Munich 2025

At recent shows, Switzerland-based CH Precision has most often presented its electronics with Wilson speakers. At High End Munich 2025, the company was planning to demo with a pair of Rockports; that plan was foiled when [edited] the M10s went full power and took out three of four woofers, according to Kevin Wolff, the head of international sales for CH Precision and Wattson Audio. ("I don't know of any other speaker that could have taken as much and had limited damage," Wolff added in an email following the show.)

CH hardly had to settle for second-rate speakers, or anything approaching bad sound. They ended up with a pair of Audiovector R 10 Arretés (roughly $160,000/pair), which were being introduced to the public for the first time at High End Munich. I had heard them already in the Audiovector room and been impressed there. I was even more impressed here. Having reviewed the somewhat smaller R 8 Arreté and the much smaller R 3 Arreté, I am quite familiar with the Audiovector house sound, and I like it very much. Anyway, I felt I had a pretty good idea of what these speakers were bringing to the sonic party.

Each R 10 was vertically bi-amplified by an M10 amplifier, which, though configurable as a monoblock, contains two channels of amplification and a power supply in a separate chassis (€220,000/pair, as equipped).

CH Precision showed off two important new products in Munich. The first was the C10 Conductor, a new configuration of their streaming DAC—most CH Precision products are highly configurable—which pulls all the extra stuff (upsampling DSP, source selection, phase and frequency analysis) out of the main chassis and puts it in a separate chassis (this is the Conductor, €78,000), leaving just the (stereo) DAC parts alone in their own chassis (the C10 Master DAC, €102,825). This isolates sensitive DAC circuitry from DSP-related high-frequency noise and other potential noise sources (including the Ethernet stream and the circuitry necessary to decode it). The two chassis are connected by the proprietary CH Link cable, an implementation of I²S. A third chassis holds the DAC's power supply and a fourth adds a separate power supply for the Conductor. (Look for my review of the C10—the basic, two-chassis version—coming this fall in Stereophile.) The DAC and transport were coordinated by a T10 10MHz Master Clock, which has the same clocking electronics as the T1 (CH Precision's 1-series clock) but with a better-damped chassis.

The second important product introduction for CH Precision was a 10-series CD/SACD transport (€96,575 including clock-input board; see my review of the D1.5 transport.) At its core is a massive mounting plate to support the D&M laser/pickup mechanism, supported by alpha-gel isolators. The mounting plate (CH Precision calls it "the sled") weighs an astounding 13kg, sufficient to push the intrinsic resonance below 20Hz. (The whole transport, not counting the power supply in its separate chassis, weighs nearly 50kg.) I don't think this has ever been done before in the history of spinning silver discs, which kind of makes this a landmark product.

If you've used a top-loading disc transport much, you have probably misplaced the "puck" a time or two. CH Precision's solution is to employ a loading mechanism that places a puck automatically, with magnets. The chamber—CH calls it the "disc vault"—is then sealed by a sort of hovering flying saucer connected that lowers itself in place (see the brief video). The cover seals the disc vault hermetically, keeping out not only dust but even sonic vibrations.

Finally, the D10 transport integrates a "precision circular level," which "allows for exact calibration of the optical pickup rather than the chassis, optimizing rotational stability and ensuring precise disc tracking."

Source selection and volume control were handled by an L10 stereo line preamplifier (€85,000). Also in the system was an analog front end consisting of a TechDAS Air Force IV turntable (which was having a premier), Air Force 10 tonearm, TDC01 Dia MC phono cartridge, and P10 stereo phono stage (€87,400). Prices of the TechDAS products were not provided. Digital and analog cables were provided by Argento. Power conditioning and grounding assistance came from Shunyata.

How did it sound? Superb, as you'd expect, though I only heard a few short excerpts. The sound was dynamic, relaxed, and detailed. The soundstage had good spacing of instruments and significant depth. It doesn't get much better. But when the already excellent D1.5 transport—see my review—was replaced with the new D10 transport, there was a clear and obvious improvement.

The most impressive thing I heard in this room, however, was a demo of the products on the other side of the room. Not long before last year's Munich show, CH Precision acquired Wattson Audio, though common DNA for the two companies goes much further back. This year the two brands shared a room; as I sat facing the speakers, the Madison LE DAC (see Herb's review) with an outboard Wattson power supply and a pair of Wattson AMPLIFIERs configured as monoblocks lined the left wall. This system costs about $22,000—not chump change but far, far less than the CH Precision stuff on the opposite side of the room. Yet when this little system powered the flagship Audiovector speakers, which cost somewhere near $162,000/pair, the system broke into full-throated song.

Watch a brief video tour of the system, starting from the TechDAS turntable and ending on the Audiovector speakers: