CH Precision • I1 Integrated Amplifier
We all start out with modest gear. That first system was almost certainly built around an integrated amp, not least because of the obvious savings that come from incorporating multiple electronic functions into a single box. What separates audiophiles from the unenlightened masses, however, is that itch: you know the one -- no matter how happy you are with your system, you just know that it can be improved. At first, it might manifest itself with tweaks, but the inexorable drive pushes you to join the big kids, the ones who have graduated to racks full of separates. That was then and this is now. The changing demographics of hi-fi buyers, along with evolving system requirements, are altering the audio landscape. Recently, some very top-tier electronics manufacturers have been tapping into the emerging vogue for living large in a small space. As an increasing number of audiophiles downsize their accommodations, they need to downsize their systems too, and in response, manufacturers are distilling their products down, using their established experience and technology to offer high-performance integrated units. These are high-end integrated amplifiers to be found in hi-fi salons rather than big-box electronics stores, designed to meet the system and performance expectations of audiophiles who have either owned, or see themselves one day owning, separates. When it comes to fitting a performance quart into an equipment pint, arguably few companies can match the efforts or achievements of CH Precision. This is a company already renowned for producing some of the most flexible and user-configurable products out there, so you can only imagine what happens when you take three (or four) of those products and effectively cram them into a single box. Of course, in reality it’s not that simple, but you get the idea. In some respects, CH Precision is as enigmatic as their externally near-identical products. In practice, the “C” and “H” in the company's name are the initials of the founders' last names -- Florian Cossy and Thierry Heeb. But CH is also the country code for Switzerland (Confoederatio Helvetica) where CH Precision resides. and Switzerland has long been the home of exquisitely crafted audio components. Products like Stenheim speakers, Nagra electronics and Thales tonearms and turntables, just to name a few, are all known for their fine craftsmanship, a word most people find easy to correlate with Swiss manufacturing in a world where we use the phrase “runs like a Swiss watch.” Even so, CH Precision has enjoyed a meteoric rise, becoming in only a decade one of the Swiss elite, its products helping to define the upper reaches of audio performance and the global hi-fi market. I first encountered CH Precision in May of 2014 at the High End show in Munich, where the company was exhibiting off-site at the Kempinski Hotel, along with speaker manufacturer Wilson Benesch. By today’s standards, that showing was a fairly modest affair, the system featuring the A1 amplifier, D1 CD/SACD drive and C1 DAC/controller. The company soon added its monstrous M1 mono amplifiers and P1 phono stage to the alphabet soup, and since then, these products and their associated kit have become seemingly ubiquitous at audio shows around the world, as well as in the home systems of well-heeled audiophiles. In a very real sense, CH Precision has become what Audio Research and Conrad-Johnson were in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s -- makers of the gear you aspire to own, once you get a real job or win the lottery. Did I mention price? Beautifully crafted, flawlessly finished electronic boxes with stellar performance don’t come cheap -- and CH Precision's modular, scalable approach means you can end up with a lot of boxes. Or just one. Fast-forward to 2019 and you can own a CH Precision system in miniature -- the I1 integrated amplifier. There’s no miniaturization when it comes to the chassis, the I1 being built into exactly the same casework used for other units -- same smooth, gray finish, same curved feature line on the left, same large central display and the same dual-concentric control on the right. In this case the miniaturization relates to the fact that inside the admittedly impressive single chassis, you’ll find an amplifier, a line stage and a DAC, as well as room to add a phono stage, a streaming-input board and a board that will allow you to use an external clock. I guess the miniaturization might also be said to refer to the name. It’s hard to imagine a more abbreviated, prosaic (or less sexy) name for a high-end, high-fidelity component than I1. In its basic configuration, the I1 essentially combines CH Precision’s A1 amplifier with elements of the L1 line preamplifier and C1 DAC/controller, creating a single incredibly versatile package. Now consider this: an A1 costs $37,000, the L1’s price tag is $34,500, and a C1 starts at $32,000, making for a grand total of $103,500. Roy Gregory, in his review of the L1, called it a “world-class line stage,” one of the five or fewer “really great line stages” he’s heard. He was also impressed by the C1, and although the A1 is CH Precision’s smallest amplifier (now replaced by the larger A1.5) it still produces a seriously healthy 100Wpc. CH Precision doesn’t promise that the I1 will magically replicate the sound of those far more expensive separates, but it does promise to “squeeze and collect the essence and soul” of its more complex units into the I1. That may sound like marketing hyperbole, but even before listening to the I1, it’s hard not to hope that there is more than a kernel of truth in that claim. After all, the line stage is easily among the best of its breed, and while the A1 amplifier might come up short in comparison to its big brother, the M1.1, it’s not chopped liver. While most audiophiles are easily satisfied with the best (and CH Precision’s standalone components certainly compete in that category), what they can actually afford is often something a lot less grand -- and quite a few grand less. Enjoying the essence and soul of the best might just go a long way toward assuaging the pain of not being born into wealth. The stock I1 costs $38,000, a savings of $65,500 over the cost of the separate components. Even if it doesn’t offer the extraordinary range of functionality and connectivity you get with the separates, that’s math that demands to be taken seriously. Like all CH Precision products, the I1 is a modular device that allows owners to select and add additional facilities or inputs to match their requirements. In standard form, it represents a classic digital integrated amplifier, its DIG_IN_HD board providing S/PDIF, AES/EBU, TosLink and CH-Link HD (for connection to the D1 transport) digital inputs. Built onto a separate modular analog input board are one set of balanced XLR inputs, two pairs of single-ended RCA inputs and one pair of XLR outputs. There’s also an Ethernet control board that allows you to connect the I1 to a network router, essential for using the CH Precision Control Application. What do you give up by downsizing? In addition to being squeezed into a single chassis, the integrated unit runs from a single power-supply transformer. That transformer is a massive beast, taking up much of the internal chassis volume, and accounting for most of the unit’s substantial 72-pound weight. At 1000VA, it is slightly smaller than the 1200VA component in the A1 amplifier, but it feeds the exact same circuitry employed in the that amplifier, save for a small reduction in the total number of output devices. Just because the I1 has taken in a whole host of extra functionality, don’t go thinking it’s also gone weak at the knees. Although the analog inputs use the same circuit and components as the L1, where the I1 diverges from the flagship line stage is when you get to the volume control. Pressures of space dictated that CH Precision develop a new compact hybrid digital/analog volume control for the integrated amp. This carries out large changes in level in the analog domain, but finer degrees of attenuation take place in the digital domain, meaning that analog inputs are all converted to 32-bit/384kHz form. Yes, even the phono inputs (although many a listener will swear that they aren’t), but I’ll get to those later. The other good news is that the volume control allows incredibly fine adjustment of listening level, something that can make a huge difference to just how convincing and enjoyable the end result becomes. In addition to the stock setup, CH Precision also offers a range of optional modules to extend the I1’s capabilities. Chief among these is the USB-In board ($3000), the Ethernet-In HD board ($6000, essential if you want to connect the I1 to a network music server) and the Phono-I1 modules ($4500), an internal board that converts one or both of the RCA analog inputs into MC phono inputs, complete with switchable replay EQ. Finally, the Sync-I/O board ($1500) allows you to synchronize the digital clock in the I1 with the clock in the D1 transport or an outboard clock if you are using one. When it comes to ergonomics, the I1, like all CH Precision equipment, takes its cues from the tech world rather than the familiar world of hi-fi. Although the front panel does have a dual concentric push/turn control knob and display from which most of the settings and adjustments can be made, all parameters are also accessible through the CH Control Application that you can download to and operate from any Android device. Extremely intuitive to use, it allows you direct access to volume, balance, gain settings, choice of inputs, choice of EQ curves, mute, phase polarity, mono/stereo, feedback setting and several other less frequently used controls. I tended to rely on the physical controls for the most frequently used volume, mute and input settings, but the app was a boon when it came to setting things like global feedback and input gain, which it allowed me to adjust from the listening seat. It was also a godsend for making changes to EQ settings on the fly. The I1 includes a bias-control circuit that allow continuous adjustment of the bias and operating temperature of the output stage to maintain optimum performance. According to CH Precision, the bias adjustment circuit “not only follows slow temperature variations (like fluctuations in room temperature), but also accurately takes into account all the dynamic aspects induced by transients in the musical content.” The front panel includes a readout of the amplifier’s internal temperature. Leaving the unit on continuously during its several-weeks stay in my room produced a temperature at idle of around 45 degrees Centigrade, usually warming up to around 48 to 50 when the I1 was pushed. The company advises that the ideal range is 48 to 52, but I rarely saw the meter top 50 and never saw it exceed 52.
The enormous range of set-once-and-forget adjustments possible with this unit at first seems a little daunting, but after you understand them all, you need do nothing more unless you change associated equipment (or décor, possibly demanding a change in display color). One absolutely crucial setting allows you to select a setting for global feedback ratio, allowing you to choose between zero and 100% global feedback in 20% increments. Like selecting 4-, 8- or 16-ohm speaker taps on the back of many tube amplifiers, the feedback adjustment is CH Precision’s way of matching the amplifier to your speakers’ impedance characteristics and low-frequency balance, as it has a profound impact on the amplifier’s damping factor. The choice of input gain setting on the I1 is also slightly unusual, with a slider on the app that allows you to pick whatever gain setting (for each input, line or phono) best matches the particular source component that’s connected.
’ll readily admit that before listening to the I1, I was subconsciously dusting off those formulaic phrases that constitute faint praise. After all, how good could a solid-state integrated amplifier sound? My well-embedded preference for tubed separates wasn’t developed overnight, and I didn’t arrive at my choice of home system by accident. With a slightly fatalistic air, I opted to start with the basic I1 with the aim of establishing the quality of the amplification, effectively ignoring the add-on modules and even the internal DAC, instead running my Audio Research Reference Phono 3 and Neodio Origine CD player into the I1’s line inputs. Naturally, I threw some really big orchestral works straight at the compact I1, starting out with that old warhorse The Power of the Orchestra and Mussorgsky’s “A Night On Bare Mountain” [RCA Living Stereo VCS-2659], a piece that throws both a giant soundstage and dynamic hand grenades, thinking I might as well lay bare the limitations of this puny integrated amplifier right up front. Instead, the only thing that got laid bare was my preconceptions. The I1 was found far from lacking when it came to reconstructing that deep and wide soundstage. Despite the fact that it is the least powerful amplifier I’ve tried with the Wilson Yvettes (at 100Wpc), it delivered explosive dynamics, repeated, escalating detonations delivered without the amp ever hesitating to catch its breath. Switching record labels but sticking with well-recorded orchestral works, I queued up Stravinsky’s Pulcinella on LP [Argo ZRG 575], a searching test of tonal accuracy. The recording highlighted the natural tonal beauty and breadth of the I1’s palette. The orchestration of the piece sees the Academy of St. Martin In the Field spend considerable time in the upper registers where, if electronics are etched, the sound can grate. Not so with the I1, with each note defined with a jewel-like clarity, no matter how fast they all arrived. The speed and beauty of those upper frequencies made me reach for my acid test, the Montserrat Figueras CD Ninna Nanna [AliaVox AV9826]. This disc combines incredibly beautiful music with passages that are devilishly hard to reproduce. If you’ve heard it and did not find it utterly enchanting, it’s not a failure on your part or that of the music. You just haven’t heard it on the right system. The CD is devoted to lullabies from across the centuries, with the late Montserrat Figueras accompanied by her husband Jordi Savall leading Hespèrion XXI. At one point, her voice hovers in the upper reaches with the ringing of a bell, and it's one of the most beautifully sung and recorded passages in my collection, vinyl or CD. But if it's not well reproduced, the tonal and spatial qualities disappear, leaving you wondering, What’s the big deal? I found out just how big a deal it is listening to it on the Wilson WAMM Master Chronosonics at Dave Wilson’s house, where the voice and percussion were reproduced with such delicacy that I found myself holding my breath. My own system is better than most, but it can still leave a feeling that the top end is a bit strident. With the I1 engaged, my Yvettes sounded as close as I’ve ever heard them to the magic of that Wilson WAMM MC experience. In a few words, it was damn close to perfection. Things got even more interesting, however, when I migrated to pop music. First up was Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits, the inexpensive and common 1974 original [Warner Bros. W2803], not the dreadful Friday Music reissue. The I1 can play loud rock music with the best. Like a lot of rock recordings, the Alice Cooper LP has plenty of midbass but little if any really deep bass. What it does have are pace and rhythm. If the system doesn’t get that sense of pace and timing right, the result can sound boring. The I1 shines when it comes to getting that pacing spot on and the Alice Cooper LP did not disappoint. Does that grip extend into the deepest bass? I played Ansermet’s reading of the Saint Saëns Symphony No.3 [Decca SXL 6027] in order to find out. The I1 might have lacked the necessary watts to dig out and bring real power to the deepest organ notes that the Yvettes can deliver, but the bottom end never sounded woolly or indistinct. The I1 kept the deep bass just as tight and fast as the midbass, while giving no hint that anything might be missing. But if you really want to show off the I1’s special attributes, just reach for electronic pop music, like David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy. Every couple of years I pull out my copies of Low, Heroes and The Lodger. I’d recently compared my pressings of Low and Heroes to the 2018 reincarnations and found the reissues wanting in comparison to my early UK originals. Even so, my originals have never sounded as good as when I listened to Low [RCA PL 12030] with the I1. The Swiss amplifier’s speed and precision were ideally suited to the requirements of this music, and I finally discovered what it was that had left me feeling unsatisfied with these albums. The I1’s bass control and speed allowed their sense of pace and momentum to fall into place, not just the synth but also the drumming of my namesake, Dennis Davis. That taut, propulsive bottom end left my Audio Research combination sounding a bit polite, if not bloated, in comparison. Likewise, the synthesized music on Angelica in Delirium’s “Gol” from the CD Trance Planet Volume Two [Triloka 7210-2] sounded newly energized. My power-hungry Wilson Yvettes would have liked (and certainly could have used) a bit more than the I1’s 100Wpc, but the intoxicating speed and control of what it did deliver offered ample compensation. Both Angelica and the organ parts on the Saint Saëns’ Symphony No.3 were felt as well as heard and the I1’s bottom-end performance left me with a serious case of bass envy. After the exceptional performance of the CH I1’s amplifier and line stage, I mentally put things in perspective before using the optional modules. After all, if the amplifier and line stage could be described as downsized, then the modules and positively Lilliputian compared to their full-sized counterparts. The $4500 phono modules are an interesting example. A stock CH Precision P1 standalone phono stage costs $31,500, and if you use the beefed-up X1 power supply, then that adds another $17,000 to the ticket. But even that’s not enough for some extremists, who use one P1 and X1 for each channel. So the tariff for a full-blown P1 Dual-Mono, definitely a phono stage for the Lear Jet set, comes to $97,000. With that sobering thought in mind, it was comforting to know that many in the industry consider the stock P1 to be the best phono stage that they have heard, and I certainly won’t argue the point. In contrast, the Phono-I1 comprises a pair of diminutive circuit boards that piggyback onto the line inputs. Yet, despite their small size, they still offer up to two independently configurable MC inputs (as mentioned earlier, you can designate the extra gain to the two RCA line inputs) along with five switchable replay-EQ options -- which is a lot more in terms of facilities than many standalone units can muster. Having said that, the Phono-I1 is clearly not equivalent to the P1, let alone a four-box P1 Dual-Mono -- and CH Precision makes no such claim. The question is, if the four-box phono section is for the Lear Jet set and the stock P1 is for those who can afford to fly in the first-class cabin, how much of that filters down to the rest of us crammed into economy and listening to the phono modules in the I1? It became clear almost immediately that the Phono-I1 modules embody the DNA of not just the more expensive phono stages but that of the entire line of CH Precision electronics. It’s a sound that I’m finding increasingly hard to resist. In the same way that a Lyra cartridge can make the very tasty but different-sounding Koetsu line sound overly romantic and a bit syrupy, CH Precision amplifiers almost seem to mock the competition, taunting them with the question, Can’t you keep up? It’s a fast, accurate sound but without any of the sterility so often associated with a solid-state signature. Like two of the inputs on the P1, the phono module operates in current-sensing mode and is optimized for use with low-output moving-coil cartridges. Reading the current rather than the voltage allows (at least theoretically) for a higher signal-to-noise ratio and renders impedance-matching unnecessary. Thus, you won’t find the usual setting options for loading. With the I1, you just add a cartridge and trim the gain setting. With a recent run of original-versus-reissue comparisons to do, I was intrigued to hear what the I1 added to the equation. On Speakers Corners’ splendid reissue of Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh [Speakers Corner/Atlantic 1217], the first thing I noticed was the I1’s effect on the soundstage. The I1 spread Kevin Gray’s remastering of the 1950s mono classic wider than I’d heard before, with the separation of the six musicians’ positions pinpointed with laser accuracy, demonstrating just how much soundstage and spatial information there is in a good mono recording. The same thing was apparent with Gray’s remastering of The Byrds’ Turn! Turn! Turn! [Sundazed/Coumbia LP 5198], another mono classic. The I1 made the improved instrumental overtones on the folk-rock classic stand out in high relief. I pulled out several of my favorite violin LPs to hear how they would fare with the I1’s phono stage. This last year or so has seen the release of a few newly polished Bach sonatas and partitas, like Julia Fisher’s PentaTone set, recently released on vinyl [PentaTone PTC 5186 664-67] and Giuliano Carmignola’s set of CDs [Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft 483 550]. But I turned to an old favorite, Johanna Martzy’s version from her The EMI Recordings box set [Coup d’ Archet 017-19]. The I1's phono modules tightened up Martzy’s articulation from what I usually hear listening through a tube phono stage. There was less reverberation from the strings off of the body of the instrument than I heard with the CH Precision P1 or the Audio Research Reference Phono 3. The I1 phono modules exhibited a similar lean and slightly dry signature on older Chess recordings, the ones that usually almost drip with moisture. The Best of Muddy Waters [Chess LP 1427] almost made me wish I still had a Koetsu cartridge on hand to slow things down, just enough to see the sweat drip from Muddy’s face. But perhaps the biggest surprise came when listening to McCartney [Apple PCS 7102]. One of my favorite LPs, I keep two UK first pressings on hand as a failsafe. John was my favorite Beatle, and when I play McCartney I sometimes worry that John is looking from George’s Cloud Nine ready to wreak retribution unless I give Plastic Ono Band or Imagine equal time. Yet, as many times as I’ve heard the LP, the I1 still made me sit up and listen anew. I thought I knew every tiny nuance on this record, but there it was -- an entirely new (to me) bright clicking noise of wood claves that had gone unnoticed until excavated by the I1. One of the things that I really appreciated with the I1’s phono stage was the availability of and easy access to its various EQ curves. It’s something that I’m used to and a facility that I use, my Audio Research Reference 3 providing curves for RIAA, Columbia and Decca. The I1 also offers these and adds the Teldec and EMI curves. Teldec started life as a joint venture between Telefunken and Decca, formed to manufacture records. It soon branched out with its own label, Das Alte Werk, which specialized in the release of early music. The I1's Teldec EQ curve worked wonders with the tonality, spatial presentation, musical dynamics and pace of Das Alte Werk and Deutsche Grammophon (DGG) records. In my experience DGG LPs enjoy the greatest benefit from using an alternate to the RIAA curve, the stellar roster of performers on their books being the icing on the cake. I played one DGG LP after another, enjoying the richer, more powerful sound, improved staging and a better-integrated top end provided by the Teldec curve. Christian Ferras and Herbert von Karajans’ performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto [Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft SPLM 139 021] is a disc I’ve played several times, often considering consigning it to the recycle bin for its strident sound. I’d tried the Decca curve on my Audio Research phono stage, but the Teldec curve on the CH Precision unit finally settled it -- the Ferras stays. With the correct curve, the class of the performance emerges from behind the muffled yet shrieky sonics if I play this album with the RIAA curve. Enjoyment of the curves on the I1 didn’t come for free, however, as they soon revealed a couple classic titles in my DGG and EMI collections that were later pressings, as well as a few discs that suffered from noise (a not uncommon problem with DGG LPs). The added appreciation of the performances that came from hearing them with the Teldec curve made upgrades mandatory. A treasure hunt on eBay soon solved these deficiencies -- albeit at a price. The I1’s DAC is again a scaled-back version of its much more expensive unit. Used to play physical media, it requires a transport. For those who have not abandoned physical media entirely but are not into LPs, the I1 coupled with a transport offers a very compact yet sophisticated playback system. Of course, there aren’t that many transports being produced these days. The ultimate matchup would be with CH Precision’s D1 CD/SACD transport ($38,000), although most who go this route would probably take the worthwhile step of adding a clock-sync card in each unit -- and another $3000 to the combined price. For those who value SACD playback and can afford the D1’s tariff, coupling it to the I1 via the proprietary CH-Link would provide a world-class digital system -- just add speaker cables and speakers and you are off to the races. For those on a budget, the much less expensive CEC TL5 or TL2 transports offer more affordable options (see sidebar). Yes, the I1 allows streaming music from a network player or replay of files via USB, as long as you add the appropriate modules. My review sample came loaded with all of the options, and I tried streaming and playback of downloaded music. It worked. It more than worked -- the sound exceeded my expectations. That’s not to say that I heard anything to make me want to abandon physical media. I’ve yet to hear any file-replay system that has transported me that way. For those who crave the convenience of streaming music, by all means add the streamer option. But don’t lose sight of the fact that this is the Ferrari F8 Tributo of integrated amplifiers. The internal DAC and the streaming option are very, very good, but they are still only the shiny red coats of paint on the outside of your F8 Tributo. As with any great super car, the magic is on the inside. In the case of the I1, the line and amplification stages are where the real magic lies.
ike most audiophiles, I don’t have a huge man cave stuck away on the far reaches of my estate where I can install seven-foot-high speakers and banks of electronics, all safely stowed away from the ravages of grandchildren and pets. Instead, my system and my music collection are contained in my office, feeding speakers in the lounge. That imposes a certain discipline: there’s only room for so many records, and monoblocks are definitely out. I sometimes wonder how I would use a wealth of space were it available. Would I abandon my self-imposed limit of 5000 discs, filling my imaginary man cave with tens of thousands of discs, allowing just enough space for equipment to play them back? I’m inclined to prefer the physical intimacy of a room full of LPs than a room bereft of physical media but stuffed with a massive amount of electronics. But faced with restricted space, many audiophiles today think nothing of replacing their physical media, LPs and CDs alike, with NAS drives filled with streamed and downloaded music, while assembling great stacks of equipment to replay their disembodied collections. As someone wise once said, What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul? The CH Precision I1 makes the dream possible without a
life of abnegation. You can have a tangible music collection and great sound, all in a
very compact space. This integrated amp challenges the sound of high-quality separates,
while at the same time condensing their essence into an unbelievably compact form, one
that doesn’t require you to rebuild your home’s foundation just to support it.
It will drive most speakers comfortably, if its performance with the occasionally ornery
Yvettes is anything to go by, while offering ease of use combined with a positively
mind-boggling array of functionality -- most of which is actually useful. Perhaps the I1
really is the answer to so many audiophiles’ dreams. On the other hand, it may simply
be CH Precision’s way of hooking a new generation of music lovers, turning them on to
great sound, preparing them for bigger and perhaps better things. Either way, the I1 is
definitely as close to audio Nirvana as any compact audio component has transported me.
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