About this wiki

An unofficial guide to what Rob Watts, the legendary designer behind Chord Electronics' DACs and M Scalers, has said in public: on Head-Fi, in talks and interviews, and in written Q&As. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Chord Electronics or Rob Watts.

How it was made

Assembled by a human working with Claude Code from an archive of his 2,683 Head-Fi posts, 5 posts on Audiophile Style, 69 recordings and their transcripts, and his written interviews, tagged item by item. Every answer, product page and glossary entry was checked claim by claim against its sources, then compared across pages and spot-checked again. We recommend following the references.

The rule throughout: report what he said, dated, with a link to where he said it. Where his view changed, the page shows the change with dates. Where his statements disagree and the record does not settle it, the page says so.

What is not covered

• Head-Fi posts after March 2025 are not yet in the archive.
• Dates of most posts in the Hugo TT2 thread are estimated from their post numbers.
• Quotes and figures from talks, podcasts and interviews are transcribed from the recordings, so wording can differ slightly. Each citation opens the recording at that moment so you can hear it yourself.
• The site carries one-line summaries and short quotes, not the full text of posts or transcripts. Follow the links for the originals.
• Other members' posts are not reproduced.
• The indicator colors page, and the release dates and document links on product pages, come from Chord Electronics' own manuals and news posts, not from Watts; each is linked to Chord's copy.

Numbers

100 answers, 10 product pages, 36 glossary terms, and 5,239 of his posts and passages summarized on the topic pages.