congrats Gary, love to hear about what you are hearing when you are ready to share.
Wadax World Premiere at Munich Highend
- Thread starter WADAX
- Start date
Thanks Mike
Intuitive initial impression (Day 3):
- one of a kind in terms of functionality : streamer, CD/SACD, Preamp, UPnP / DLNA support. (more functionality will be available via firmware updates according to my local distributor)
- extremely well-built with thoughtful & innovative design elements,
- Sound quality : deep tonal saturation; musical, holographic sound stage, very dynamic, highly resolving without being too analytical
- vibrant instead of silky smooth
- performs the best to me for symphonic classical scores per my personal preferences
- very high price performance considering its build quality, sound quality and functionality
Will share more after burning in the new gear properly ...
p.s. my current & previous CD players include Goldmund Edios SACD, CH D1.1 + C1.1, Esoteric K1
Intuitive initial impression (Day 3):
- one of a kind in terms of functionality : streamer, CD/SACD, Preamp, UPnP / DLNA support. (more functionality will be available via firmware updates according to my local distributor)
- extremely well-built with thoughtful & innovative design elements,
- Sound quality : deep tonal saturation; musical, holographic sound stage, very dynamic, highly resolving without being too analytical
- vibrant instead of silky smooth
- performs the best to me for symphonic classical scores per my personal preferences
- very high price performance considering its build quality, sound quality and functionality
Will share more after burning in the new gear properly ...
p.s. my current & previous CD players include Goldmund Edios SACD, CH D1.1 + C1.1, Esoteric K1
Hi Gary, thank's for your early impressions, are you a dealer/member of the trade?. I'm assuming that Wadax has now began implementing the delivery of Studio Player demonstration units to the worldwide dealer network, as Brandon indicated earlier in the thread.
I do hope to have a home demo of the Studio Player once it arrives in the UK, hopefully within the next few weeks, according to my dealer the first retail units are due to be available September/October, you're a lucky guy to already have one and I really look forward to hearing your further impressions as the player settles.
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H
I am not a dealer / member of the trade, but I have very much trusted relationship with the local dealer and placed my order just a couple of days right after the Munich audio in May this year. My local dealer 'managed' to get a couple of the Player's first-wave shipment (all with single digit serial #) in the first week of July and I was given the opportunity to get one of these units given my early-bird order (all potential buyers were all waiting at the dealer's shop on the delivery day !!!)
Reportedly the next shipment will be in August, I hope you will be able to have an audition of the Player sooner.
Cheers,
Gary
Hi Rich,
I am not a dealer / member of the trade, but I have very much trusted relationship with the local dealer and placed my order just a couple of days right after the Munich audio in May this year. My local dealer 'managed' to get a couple of the Player's first-wave shipment (all with single digit serial #) in the first week of July and I was given the opportunity to get one of these units given my early-bird order (all potential buyers were all waiting at the dealer's shop on the delivery day !!!)
Reportedly the next shipment will be in August, I hope you will be able to have an audition of the Player sooner.
Cheers,
Gary
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Thank's Gary, congratulations, you're indeed very lucky, I need to confirm whether the UK distributor has yet received their demo units, I believe as of last week they were still waiting, I'll have to give my dealer a call.
Has any statement been made on internal handling of signals by this device?
Or if it differs in how it interprets the Wadax formula between CD and SACD (or streaming)?
Believe that Reference level equipment is dependent on internal upsampling to DSD512 or DSD1024.
Effectively I'm curious if Studio Player draws upon native file resolution without conversion(s).
Or if it differs in how it interprets the Wadax formula between CD and SACD (or streaming)?
Believe that Reference level equipment is dependent on internal upsampling to DSD512 or DSD1024.
Effectively I'm curious if Studio Player draws upon native file resolution without conversion(s).
Hi rando -
the D/A process in Studio Player is exactly the same as in the Reference, because the Reference DAC circuit is implemented in the Player. You will notice the analog outputs on the back of the unit; these are affixed to the DAC cards (which are removable) that are fitted to Studio Player - and you will notice they are the same cards as on the Reference.
I've only heard the reference in a system created by the UK importer, so haven't been able to work out where the remarkable sound presentation comes from, though I suspect that it's been from the reference system. Given what the Wadax rep on this forum has said, my fingers are firnly crossed that some of that reference magic is present in the studio
I can confirm that we haven’t yet received our demo unit… we wait with bated breath!Thank's Gary, congratulations, you're indeed very lucky, I need to confirm whether the UK distributor has yet received their demo units, I believe as of last week they were still waiting, I'll have to give my dealer a call.
Based on what I heard at Munich and my prior experience with the Atlantis Reference DAC and Server which I was very lucky to have in my home system for a few months, I am incredibly excited about Studio Player and have very high expectations.
I will be sure to post on here when our unit lands and of course share my observations.
Cheers,
Guillaume
So for folks asking earlier about connectivity to Taiko, it, and pretty much any other server can be used as a front end (including local storage) with the WADAX as the endpoint via ROON. I believe that's correct?
I am currently using JPlay to stream music files from my NAS (Fidata), Tidal and Qobuz to my WADAX Studio Player without any issues. Yet, I don't see my Studio Player is shown on my Roon server yet, I believe the Player's Roon connectivity will be available in the upcoming firmware updates.
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Roon certification has been applied for but not approved yet; we are waiting for them. Once we have the approval for Studio Player, there will be a software update to add Roon capabilities to the player.
This is correct. You can also gain access to other devices using UPnP.
Hi Gary
Have you done any listening from CD or SACD?, if so what are your early impressions
of playback via the disc mechanism?.
Hi Rich,
Yes, apart from music files (UPnP) & streaming, I have done quite some listening to, actually not only CD / SACD, but also MQA CD with the Studio Player. I am very happy with the sound quality as shared in my earlier post and able to note better sound quality of the disc mechanism over streamlng by a non- trivial margin ( due to the inherent nature rather than the Player’s capability, noted that I have Ansuz D3 powerswitch/ Waversa WRouter and WLAN isolator in the streaming chain). The current limitation is that the digital outputs of the Player have not yet been enabled in the current firmware version, and hence the it cannot be leveraged as a Transport for now. Hopefully this will be addressed soon in the upcoming firmware upgrades.
Thanks,
Gary
Speaker: Magico M2
Power Amp: Goldmund Telos 800
Cables: Goebel Statement
Yes, apart from music files (UPnP) & streaming, I have done quite some listening to, actually not only CD / SACD, but also MQA CD with the Studio Player. I am very happy with the sound quality as shared in my earlier post and able to note better sound quality of the disc mechanism over streamlng by a non- trivial margin ( due to the inherent nature rather than the Player’s capability, noted that I have Ansuz D3 powerswitch/ Waversa WRouter and WLAN isolator in the streaming chain). The current limitation is that the digital outputs of the Player have not yet been enabled in the current firmware version, and hence the it cannot be leveraged as a Transport for now. Hopefully this will be addressed soon in the upcoming firmware upgrades.
Thanks,
Gary
Speaker: Magico M2
Power Amp: Goldmund Telos 800
Cables: Goebel Statement
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Thanks, Gary
Speaker: Magico M2
Power Amp: Goldmund Telos 800
Cables: Goebel Statement
Thank's Gary, very informative, you may well be in a very unique position, as far as I can ascertain you appear to be the only owner of the Studio Player offering feedback online, hence my apologies for asking another question, I note from your equipment list, is the Studio Player directly connected to your Goldman power amp and you're not employing a pre amp, if this is the case I presume you're utilising the volume control function on the Studio Player, what are your impressions of it's quality and functionality.
hi Gary, many thanks for the continued feedback
interesting.
are you intending to use the Player as a transport and connect it to a separate, stand alone dac, other than the internal Wadax dac inside the STUDIO Player? hard to imagine what dac might surpass the internal Wadax dac already there (other than a full blown Wadax Ref dac with the Akasa DC cables).
thanks,
Mike
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Thanks Rich
Telos 800 has three switchable inputs - Digital SPIDF, RCA and XLR - which allows me to have three systems running in parallel connecting to my Telos 800.
With that, I have a Goldmund chain E2E (including Goldmund preamp) for one of my preferred Goldmund house sound signature. And I have another source chain with a mix of different brands.
I deliberately connect my WADAX Studio Player to Telos 800 skipping any preamp in order to preserve and hear “WADAX’s sound “ and fully leverage its ‘preamp’ functionality - volume control , configureable output levels and output impedance which is a quite unique functionality.
I am super happy with the Player’s preamp capability, even at output level 1V, ( rather than 2V or 5V), the a player is able to drive my Telos 800 / Magico M2 with superb tonal balance and dynamics: some users may prefer different output level / output jmpedam depends on their audio system setup. ( For another well known DAC / Pre, I needed to use 6V but the performance is by far not as good as this Studio Player)
To me it will be even better if the remote volume control is more fine grained, currently 5 units up / down at one step change, and a volume level lock feature will be ideal ! ( in order to prevent accidental change to very high volume level)
Hope this helps.
Telos 800 has three switchable inputs - Digital SPIDF, RCA and XLR - which allows me to have three systems running in parallel connecting to my Telos 800.
With that, I have a Goldmund chain E2E (including Goldmund preamp) for one of my preferred Goldmund house sound signature. And I have another source chain with a mix of different brands.
I deliberately connect my WADAX Studio Player to Telos 800 skipping any preamp in order to preserve and hear “WADAX’s sound “ and fully leverage its ‘preamp’ functionality - volume control , configureable output levels and output impedance which is a quite unique functionality.
I am super happy with the Player’s preamp capability, even at output level 1V, ( rather than 2V or 5V), the a player is able to drive my Telos 800 / Magico M2 with superb tonal balance and dynamics: some users may prefer different output level / output jmpedam depends on their audio system setup. ( For another well known DAC / Pre, I needed to use 6V but the performance is by far not as good as this Studio Player)
To me it will be even better if the remote volume control is more fine grained, currently 5 units up / down at one step change, and a volume level lock feature will be ideal ! ( in order to prevent accidental change to very high volume level)
Hope this helps.
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