D/A PROCESSOR
It was hardly bigger than a shoebox. It weighed 8.3lb.
When I opened the main box, I found two smaller boxes. The little brown one contained a fist-sized power supply in a chassis of extruded aluminum, with a label attached that said "AC/DC Hybrid Adaptor" next to a circle containing a sun cross symbol and the words "Designed, Engineered and Built in Switzerland" in capital letters circling its top edge. Below the circle was more writing: "Wattson Audio-a CH Precision company."
The Wattson Madison LE's 2.3lb chassis was inside a larger white box with black block letters saying "Madison." Under that, written in cursive, were the words "Lounge Edition." The L in LE is for Lounge, not Limited as you might expect.
I've reviewed a few DACs but never one this small, light, and elegantly formed.
Not knowing much about Wattson Audio, I asked the patient, personable Kevin Wolff, head of Wattson's and CH Precision's international sales, to tell me the company's origin story.
"Our journey began as design consultants for some of the most prestigious and well-known brands in the audio world-the kind of brands whose owners might spend more on a single component than the cost of a European sports sedan. This experience honed our expertise and gave us a front-row seat to how established engineering and manufacturing practices were being applied to emerging technologies, formats, and musical media. Over time, our continued advancements in digital and streaming technologies revealed a deeper opportunity-a way to fully express our innovations through a product line of our own.
Thus, Wattson Audio was born.
"CH Precision's acquisition of Wattson Audio marks the union of two innovative forces in high-end audio, combining CH Precision's expertise in ultrahigh-performance systems with Wattson's commitment to accessible, efficient, and forward-thinking audio solutions."
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Esta historia es de la edición April 2025 de Stereophile.
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Philharmonic Audio BMR Monitor
Let's get this out of the way: The BMR Monitor may be a monitor, but it isn't a bookshelf or desktop speaker any more than a yacht is a dinghy.
Technics SC-CX700 ACTIVE LOUDSPEAKER
The usual Specifications box (below) is a nuts-and-bolts listing of the electrical and physical properties of the Technics SC-CX700 loudspeaker, who made it and where, and a widely varying amount of information about their electrical and acoustical performance. The information comes from the included literature, available downloads, and whatever I could find on the manufacturer's website.
Youth movement
Paul Klipsch was a genius,” Roy Delgado told me recently, with the sound of genuine amazement in his voice. “Me, I’m just a tinkerer.”
The Loricraft PRC6i record cleaning machine and the WallySkater v2.1 Pro
In my last Spin Doctor column, I gave an overview of my experiences cleaning records over the last 50-plus years and the advances in record cleaning technology over that time. My review of the HumminGuru NOVA ultrasonic record cleaner focused on that increasingly popular approach to record cleaning, using ultrasonic cavitation instead of scrub# the record with a brush. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in that half-century of playing around with audio gear, it’s that it can be a mistake to embrace a new technology just because of its newness, dismissing what came before as obsolete. The vinyl record itself is a good example of a technology discarded as obsolete, then embraced again by new (and old) generations. You can add vacuum-tube amplifiers, analog tape, and much else in our hobby to that list.
Wattson Audio Madison LE Streamer
After it was delivered, I weighed the box containing Wattson Audio's DAC-equipped Madison LE Streamer on my bathroom scale.
Grimm Audio LS1c ACTIVE LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM
It's not unusual for audiophiles to have fond childhood recollections of the old family stereo, but Eelco Grimm's memory of his dad's audio system probably stands alone.
Cambridge EXN100 STREAMING D/A PROCESSOR
Each soloist seemed to pop out to the front, between the two speakers (of course), their life force emerging over decades, grooves, and digital bits.
J.Sikora Standard Max Supreme, KV9 Max Zirconium
In his review of the J.Sikora Initial turntable, Stereophile's resident artist/sage Herb Reichert wrote, \"Extended bathing, lighting candles, making tea, and preparing food are ritual work forms that prepare my senses to accept both pleasure and illumination.\"
The Voxativ Hagen2 Monitor loudspeaker
I think I just found the perfect Herb speaker. It uses a hand-crafted 5\" wide-range driver with a cone made from Japanese calligraphy paper. It rolls off around 50Hz at the bottom and 30kHz at the top. It has no crossover. Its cabinet is made of MDF that responds loudly when I tap it with my fingernails. Inside is what its designer calls a “short horn,” which appears to harmlessly disperse back-cone energy while adding energy below the driver’s cutoff frequency. Mainly, though, it’s a perfect Herb speaker because it is naturally phase coherent. And sparkplug fast. And completely unmuffled.
The Beatles in Mono according to Kevin
It's almost too easy to make Dave Dexter Jr. the villain in the story of the Beatles' fumbled introduction to America.
