如果想要找一款將功能最簡約， 將全部成本投注在聲音表現的DAC;或 者想要找價格人人可負擔的標準瑞士聲 DAC，Emerson ANALOG很可能是目前 市場上唯一的選擇。

Wattson Audio Emerson ANALOG
An affordable Swiss streaming DAC for everyone

Another new brand has appeared in the Taiwan market! Wattson Audio is a newly establish from Switzerland, and it is only established last year (2020). SquareWave group immediately introduces to Taiwan market.  What is the super appeal of Wattson Audio? The following will take readers to uncover the mystery of this company.

The well-known Swiss OEM company 
Wattson Audio was established in 2020. Currently, its products are only two streaming products of the Emerson series. In this era of booming streaming products, is the new brand competitive? In fact, Wattson Audio has a lot of origin. It is a private label established by a Swiss company called Engineered SA. This Engineered SA is actually an audio OEM company. According to official information, they are best at high-speed and low-noise analog circuits, D/A and A/D conversion, mixed design of analog and digital signals, digital platforms and interfaces. In short, the products like this review are Engineered SA’s expertise.

Ultra low noise clock

The well-known Wattson Audio currently only has two products under the name of Emerson. The difference is that one is Emerson ANALOG with built-in digital to analog conversion with analog RCA outputs; the other is pure digital output, Emerson DIGITAL with coaxial RCA or AES/EBU output.

Wattson Music

Emerson’s design is completely a manifestation of minimalism. There is only one RJ45 for input, and there is no operable part, not even a power switch. In the output part, the analog output Emerson ANALOG uses the DAC chip manufactured by Cirrus Logic. The reason why Wattson Audio chose Cirrus Logic is that its circuit architecture is very mature. However, for Cirrus Logic chips to make a good sound, it is necessary to work hard on power supply, power filtering, and analog output circuits in order to show their true strength.

As soon as Emersion starts playing music, you could immediately feel that the background of the music was very dark enough. This means that the internal signal noise is indeed extremely low. Emerson ANALOG’s voice is fresh and transparent, with a touch of natural sweetness in its purity, just like mountain spring water in the Alps. The author does not know if this is the so-called “Swiss Voice”; but there is no doubt that this is the ideal sound presentation that the author is pursuing. Take “Belafonte at Carnegie Hall” with a lot of fascinating audiophile favourite recording as an example. Harry Belafonte’s voice is clear and pure with a touch of sweetness; there is no bluntness and sharpness common to similar price DACs.

If we view from another angle, Emerson ANALOG does not have the common shortcomings of affordable DAC such as bluntness, frizz, and flatness. What’s more rare is that Wattson Audio did not give Emerson ANALOG a distinctive personal color in order to establish brand recognition, and the sound is very neutral.

Expressive micro dynamics details

The details of Emerson ANALOG are also impressive. In addition to the dark background, the accompaniment hidden in the background can also be clearly presented. I personally like Emerson ANALOG capable to playback the low level signal, and present the large micro dynamic difference between high SPL and the loud dynamics can still be clearly represented. This allows the pure music to be playback. 

Swiss sound for everyone

Humm, it may be that Emerson ANALOG really fits the author’s preferences too much, which makes it feel good in all aspects no matter how you listen, and there are almost no shortcomings to pick.

Emerson ANALOG is only cost TWD100,000 DAC. This price is actually only a fraction of other Swiss-made DACs. Could this be attributed to Wattson Audio’s simple appearance and function as possible, so that Emerson ANALOG can have a sound performance that is not similar of this price range competitor?

To be honest, before listening, I did feel that the function was too concise; but after listening, I felt that it seemed understandable. If you want to find a DAC with the simplest functions and bet all the cost on sound performance; or if you want to find a standard Swiss sound DAC that is affordable for everyone, Emerson ANALOG is probably the only choice on the market.

Wattson Audio supports:

– Roon Ready®
– DLNA / UPnP
– AirPlay®
– Tune-In Radio