@Ess who was in charge of the machine back then said this:
Also, the Chord for example has a very different world of sound, it’s inherently much softer due to the wavetables being made with additive synthesis
If you know a bit about additive synthesis you know it’s not that easy (but not impossible) to get a basic, clean saw out of it. For this very reason, the Digitone has a one-knob “harmonics” param that makes it simple.
see Model:Cycles - #1565 by Ess
I still like the chord machine: