Chord Electronics teases two new Ultima power amps in Vienna, launching September 2026

Vienna whispers, September speaks

There is a particular electricity in the air at HIGH END Vienna — a show that has, in a relatively short time, established itself as a serious counterpoint to Munich for European first-looks and global reveals. Chord Electronics chose that stage carefully, offering carefully controlled previews of two forthcoming stereo power amplifiers: the Ultima 7 and the Blade. The full technical specifications, final pricing and formal launch are reserved for September 2026, but what the Kent-based manufacturer has confirmed is already enough to make this one of the more significant amplifier announcements of the year for serious two-channel listeners — and, in the Blade's case, for bespoke custom-install projects as well.

For Australian enthusiasts who have been watching the upper reaches of Chord's Ultima range with a mixture of reverence and resigned acceptance that the cost of entry sits firmly in statement territory, the Ultima 7 in particular carries a promise worth paying attention to: it will be the most affordable full-width power amplifier in Chord's lineup at launch. That is a relative term, of course — this is still Chord Electronics, still handmade in England, still the product of founder John Franks's engineering philosophy — but it suggests the company is consciously widening the aperture of who can realistically consider an Ultima amplifier as the engine room of a serious system.

What we know about the Ultima 7

The Ultima 7 is a stereo power amplifier rated at 135 watts into eight ohms, operating in Class AB. On paper, 135W is a respectable but not ostentatious output figure — it sits comfortably in the territory of real-world usefulness rather than headline-grabbing excess. Drive most reasonably efficient loudspeakers in a domestic listening room and 135W represents genuine headroom for dynamic peaks, without the thermal and economic overhead of a multi-hundred-watt behemoth running at idle most of the day.

The more technically interesting aspect of the Ultima 7 is the choice of output device: Gallium Nitride vertical MOSFETs, or GaN. This is where things get genuinely compelling from an engineering standpoint. Gallium Nitride transistors have been making inroads in Class D switching power supplies and amplifier stages for several years now, prized for their exceptional switching speed, lower gate charge and superior thermal characteristics compared with conventional silicon MOSFETs. Their application in a Class AB analogue power stage is a different proposition — one that requires careful circuit design to exploit GaN's advantages without introducing the artefacts that can accompany faster-switching devices in audio applications.

Chord has not yet disclosed the precise topology or the specific GaN devices used, reserving those details for the September launch. But the choice itself signals intent: this is not a conservative, play-it-safe design borrowing from an established Ultima template. John Franks and his team are integrating a relatively contemporary semiconductor technology into a traditional Class AB architecture, which is exactly the kind of considered experimentation that distinguishes serious engineering from mere product refreshment. For context on why transistor technology matters so fundamentally to an amplifier's character, our Amplifier Classes explainer covers the underlying physics in plain language.

Dual Feed Forward: Chord's distortion-reduction philosophy

Both the Ultima 7 and the Blade share Chord's proprietary Dual Feed Forward technology, which the company credits with achieving vanishingly low distortion figures. Feed-forward error correction is a conceptually elegant approach: rather than waiting for an error to appear at the output and then applying feedback to correct it — the classic negative feedback loop — feed-forward systems attempt to predict and cancel distortion before it reaches the output stage. In practice, most amplifier designs employ some combination of feedback and feed-forward strategies, and the details of implementation matter enormously.

Chord's specific implementation of Dual Feed Forward has been central to the Ultima line since its inception, and the company has consistently claimed genuinely low measured distortion as a result. Without the final measurements from the September launch, it would be premature to assign specific figures, but Chord's track record in this area is well established and the technology's presence in both new models is a meaningful indicator of design ambition. The relationship between distortion and perceived sonic quality is complex and sometimes contentious in high-end audio circles, but at the level at which Chord operates — where signal purity is a foundational value rather than a marketing point — the commitment to feed-forward correction is architecturally significant.

The Blade: a different brief

Less detail has emerged about the Blade than the Ultima 7, which is perhaps appropriate given its intended market. Chord has positioned the Blade as targeting custom installation — the world of architect-designed listening rooms, integrated smart-home systems and bespoke AV fit-outs where discretion, reliability and integration capability are as important as sonic performance. Custom install is a growing segment of the Australian premium audio market, driven by high-end residential construction and a clientele for whom a purpose-built listening room or dedicated home cinema is an extension of an investment in exceptional living, not a hobbyist indulgence.

For Chord to commit engineering resources to a custom-install-oriented model alongside a more accessible mainstream product is a considered commercial decision. It acknowledges that the pathways through which serious audio equipment reaches serious listeners have diversified substantially. A great many of the finest systems in Australian homes today were specified and installed by custom integrators rather than assembled piece by piece by their owners. The Blade appears designed to serve that channel, which means we can reasonably anticipate features oriented toward system integration — though again, confirmation awaits September.

John Franks and the meaning of handmade in Kent

It is worth taking a moment to situate these amplifiers within the broader context of what Chord Electronics represents. John Franks founded the company and has led its engineering direction throughout its history. The emphasis on in-house design and handcrafted manufacture in Maidstone, Kent, is not marketing mythology — it reflects a genuinely unusual industrial model in contemporary electronics, where the pressure to offshore manufacture and reduce bill-of-materials costs is relentless. Chord's resistance to that pressure is a commercial choice with direct sonic consequences: tighter tolerance matching of components, more careful assembly, greater accountability across the production process.

In an era when an increasing number of products bearing prestigious European names are built elsewhere to varying standards of supervision, the provenance of an amplifier that is genuinely designed and built in England by a small team answerable to its founder carries real meaning. It also carries a cost premium, which is part of why the Ultima 7's positioning as the most accessible full-width model in the range is significant — Chord is not cheapening its manufacturing ethos to hit a price point; it is applying that ethos to a design brief that prioritises broader reach.

Where the Ultima 7 fits in the Australian market

Without final pricing confirmed, precise positioning is necessarily speculative. But we can reason from context. The existing Ultima range has historically commanded prices that place it in genuine statement territory — the domain of dedicated audiophiles for whom an amplifier purchase is a multi-year, possibly permanent, decision. If the Ultima 7 represents a meaningful step down in price while retaining the core engineering principles of the line, it enters a competitive but opportunity-rich space in the Australian market.

At this level, buyers are typically assembling systems with genuine ambition: a high-quality source component, possibly a dedicated DAC and network streamer — if you are building around digital sources, our roundup of the best DACs and network streamers gives a useful current-market overview — and loudspeakers chosen with care for their ability to resolve the quality of amplification upstream of them. The Ultima 7's 135W output should drive a very wide range of serious loudspeakers without strain, including designs with moderate sensitivity and complex impedance curves that can expose weaknesses in less capable amplifiers.

Speaking of which: impedance behaviour across the frequency range is one of the most important practical considerations when matching an amplifier to loudspeakers at this level. A well-engineered power amplifier should maintain authority and composure as a speaker's impedance dips — and GaN MOSFETs' superior electrical characteristics may well contribute favourably to the Ultima 7's performance in this regard, though we will need measurements to confirm it.

For listeners considering loudspeaker pairings at this level, the Ultima 7's output and Class AB character would suggest an affinity with demanding, high-resolution designs. Standmount loudspeakers of real quality — the kind discussed in our guide to the best standmounts for serious listening — can be a compelling match for a power amplifier of this specification, particularly in smaller dedicated listening rooms where a large floorstander would be disproportionate.

GaN in audio: a broader context

The adoption of Gallium Nitride in audio applications deserves a moment's broader consideration. GaN transistors first found traction in high-frequency power conversion — switch-mode power supplies for computing, EV charging systems, high-efficiency Class D amplification. Their migration into traditional Class AB analogue stages is more recent and more nuanced. The electrical characteristics that make GaN attractive — faster switching, lower on-resistance, better thermal performance at high frequencies — translate differently into a Class AB context than into a switching context.

In a Class AB stage, the output transistors operate in a largely linear region for most of the audio cycle, with the crossover distortion at the transition between positive and negative halves of the waveform representing a primary source of non-linearity. GaN devices' superior transconductance and threshold voltage characteristics can, in principle, reduce crossover artefacts and improve linearity across the operating range. Combined with Chord's Dual Feed Forward topology, which is specifically targeted at residual distortion correction, the technical promise of the Ultima 7's architecture is considerable.

Whether that promise fully translates to a listening experience that justifies the inevitable price premium over more conventional designs is a question that formal measurements and extended listening — the kind of systematic evaluation we conduct here — will answer definitively. But the engineering rationale is coherent and serious, and that matters.

What to watch for at the September launch

When September arrives and Chord Electronics formally launches the Ultima 7 and Blade, there are several specific areas worth scrutinising closely:

• Final pricing and Australian RRP: The framing of the Ultima 7 as the most affordable full-width model in the range is meaningful only once we know what that affordability actually means in dollars at the dealer. Currency fluctuations and local distribution arrangements mean that UK pricing does not translate directly to Australian retail.
• Full power specifications: 135W into eight ohms is confirmed, but how the amplifier behaves into four ohms — and whether it doubles down cleanly, as a well-designed amp should — will tell us a great deal about its real-world capability with demanding loudspeakers.
• Measured distortion figures: Chord's Dual Feed Forward claims are credible given the brand's history, but independent measurements will quantify exactly how vanishingly low the distortion actually is, and across what frequency and power range.
• Blade specifications and integration features: For custom-install practitioners, the Blade's trigger inputs, control protocols, form factor and thermal management will determine whether it is a genuinely practical CI tool or a standard amplifier with modest integration features grafted on.
• Availability timeline for Australia: September launches in Europe do not always translate immediately to stock on Australian shores. The local distribution timeline matters for buyers planning builds around these amplifiers.

A considered preview, a serious promise

Chord Electronics does not do things carelessly. The decision to preview at Vienna rather than wait for a standalone announcement reflects confidence in the design — enough confidence to generate anticipation without the risk of over-promising. The Ultima 7 and Blade are clearly well advanced, with the engineering direction confirmed and the September launch date set firmly. What remains is the detail, and with Chord, the detail is invariably where the most interesting information lives.

For Australian enthusiasts sitting at the upper reaches of the amplifier market — those for whom the question is not whether to invest seriously but where to invest — the Ultima 7 represents a genuinely new option that did not exist in Chord's range before. GaN output devices in a Class AB stage, Dual Feed Forward correction, handmade British construction and the full weight of John Franks's engineering philosophy, positioned at the most accessible point the full-width Ultima line has ever occupied. That is worth tracking very carefully indeed.

We will be covering the September launch in detail, with pricing, specifications and — as soon as a review sample reaches us — our full listening assessment. In the meantime, if you are at the stage of thinking seriously about a high-end power amplifier and what system it might anchor, our Chord Electronics Mojo 2 review (check price) offers a useful window into the sonic values the brand pursues across its range, even if the Mojo 2 operates at a very different scale.