Wyred 4 Sound's New DAC

[Black Sand Cable]

Is roughly two weeks away!

I'm pumped over this piece as it's using a better chip than the Oppo SE, Nova and a host of others that are currently out and given the guys at W4S are throwing everything they have at it, I'm expecting it to be a giant killer.

http://www.wyred4sound.com/webapps/site/74030/117839/shopping/shopping-view.html?pid=396494&b_id=&find_groupid=18157

[richidoo]

Nice price.  Keep up posted.

[shep]

Being a fan of these guys, I am interested indeed.

[rollo]

 The price is certainly fair. Good company. Keep us posted.


charles

[roscoeiii]

Details sent out today in W4S's newsletter (INCLUDING RELEASE DATES):

Two versions will be offered.  We will have one for those looking for a DAC to focus mainly on SPDIF sources and to operate as a stand-along unit.  This will be the DAC-1.  We will also offer the DAC-2; it will offer more inputs including the overdue 24 bit / 92kHz Asynchronous USB interface, volume control, remote control and HT bypass.  We are currently processing photos, and specs on the DACs, so please be patient, they're coming very soon.

DAC-1 product information

The DAC-1 will be offered with the following features:

    * ESS 9018 Sabre32 Reference DAC (32-bit dac)
    * W4S proprietary discrete output stages for optimum sonics
    * ESS Time Domain Jitter Eliminator®
    * Upgradable Digital, output, and USB boards (designed for future improvements)
    * Automatic 500kHz oversampling for precise output filtering
    * Fully balanced design with balanced and unbalanced outputs
    * Oversized toroidal transformer
    * Robust 35A bridge rectified power-supply with 88,000uF of filtering.
    * LCD display for input and sample rate viewing
    * 2x Coax inputs
    * 2x Toslink inputs
    * 16/48 USB input (future upgrade to 24/96 USB)
    * Retail = $999 (starts shipping 4/09/2010)


DAC-2 product information

The DAC-2 will be offered with the following features:

    * ESS 9018 Sabre32 Reference DAC (32-bit dac)
    * W4S proprietary discrete output stages for optimum sonics
    * ESS Time Domain Jitter Eliminator®
    * Upgradable Digital, output, and USB boards (designed for future improvements)
    * Automatic 500kHz oversampling for precise output filtering
    * Fully balanced design with balanced and unbalanced outputs
    * Oversized toroidal transformer
    * Robust 35A Schottky bridge rectifier (also used in the STP-SE)
    * 88,000uf of filtering with W4S low ESR "super-cap" (also used in the STP-SE)
    * VFD display for input, sample rate, and volume control viewing
    * Remote control
    * Defeatable - 32 bit volume control via remote
    * HT Bypass inputs (selectable via DC trigger)
    * 2x Coax inputs
    * 2x Toslink inputs
    * 1x AES/EBU input
    * 1x Balanced I2S input via HDMI cable (not standard HDMI cable format)
    * 24/192 Asynchronous USB input.
    * Retail = $1499 (estimated shipping 4/23/2010)

Oh boy oh boy

[rollo]

 Looking good. Nice specs. Great no Op amps. An Invert Polarity switch though IMO would be icing on the cake.



charles

[satfrat]

A tube output would have also been nice. 

[Black Sand Cable]

A tube output would have also been nice. 

Just out of curiosity...why?

The only reason I ask is that I recently did some testing with Peachtree's Nova. With 7 people in the room I played around bypassing the tube output and then adding it back into the mix and out of the 7 people in the room (8 if you count me) none of us knew when the tube was in use or not.

I just did the same thing yesterday with 4 people and again not one of them knew when the tube was in use or being bypassed.

I'm still floored as I wasn't expecting it but it really has me questioning a tube output on a DAC now.

[richidoo]

This DAC chip is so detailed and such low distortion and noise, I prefer not to have a tube following it directly. I can always add tube stage later. But since I've been using this chip I have hardly listened to tubes at all, because they cover up the ultra micro details.  I had the PS Audio DAC with Cullen's stage 4 mod, including his discreet output stage. It was pretty good. This one will be fun to hear.

[satfrat]

A tube output would have also been nice. 

Just out of curiosity...why?

The only reason I ask is that I recently did some testing with Peachtree's Nova. With 7 people in the room I played around bypassing the tube output and then adding it back into the mix and out of the 7 people in the room (8 if you count me) none of us knew when the tube was in use or not.

I just did the same thing yesterday with 4 people and again not one of them knew when the tube was in use or being bypassed.

I'm still floored as I wasn't expecting it but it really has me questioning a tube output on a DAC now.

Well I probably wouldn't have even had anything to say about it normally John but in the last 2 weeks I've had the honor of demo'ing the new Eastern Electric Dac where I've done comparisons with and without it's tube in 2 different systems along and the addition of the tube with it's added fullness of the notes and the 3D sound stage depth that helps hide loudspeaker localization is an undeniablely desired attraction of this Dac,,, so say we all (that were there ). Granted this is my 1st encounter with a tube Dac with nontube opamp option,,, but it's left me knowing what I want in a Dac and that's a tube buffer output,,, just like the Mhdt Havana w/o opamps which I opted for and which suits my system a little better than the dynamic EE DAC.

But I'd still love the opportunity to demo this Dac, mainly out of curiosity plus the fact that the other system who actually owns the EE DAC has the kickass D-Sonic Magnum 5 channel amp (made by Wyred) that is totally impressive with his Salk HT-3 based surround system. After hearing this system (especially with the EE Dac w/tube output in play), you can't help but wonder how this new Wyred Dac will perform.  

Cheers,
Robin

[laserman]

If this ever goes on an audition tour, I would like to give it a trial run also.

Lou

[Black Sand Cable]

If this ever goes on an audition tour, I would like to give it a trial run also.

Lou

When these are in full production I will see what I can do about arranging some type of tour.

[Carlman]

Cool, thanks, John... If the NC gang gets it, I'll be sure to have a DAC comparo at my place.  I'd like to get the EE here too.
-C

[Face]

A tube output would have also been nice. 

Just out of curiosity...why?

The only reason I ask is that I recently did some testing with Peachtree's Nova. With 7 people in the room I played around bypassing the tube output and then adding it back into the mix and out of the 7 people in the room (8 if you count me) none of us knew when the tube was in use or not.

I just did the same thing yesterday with 4 people and again not one of them knew when the tube was in use or being bypassed.

I'm still floored as I wasn't expecting it but it really has me questioning a tube output on a DAC now.

Were you using the Nova as a DAC or DAC/PRE? 

[Black Sand Cable]

I tried it both ways (that sounds so wrong!)