When my wife and I got engaged, we each bought each other a “bubble-back” Rolex watch from an antique shop in San Francisco. Mine was a 1939, hers was a 1940; both watches still run fine, though I am not sure for how much longer, as Rolex no longer services watches that old. My respect for Swiss engineering is based in part on my experience with the Rolexes. So I readily agreed when Editor-in-Chief Jim Austin proposed that I spend some time with the current version of the I1 Universal integrated amplifier from Swiss company CH Precision.1
Jason Victor Serinus reviewed the modular, class-AB I1 Universal, which is currently priced at $38,000–$53,000, depending on options, and offers an output power of 100Wpc into 8 ohms, in February 2019. The basic version has one balanced pair and two single-ended pairs of analog inputs, all of which are converted to hi-rez digital and fed to a D/A section capable of handling sample rates up to 384kHz. The volume control is a hybrid type, adjusting the level in both the analog and digital domains. Four optional modules provide additional inputs: a current-mode MC phono input module; a digital; an Ethernet port, which can be used with CH Precision’s CH Control Android app; and an asynchronous USB port, to allow hi-rez streaming from a computer. There is also a SYNC-IO module that allows synchronization with an external digital word clock and a USB port for firmware upgrades.
