Wavelength Brick

[granodemostasa]

I was on A'gon and saw this for 1000 and couldn't resist..... and i actually was the first to get it... i pondered, i searched, i asked and found no rea answers or reviews... except engineering jib jab about it's interface. So i went ahead and bought it. now i'm left wondering if i should sell it the second i get it... the insides don't look all that impressive... and the reviewers seem so enchanted by it's USB input that they forgot to check how it sounds.

[Dusty Chalk]

So...was there a question in there?

J/K

You should definitely listen to it before you buy it. And roll that friggin' tube. I'm listening to an Ei Elite 12AU7EG (gold pin) into a pair of CCa's, and it sounds wonderful.

[granodemostasa]

sorry, my question is: how does it sound, what is it's sound sig and characteristics.

[humanflyz]

Woo, take one for the team.

[hungrych]

I've always wondered about this, there really aren't any credible reviews anywhere. Way to take one for the team!

[granodemostasa]

screw this, i'm mailing him and telling him this sale is off (cold feet). his own personal review said it was tuby and such... i'm not lining out my rig for the GS1000 yet, i'm a sennheiser and don't need more tubes!

[granodemostasa]

better idea.. i'm going to hold on to my old rig, and then compare them and then decide.....

[granodemostasa]

preliminary report: comparison

Zhaolu- faster, cleaner, more treble

brick- more impactful, a bass and a midrange, not just treble. actually sounds natural, no artificial coat or sheen.

bad: brick's got a not so good soundstage, and it reminds me of how tuby and bassy my headphone rig has become... i think i've lost the treble... either i get a GS1000, silver ICs or loose the brick.

good- my system actually has some authority to it's sound, and some naturalness... no longer a cheap source.. and vocals sound amazing.

[philodox]

zapfilter the zhaolu man, you won't regret it

[granodemostasa]

zapfilter the zhaolu man, you won't regret it

what makes the zhaolu such a good dac that it's worth adding output stage after output stage to it?

gah.. too much bass! my head hurts! maybe the K701 will cure this.

[granodemostasa]

update: sounds much better after swapping the interconnects...the bass is tighter, things are not as warm and in slow as in the past.... still, things are not that good.... it still doesn't have the soundstage that i crave.

[aerius]

gah.. too much bass! my head hurts! maybe the K701 will cure this.

You should get a PS-1 Pro, it'll definitely help with the bass issues.

[granodemostasa]

haha... adding a ps-1 atop of this rig would literally blow my mind out.

i switched the ICs and it truely made all the difference... i don't often say it, but those Grover UR8 cables do wonders for opening up the sound, getting rid of muddiness, tightening the bass and extending the treble.

in any case, i still find things to be lacking in soundstage and speed... i'm sending the Zhaolu in for more mods... so i'll be interesting to see what ori has been cooking up for the zhaolu.

also, there is a reality that the brick is lacking in dynamics... i'm looking directly at it's little wal wort and wondering if i could get someone to build me, or find out there, a 13.5v ac power supply....

[philodox]

what makes the zhaolu such a good dac that it's worth adding output stage after output stage to it?

Output stage after output stage? The zapfilter replaces the output stage. And as for the DAC itself, the CS dac that you can get with it is the same one that is in the CD-E5, and I think it has a decent clock in it. All that aside, I have heard a zapfilter modded zhaolu and it sounded great.

[JBLoudG20]

I'm sure that Ori overcooked whatever he has breweing for the Zhaolu, and even then, he was cooking some shitty grade F beef.

[philodox]

LOL, wouldn't surprise me.

[granodemostasa]

i saw a "silver" brick on the forum today for 2400.... i didn't even know they made such an expensive version of it....

[granodemostasa]

it looks like i might be saying goodby to the brick.. which is sad, since i'm finally learning to love it in my set up. in any case, i think this will be my final review of it:

the Brick-

the brick is a USB, tube dac. it basically carries with it all the magic that a tube dac can problably create. it's far simpler to implement with a computer than the zhaolu, which takes the converter (in my case, i'm using the audiophile usb).

The dac reacts poorly to poor interconnects, i did a test, and the differences in interconnects are not to be underestimated; with my monster/radio shack cables it sounded terrible, but with my Grover UR8 it was pure magic.

where it sounds best is pieces with piano, voices, and deep insturments. there is serious "weight" and punch with every note delivered (far more than with the benchmark or ori zhaolu). the sounds is amazingly smooth, so much so that it makes a laugher out of the harsher presentations of dacs like the benchmark and oritek.

the soundstage does leave things to be desired, this isn't the K1000 but the grado RS-1, the presentation is upfront and in your face, which is nothing like the laid back zhaolu. however, this isn't to say that there is no separation; it's separation is right up there with the best of dacs, but it's certainly different from what i've heard in the past.

the biggest advantage is the simple path of upgrades, there are power supply upgrades and tube upgrades (i would like to roll more tubes one of these days).

the ori dac

if the wavelength is a roaring lion, the ori dac is a singing bird. there is a lighter sound to the ori dac, in fact, with the UR8, i found it to be far brighter and treble centered (although not as horrifyingly bright as the benchmark). it does react well with interconnects, but i think the UR8 might be a little too lean for it, i may get a continuous cast copper (very warm/heavy sounding) interconnect if i decide to keep it.

this, in fact, brings me to it's biggest problem (and why i started searching for other things), which is the general presence of each note played, they were there, but somewhat light sounding in comparison to other dacs.

there are obvious advantages to the ori dac, it's soundstage is wide, laid back and super clean sounding (although not very holographic in nature). probably my favorite aspect is how fast it is, the decays, the hits, the attacks all sound nice and crisp, it really did give an added level of speed and refinement to my HD650.

compared:

the brick has a wider and flatter frequency range than the ori, that is, it can portray more notes at the bottom and more at the top before things start sounding alike. the ori, on the otherhand, has greater dynamics (probably due to ori's transformer moddifications). a friend pionted out that the zhoalu sounds like a brick of butter, but the wavelength sounds like spread out butter-it covers more music, but it's dynamics are not as great.

i did a resolution test, and, surprizingly, i actually thought i got more detail with the brick than the ori dac, but i still havn't seen how that translates on the music....

in any case, it looks like my next stop will be the slimdevices transporter....