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Chord Electronics Ltd. is a British high-end audio electronics manufacturer founded in 1989 by John Franks. Based in East Farleigh, Kent, the company designs and manufactures premium digital-to-analog converters (DACs), headphone amplifiers, preamplifiers, integrated and power amplifiers, digital upscalers, streamers and related hi-fi electronics. Chord is particularly known for developing proprietary digital-audio technologies using FPGA-based processing rather than relying exclusively on conventional off-the-shelf DAC architectures. Its best-known product families include Mojo, Hugo, Qutest, DAVE and ULTIMA. The company originated with professional-grade amplification and supplied equipment to organizations such as the BBC before expanding into high-end consumer hi-fi; its equipment has also been associated with professional facilities including Abbey Road and Sony Music studios. Manufacturing remains strongly UK-centered, with Chord describing its current range as British-designed, engineered and manufactured.
Internal lithium batteries lose capacity, develop very short runtimes, refuse to hold a charge, or eventually prevent the unit from powering up. This is especially common on older Chord Mojo and Hugo/Hugo 2 units, with some reports of physically swollen battery packs.
The device may indicate charging but never reach full charge, repeatedly start and stop charging, or fail to charge altogether despite a known-good power supply and battery. Mojo-family units are particularly associated with faults involving the charging/power-management circuitry.
Frequent cable insertion and portable use can lead to intermittent or completely failed USB charging or data connections. Symptoms include charging only when the cable is held at a certain angle, random disconnects, or a USB input that is no longer detected.
Mojo and Hugo-family hardware can become unusually hot during simultaneous charging and playback, particularly when charging a depleted battery. Excessive temperature may cause shutdowns, interrupted charging, or unstable operation and can accelerate battery deterioration.
The DAC may power normally but disappear from the host computer, fail enumeration, or stop receiving audio through USB while optical/coaxial inputs continue working. Faults can involve the USB interface circuitry, damaged USB ICs, connectors, or associated power/protection components.
Chord's illuminated spherical controls can become intermittent, sticky, unresponsive, or fail to register presses reliably. Mechanical contamination, wear around the button mechanism, or failure of the underlying switch can leave volume, input, filter, or power controls difficult or impossible to operate.
Chord Poly units commonly generate complaints involving failure to join remembered Wi-Fi networks, remaining stuck searching for a network, hotspot/configuration problems, or unreliable discovery by control applications. Problems can originate from configuration or firmware, but persistent cases can involve the wireless/network hardware.
Poly may intermittently fail to recognize an inserted microSD card, fail to index its library, or stop playing locally stored music. Card compatibility or filesystem corruption should be eliminated first, after which the microSD interface or associated electronics become likely suspects.
Chord DACs can become stuck during their LED startup sequence, continually flash status lights, shut down immediately, or remain completely unresponsive despite correct external power. Depending on the model, likely hardware causes include degraded batteries, power-management circuitry, voltage regulators, USB/power damage, or main-board faults.
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