Installation Notes

Before placing the D1.5, remove the top caps using the suction cup provided. Insert each grounding spike in turn, first coating the threads with a lubricant or anti-binding compound. Lithium grease – used to assemble bicycle and engine parts – is a good option. Copaslip is better – sonically and mechanically – but you need to be aware that it has a habit of covering anything it comes into contact with in orange blotches and stripes, so be careful to keep it on the threads only and off of your fingers or surrounding surfaces!

With the spikes installed turn each one until it engages the thread at the bottom of the shaft and then position the D1.5 on the selected surface.

Use the screwdriver to wind each spike down until it contacts the supporting surface (you’ll feel it bite). Now turn each spike one complete turn to lift the D1.5 clear of the shelf .

Now you are in a position to level the D1.5 precisely. Use the most accurate spirit level (bubble or digital) that you can find. I use a Mitatoyo digital machinist’s level, backed up by a super sensitive bubble gauge.

With the unit level, it is EXTREMELY important to ensure that each of the four spikes is loaded equally. You can do this by turning them very slightly and feeling the resistance. They should all feel he same. If in doubt listen and adjust: you will definitely hear the difference!

Finally, replace the top caps. These need to be securely tightened using the suction cup.

Protecting your shelves and upgrading your spikes…     If you have furniture finished shelves and you want to protect them, you can place footers between the spikes and the shelves, but the choice of footer is critical. The best I have found is the Silent Mount SM3, a two-part titanium spike shoe that has a shallow enough well to mate properly with the CH spikes. These actually help improve the sound still further, especially if you also upgrade the spikes to the titanium version supplied with the 10 Series units, but available separately to 1 Series users. It’s a step that I’d thoroughly recommend.

I’ve gone through this in detail as the process, as noted above (including, perhaps even especially, the levelling) applies to all of the CH units: Whether installing a new unit or upgrading an existing one with the new spikes, these are the steps you should take.

Menu de jour…

The other aspect of D1.5 specification or set up is the choice of installed boards. Like all CH components, this is a card-cage design, meaning that the user can configure the range of connectivity and facilities to suit their system. The D1.5 is supplied with the HD Output card fitted as standard. In this guise it is configured as a disc transport, offering CH Link HD, AES/EBU, S/PDIF (on RCA) and TosLink optical outputs. The user can choose to add a pair of dual-mono DAC boards (to turn the transport into a player) and/or a Sync IO board (to connect to the T1 or other external clock).