Digital Technology
From Conviction to Creation
The technologies inside a product are not abstractions—they are reflections of the culture that created them. The principles, priorities, and values of a company’s engineers are manifested directly in its designs. At CH Precision, that culture is defined by a singular obsession: to advance the possibilities of believable music reproduction. We believe no detail should be left to chance or dictated by the priorities of outsourced suppliers. That conviction has shaped our company from the beginning. Our multi-disciplinary team, led by Florian Cossy, brings expertise in analog, digital, software, and mechanical disciplines. This investment in talent is not simply a resource; it is the expression of our belief that only by mastering each field ourselves can we push past convention in the service of music.
Nowhere does this ethos reveal itself more clearly than in our digital products—where the challenges are among the most demanding. CH Precision is uniquely positioned to address them, not by applying stock solutions, but by asking the right questions and developing technologies that exist nowhere else in high-end audio. Digital playback demands more than accuracy in the abstract; it requires preservation of the signal’s temporal fabric, the minute relationships in time that carry musical realism and emotional truth. Protecting that integrity, at every stage of conversion and synchronization, is what transforms reproduction from sound that is merely correct into music that is fully believable.
A Singular Approach to Digital Fidelity
There are many ways to turn numbers into sound, and each brings its own compromises. The easiest solution, adopted even by many high-end manufacturers, is to rely on an off-the-shelf delta-sigma chip—oversampling, noise-shaping, and filtering errors into something consistent but generic. More ambitious efforts employ discrete latch (resistor) arrays, which introduce their own vulnerabilities. While various techniques have been applied to mitigate issues such as component mismatch, thermal drift, and long-term aging, those workarounds inevitably carry trade-offs of their own.
We chose a more demanding but ultimately superior path: a software-defined R-2R architecture built from multiple ladders operating in parallel. By fabricating the ladders on silicon, every resistor shares the same substrate and thermal environment, achieving a degree of matching and stability no discrete array can sustain. At the core of this system are powerful FPGAs running our proprietary algorithms in real time. Chief among them is PEtER (Probabilistic Element Selection), which not only preserves the intrinsic virtues of true R-2R conversion—resolution, linearity, immediacy—but also governs the distribution of switching activity across the entire array of ladders. By ensuring that all elements are engaged evenly, PEtER prevents localized wear, drift, and thermal imbalance, allowing the converter to perform as a coherent whole. The result is precision and musicality that endure: an instrument engineered to maintain its integrity not just today, but for years to come..
From Stream to Stability
The first stage of conversion at CH Precision begins with the clock. Timing defines fidelity, so before a single sample is converted, the incoming stream is stabilized. A short FIFO buffer and a pair of dedicated VCXOs—one for 44.1 kHz multiples, the other for 48 kHz—serve as the local timebase. By placing these oscillators directly beside the DAC, we eliminate errors introduced by long signal paths or differential track lengths. A proprietary control loop then matches the clocks to the incoming data rate with vanishingly low jitter and excellent phase alignment. This ensures that every sample arrives in the correct order, at precisely the right moment in time.
The next stage is synchronous up-sampling. Once the signal has been stabilized, it is multiplied by an integer factor to reach 705.6/768 kHz, far above the limits of human hearing. Shifting the digital roll-off to this region allows CH to employ a carefully tuned third-order Bessel filter rather than the steep brick-wall filters required in conventional DACs. Where competing filters blur temporal and spatial information across the audible band, our design preserves phase coherence, allowing instruments to retain their natural attack, bloom, and decay.
Digital Interpolation
The next stage in conversion is digital interpolation, where the stabilized and up-sampled stream is refined by our proprietary PEtER (Polynomial Equations to Enhance Resolution) algorithm. Conventional methods rely on zero-padding followed by low-pass filtering—a crude process that alters even the original samples and injects spurious energy into the signal. To counter this, many manufacturers provide multiple filter choices, each representing a different compromise: reduce pre-ringing at the expense of post-ringing, or minimize post-ringing while leaving pre-echo artifacts in place. In effect, the user must decide which flaw to tolerate.
We chose a different path: to engineer the filter correctly from the outset. PEtER’s spline-based filtering preserves every original data point while minimizing both pre- and post-ringing simultaneously. There is no menu, no guessing, and no need to choose between one distortion or another. Instead, the interpolation stage behaves as it should—refining the signal transparently, without smearing time-domain relationships or glossing over subtle details.
The result is interpolation that behaves more like natural sound propagation. Textures emerge with tactile realism, harmonic structures lock into place with convincing stability, and dynamic shading unfolds with effortless fluidity. By preserving these delicate time-domain cues, PEtER ensures that the musical flow remains coherent and lifelike—bridging the step from data to music with both accuracy and grace.
Conversion to Analog
The final act of digital playback is conversion — the instant when numbers cease to be abstract data and become audible music. It is here that resolution, timing, and coherence are either preserved intact or subtly diminished.
The strength of our approach lies in consistency. In a conventional discrete array, each resistor operates in slightly different conditions, and those variations accumulate into drift and timing blur. By contrast, our monolithic ladder keeps every element on the same substrate and in the same thermal envelope, inherently improving uniformity. PEtER, our proprietary element management system, builds on this foundation by distributing switching evenly across the array, ensuring the ladder functions as a single, perfectly aligned converter. Errors are not shifted elsewhere or averaged away — they are addressed at the source.
The result is conversion that is not only precise but also musically whole. Resolution is carried through without loss, timing relationships remain unbroken, and transients arrive with natural clarity. Harmonics lock into place, spatial cues remain stable, and dynamics breathe freely. Fidelity in the time domain — sustained from the first stabilized sample to the last converted note — transforms playback from accurate reproduction into an experience that feels alive
Analog Output
Once the digital stream has been converted, the final step is shaping the analog signal itself. Many DACs rely on steep “brick-wall” filters to remove high-frequency artifacts, but these filters impose heavy costs: they smear time and phase information across the entire audible band, obscuring the natural attack, decay, and spatial character of instruments.
At CH Precision, we take a different approach. Because our DACs operate at extremely high frequencies—705.6/768 kHz—we can employ a carefully tuned third-order Bessel filter. Working far above the limits of human hearing, this filter removes unwanted energy without disturbing the precious temporal and harmonic cues that define musical realism.
The effect is heard not as an added “signature,” but as an absence of distortion. Phase coherence is preserved, transitions unfold naturally, and musical perspectives remain intact. By protecting the time domain even at this final stage, CH ensures that the signal leaving the converter is as faithful as possible to the original event—clear, unforced, and alive with presence.
The C1.2 Upgrade Path
The C1.2 Digital-to-Analog Controller is conceived as a state-of-the-art DAC, yet its modular design ensures it can be adapted to individual systems and listening priorities. Optional analog input boards transform it from a pure DAC into a full digital/analog controller, capable of accommodating analog sources (including turntables, when paired with an external phono preamp) with the same precision as its digital stages. A dedicated Clock Sync board is also available, enabling seamless integration with external time references such as the X1 Power Supply or T1 Master Clock. This flexibility ensures the C1.2 is never locked to a fixed specification, but evolves as technologies and user needs change.
Beyond configuration, the C1.2 can be elevated with carefully designed companion products. Adding the X1 External Power Supply increases stability and lowers the noise floor, unlocking new levels of resolution and dynamic nuance. Pairing with the T1 Master Clock further enhances temporal accuracy, ensuring that every digital event arrives at precisely the right instant. For those who wish to explore the full potential of optical disc playback, the D1.5 Transport integrates seamlessly, forming a digital front end of unmatched coherence. Each of these additions is part of CH’s philosophy of longevity: a commitment to products that grow with their owners and preserve their relevance over time.
The C10 Upgrade Path—the Pinnacle of Our Digital Technology
The C10 DAC is the foundation of the 10-Series digital family: a two-chassis stereo DAC that already sets the standard for temporal accuracy and musical realism. Its proprietary PEtER spline filters, DSQ Phase Array with eight DACs per channel, advanced isolation schemes, and fully discrete analog stage make it a true reference in its base configuration. Yet like every CH product, the C10 was designed as a platform for growth. It can be expanded step by step, with each stage engineered to deliver measurable and audible improvements while preserving the relevance of the original investment.
The first step is the C10 Conductor, which separates digital processing and control into a dedicated chassis, transforming the original unit into the C10 Master DAC. Adding the T10 Reference Clock brings an external 10 MHz timebase, ensuring absolute temporal coherence across the system. A second power supply dedicated to the Master DAC advances the system into full dual-mono operation, lowering the noise floor and improving channel separation. For those who value physical media, the D10 Reference Transport integrates seamlessly at any stage, delivering disc playback through CH’s proprietary MORSE mechanism. Whether as a two-chassis DAC or as part of a six-chassis reference front end, the C10 upgrade path embodies CH Precision’s philosophy: a modular, enduring platform that grows with the listener while remaining uncompromising in performance
