Transparency, musicality and design goals

Evaluation method and design philosophy

Answers on this topic

Everything he said on this topic (257)

One-line summaries in our words, oldest first. Each link opens the original.

2014-04-15Watts rejects calling Hugo a DAC with a good headphone amp, defines transparency against live music, recounts Hugo's development, and explains its single-stage output, 0.075 ohm impedance and tap length. Head-Fi, Apr 2014
2014-04-15Watts says Hugo's output is limited to 5V RMS: 22 ohm or higher loads are fine until white volume, 8 ohms distorts at ultraviolet; HD800 at white was deafening. Head-Fi, Apr 2014
2014-07-26Watts says live acoustic music, not analog tape, is the reference, and that DSD is limited: his noise shaper tests improved up to ten trillion times DSD's resolution. Head-Fi, Jul 2014
2014-08-03Watts says a perfect product would be completely transparent, nobody knows what is possible, and he is still learning and improving sound quality. article, Aug 2014
2014-08-03Watts describes being astonished by the Hugo prototype versus his Qute: far more musical, no fatigue, revealing without forcing detail, fast rhythm, piano notes starting and stopping naturally. article, Aug 2014
2014-08-03Watts says that if one word is wanted, it would be musicality. needs context article, Aug 2014
2014-08-24Watts says some audible distortions are unmeasurable yet measurements matter, extra amps degrade transparency, and transparency aids musicality through variation and reduced brain strain. Head-Fi, Aug 2014
2014-10-20On Hugo's first anniversary, Watts recalls its first listening test, credits a six-year Verilog rewrite and the Spartan-6 FPGA, and says pursuing transparency paid off in musicality. Head-Fi, Oct 2014
2014-10-22Watts describes his general and specific listening tests, three test tracks, single-blind checks, variation as the test of transparency, misleading noise bursts, and measuring before serious listening. Head-Fi, Oct 2014
2015-02-02Watts says Hugo was never voiced; he designs for transparency by judging variation in placement, timbre and separation, and recounts how Hugo's musicality after a six-year code upgrade surprised him. Head-Fi, Feb 2015
2015-02-02Watts says live acoustic instruments are the only absolute reference, judges transparency by range of variation, notes studios adopting Hugo, and uses electronic music to assess timing. Head-Fi, Feb 2015
2015-03-23Watts says mastering engineers are taking up Hugo because it reveals what is wrong with a recording while conveying what is musically right, his first design to gain both. Audiophile Style, Mar 2015
2015-05-18Watts says even the best pre-amp in the world would degrade transparency, so using no pre-amp is the most transparent option. Head-Fi, May 2015
2015-11-22Watts recounts developing Dave: smoothness from reduced noise floor modulation, Hugo-derived timing gains from 256FS WTA (88nS), and noise shapers raised from 200 to 350 dB for depth. Head-Fi, Nov 2015
2015-12-11Watts rejects 'more than one way to skin a cat': transparency to live music requires very long tap-length sinc filters, and other designers fail to address timing and NFM. Head-Fi, Dec 2015
2015-12-11Watts defines musicality as emotional involvement, achieved by reducing errors the brain cannot decode: timing (long taps), small-signal accuracy for depth (2048FS noise shapers), and noise floor modulation. Head-Fi, Dec 2015
2015-12-30Watts says Dave is better than Mojo/Hugo, but Hugo was the first digital device that let him enjoy music rather than sound, despite being technically close to Qute. Head-Fi, Dec 2015
2016-01-09Watts says there are engineering principles behind why things sound bad, he is doing things nobody has done before, and Mojo offers this technology at an unprecedented price. What Hi-Fi? 5:44
2016-01-29Watts says Hugo development has stopped because its FPGA is too small, and that after he improved DAVE's WTA filters it sounds faster, tighter, more dynamic, neutral and transparent. article, Jan 2016
2016-03-01Watts says Dave was tested with HE1000 and all popular headphones and only one needed more power, no design suits every headphone, and he will stop answering a hostile poster. Head-Fi, Mar 2016
2016-03-28Watts's first blog post sets out his listening-test method and nine attributes to judge, argues the brain resolves errors below hearing thresholds, and defines musicality as emotional engagement. Head-Fi, Mar 2016
2016-04-22Watts says he listens to BBC Radio 3 at 320k AAC at home and a 4 TB drive away, and that Hugo first made poor recordings musically enjoyable. Head-Fi, Apr 2016
2016-06-10Watts says R2R DACs create large amounts of distortion that their fans like, whereas he wants un-amplified music as in the original acoustic, which Hugo brought him closer to. Head-Fi, Jun 2016
2016-07-24Watts explains DAVE stands for Digital Analogue Veritas in Extremis, aiming for maximum transparency, and says so-called transparent products often sound hard and bright, giving an impression of detail. Hifistatement 0
2016-07-24Watts says keeping digital data unchanged or minimizing ringing are wrong goals; a DAC's purpose is to reproduce the analog waveform at the A-to-D converter. Hifistatement 0
2016-07-24Watts says a DAC must recover the missing timing information between samples, changing the data to what an infinite oversampling ADC would give, with complexity digital and analog simple. Hifistatement 43
2016-07-24Watts says the DAC is now faster, more transparent and dynamic yet richer; he aims for transparency, not a sound, and won't re-optimize his own system for it. Hifistatement 12:26
2016-09-05Watts says DAVE lets each recording sound as it is rather than imposing a fixed signature, and asks whether others find DAVE makes differences between headphones more pronounced. Head-Fi, Sep 2016
2016-10-17Watts says he does not want his DACs to sound like analog, takes live unamplified music as the reference, and works on Davina to close the remaining gap. Head-Fi, Oct 2016
2016-10-18Watts says he only appreciated hearing notes start and stop with Hugo three years earlier, and that accurate depth and sharp transients are key to approaching live sound. Head-Fi, Oct 2016
2017-04-13Watts links 'strobing' impressions to hearing note starts and stops via the 256FS WTA, contrasting his son's live guitar with a soft CD playback, and wants both speed and warmth. Head-Fi, Apr 2017
2017-04-18Watts says closing the gap to live acoustic instruments is his main goal, notes electronica best reveals the stopping of notes as WTA improves, and says he enjoys all genres. Head-Fi, Apr 2017
2017-05-01Watts describes Jude recognizing the M scaler at the Tokyo show despite unfamiliar headphones, says its effect is audible even on unfamiliar recordings, and that it simply sounds real. Head-Fi, May 2017
2017-06-26Watts recounts his DAC history since 1988 and how Hugo, from 2012, made poor recordings musically involving, which he attributes to the ear's sensitivity to reconstruction timing errors. Head-Fi, Jun 2017
2017-08-10Watts notes Benchmark's website omits galvanic isolation, disputes that Hugo 1 sounds different, praises its musicality with archive recordings, and says 1960s Decca sounds real via Blu 2 and DAVE. Head-Fi, Aug 2017
2017-08-12Watts says he keeps the filter on green, that Hugo 1 let him enjoy poor archive recordings, and advises trusting posts that describe differences in detail over 'different league' claims. Head-Fi, Aug 2017
2017-10-13Watts says he designs for himself, not for listeners or Chord, aiming at what is best, though others listen once a product is finished. miceblue425 50:04
2017-10-13Watts opposes using distortion to shape sound, says Davina will let him control the chain from microphone to loudspeaker, and says every listening test must be backed by theory. miceblue425 51:40
2017-10-18Watts describes a St. Petersburg Symphony concert in Swansea and his son's unamplified drums, and says Davina will reveal the weakest link from microphone to loudspeaker. Head-Fi, Oct 2017
2017-10-20Watts says a DAC's purpose is to reproduce the analog signal inside the ADC, that conventional DACs reproduce transient timing poorly, and that the brain constructs what we hear. Hifistatement 0
2017-10-23Watts says he finds Hugo 2's filter options huge, and the difference between Chord and other DACs enormous, more so once the brain has broken into the sound. Head-Fi, Oct 2017
2017-12-05Watts says most designers aim for a particular warm or bright sound with their chips, which he considers the wrong approach because all music then sounds soft or bright. RMAF 6:14
2017-12-05Watts says live unamplified music is highly variable, and he wants equipment to reproduce variations in timbre, tempo, rhythm and especially depth, with every instrument still audible. RMAF 6:51
2017-12-05Watts says that since the listener cannot know the recording, he judges changes by whether variability increases, which shows improved fundamental transparency. RMAF 7:43
2017-12-05Watts says greater expressiveness is a step toward transparency, that no one has designed a truly transparent DAC, and that twelve audiophiles would give thirteen contradictory opinions. RMAF 8:40
2017-12-05Watts says the variability criterion works even with electronic music: more changes in space, rhythm, pace and timbre mean more transparency. RMAF 9:25
2017-12-09Watts says his intent is to improve transparency in the audio chain so listeners become more emotionally involved with the music, which is the primary goal. article, Dec 2017
2017-12-09Watts says what fascinates him is how minute distortions can be highly audible given the ear/brain's extreme sensitivity, requiring extreme lengths and long development to improve musicality. article, Dec 2017
2017-12-26Watts says his aim is the sound of unamplified music, not analog or vinyl sound, and that DSD fails at this because the format is not transparent. Head-Fi, Dec 2017
2017-12-31Watts describes his method: identify an aberration, test its audibility by listening, reduce it until inaudible, using simulation to -300 dB, aiming to close the gap to live music. Head-Fi, Dec 2017
2017-12-31Watts says he cites unamplified music as a fixed reference point, also listens to electronica, and says all well-recorded genres benefit from musicality and transparency. Head-Fi, Dec 2017
2018-01-11Watts describes balancing warmth and transparency: DAVE sounded too dark until the 256FS WTA filter, cheaper products degrade evenly from BluDave, and Mojo was set warmer for cheaper headphones. Head-Fi, Jan 2018
2018-01-12Watts says BluDave, his untuned reference, came from minimizing aberrations; going from 0.5M to 1M taps is audible, and Davina will show how far BluDave is from perfect. Head-Fi, Jan 2018
2018-02-19Watts explains his discrete single-ended DAC combines I-to-V, filtering and headphone drive in one amplifier with two resistors and two capacitors; DAVE's balanced outputs add an inverting amplifier. Head-Fi, Feb 2018
2018-02-23Watts says a DAC is meant to reproduce the analog signal that was in the A to D converter before sampling, not to reproduce the digital data. MajorHiFi 9
2018-02-27Watts says he does not design to a price point but to a performance level, doing the best components and his knowledge allow for each design. Head-Fi, Feb 2018
2018-03-31Watts says he backs everything with measurements, every measured improvement sounds better, listening tests alone fail because people prefer distortion, and he aims to recreate a live unamplified orchestra. article, Mar 2018
2018-03-31Watts says his DACs use a single-ended output of one amplifier and current-to-voltage converter driving headphones directly, simple because no complex filtering is needed, hence transparent. article, Mar 2018
2018-03-31Watts says Mojo gives truly high-end performance for £400, can be listened to for 10 hours without the fatigue of other digital products, and is engaging, musical and transparent. article, Mar 2018
2018-04-04Watts says there are no plans for balanced designs: doubling signal-path parts degrades depth and detail, single-ended drives power-hungry headphones, and balanced is needed only for some loudspeakers. article, Apr 2018
2018-04-04Watts weighs DAVE, the M scaler (1M taps, a lifetime dream) and Mojo (musicality he has heard from no non-Chord DAC), picks Mojo, and says Hugo most changed his listening. article, Apr 2018
2018-04-04Watts says since Hugo bad recordings became enjoyable, concluding the brain copes with noise, harmonic distortion and frequency response but not digital's unnatural distortions. Head-Fi, Apr 2018
2018-06-09Watts says image removal alone is not enough: filters with near-identical frequency response sound different, closer to sinc sounds better, and 0.5 million to 1 million taps is clearly audible. Head-Fi, Jun 2018
2018-08-06Watts says his aim is to recreate the emotion of a live performance, and that he designs mainly to make music more enjoyable for himself, with fans as a byproduct. Pursuit Perfect System 1:41
2018-08-10Watts describes hearing a Florida thunderstorm, marveling at how precisely perception locates sounds, and says reproduced sound still falls short of live unamplified sound. Head-Fi, Aug 2018
2018-09-24Watts says a connector is a standard 5.5 x 2.5 mm, he now takes the M scaler even on short flights, and describes connecting to performances, especially pre-1968 recordings. Head-Fi, Sep 2018
2018-10-13Watts agrees that what matters is enjoying music more: emotional engagement and listening for hours without fatigue. Head-Fi, Oct 2018
2018-10-27Watts says the M Scaler's musical benefits matter most, whether it is transformational depends on the listener and system, and buyers should listen first with time. Head-Fi, Oct 2018
2018-12-09Watts says vinyl sounds soft and distorted to him; M scaler with DAVE beats vinyl on his objective criteria and emotional involvement, citing Pink Floyd Relics and Yes albums. Head-Fi, Dec 2018
2018-12-12Watts says he aims for the feeling of being at a live unamplified musical event, and since the early 1980s has been struck by how far reproduced audio falls short. Pursuit Perfect System 3:41
2018-12-12Watts says the goal is transparency, or musical improvement as if you were there, and notes that many designers aim for a particular dark, rich, soft or bright sound. Pursuit Perfect System 4:25
2018-12-12Watts says designers who sculpt a signature sound make all recordings sound alike, and that the variation heard at live events is the key to judging transparency. Pursuit Perfect System 5:07
2018-12-12Watts says listeners do not know the recording chain, so it is hard to tell whether a change makes a system more transparent or merely fine-tunes its sound. Pursuit Perfect System 5:53
2018-12-12Watts says he judges progress by variations heard in live music, such as timbre differences between instruments and convincing spatial distance, like an organ 200 feet away in a cathedral. Pursuit Perfect System 6:40
2018-12-12Watts says increasing variation means progress toward transparency, and names three key DAC failings: noise floor modulation (refinement, timbre), small-signal accuracy (detail, depth) and transient reconstruction. Pursuit Perfect System 8:19
2018-12-13Watts says the M Scaler gives a sense of being at the performance, 1960s recordings changing most, and improves pitch, melody, timbre, space and loud-instrument impact. Pursuit Perfect System 15:46
2018-12-13Watts says his goal is emotional connection and musicality, which the M Scaler delivers for him, after a 35-year journey from impossible to achievable. Pursuit Perfect System 17:13
2018-12-13Watts says amplified concerts blur left-right imaging and are poor for judging transparency, but convey immediacy, speed, separation and instrument power, which the M Scaler helps improve. Pursuit Perfect System 23:48
2018-12-13Watts says something he has just been discussing does not work, because musicality degrades or listening fatigue makes you switch off after an hour, and calls listening fatigue really important. needs context Pursuit Perfect System 27:32
2018-12-13Watts says 10 years ago he would not listen for more than an hour, but now listens for twelve hours on a flight and again at the hotel. Pursuit Perfect System 27:55
2019-03-17Watts cites a simple but poor TI class D amp and Einstein on simplicity; his DACs use one amp and four passive parts, as simple as possible without degrading performance. Head-Fi, Mar 2019
2019-04-03Watts describes a nonlinear balance between transparency and refinement, recalls DAVE being too warm during development, and links soundstage width to depth and small-signal accuracy. Head-Fi, Apr 2019
2019-05-12Watts says the M scaler's size keeps its case from reaching 90 C, measures radiative and convective cooling at about 50% each, and finds nearly all CDs now musically enjoyable. Head-Fi, May 2019
2019-05-21Watts says pass-through keeps the same delay with the filter disabled, the M scaler's impact varies by listener, and lasting musical enjoyment matters more than transparency gains. Head-Fi, May 2019
2020-01-02Watts says TT2 is more transparent than Qutest (better noise shapers, components, supply, output stage), but the M Scaler uniquely brings timbre, pitch, separation and musicality. Passion for Sound 23:33
2020-01-02Watts says at similar prices he would choose TT2 plus M Scaler over a bare DAVE for musicality, though many will prefer DAVE for its extraordinary transparency. Passion for Sound 24:16
2020-01-02Watts says DAVE is much more transparent than even an M Scaler-fed TT2, the choice is personal, Qutest with another amplifier loses transparency, and many Qutest owners add M Scalers. Passion for Sound 24:58
2020-05-08Watts says 'musical' often means soft or warm, but for him it means only emotional involvement with music, which he calls the main reason to be involved in audio. Head-Fi, May 2020
2020-06-25Watts calls Mojo a mini DAVE anyone with a smartphone can afford, says a DAC wins if it makes you more emotional, and must make decoding easy for the brain. Part-Time Audiophile 8:26
2020-06-25Watts says making the brain's job easier makes music more emotional, while struggling to place instruments causes listening fatigue, so product errors must not interfere with brain processing. Part-Time Audiophile 10:50
2020-06-25Watts says many effects can degrade the brain's ability to make sense of music: the short answer is enjoy the music, the long answer is many parameters. Part-Time Audiophile 11:44
2020-06-25Watts says tracks with added second harmonic distortion sound samey, compressed, warmer and muddled, and some designers aim for a hard, analytical sound with artificial detail. Part-Time Audiophile 12:20
2020-06-25Watts says he personally prefers soft, warm sound, but a system must be hard and aggressive and also warm and refined at once, as live saxophone and trumpet are. Part-Time Audiophile 13:10
2020-06-25Watts says he assesses designs by how much variation he hears in timbre, tempo, pitch, placement and depth, since we cannot know how recordings were made. Part-Time Audiophile 13:55
2020-06-25Watts says that without knowing the original event, hearing more variation across these factors shows a product is more transparent because it is more expressive. Part-Time Audiophile 14:40
2020-06-25Watts says most designers make everything soft and out of focus or artificially sharp, whereas the aim is to reproduce both, giving more variation in the program material. Part-Time Audiophile 15:30
2021-01-23Watts says reducing NFM and timing errors correlates with musical involvement, warns impressive sound can mislead listening tests, and notes he missed TT2's small DAC-mode loss before production. Head-Fi, Jan 2021
2021-01-31Watts says an extra stage degrades transparency, so he won't design a headphone amp; for more power choose TT2, as more Hugo 2 power needs batteries or a charge pump. Head-Fi, Jan 2021
2021-02-04Watts says he would never use analog master tapes as a reference; his future tests will compare reproduced sound with the original live sound across the whole chain. Head-Fi, Feb 2021
2021-03-28Watts says he is talking about sound quality and musical performance and does not care about anything else. needs context Head-Fi, Mar 2021
2021-04-06Watts recounts how Doug Sax's direct-cut discs and master tapes shaped his work on DACs, says live unamplified sound is his ideal, and doubts tape and vinyl. Head-Fi, Apr 2021
2021-05-07Watts says system improvements now make poor recordings musically acceptable, and guesses 44.1/16 would sound better with a WTA filter in the case asked about. needs context Head-Fi, May 2021
2021-10-25Watts says the gap to live sound remains large, his current path began with Hugo 1, which revealed ear/brain sensitivity, and progress depends on large FPGAs. Head-Fi, Oct 2021
2021-11-08Watts says he will not design streamers, since a perfect DAC should sound the same with any bit-perfect source, though Chord might someday combine a streamer with a scaler. Head-Fi, Nov 2021
2022-01-31Watts says reproduced audio comes nowhere near that, and his goal in life is a realistic sense of depth from reproduced audio. Darko.Audio 31:54
2022-01-31Watts says professional tests focus on attributes, not the music; after A/B tests he listens for pleasure, and judging emotional response takes about a week. Darko.Audio 33:59
2022-01-31Watts says EQ fails on transparency because adjusting it audibly degrades sound; lossless DSP lets you change bass or warmth without degrading musicality or transparency. Darko.Audio 36:26
2022-01-31Watts says another buyer calls Mojo too soft and warm; analog tone controls and conventional DSP degrade performance, while this approach adjusts response without harming transparency. Darko.Audio 44:00
2022-01-31Watts says yes; he needs no EQ for his speakers but would use it on headphones, which sound brighter than speakers, and live unamplified music sounds a lot warmer than speakers. Darko.Audio 46:24
2022-01-31Watts says loudspeakers seem closer in tonal balance to the sound of real music. Darko.Audio 47:14
2022-01-31Watts says Mojo 2's UHD DSP is his own core, balanced outputs would degrade transparency, a USB-C charging port would not fit, and musicality comes first. Head-Fi, Jan 2022
2022-03-19Watts says his goal is musicality, meaning emotional engagement and foot tapping, and recreating the emotional experience of live unamplified sound. MFG Audio Reviews 1:15
2022-03-19Watts says he started design work at 20, over 40 years ago, used COVID for fundamental research, and that most designers voice a DAC rich and warm or sharp. MFG Audio Reviews 2:00
2022-03-19Watts says a voiced DAC stamps the same sound on all music, whereas live music varies, and he wants reproduction to portray variations in timbre, pitch, melody and dynamics. MFG Audio Reviews 2:51
2022-03-19Watts lists the variations he wants reproduced (timbre, space, dynamics, pace, separation, instrument power) and says reproduced audio quashes loud instruments and inflates delicate ones. MFG Audio Reviews 3:33
2022-03-19Watts says digital audio reproduces the starting and stopping of notes poorly, sounding hard or unnaturally soft, and that only true transparency, not a forced false transparency, gives these variations. MFG Audio Reviews 4:25
2022-03-19Watts says the analog section has one amplifier and four components, ten times simpler than a conventional DAC, giving better transparency, and calls transient timing the top problem. MFG Audio Reviews 14:49
2022-03-19Watts sums up that Mojo 2 builds on Mojo with state-of-the-art transparency and musicality, meaning emotional involvement, plus a good DSP, and invites questions. MFG Audio Reviews 46:30
2022-03-19Watts says the question always bothered him: he was not at the recording and knows nothing of its acoustic or microphones, so how can sound quality be judged? MFG Audio Reviews 47:12
2022-03-19Watts says a change that seems to improve sound may be a disturbance: blurring transients makes things softer, which hides noise floor modulation. MFG Audio Reviews 47:49
2022-03-19Watts says he has mistaken brighter for more transparent when it was more noise floor modulation; the real test is variation, bright instruments brighter and warm ones warmer. MFG Audio Reviews 48:09
2022-03-19Watts says to judge separation, focus, timbre variation and space; more variation is a fundamental improvement whether or not you like the sound, regardless of recording or system. MFG Audio Reviews 48:56
2022-03-22Watts names Jacqueline du Pre's Elgar Cello Concerto as the piece that has stood the test of time, giving him spine-tingles, 'which is what this is all about'. article, Mar 2022
2022-04-26Watts says his goal is musicality and emotional engagement, that he wants improvements to ripple down to cheaper products, and that he is no businessman indifferent to sales. Audio Force 2:00
2022-04-26Watts says his goal is live unamplified sound, MQA can be decoded in the source so Mojo 2 loses nothing, and MQA is fundamentally the wrong way. Audio Force 13:28
2022-05-03Watts says a brick-wall filter would reconstruct transients perfectly, the WTA filter approximates it via thousands of listening tests, and its optimum is recording-independent because timing error is structural. Head-Fi, May 2022
2022-08-15Watts lists six AB test tracks and what each checks, describes switching on short excerpts, prefers 'clarity' to 'transparency', and says musicality is judged by months of normal listening. Head-Fi, Aug 2022
2022-08-19Watts says he listens for variation in timbre, space, dynamics and instrument separation and focus, aiming for a completely transparent sound that returns to the original performance. AVstore 9:51
2022-08-19Watts says separation and focus are musically crucial though less obvious than detail, and when the brain struggles to make sense of music the result is listening fatigue. AVstore 36:36
2022-08-19Watts says the purpose is emotional engagement with music, which requires making it easy for the brain to understand, and that this is the M Scaler's objective. AVstore 37:23
2022-08-19Watts says what matters is musicality, and describes two types of DAC designers, the first relying only on measurements and never listening. AVstore 43:59
2022-08-19Watts says designers who only listen create a fixed rich-warm or bright sound so everything sounds alike, whereas live unamplified music is about variation. AVstore 44:33
2022-08-19Watts says live music varies enormously in space and timbre, his task is closing the gap to reproduced music, and the ADC project would let him maximize the A-to-D, cables and storage. AVstore 45:23
2022-08-19Watts says he controls everything in the chain except microphones and headphones, including DAC and scalers, which he calls a very exciting prospect. needs context AVstore 46:09
2022-08-27Watts says external headphone amps, with their connectors, cables and parts, always degrade transparency, so DACs should be simple yet drive all headphones; he also clarifies pulse array remarks. Head-Fi, Aug 2022
2022-09-09Watts thanks posters, says he has felt under personal attack for months, and restates his aim of closing the gap between reproduced and live unamplified music through listening tests. Head-Fi, Sep 2022
2022-09-16Watts says vinyl's clicks and lack of transparency rule it out, his M scaled Hugo 2 and DAVE are far more involving, and his recording played back warmer than live. Head-Fi, Sep 2022
2022-09-18Watts says most people hear a substantial A-B difference with the M Scaler, but its real benefits are musical: timbre variation, pitch discrimination and more enjoyment of music. The Source AV 6:06
2022-09-18Watts says that is about transparency. needs context The Source AV 24:57
2022-09-18Watts says his intent is about getting emotional when listening to music. The Source AV 24:59
2022-09-18Watts says he is trying to make the spine tingle and make people want to listen to music more and more. The Source AV 25:04
2022-09-18Watts says an unamplified classical concert heard near the conductor sounds nothing like reproduced sound and makes it far easier to get emotional. The Source AV 25:15
2022-09-18Watts says he is trying to make reproduced music more emotional. The Source AV 25:34
2022-09-18Watts says manufacturers often say 'it's the music' and asks what they mean by that. The Source AV 26:21
2022-09-18Watts says musicality is about getting emotional with music, counted by the number of times your spine tingles. The Source AV 26:28
2022-09-18Watts says the whole world ceases to exist and you are wrapped in the music, and there are technical reasons for it. The Source AV 26:42
2022-09-18Watts says his DACs make it easy for the brain to process the information; he analyzes how distortions and aberrations affect brain processing so you can enjoy music. The Source AV 26:54
2022-10-12Watts says that when a studio engineer listens to a DAVE, they hear the original performance. Upscale Audio 6:03
2022-10-12Watts says it is extremely transparent and gives everything you want to hear, but presents it in a smooth and refined way. needs context Upscale Audio 6:09
2022-10-12Watts says his father and uncle were called Dave and he coined 'digital to analogue veritas in extremis', truth in extreme, reflecting DAVE's aim to close the gap to unamplified sound. Upscale Audio 8:37
2022-11-05Watts says an unnamed upcoming product will drive headphones, cites expectation bias, and says only one design path recreates unamplified music, adding it will come when done. needs context Head-Fi, Nov 2022
2023-01-24Watts says transducers change sound quantitatively but DAC/amps qualitatively, and musicality comes from portraying variation in dynamics, timbre, note starts and stops, and separation. Head-Fi, Jan 2023
2023-02-04Watts says his goal is emotional involvement with music, and also getting the maximum benefit from poorly recorded music. Dusty Audio 14:43
2023-02-04Watts says until 2015 his improvements made the best recordings better and the worst worse, then Hugo brought a dramatic change because FPGAs let him create his own digital circuit. Dusty Audio 15:25
2023-02-04Watts says older FPGAs limited his filters and noise shapers; 2015 FPGAs had three or four times the capacity, and in Hugo poor recordings improved more than good ones. Dusty Audio 16:13
2023-02-04Watts says after Hugo he enjoyed piano music, hearing timbre, attack and flow, and could appreciate 1930s mono recordings despite their distortion and noise. Dusty Audio 17:08
2023-02-04Watts says the recordings he could engage with musically rose from 0.1 percent to about 50 percent, owing to three issues other digital designers do not discuss. Dusty Audio 17:52
2023-02-04Watts says noise floor modulation affects timbre perception, and that emotional involvement depends on variation, in space and in timbre, such as bright and dark instruments heard together. Dusty Audio 29:12
2023-02-04Watts lists variation in timbre, dynamics and note starts and stops, and says listening tests are hard because the listener cannot know what the recording really sounded like. Dusty Audio 30:07
2023-02-04Watts says his DACs keep analog simple and digital complex for accuracy: one amplifier, two resistors and two capacitors feed the headphones directly. Dusty Audio 1:00:42
2023-02-05Watts says soundstage and depth are very important. Soundnews 8:14
2023-02-05Watts says that at the end of the day it is about listening to the music and getting emotionally involved. Soundnews 8:17
2023-02-05Watts adds: getting your spine to tingle. needs context Soundnews 8:27
2023-02-05Watts says that emotional effect is the drug he is after, and that if a system lacks decent depth it will not work for him emotionally. Soundnews 8:30
2023-02-05Watts says many other things are involved, such as whether you can hear the transients. needs context Soundnews 8:44
2023-02-05Watts lists further criteria: timbre variation, variation in space, and whether tiny instruments stay in focus against large ones when the sound gets busy. Soundnews 8:50
2023-02-05Watts says that click is the buzz he is after, and that a recording with good depth might work. Soundnews 9:13
2023-02-05Watts says he focuses his activity on things that will improve sound quality. Soundnews 10:14
2023-02-05Watts says his focus is making the DAC much more tolerant, so a poor source and a very high quality source sound the same. Soundnews 11:09
2023-02-05Watts says the downside of a separate headphone amplifier is the extra set of interconnect cables. Soundnews 12:25
2023-02-05Watts says another signal path and electronics always degrade transparency, so he makes the DAC powerful enough for any headphone; DAVE handles 99% of headphones. Soundnews 12:37
2023-02-05Watts says TT2 was made more powerful so no separate headphone amp is needed; in analog simpler is better, as each solder joint, contact and amplifier audibly degrades sound. Soundnews 13:10
2023-02-05Watts says every passive component degrades sound, so analog should be as simple as possible, but digital is the opposite, though people assume digital should also be simple. Soundnews 13:58
2023-02-05Watts says NOS is the crudest filter; in digital, more complex means more accurate reconstruction and better sound, the opposite of analog, but both are about accuracy. Soundnews 15:35
2023-02-05Watts says people should focus on accuracy, not on whether a design is simple or complex. Soundnews 16:19
2023-02-11Watts says improvements are easiest to hear on poor recordings, first noticed with Hugo, and pre-1968 master tapes lose their realism through ADCs and conventional DACs' transient timing errors. Head-Fi, Feb 2023
2023-03-20Watts says the huge difference between live unamplified and reproduced sound, despite chains outperforming the ears on distortion and noise, is why measurements cannot simply be accepted. Head-Fi, Mar 2023
2023-03-26Watts says listening matters most but audiophiles may prefer distortion; his goal is closing the gap to live unamplified sound using measurements and careful, controlled listening tests. Eric's Hi-Fi 32:50
2023-03-26Watts says sit close at classical concerts, about the fifth row; many concerts use discreet sound reinforcement, so his unamplified reference excludes them. Eric's Hi-Fi 40:00
2023-03-26Watts says with sound reinforcement you hear a mess unless in the front row, and people do not know what real sound is like. Eric's Hi-Fi 40:56
2023-03-26Watts says chamber orchestras are good references because they are never reinforced and you sit very close. Eric's Hi-Fi 41:11
2023-03-26Watts says his design decisions aim at better sound for himself, closing the gap to live unamplified sound and its emotional involvement and musicality. Eric's Hi-Fi 46:59
2023-03-28Watts says his PWM DACs sounded clinical and analytical, lacking musicality, and states his goal for pulse array: recapturing the emotion of a live acoustic event. The Headphone Show 33:27
2023-03-28Watts defines musicality as emotional engagement: spine tingling, foot tapping, wanting to listen for eight hours and to different music. The Headphone Show 34:12
2023-03-28Watts says most designers give their DAC a bright or warm flavor, making it a musical instrument, so every piece of music takes on the DAC's signature. The Headphone Show 34:42
2023-03-28Watts says he wants his gear to convey the variation of live unamplified music, from hard and aggressive to rich and soft. The Headphone Show 35:26
2023-03-28Watts says since the original sound is unknown, a designer judges by variation: more variation in timbre, space, separation and note starts and stops means closer to musical truth. The Headphone Show 35:55
2023-03-28Watts says only true transparency achieves this; a sharper sound can fool the ear into seeming more transparent, and emotional involvement is the tell. The Headphone Show 36:47
2023-03-28Watts lists distortion, small-signal nonlinearity, noise floor modulation and transient timing as factors in true transparency, saying timing errors are perceivable however small. The Headphone Show 40:09
2023-03-28Watts says analog engineers wrongly assume digital should also be simple; transparency in digital needs great complexity, and he mentions recent work with huge FPGAs. The Headphone Show 49:09
2023-04-03Watts says it is more resolving, with timbre variation and sharp fast attacks as big gains; live unamplified sound can be explosively sharp, while digital and analog reproduction soften everything. needs context Amplify Audio 13:19
2023-04-03Watts says reproduced audio loses transparency and edge; the aim is sound that is fast, sharp and explosive, yet rich and warm when the occasion demands. Amplify Audio 13:58
2023-04-03Watts says he worries about running out of ideas, or about closing the gap between live and reproduced sound and having nothing left to do. Amplify Audio 14:54
2023-09-19Watts describes a Verilog soft-clip module producing pure second harmonic, saying added second harmonic damages separation and focus and thickens bass, and he dislikes adding distortion. Head-Fi, Sep 2023
2023-10-01Watts says his systematic approach to listening is listening for variation in pitch, dynamics, timbre and space; more variation means the right track. The Source AV 16:21
2023-10-01Watts says the engineers are young, while older Grammy winners want the studio sound of 30 years ago; Chord aims to reproduce the real sound. The Source AV 18:18
2023-10-01Watts says distortions can make sound harder or warmer, but removing them lets sounds be soft and warm or bright and fast as they really are; he aims for both. The Source AV 29:47
2023-10-01Watts says an unmiked drum kit up close is very fast and sharp, reproduced audio softens transients, and both depth and speed/impact must be solved. The Source AV 31:05
2023-10-01Watts says it is possible to create perfect second harmonic distortion, positive or negative at an exact chosen level, but that is not what he is about. The Source AV 32:17
2023-10-01Watts says you certainly lose them with super-warm ones, and that he wants super warmth, brightness, speed and depth at once. needs context The Source AV 33:21
2023-10-01Watts says nobody at Chord voices or changes his products' sound; he designs them so he is happy with them, whether a million people or one loves the result. The Source AV 36:22
2023-12-18Watts rejects critics questioning his hearing, says the gap from live unamplified sound to reproduction still feels huge but narrows yearly, and cites live instruments at home. Head-Fi, Dec 2023
2024-01-19Watts says early DAVE prototypes had slightly worse harmonic distortion than the dCS Vivaldi, which he improved on, but his only sound target is live unamplified music. Head-Fi, Jan 2024
2024-03-20Watts says every metal-to-metal interface is audible, analog circuits should be kept simple, part choice trades RF noise against dielectric absorption, and assumptions must be checked by listening tests. MFG Audio Reviews 53:45
2024-05-10Watts says no competition has pressured him to replace Dave; others make rich warm or bright analytical DACs, while he wants a transparent DAC that recovers the original mic feed. Reactcore 10
2024-05-17Watts defines musicality as being emotional when listening and says it depends on pitch, starting and stopping of notes, and hearing each instrument separately and in focus. AVstore 4:02
2024-05-29Watts says not quite, but they are trying to get closer and closer to perfection. HIFICLUBE.NET JVH 1:16
2024-06-18Watts says the M Scaler is guaranteed better than a 16-bit reconstruction and Quartet better still, and explains how the brain uses transient timing for separation, location, timbre, note edges and bass pitch. article, Jun 2024
2024-07-12Watts says the best sound is forgetting the music is reproduced, an illusion of real instruments in real space, which he has experienced only a handful of times. HIFICLUB 2:32
2024-07-12Watts says theory only gives pointers and his filters are set by sound-quality tests, unlike other upsamplers whose coefficients come from maths; he aims for neither warm nor bright. HIFICLUB 15:30
2024-07-12Watts says the original recording is unknowable (microphones, cables, desk, EQ, compression, reverb), so he judges by variation: timbre, instrument separation and focus. HIFICLUB 16:20
2024-07-12Watts says testing for variation is objective and needs no knowledge of the recording; more variation means a fundamental improvement, not tailoring a DAC to a system. HIFICLUB 18:05
2024-07-12Watts says every solder joint, contact, resistor, capacitor and amplifier stage is audible, and valve gear often beats solid state because it is simpler. HIFICLUB 28:10
2024-07-12Watts says years of small improvements made progress hard to judge; plugging Quartet into his friend's system with M Scaler and DAVE made a huge difference, like forgetting the hi-fi. HIFICLUB 52:22
2024-07-12Watts says it was one of five such experiences in his life; the friend, who owns DAVE, TT2 and two M Scalers, expected better but not this much better. HIFICLUB 53:11
2024-07-25Watts says the goal is the illusion of real musicians in a real space, calls Quartet a big step toward it and the hardest product he has worked on. Hifi Pig TV 5:13
2024-09-29Watts says his aim is to reproduce live unamplified sound, so he needs an objective way of assessing sound quality when the recording's problems are unknown. The Source AV 25:18
2024-09-29Watts says the key test is variation: a more expressive system is a fundamental improvement and more emotional with the music, not one tweaked warmer or brighter. The Source AV 26:22
2024-12-17Watts introduces his seminar on objectively assessing sound quality, saying listeners often prefer superficially impressive changes that damage musicality, which he defines as emotional involvement with music. Head-Fi, Dec 2024
2025-05-12Watts says reconstruction exceeding 16-bit accuracy transforms perception of pitch, melody, timbre and space, and its biggest benefit is a better emotional connection to the performance. Audiophile Junkie 15:41
2026-03-17Watts says early digital sounded hard, bright, flat and not musical, blocking emotional involvement; he studied sampling theory and knew transient timing governs perceived timbre, pitch and location. ecoustics 1:16
2026-03-17Watts says hi-fi bears no resemblance to live unamplified music, especially depth: an organ 100 feet away in a cathedral sounds barely two feet behind speakers at home. ecoustics 17:24
2026-03-17Watts says reproduction loses timbre variation, so trumpets sound less bright and saxophones brighter than they should, and instruments cannot be located accurately; he aims to reconstruct the acoustic event. ecoustics 18:08
2026-03-17Watts says depth from audio is nothing like live sound, a huge gap that motivated his work. ecoustics 44:16
2026-03-17Watts says the whole chain including recording is about 66% there; his recording in a bright-sounding church reproduced warmer than the live event. ecoustics 1:14:28
2026-03-17Watts says he aims to close the gap in depth, speed and impact while adding warmth and refinement, because that increases emotional involvement with the music. ecoustics 1:16:29
2026-03-17Watts says many start with Mojo 2 and end with DAVE, and understanding why things change the sound lets him spend resources on what improves it as budgets rise. ecoustics 1:19:05
2026-03-17Watts says quantifying mechanisms lets him spend resources correctly, so each step up in Chord price brings a commensurate change in sound quality, though worth varies by person. ecoustics 1:21:22
2026-03-17Watts says if your spine tingles, or tingles more often, you have won, and occasionally music brings tears; the aim is emotional involvement. ecoustics 1:26:45
2026-03-17Watts says for that the brain must be free of deciphering a mess of noises, which is where engineering comes in. ecoustics 1:27:07
2026-03-24Watts says Quartet took 8 years of constant development, changed his understanding of interpolation filters, and brings listeners closer to the sound of live music. Audio Force 4:40
2026-03-24Watts says he was a hi-fi fanatic as a teenager and wanted, as an electronics designer, to shrink the massive gap between live, amplified sound and reproduced audio. Audio Force 6:52
2026-03-24Watts says FPGAs allow thousands of times more complexity than a silicon chip, giving better sound quality, closer to the musical event and more emotionally engaging. Audio Force 8:29
2026-03-24Watts dislikes calling it more analog: it sounds like live unamplified music, because accurate transients let the brain understand music and engage emotionally, his main goal. Audio Force 16:45
2026-03-24Watts says musicality is ultra important, but radically improved understanding means future products will sound much better; he begins mentioning developing Mojo 2 4.4. Audio Force 27:59
2026-05-03Watts says each doubling of taps halves the error, improving location, separation, timbre and low-frequency pitch, and that emotional engagement with music matters most. Audio Force 9:10
2026-05-03Watts says his aim is to make listening to music more emotional. Audio Force 10:20
2026-05-03Watts urges listeners to hear Quartet M Scaler at a dealer, to ignore the nonsense and enjoy music, and says 1930s recordings sound really good as his system improves. Audio Force 20:02
2026-05-03Watts says a better system lets you enjoy poorly recorded music, because he is eliminating serious problems in digital audio. Audio Force 20:57
2026-10-02Watts says live unamplified music produces an emotional response, a spine tingle, that reproduced music lacks. HiFi Buys 9:12
2026-10-02Watts says improvements can make recordings he had written off sound good, though earlier improvements had shrunk the number of musically acceptable recordings. HiFi Buys 24:36
2026-10-02Watts says the larger, faster FPGA made previously musically unacceptable recordings acceptable. needs context HiFi Buys 25:50
2026-10-02Watts says upset transient timing degrades instrument separation, timbre, low-frequency pitch and depth, and his goal is the emotional involvement of live unamplified music. HiFi Buys 27:40
2026-10-02Watts says if this makes 99% of recordings sound bad, so be it; addressing these problems brings the sound closer to the original musical event. HiFi Buys 28:28
2026-10-02Watts says the most important test is emotional, whether music is more involving, which cannot be judged on a simple A/B test and takes several weeks. HiFi Buys 44:25
2026-10-02Watts says when variation is better, emotional engagement is better. HiFi Buys 51:22
2026-10-02Watts says even on FM radio at 80 mph the Strad was obviously warmer and more expressive, and some people do not perceive such differences because of differing tastes. HiFi Buys 1:35:44
2026-10-11Watts says he cannot discuss future development, but Quartet puts DAVE in a different league musically, as shown when a prototype was shown at Munich just over 2 years ago. Distorsiuni Interioare 1:17:34
2026-10-14Watts distinguishes listening for emotional enjoyment from listening to make progress, saying emotional testing is poor for judging very small changes; he mentions building his own recordings. Part-Time Audiophile 5:58
2026-10-14Watts says measurements are crucial for transparency, opposes using distortion to make every recording sound rich and warm, and finds live unamplified sound easily emotional. Part-Time Audiophile 10:53
2026-10-14Watts says reproduced sound loses emotional connection through lack of transparency; after tens of small AB-tested improvements, growing emotional involvement over weeks confirms progress. Part-Time Audiophile 11:46
2026-10-14Watts says when the brain need not work hard it follows the music easily, which makes emotional engagement easier. Part-Time Audiophile 21:04
2026-10-14Watts says CD sounds good but cannot close the gap to live unamplified sound, and that 768 kHz at 24 or 32 bit is the future. Part-Time Audiophile 48:52
2026-10-14Watts says Quartet solved interpolation filters for him; with the ADC and 768 kHz recordings he can decimate (to '24 kHz' as spoken), re-interpolate and compare, controlling microphone to transducer. Part-Time Audiophile 1:03:53
2026-10-14Watts says tests comparing decimation and interpolation, and minimizing the difference, are proof that things are being done correctly. Part-Time Audiophile 1:04:48
2026-10-17Watts says removing out-of-band noise outweighs the transparency losses of DAVE and Quartet, and an analog filter cannot do it transparently, so analog should stay simple. article, Oct 2026
2026-10-17Watts says Quartet with DAVE is the best DAC combination today for emotional engagement and hearing the recording as an original musical event. article, Oct 2026