An Interview With Rob Watts

On this week’s episode of The Occasional Podcast the subject of the interview is none other than Rob Watts. Creator of Chord’s DAVE DAC and many other digital products, Rob has a deep knowledge of digital and audio in general.

His presentations (like the one from CES pictured above) are filled with loads of information and appeal to the complex issues of better sound from digital sources. In the interview, Rob Watts walks though his process for listening and how it can impact the final outcome and R&D stage. He also chats up the analog side of things a bit, giving his impressions of some the different topologies for amplification.

Partnering with the UK-based Chord Electronics, his designs have garnered some high praise from the audio press in recent years, alongside and ever-growing product line that started off with a bang just a few short years ago. It was quite a start… or perhaps a late career resurgence, based upon how you frame it. Rob Watts also has extensive experience in the semi-conductor field.

You can check out our impressions of Chord’s Mojo & Poly portable DAC/Streamer in our review, a popular product among headphone enthusiasts.

The Occasional Podcast is now gently gliding into its 4th season, with interviews from Nelson Pass, Joseph Audio, ZMF Headphones, and Dan D’Agostino providing interesting highlights from season 3 and a peek behind the backdrop of high end audio and hifi in general. One can still check out last season’s educational drop with TOP’s Beginners Primer To Reel-To-Reel. Also a highlight from last month, The Occasional Podcast’s Audiophile’s Guide To Mastering And Remaster Albums provides a closer look at the process of Mastering from a production and consumption standpoint.

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