Wattson Emerson Digital

My story with Wattson Audio began about three years ago. It was my first encounter with a network bridge, at least within the context of our hobby.

- ROBERT SCHRYER

It happened as I was covering the Montreal Audiofest for Stereophile, in the exhibitor room helmed by Canadian distributor Phonographe, which had perhaps the most minimalist demo at the show. When I entered the room, I saw vintage-looking speakers and a Thöress integrated amplifier—but no source. Where I expected the source to be, against the front wall, there was only a window. Or so I thought. Behind the curtain, resting on the windowsill, was a stage star waiting for its big reveal—a Wattson Emerson Analog network bridge. The system sounded very good, but when Phonographe owner Erik Fortier, who hosted the room, introduced the Emerson to me as a network bridge, I felt compelled to correct him.

“You mean a streamer, right?” He responded with what I interpreted as a “more-or-less” swivel of his head, then added: “It just connects your streaming service to your DAC.”

“So, it’s a music server?” I sputtered, feeling the muscles in my neck tighten.

“It’s a bridge,” he said patiently, at which point I dropped an emphatic nod, as if I'd just had a “Got it!” moment, but it wasn't true. I just told myself I'd look it up later.

What exactly is a network bridge?

Determined to answer that question over the course of this review, I started with the most obvious source of information: the Wattson Audio website. The closest I found to a direct explanation was its description of the Emerson Digital as a product that “turns any DAC into a streaming DAC.” But that doesn't tell the whole story. For one thing, it appeared that a network bridge could also include D/A conversion. Case in point: The Emerson Analog I auditioned in the Phonographe room has a builtin DAC and is nonetheless referred to by Wattson as a network bridge. It outputs an analog signal—hence its name—while the Digital model reviewed here outputs a digital signal that needs to be converted to analog by an outboard DAC.