Madison LE Amplifier
$6,495.00 *Price subject to changeCompact – Capable - Configurable
When Wattson Audio visits familiar audio territory, the results are generally anything but familiar. The Madison LE Amplifier is no exception.
While the thinking behind and topology of amplifier circuitry has been resolved and refined over many years, the execution and engineering of those circuits, the design and operational choices within them, still offer significant latitude for innovation and optimization.
Small can be beautiful
Not surprisingly, the Madison LE Amplifier is more compact than you might expect. The chassis is milled from solid, offering optimum shielding and mechanical characteristics. Locally machined, the petite proportions consume fewer resources in terms of materials and energy, the product leaving a smaller carbon footprint in its wake.
Inside, the amplifier is a carefully balanced mix of the established and the esoteric. The Class AB circuit is a low-feedback design, built around twin transformers and a substantial, linear power supply with custom made capacitors. The audio circuit itself is fully symmetrical and built entirely from discrete components, from input buffer to output. It offers a choice of balanced XLR or single-ended RCA inputs while the output stage employs a single pair of carefully selected, high-power, bi-polar devices per channel.
Switchable operational topology
So far, so conventional – and so sensible: This is a well-trodden and well-proven path to a successful, articulate, dynamic and musically engaging amplifier design. But what sets the Madison LE Amplifier apart from the crowd is that it’s configurable to meet different or changing system requirements.
Delivered as a load-tolerant, 50 Watt stereo amplifier, it can be manually switched to bi-amp or high-current mono mode allowing you to upgrade your amplifier or speakers, maximizing performance with zero redundancy.
Selecting the bi-amp mode routes the incoming signal from a single input socket to both output channels – perfect for vertically bi-amping without having to invest in a second set of interconnects, enabling you to significantly improve the performance of existing bi-wirable speakers, or upgrade to larger, more ambitious speakers without trading in your amp.
Selecting high-current mono mode dedicates the entire power supply to a single output channel, increasing load tolerance and the range of available, matching speakers, future-proofing your amplifier investment against future speaker upgrades.
The Madison LE Amplifier might look simple from the outside, but from the carefully executed circuit and exhaustively selected or specified components, to its switchable operational modes, there’s more here than meets the eye. This is a product that’s designed to preserve and project your music just as it preserves and protects your investment, allowing your system to grow and growing with it.
| Input Impedance | 200kΩ balanced, 100kΩ single-ended |
| Output Power | 2 x 50W /8Ω, 2 x 80W /4Ω in stereo and bi-amp modes |
| 1 x 60W /8Ω, 1 x 100W /4Ω in mono mode | |
| Bandwidth | 2Hz to 500kHz (-3dB) at 1W into an 8Ω resistive load |
| Signal to Noise Ratio | > 120dB (unweighted) |
| Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise | < 0.1% |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 8.6 x 11.4 x 34 in (215 x 290 x 85 mm), binding posts not included |
| Weight | 15.43 lb (7 kg) |
After years spent consulting, designing, and engineering digital and audio electronics for some of the most prestigious brands in high-end audio, the team behind the Wattson Audio products decided to leverage their accumulated experience and expertise to produce a series of forward looking, high-performance and high-value components.
So were born the Emersons and later, the more sophisticated and versatile Madisons, products that incorporated cutting-edge hardware and software solutions in compact, affordable, and elegantly distinctive packages.
There was no mistaking the Wattson Audio products: nothing looked like them and nothing anywhere near the price sounded remotely as good. They say that, "quality will out". In the case of the Emerson and Madison units, the componentry is exhaustively selected, the execution is exacting, the thinking is second to none. The casework is milled from solid, and the software is dedicated and proprietary.
Don’t be fooled by the diminutive dimensions or approachable price: each Wattson product represents a combination of high-end thinking and engineering, distilled down to its most compact, concentrated and performance focussed form. The hardware and circuit design are configured to allow software upgrades to keep digital products current, to allow analogue products to grow with your system. The operational algorithms and analog topologies protect owners from in-built obsolescence and ensure a long and extremely musical working life.
If all of that sounds familiar, it’s because it is!
With so many high-end brands leaning on the same engineers and the same experience that underpin the Wattson products, it’s no surprise that those "big brothers", shot through with the Wattson DNA, sound like echoes of the "home grown" designs. It puts those big and expensive products in pretty good company!
