Chord Gem Bluetooth HiFi takes on the Squeezebox

The Chord Bluetooth Chordette Gem is a brand new music streamer that’ll let you stream music across a Bluetooth connection (yes, even your mobile phone) direct to your HiFi. In many ways, it’s pitched squarely against the Logitech Squeezebox, as both boxes plug into your HiFi and act almost as super-fancy adaptors, enabling a device with music on (e.g. you PC, walkman, mobile phone, etc.) to play music through a device that’s designed to play it well (i.e. your HiFi!)

The Squeezebox does this using WiFi, and so was designed primarily to wirelessly stream the tunes from your PC through to your HiFi. In contrast, the Chord Gem takes a different approach, using Bluetooth as its preferred technology for streaming. The advantage this gives is that you can stream your tunes from many more devices than your PC. For example, you can stream your tunes from your mobile phone, a Bluetooth MP3 player, and yes, even your PC (USB Bluetooth adaptors cost £5!).

Better still, Chord is an English HiFi company for audiophiles, renowned for making amps that cost thousands - they know what they’re dong when it comes to music quality. And so it proves with the Gem, which uses one of Chord’s legendary Digital Audio Converters (DAC) together with sophisticated software that together deliver a superb sonic experience, making your MP3 files sound better than you ever though possible.

And all this for just £400!

You can even plug an external hard disk into the Chord and play the tunes from that without the need for a PC, as it’s got a USB connection.

Using Bluetooth for its music streaming technology was a stroke of genius, and it’s a wonder why Logitech hasn’t done this with the Squeezebox, as there are far more music devices with Bluetooth than there are with WiFi.

The Chord Gem really is a superb addition to your HiFi setup. Play your music wirelessly from virtually any device anywhere in your house in superb quality thanks to the DAC and your own HiFi - what more could you want?!

[Source: Chord]