Madison Streamer
$3,550.00 *Price subject to changeNeat, discrete, multi-source digital connectivity
Like all Wattson Audio components, the Madison DAC/Controller is more capable, versatile and delivers more performance than its diminutive dimensions suggest. With the ability to accept and switch both streamed and S/PDIF digital material, it embodies a sophisticated DSP-driven DAC and both balanced and single-ended outputs – technology and topology you normally only find at many times the Madison’s price. Discrete, efficient and ecologically aware, Madison provides the heart of a forward-looking, high-performance, digital audio system.
Leveraging high-technology solutions to deliver astonishing musical performance at a remarkably approachable price is an exercise in extreme value-engineering: selecting what functions really matter and how they can best be implemented, what to include and what to exclude.
Network replay and compatibility
The Madison’s network interface employs Wattson Audio’s own, highly regarded streaming engine. It’s a proprietary solution we build around the Sitara processor from Texas Instruments, which depends on our own, updatable software and which you’ll find in some remarkably high-profile and expensive products. Capable of handling the ever-increasing number of network communication protocols, it has been continuously developed and updated since its introduction. Signal handling has been optimized to ensure audio data integrity, transmission reliability and support for Hi-Res file formats (PCM and DSD) without transcoding, all while delivering a smooth and responsive user experience.
Alongside the streaming capability, Madison also provides a dedicated S/PDIF receiver decoder with both 75Ω RCA and TOSLink optical inputs for connection to legacy digital or AV sources. All digital circuitry is controlled by our own, exactingly executed clock, with twin oscillators for 44.1kHz and 48kHz (as well as any multiples thereof) each separated and independently filtered to reduce the possibility of noise and jitter. A Shark DSP chip is employed to implement our sophisticated up-sampling and spline-filtering algorithm. The short-tail filter profile ensures superb time-domain performance, while independent left and right channel WM8742 DACs preserve channel separation and spatial information.
The analog output stage
A pair of op-amps per channel are employed to provide a robust, space efficient and cost effective analog output stage, equipped with both balanced XLR and single-ended RCA connections. Each and every stage or circuit block within the Madison benefits from the substantial on-board power supply filtering and reservoir capacitance while, with so much DSP power on hand, it makes perfect sense to rely on the clever, loss-less LEEDH digital volume control, rather than the added cost and questionable performance of an analog "pot". Ultimate versatility is provided by the Wattson Remote for Android and Wattson Music for iOS apps, which let you control your Madison, and respectively access your streaming sources, from your phone or tablet.
The Madison combines genuinely cutting-edge, upgradable digital technology with carefully costed, balanced and executed circuitry, designed specifically to deliver unprecedented musical performance from an elegant, compact and surprisingly affordable package.
Madison – everything you need, nothing that you don’t!
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Key features
- Proprietary bit-perfect and asynchronous streaming solution
- Support for PCM and DSD high-definition formats
- New up-sampling process with time-domain optimization, legacy of the famous Anagram Technology up-samplers
- Lossless LEEDH Processing volume control for direct connection to power amplifiers
- Adjustable bass response to compensate for speaker placement near walls
- Ultra-low phase noise oscillators
- One D/A converter chip per channel in dual differential mode
- Full-symmetric analogue output stages
- Very low-noise power supply circuits
- CNC-machined out of a solid aluminium block
- Design, manufacturing, and assembly entirely made in Switzerland
Tech Specs
| Network Streaming Resolution | PCM up to 32-bit 384kHz, DSD up to 256x (11.2896MHz) |
| S/PDIF Input Resolution | PCM up to 24-bit 192kHz |
| RCA Output Level (0dB FS) | 2.0V RMS |
| XLR Output Level (0dB FS) | 4.0V RMS |
| Signal-to-Noise, Weighted (SNR-A) | > 120dB |
| Harmonic Distortion (THD+N, 0dB FS) | < 0.001% |
| Headphone Output | 2x 150mW on 32Ω, 2x 50mW on 150Ω, 2x 10mW on 600Ω |
| Network Input | 100Mbit/s Ethernet |
| Digital Inputs | 1x S/PDIF on RCA connector, PCM and 1x S/PDIF on TOSLink |
| Analog Outputs | 1x unbalanced on RCA connectors and 1x balanced on XLR |
| Headphone Output Connector | 6.35mm Jack connector |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 6.9 x 7.3 x 1.9 in (174 x 185 x 47 mm) |
| Weight | 2.31 lb (1050g) |
| Power Supply | 5V DC, external, medical grade |
| Power Consumption | 50mW (idle), 3.5 W (playing) |
| Supported Compression Formats | WAV, FLAC, AIFF, ALAC, MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, WMA |
| Control Protocols | UPnP/DLNA, AirPlay, TIDAL connect, Roon Ready, Audirvāna |
| Streaming Services | TIDAL¹, Qobuz², airable radios |
¹ requires a TIDAL service account and subscription, not included with the product
² requires a Qobuz service account and subscription, not included with the product
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!
