CH Precision is, first and foremost, an engineering company, incorporating extensive experience garnered in both the audio and other high-technology industries, a collective CV that features high-profile names and high-performance products. But with over half of our staff specialising in circuit design and layout, mechanical engineering or software development, our efforts are clearly focused on design, assembly and quality control, a production model that relies on distributed manufacturing by outside partners. That’s not unusual in the audio world. What is unusual is to apply this approach to products as sophisticated and performance critical as ours…
It’s only possible (and we can only achieve the desired performance and consistency) because we are located at the heart of the Swiss atelier system, a network of specialist, high-quality, high-tech workshops that supply the Swiss watch, aerospace and other high-performance engineering industries. It is also a network with a remarkable reputation for the quality of its product, no matter how complex the demands or precise the tolerances required. For companies experienced in the production of the precision, micro-engineered parts of the complication that finds its way inside a high-end watch, the creation of the ‘man-sized’ parts and circuits that build up into an audio product is child’s play – just witness the flawless finish on the outside of a CH Precision product, devoid of fixings or unnecessary joins and contrast that with the incredible complexity of the casework’s inner faces, with their precisely located rebates and hard-points that ensure that everything goes together in exactly the same way, every time.
But these are no mere sub-contractors. Key to the atelier system is the collaborative partnership between client and supplier. Take the distinctive blue-grey finish of the CH Precision products as an example. Admired but otherwise passing largely unremarked, it was the source of much in-drawn breath and consternation within the industry when the product first appeared. Many, many companies had launched products with variations of this attractive finish – and quickly abandoned it in the face of issues with consistency.
They found it almost impossible to find two matching face-plates to put side by side.The challenge was that much worse for CH Precision, with the entire casework having to match. The solution? A co-funded project with the supplier of our metalwork to not just create a dedicated anodising plant, but also to devise an entirely new method of precisely measuring the progress of the anodising process – a method based on the same circuitry developed for our analog electronics! The result is a consistency of finish never before possible – thanks to the care and the conditions under which the work is carried out and the ability to accurately monitor its progress.
This close collaboration also facilitates the modular nature of our circuitry and products. Under normal circumstances, the greater the number of sub-assemblies, the greater the risk of error or inconsistency, but the provision of precision built circuit blocks allows us to exploit both modularity and scalability in our designs, creating the unique quality at the heart of every CH Precision product and system, as well as allowing us to manage all final assembly, checking and QC in-house, with a small but highly trained cadre of experienced technicians. It is a manufacturing model that satisfies CH Precision’s demands for consistency, quality and performance – just as it has satisfied the Swiss watch industry for so many years.
