor sound, says switching it off on DAVE changed nothing, and that Poly is not his project. Head-Fi, Feb 2022
2022-03-19Watts says Chord insisted only on the same size and Poly compatibility; Mojo 2 is DC coupled via a digital DC servo, and the original Mojo had 38,000 taps. MFG Audio Reviews 27:42
2022-03-19Watts says four buttons at the same depth forced cylinders rather than balls, non-rotating is more elegant and less likely to rattle, and button design is not his domain. MFG Audio Reviews 58:17
2022-04-26Watts says his goal is musicality and emotional engagement, that he wants improvements to ripple down to cheaper products, and that he is no businessman indifferent to sales. Audio Force 2:00
2022-05-01Watts says Mojo 2's USB decoder has its own regulation and RF filters, he is independent of Chord, and two headphone sockets were kept for reliability and sharing. Head-Fi, May 2022
2022-05-03Watts says something gives a small improvement, judged with two DAVEs via the DX output, far less than an M scaler; he notes his independence and refers pricing to Chord. needs context Head-Fi, May 2022
2022-08-31Watts says TT2 had no cost-saving compromises, DAVE proved more transparent than he expected, Chord is engineer-run, and noise floors are about -400 dB (digital) and -350 dB (best noise shapers). Head-Fi, Aug 2022
2022-09-18Watts says John Franks and Chord do the metalwork and visuals, and the backlit colored LEDs show volume, correct sample rate and problems from across the room. The Source AV 7:42
2022-09-18Watts says Mojo 2 has done really well; Chord can build five or ten thousand pieces in a month and they are gone. The Source AV 28:08
2022-09-18Watts says they sell out worldwide; he thinks in South Korea 500 units sold within an hour of launch. The Source AV 28:19
2022-09-18Watts says he does not do trivial upgrades just to encourage extra sales. The Source AV 28:43
2022-09-18Watts says he starts a project only to make a substantial, fundamental improvement, not to boost Chord sales or make a little more money. The Source AV 28:51
2022-09-18Watts says marketing and sales push for new products, a problem for cheaper products: Mojo sales declined without reviews or buzz once audiophiles had bought one. The Source AV 29:58
2022-09-18Watts says Mojo was still popular, and DAVE, now 7 years old, sells as well as it did 5 years ago, which he did not expect. The Source AV 30:25
2022-10-12Watts says John Franks owns Chord and does all the power amplifier design, and that both think high-end audio takes itself too seriously, hence playful names like Hugo. Upscale Audio 7:37
2022-10-21Watts says he funds his own R&D because he exclusively owns his designs' IP, and much research brings no or very delayed financial return. Head-Fi, Oct 2022
2023-02-04Watts says he was asked yesterday why there is no Chord streamer, and that he chooses projects he wants to do, to enjoy music more, not to make money. Dusty Audio 48:07
2023-02-04Watts says making the DAC insensitive to streamer noise is a better use of his time than streamers, and Chord will likely hire others to develop streamers for his DACs. Dusty Audio 49:41
2023-02-05Watts says streamers are not something he spends a lot of time on. Soundnews 10:03
2023-02-05Watts says whether Chord makes a streamer is up to Chord, but it is not something he is interested in doing. Soundnews 11:43
2023-03-03Watts says subjectivism trumps objectivism but listening must be rigorous, part changes never degrade performance, M Scaler gains were clearer with tube amps, and he writes all FPGA code. Head-Fi, Mar 2023
2023-03-03Watts doubts an unspecified product would sell in volume and says it would cannibalize Mojo 2 and Qutest, since Mojo 2 only works commercially in large volumes. needs context Head-Fi, Mar 2023
2023-03-26Watts says the coming product costs about as much as DAVE; he designs to performance, Chord prices from materials cost, and it has many FPGAs and a new technique. needs context Eric's Hi-Fi 7:47
2023-03-28Watts says he has designed about 50 DACs, worked with Chord just over 25 years while independent and owning his IP, and that femtosecond-clock claims are meaningless across DAC architectures. The Headphone Show 2:22
2023-03-29Watts says he studied electronics, left university in 1984, set up his own business and has never worked for anybody but himself. microwirenews 20
2023-06-18Watts says nobody knows how the brain separates sounds into entities, and that he designs for performance without a budget, with Chord pricing the product from the bill of materials. Head-Fi, Jun 2023
2023-07-02Watts vents about buyers equating price with quality, a reviewer calling a soft DSD DAC natural, and a reviewer who tones down Chord reviews; he also notes automatic low-power mode. Head-Fi, Jul 2023
2023-07-28Watts rejects full parametric EQ and conventional EQ, says Mojo 2's 104-bit EQ core was his idea, and describes its modest FPGA cost. Head-Fi, Jul 2023
2023-08-26Watts explains as a trade member he cannot rank rivals' filters, would never falsely call one worse, and criticizes PGGB's marketing claims and implementation. Head-Fi, Aug 2023
2023-09-29Watts reports from SoCal CanJam and a visit to Atlantic Studios West, which bought Dave and Mojo 2s, where recording engineers were interviewed about Chord gear. Head-Fi, Sep 2023
2023-10-01Watts says Mojo 2 launched about 18 months ago and that COVID brought huge parts problems, with FPGA prices soaring before coming down again. The Source AV 2:00
2023-10-01Watts says Chord tries to be reasonable and prices products on the bill of materials cost, not on what the market will bear. The Source AV 2:40
2023-10-01Watts says products are priced from performance and bill of materials cost, and that when designing Mojo he had to stay within a budget. The Source AV 2:49
2023-10-01Watts says Mojo was hard work and that the Mojos are the exception, since normally he picks a performance target first. The Source AV 3:00
2023-10-01Watts says he normally selects the power supply and parts he knows will work, shoots for the stars, and lets the price be whatever results. The Source AV 3:08
2023-10-01Watts says some FPGA prices rose by a factor of 10 and distributors pushed confirmed delivery dates back by a further year. The Source AV 3:23
2023-10-01Watts says Chord was treated unbelievably badly by suppliers and that it gets through a large number of FPGAs. The Source AV 3:55
2023-10-01Watts says Chord is the biggest user of Xilinx FPGAs through distribution in the whole of the UK. The Source AV 4:06
2023-10-01Watts says nobody at Chord voices or changes his products' sound; he designs them so he is happy with them, whether a million people or one loves the result. The Source AV 36:22
2023-10-01Watts says that once Chord gets pre-production prototypes, it runs its own evaluations. The Source AV 39:59
2023-10-01Watts says Chord listens with many headphones and, more importantly, many USB and other sources to find any gotchas. The Source AV 40:08
2023-10-01Watts says he uses few sources, so Chord tests compatibility with every source available plus EMC and power supply regulation tests, hopefully without needing changes from him. The Source AV 40:20
2024-02-29Watts says two new products took over 5 man-years, he had no involvement in Suzi, and his new PSUs isolate RF both ways and remove modulated mains ripple. Head-Fi, Feb 2024
2024-05-31Watts says he is not under contract with Chord, a scaler needs physical separation from the DAC, DSD sounds unreal, and subjective impressions can be characterized objectively. Head-Fi, May 2024
2024-09-24Watts declines to answer a question but restates that he is completely independent of Chord. Head-Fi, Sep 2024
2024-09-29Watts says he funds the project himself and is paid a royalty once Chord produces something; he did it for musical sound quality first and for intellectual reasons second. The Source AV 3:43
2024-09-29Watts says the result is better sound, not a huge difference; he works until fully happy, then presses the button, Chord goes into production, and he leaves. The Source AV 10:30
2024-09-29Watts says it will be more expensive than DAVE, hopefully not by too much, which he knows from his rough idea of the bill of materials cost. needs context The Source AV 18:58
2024-09-29Watts says Chord will not disclose the bill of materials cost to him because he is separate, but prices fairly as a standard multiple of it. The Source AV 19:11
2024-09-29Watts says he is cognizant of that, but he does projects because he wants to do them. The Source AV 29:44
2024-09-29Watts says he is not paid by Chord to do design work. The Source AV 29:57
2024-09-29Watts says Chord pays him when it ships a product, so his income is royalty-based. The Source AV 30:00
2024-09-29Watts compares himself to an author writing a book because he wants the story told. The Source AV 30:09
2024-09-29Watts says Quartet is about making the design work for him; if only one person, like his Singapore friend, loves Quartet, that is fine. The Source AV 30:18
2024-12-15Watts says Chord occupies Maidstone's original water pump-house, criticizes reviewers praising recycled old DAC tech as innovation, and says he has been busy finishing Quartet. Head-Fi, Dec 2024
2024-12-18Watts says he has no idea as it is not his project; he has no involvement with Chord's analog designs and is independent of Chord. needs context Head-Fi, Dec 2024
2025-09-14Watts says his son has been working with him on the pro audio interface since March. The Source AV 2:09
2025-09-14Watts says his son fills a gap in his knowledge base about what recording engineers need, and will be full-time with him from June. The Source AV 4:00
2025-09-14Watts says his son has doubled his design capacity, and that since he is not getting any younger there is someone to take over. The Source AV 4:13
2025-09-14Watts says his son does the practical design work: PCB layouts, schematics and the SPICE model. The Source AV 5:53
2025-09-14Watts says he sets his son tasks and he gets on and does them, a really good relationship. The Source AV 6:02
2025-09-14Watts says his son has pro knowledge and superb math, runs MATLAB and programs C better than him; Verilog, used to program the FPGAs, is the only gap. The Source AV 6:23
2025-09-14Watts says within a couple of weeks of a half-hour briefing his son was fluent in the PCB software and knew more than he did. The Source AV 7:06
2026-03-17Watts says a project spec sets PCB size and style; he produces the PCB, Chord wraps metalwork around it, and Chord gets his full electronic design, layouts and FPGA work. ecoustics 1:23:48
2026-03-17Watts says he and his son will work with loudspeaker companies directly. needs context ecoustics 1:29:27
2026-03-24Watts says he met John Franks at a Las Vegas show in 1995, a family coincidence led to their partnership, and in 1999 they released the DAC64. Audio Force 3:19
2026-03-24Watts says DAC64 was revolutionary, he has worked with Chord since, also designed audio chips as a semiconductor designer, now works full time on Chord development, and Quartet took 8 years. Audio Force 4:07
2026-03-24Watts says DAVE is unique among high-end DACs because it is over 10 years old. Audio Force 18:45
2026-03-24Watts says DAVE's transparency needs no Quartet to appreciate, and Chord has had no need to change it while competitors replace products every two or 3 years. Audio Force 18:55
2026-03-24Watts says DAVE is used in famous recording studios for its transparency, so there was no pressure to improve it, but Quartet takes DAVE to a profoundly new level. Audio Force 19:17
2026-05-03Watts introduces himself as the designer of Chord Electronics' digital products, designing DACs since 1989, over four decades. Audio Force 41
2026-08-30Watts says his son now works full time in his design company. The Source AV 1:30
2026-08-30Watts says Daniel graduated as a Tonmeister recording engineer, preferred audio engineering, and joined because they are doing a lot of pro audio work. The Source AV 1:35
2026-08-30Watts says the first batch is nearly sold out before units reach dealers, and he is humbled that people have paid for Quartet, often without hearing it. The Source AV 4:57
2026-08-30Watts says dealers are taking orders and Chord is allocating units against prepaid orders, so those who ordered get units first. needs context The Source AV 9:49
2026-10-02Watts says he is an independent design consultant who owns his own IP, not a Chord employee, and spent 14 years under contract to major semiconductor companies, selling them patents. HiFi Buys 26
2026-10-02Watts says consulting gives him freedom to focus on design, recalling that running an undercapitalized manufacturing company in the 80s and 90s was a struggle. HiFi Buys 1:16
2026-10-02Watts says his informal relationship with Chord dates from 1997, Chord pays only once products are in production, and he spent 8 years developing Quartet with his own finance. HiFi Buys 2:01
2026-10-02Watts says the downside of his freedom is that products are not done to a particular time frame, which can make releases challenging. needs context HiFi Buys 2:51
2026-10-02Watts says he met John Franks at Winter CES in Las Vegas through a shared distributor, and Franks said he came from Maidstone in Kent. HiFi Buys 14:29
2026-10-02Watts says his parents had moved to Allington near Maidstone in the mid-eighties, and Franks said he used to own a house there. HiFi Buys 15:27
2026-10-02Watts says Franks, with an aerospace background, was intrigued by his FPGA-based discrete DAC technology, leading by 1999 to the DAC64, which had five FPGAs. HiFi Buys 16:16
2026-10-02Watts says Head-Fi gave Chord instant reaction: when Hugo came out people raved within days and sales rose, and headphones have improved markedly. HiFi Buys 2:25:23
2026-10-02Watts says had Mojo 2 turned out better than expected he would have kept it, even if Chord complained about selling fewer Hugos. HiFi Buys 2:32:57
2026-10-11Watts says newly identified issues added 2 years; Quartet was finished when every possibility was explored, with no deadline from Chord, as research plus product development. Distorsiuni Interioare 9:38
2026-10-17Watts says Chord asked for an analog input on Quartet, expecting about 20% more scaler sales, and they weighed a separate ADC against integration. article, Oct 2026
2026-10-17Watts says integrating the ADC costs little, a rounding error in the bill of materials beside the FPGA, supplies and metalwork, so the selling price would not change. article, Oct 2026
2026-10-17Watts says he doubted the 20% sales claim but it forced Quartet and the ADC to be finished, turning a wish into a required project. article, Oct 2026