Understanding CH Precision’s I1 – no ordinary Integrated
By Roy Gregory
I don’t know if CH Precision has a company motto, officially or even just internally, between themselves, but if they did it would probably be “Dare To Be Different.” Functionally, operationally, visually, topologically and technologically, their products are definitely distinctive: as distinctive and, yes, different as the thinking behind them. Yet, even by CH’s well-defined standards, let alone the norms applicable to other ‘high-end’ integrated amps, the I1 integrated can (and should?) be considered an outlier. It might look like every other CH product, offer the same card cage construction, configurable options and operational sophistication – features that more than just suggest the family DNA – but look closer and functionally it is entirely distinct…
Every other CH product takes one function or set of related functions and applies itself to doing them supremely well. The I1 takes multi-functionalism to a new extreme.
Every other high-priced, ‘high-end’ integrated promises high-end performance in a single box, the ability to be bigger, better and in particular more capable when it comes to driving speakers, than its size or price suggests: think Rowland Daemon or D’Agostino Momentum MxV, Gryphon Diablo 333 or even the Moon 641 or Levinson 585. But not the I1 – an amplifier that concentrates on functionality and versatility rather than the ability to drive a car up a hill.
Not just a face in the crowd…
In fact, pretty much everything about the I1 sets it apart from both the crowd and its siblings. Rather than a conventional integrated amp with a bolt on DAC section, the I1 is a digital controller with a bolt on amp: It offers multiple digital inputs (including the proprietary CH-Link HD for native replay of SACD and MQA encoded discs from a D1.5 transport); it provides both balanced and single-ended analogue inputs – which are duly converted to digital; it offers the option to add a network replay capability, to convert either or both of the RCA analogue inputs to the current-sensing MC phono function (complete with switchable EQ curves); you can add the company’s Clock-Sync card to allow the setting of clock priorities between digital components, or the addition of an external clock; you can opt for a USB input or even a second set of standard digital inputs. Then there’s the 100 W/Ch power amplifier and a set of balanced pre-outs…
It’s a feature list that has suckered many a dealer and not a few customers into the preposterous belief that the I1 represents a C1.2 DAC, an L1 line-stage, A1.5 amplifier and, possibly, a P1 phono-stage – all in a single box. Guys – you only need to look at the size of an A1.5 – some 50% bigger and an awful lot heavier than the I1 – to realise that simply ain’t so. All of which begs the question, what exactly is the I1 – a product so different yet so clever that perhaps they should have called it Nigel!
