Hello all. I was fortunate to spend the afternoon with Mike and friends. First off, thank you Mike for having me. And again, sorry to get my time mixed up. I arrived a little over an hour early. It was nice chatting with Elliot of Bending Wave.
Being early I got to sit in the best seat for about an hour and just listen to music. Mike had the Wadax DAC and server in place. Mike asked me if I thought it sounded like vinyl. I had to say I had no idea. His system is so --------.. it's just beyond anything I hear day to day. Its tuned incredibly well. It is the most live system I have ever heard. Elliot put on a Ginger Baker album. Mikes system plays drums with speed and dexterity. The horns are present. I found myself sitting through song after song with my eyes closed and head bobbing all around. If I was alone I would have been air thrashing the drums.
Eventually everyone else showed up. Mike played half and hour to 40 minutes of the Wadax for everyone, then put the MSB/Taiko in. It was immediate and striking how different they were. No one did not hear it. It was easy to hear the change.
After maybe a half hour of that he put vinyl in. We did a few songs on vinyl. We even did an album that was direct to disc. And then put the Wadax back in with the same cut that was direct to tape, then pressed to vinyl.
The big take away was the Wadax was very similar to Mikes CS Port phono rig. If it were not for surface noise on the vinyl, I might have a hard time distinguishing which source was used. I'm sorry to say it, but the Wadax did not sound like the MSB. Not at all. The MSB was somewhere not vinyl like. It was making its own sound. What really irritates me is I see no way to approach the type of playback Wadax creates with digital, outside focusing on my vinyl and making that better. But that sucks because I stream or play file 90% of the time.
And here is another kicker. We didn't play a single optimized file stored on a hard drive with the Wadax combo. Every song was Roon streaming Qobuz. And the Wadax absolutely slayed it. I am 100% serious in saying, a good clean record played against a streamed file, both of the same mastering are virtually indistinguishable. Honestly, I may have preferred the Wadax to CS Port. Both came alive and set your body moving and grooving the music.
Hands down, the Wadax combo is the most vinyl like recreation of digital music I have ever heard. It did not sound digital at all. AND, almost every track we played was 44.1. Plain oll Redbook streamed from Qobuz files. The Wadax combo has ended my belief that digital and vinyl are both great, but have their own sonic signature. For all intents and purposes, digital through the Wadax is fairly indistinguishable from vinyl on many levels.
Elliot played jazz and vocal music all day. Music that seems to be Mikes preferred music. I know he likes large scale classical, but we did not play any. I did ask Elliot to put on The Who. I could see someone more focused on Rock preferring the MSB. You would hear the difference between the two. You would hear the Wadax is more true to the source. But you may gravitate to the MSB. It was flatter, but meatier. Most rockers I know gravitate to bass. The MSB had weight and heft. I am going to say its not there on the source. But I like body when I have Lynrd Skynyrd cranking in my room.
I never heard the Wadax DAC fed with the Taiko. We heard the combo. We also did not hear the MSB feed with the Wadax server. Mike is going to have to dissect that pairing. Together, the Wadax combo is outstanding. How much is a function of DAC or function of server or synergy was not investigated while I was there.
Rex
