Wadax Reference Dac and Server arrive

[Mike Lavigne]

Congratulations on the Wadax. Bravo.

thank you, Sunny!

The finest musical source in the world.

well, i'll agree it's the best sounding digital source i know of.

'finest musical source' is a bit ambiguous for our forum sensibilities. and it's not the best source in my system or even #2 or #3. i will choose to listen to it most of the time. 'finest' could mean anything. none the less it's an astonishingly successful product for it's intended use and i love mine.

 

[nickif]

Your guess is Wadax Ref server and Ref dac via Akasa link will beat any alternative disc transport like the JMF w the Wadax Ref dac?
And the synergy at the exhalted high end means a JMF transport must be paired with a JMF dac? Ditto a Wadax transport w Wadax dac, an MSB transport w MSB dac, a CH P transport w CH P dac? Etc etc, you get my drift.

I don’t know my friend, it’s impossible to compare wadax to “any alternative“… however that’s where the Wadax combo is supposed to be given the price asking right?

For transport and DAC I do have a strong preference to NOT to mix and match. For example, when you mix let‘s say a CH transport with the wadax reference dac, I’m sure it’ll beat CH C1 Dac, so you think you are making the CH transport better by matching with Wadax but actually you are making the Wadax reference dac to not performing at 100%. So, why bother.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I don’t know my friend, it’s impossible to compare wadax to “any alternative“… however that’s where the Wadax combo is supposed to be given the price asking right?

For transport and DAC I do have a strong preference to NOT to mix and match. For example, when you mix let‘s say a CH transport with the wadax reference dac, I’m sure it’ll beat CH C1 Dac, so you think you are making the CH transport better by matching with Wadax but actually you are making the Wadax reference dac to not performing at 100%. So, why bother.

i wholeheartedly agree. for the simple reason that data interface and clock issues rule. it's not the whole picture; the dac and circuits matter, but it's where single brand chains 'should' kick ass. zero interface niggles, or jitter niggles, are huge advantages.

Wadax being the first top level dac brand to make a super server gives them a big leg up (their dac is also tops). other top level dacs with their own transports do well there. but that market has been stunted except asia (it's a streaming western world) so that is less well known (but not unknown).

 

[Audiocrack]

i'm at work, and can't have some fresh experience to draw on.....but in degrees.....my better pressings.....go farther....with.....

----space.....more expansive.
----dynamic peaks higher.
----more energy radiating localized from specific images.
----stronger vocal presence.
----more expressive
----more overtones and decay
----get's more in my soul...emotive content.

what is remarkable is how much of each of these attributes the digital from the Wadax combo has. it takes my better vinyl to clearly top it. not listened to much vinyl lately so maybe in a month, i might be able to re-visit how this goes.

the digital has less artifacts for sure, more tape like. and for sure this is not every digital file. but the better ones are really great.

it's also fair to say that the Wadax combo has been in my system for less than a week. my vinyl is resident and relentlessly optimized. so the delta could narrow some going forward as things get tweaked.

that's off the top of my head....

Because the Wadax reference combo with Akasa cable has less distortion than vinyl (less artifacts in your own words), you would expect that this combo sounds in many / certain ways better than vinyl. That is indeed the feedback I got from persons who’s ears I trust.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Because the Wadax reference combo with Akasa cable has less distortion than vinyl (less artifacts in your own words), you would expect that this combo sounds in many / certain ways better than vinyl. That is indeed the feedback I got from persons who’s ears I trust.

my 2 cents is absence of all artifacts is not equivalent to better. the vinyl most times sounds incrementally more real. some listeners who prioritize a 'clean' sound over more real might see that differently than me. or maybe their vinyl reference is different than mine. only when we use vinyl as a reference we have to see the whole picture. vinyl is flawed, perfectly flawed to my ears.

we are lucky we have both great vinyl and digital as fine as the Wadax delivers. each has their place.

in any case i love the presentation of the Wadax. you and i are going to be really enjoying the Wadax.

 

[ctydwn]

Amazing Mike. Thanks for sharing this unveil with everyone. Can only imagine the sound, especially in your barn. Staying abreast vicariously of the latest on all fronts is at once fascinating and informative. Your descriptions make it all easy for folks like me without direct hi end experience w vinyl and tape to understand.

I am hoping Lukasz has a say in this echelon w his new Horizon, albeit at a lower price point, especially when paired w the Extreme.

 

[Audiocrack]

my 2 cents is absence of all artifacts is not equivalent to better. the vinyl most times sounds incrementally more real. some listeners who prioritize a 'clean' sound over more real might see that differently than me. or maybe their vinyl reference is different than mine. only when we use vinyl as a reference we have to see the whole picture. vinyl is flawed, perfectly flawed to my ears.

we are lucky we have both great vinyl and digital as fine as the Wadax delivers. each has their place.

in any case i love the presentation of the Wadax. you and i are going to be really enjoying the Wadax.

Surely we both are going to enjoy the Wadax tremendously. We both are extremely priviliged to be in this (audio) position.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Congratulations on the Wadax. Bravo. The finest musical source in the world.

Hello Sunny,

So you consider the Wadax better than any vinyl playback system you have ever heard?

So you consider the Wadax better than any tape playback system you have ever heard?

 

[Stereophonic]

This investigation has always blown my mind and definitely is another piece of the thechnical basics to understand how Wadax is able to translate you to another level of musical experience.

From AE forum talking about Atlantis, no Ref, Dac;

“The Wadax Atlantis DAC is the result of a very intense project going on for the last two years. We have been involving in a project with a well known Spanish university (health related), together with other specialists from different knowledge areas. The aim is to dig deeper into the applications of psychoacoustics to cochlear implants and other hearing aid devices. Patients with hearing problems have severe limitations enjoying music in spite of the presence of advanced hearing aid devices designed primarily for recognizing speech.

We like the idea of using our know-how and acquire experiences to help improving life for those that cannot enjoy music the way we do. The idea was to advance on leading researches on cochlear implants, finding alternatives to traditional approach. That is where Wadax contributes the might of mapping technology beginning with a different starting point instead of the standard vocoder (voice coder).

For the project we had access to many costly hardware resources such as the latest generation of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging equipment (fMRI) and EEG (electro encephalogram) equipment. fMRI (different from classic magnetic resonance machines in Hospitals) is a machine that maps what areas of our brain are activated with what intensity in real time with a time resolution of 1 second. I can talk about this for hours but let's get to the point.

There were many challenges to overcome: (1) the machine is huge and the patient cannot wear any of the most typical metal. It is because the magnetic and RF field generated by the fMRI machine is huge. This took almost 5 months for us to achieve adequate reliability and safety for the patient to begin experimenting our technology using new materials, custom circuitry, and advanced sensor protocols. It was a beautiful team work with rewarding experiences.

This fundamental research work will hopefully translate into better hearing experience of music for many hearing impaired patients. Music is something that is very remote to them as of today. The researches reward Wadax immensely with a new perspective in the physical-neural mechanism of emotion build-up from LIVE music. Now I know what should be preserved during the D/A conversion process in order to recreate musicality. There are many surprises discovered from such fundamental work that will be beneficial to the Atlantis series for many years to come.

One of the most interesting research conclusions has tremendous applications in the design of high end audio electronics design. The hypothesis is the following: Emotion build up is a “target” for a listener. Live music is the “mean” to charge up the emotion. Our conclusion is that a LIVE event triggers emotion to an intensity that no playback device can ever achieved. That is further substantiated by fMRI and later with electrodes alongside EEG equipment in LIVE music events, with blinded eyes.

And there is another very interesting conclusion inferred from our researches. Different subject perceives tonal balance differently but every subject 'locks' onto a LIVE presentation with almost immediate response to emotion build up.

So there is something UNIVERSAL across different listener types. And the mandate of Wadax is to get as close as possible to the emotional intensity of a LIVE event via the Atlantis DAC.”

 

[nirodha]

It depends on how vinyl records are. If they started from digital, they could not be better than digital.

Interesting, but is this true? Or is the manner of reproduction key? I really do not know?

 

[nirodha]

A few big names over just the last few years have started to comment on digital (including redbook) having far greater 'true music' embedded in its bits/bytes. Martin Colloms for one I remember distinctly writing something to the effect of it was finally time that the outdated redbook format actually hit its stride with the latest generation of DACs and turned out after all these years to in fact be a solid format all along.

And now we have the mighty private, independent Mike L heading towards a not dissimilar result in the Wadax.

From experience most of us have to agree: we were talked into cds but the real culprits were lousy machines to play them with.

 

[Lagonda]

This investigation has always blown my mind and definitely is another piece of the thechnical basics to understand how Wadax is able to translate you to another level of musical experience.

From AE forum talking about Atlantis, no Ref, Dac;

“The Wadax Atlantis DAC is the result of a very intense project going on for the last two years. We have been involving in a project with a well known Spanish university (health related), together with other specialists from different knowledge areas. The aim is to dig deeper into the applications of psychoacoustics to cochlear implants and other hearing aid devices. Patients with hearing problems have severe limitations enjoying music in spite of the presence of advanced hearing aid devices designed primarily for recognizing speech.

We like the idea of using our know-how and acquire experiences to help improving life for those that cannot enjoy music the way we do. The idea was to advance on leading researches on cochlear implants, finding alternatives to traditional approach. That is where Wadax contributes the might of mapping technology beginning with a different starting point instead of the standard vocoder (voice coder).

For the project we had access to many costly hardware resources such as the latest generation of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging equipment (fMRI) and EEG (electro encephalogram) equipment. fMRI (different from classic magnetic resonance machines in Hospitals) is a machine that maps what areas of our brain are activated with what intensity in real time with a time resolution of 1 second. I can talk about this for hours but let's get to the point.

There were many challenges to overcome: (1) the machine is huge and the patient cannot wear any of the most typical metal. It is because the magnetic and RF field generated by the fMRI machine is huge. This took almost 5 months for us to achieve adequate reliability and safety for the patient to begin experimenting our technology using new materials, custom circuitry, and advanced sensor protocols. It was a beautiful team work with rewarding experiences.

This fundamental research work will hopefully translate into better hearing experience of music for many hearing impaired patients. Music is something that is very remote to them as of today. The researches reward Wadax immensely with a new perspective in the physical-neural mechanism of emotion build-up from LIVE music. Now I know what should be preserved during the D/A conversion process in order to recreate musicality. There are many surprises discovered from such fundamental work that will be beneficial to the Atlantis series for many years to come.

One of the most interesting research conclusions has tremendous applications in the design of high end audio electronics design. The hypothesis is the following: Emotion build up is a “target” for a listener. Live music is the “mean” to charge up the emotion. Our conclusion is that a LIVE event triggers emotion to an intensity that no playback device can ever achieved. That is further substantiated by fMRI and later with electrodes alongside EEG equipment in LIVE music events, with blinded eyes.

And there is another very interesting conclusion inferred from our researches. Different subject perceives tonal balance differently but every subject 'locks' onto a LIVE presentation with almost immediate response to emotion build up.

So there is something UNIVERSAL across different listener types. And the mandate of Wadax is to get as close as possible to the emotional intensity of a LIVE event via the Atlantis DAC.”

I guess the Wadax Atlantis is the preferred dac for people with cochlear implants and hearing-aids !

 

[Stereophonic]

I guess the Wadax Atlantis is the preferred dac for people with cochlear implants and hearing-aids !

Sure they would be more happy with Wadax too…

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Emile has optimized the Taiko Extreme USB drivers for the Wadax. over the next week or so i should be able to figure out the server question.

thank you Emile.

 

[howiebrou]

Emile has optimized the Taiko Extreme USB drivers for the Wadax. over the next week or so i should be able to figure out the server question.

thank you Emile.

Popcorn at the ready....

 

[Taiko Audio]

Emile has optimized the Taiko Extreme USB drivers for the Wadax. over the next week or so i should be able to figure out the server question.

thank you Emile.

My pleasure Mike.

 

[microstrip]

A few big names over just the last few years have started to comment on digital (including redbook) having far greater 'true music' embedded in its bits/bytes. Martin Colloms for one I remember distinctly writing something to the effect of it was finally time that the outdated redbook format actually hit its stride with the latest generation of DACs and turned out after all these years to in fact be a solid format all along.

And now we have the mighty private, independent Mike L heading towards a not dissimilar result in the Wadax.

Forget about the big names. For many of us digital has shown great musicality besides technical performance since long. We did not need the latest generation of DACs to have music, but surely needed systems adequate to digital and an open mind. IMHO for most people the real problem was that they wanted their red book to emulate the characteristic sound of vinyl, not to sound like music.

 

[microstrip]

Emile has optimized the Taiko Extreme USB drivers for the Wadax. over the next week or so i should be able to figure out the server question.

thank you Emile.

I think you will only be able to figure it after you get XDMS!

 

[Kingrex]

[/QUOTE]

From experience most of us have to agree: we were talked into cds but the real culprits were lousy machines to play them with.

CD has been out for 40 year. A machine to play it well is more than a house in many parts of the country. I am not ready to start lauding the engineer who made redbook files yet.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I think you will only be able to figure it after you get XDMS!

not sure i have that much time flexibility.