CH Precision’s 10 Series does digital – with a difference!
By Roy Gregory
You could say that, for the Swiss, punctuality is something of a cultural obsession. Sure enough, just like clockwork, another Munich Show marks the arrival of another addition to CH Precision’s 10 Series – but this time it’s digital. The C10 DAC maintains the nomenclature established by the 1-Series – although as we will see, that ‘C’ prefix is more a case of convention or continuity than either common sense or clarity.
While the other 10 Series products share significant features and architecture with their 1 Series siblings, the C10 is (perhaps unsurprisingly) something of a step-change in both form and function. Sit it next to the current C1.2 DAC/Controller and the physical differences are obvious. Like other 10 Series units, the C10 is a twin-chassis design, with an audio box and a separate, dedicated power supply, sharing its dimensions with the L10 and P10. Indeed, outwardly, the C10 is almost identical to the P10 phono-stage. Which means that, besides the second box, the first thing you’ll notice is the absence of the large, dual-concentric, rotary control knob that graces the C1.2’s fascia, replaced by the row of five, discrete buttons found on the P1/P10 or the power amps. That’s more than a hint – telling you that the front-panel controls are more about settings and input selection than system control per se. That’s because the C10 is a pure DAC, dropping the ‘Controller’ functionality that gave the earlier DACs their C prefix. Maybe in this case it stands for ‘convertor’…
Different strokes…
So, the C10 provides no volume control and no option to add the analog inputs and the associated A-to-D capability available on the C1.2. Instead, it offers switchable 5, 2.5 or 1V output levels, to match a partnering line-stage. It’s a clear statement on the part of CH that, whilst driving a power amp from a properly engineered digital control unit is a viable proposition at the performance level of the 1 Series, in a system containing 10 Series components, there’s no substitute for a high-quality line-level pre-amplifier.
The C10 uses the same input cards as C1.2 and arrives with the Digital-IN HD and Ethernet Control cards fitted as standard, providing the proprietary, hi-res CH-Link, AES/EBU, S/PDIF (on RCA) and Toslink inputs, as well as the ability to control all aspects of the unit via the CH Control App. The Ethernet Control card can be replaced with an Ethernet HD network replay input (which still maintains network control) and users can add an additional Digital-IN HD card, or a USB input. Finally, there’s a dedicated slot for the 10MHz Clock Sync card, should you want to add an external clock. Outputs conform to the CH norm (XLR, RCA or 50Ω BNC) and as with the P10 and L10 owners can switch between global feedback or local feedback only.
