Wavelength USB DACs

[deepak]

If any owners (or former owners) could offer impressions of the Wavelength USB DACs I would appreciate it. Or any good user reviews on other forums. Thanks

[n_maher]

Paging Johny Numbers and tyrion....

[jp11801]

this dac bested my transporter and wadia 301 by wide margins. I also liked this better than the esoterics 50/60, ayre cx7. The transporter while good has a tendency to sound thin with some high end glare or hash. The wadia had a thicker sound but lacked air and space. Now the bitch about this dac is there is almost nothing to it it was opened up at the last florida meet and it's a couple of lundi trannies and a medium sized board. I think the mojo with this dac is the use of output trannies and no opamps.

The biggest plus outside the sound it the move to a mac mini based system as an entertainment hub. The mini with 2 large hard drives gives me access to about 2800 cds with no fumbling around for the physical unit. IT ahas opened up my listening habits immensely and that alone was worth it. For what is it worth the cosecant seems to be a big step up from the brick but David can give better insight as he owned a brick and listened pretty heavily to my rig at the last NorCal meet.

[deepak]

Cool, did you guys take pictures of the insides?

[jp11801]

Cool, did you guys take pictures of the insides?

Flecom did I can open her up later today and take a few glory shots

[deepak]

Flecom did I can open her up later today and take a few glory shots

Thanks a lot, more to satisfy my curiosity.

What tube are you using in your DAC?

[iceman94]

Does anything stick out about the bass response of these DACs? Poking around, its the one major caveat I've seen in other threads/forums.

I'd also love to see a Wavelength DAC put up against a Modwright Transporter (remove the opamp nasties, and I think the tube output stage is transformer coupled), but that's way too wishful...

[deepak]

Does anything stick out about the bass response of these DACs? Poking around, its the one major caveat I've seen in other threads/forums.

I'd also love to see a Wavelength DAC put up against a Modwright Transporter (remove the opamp nasties, and I think the tube output stage is transformer coupled), but that's way too wishful...

Any links? I know there is some Wavelength talk on AA (and Gordon Rankin posts there).

[jp11801]

there is nothing wrong with the bass response on the cosecant, i have not heard the brick so I can not comment on it

[iceman94]

Any links? I know there is some Wavelength talk on AA (and Gordon Rankin posts there).

None I recall, just casual searches at AA.

[Fing]

Being a resolutely PC as source person, I thought about getting a Cosecant and ended up with a Crimson instead.

The triode outputs, battery power, NOS and upgrade-ability of the modules swung it for me, since it currently only supports 16bit 44.1KHz playback.

Gordon tells me that there will be a 24bit module that will also support 16bit as well as 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96KHz playback in January, in ASYNC ISO mode, whatever that means.

I have no complaints about the sound. Superb tone and microdetail. Unfortunately I don't have any high end sources to compare it with.

[deepak]

Holy shit you have a Crimson? Pics man, inside shots if possible

[Fing]

http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d6/firmfroggy/Crimson/

[tyrion]

I've been pretty happy since moving to the Cosecant/mac mini setup. Like jp, I am listening to music that I probably wouldn't be if I was still using those silver discs. As a source, it's probably the best I've owned. I've had an Apollo, Berendsen CDP-1 (Gamut CD-1), Esoteric DV-50, Ayre C-7xe and have heard a number of other $1500 to $4000 cdps and I can't think of one I would take over the Cosecant. I really can't find any fault with it. There is nice extension at both ends, excellent soundstage and imaging and the mids really shine. It's gotten even better with the changes in my system. I hope to try out a Cayin iDac-1 this week and see how it compares. A customer auditioned the first one into my local shop and it never returned. Two more should arrive this week, with any luck.

[jp11801]

http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d6/firmfroggy/Crimson/

damn I have serious Crimson lust it will have to wait till 1/1/09

[boomana]

damn I have serious Crimson lust it will have to wait till 1/1/09

Who wants to put money on jp numbers not being able to keep his commitment to buying no gear in 2008? I'm waiting to see what creative loopholes he can find.

[tyrion]

Who wants to put money on jp numbers not being able to keep his commitment to buying no gear in 2008? I'm waiting to see what creative loopholes he can find.

I've been counseling him on those loopholes. You would be surprised how many you can come up with when you put your mind to it. Once you move audio gear into the need column from the want column, it's easy.

[909]

exceedingly rare and/or out of production gear and virtually anything that's so substantially below the FMV you'd be insane not to buy are completely valid exclusions.

[Augsburger]

My rule is if I think about a piece of gear for more than four weeks straight it is immediately upgraded to "essential". Luckily I am easily distracted.