@clearthinker yes the Wadia 16 had 1702 DAC chips every player that I owned or listened to with 1702 had a hardness and almost brightness to the top end. I picked a Wadia six because it had k63 DAC chips the Wadia 15 I believe had those chips as well if I remember correctly. To bad you never owned a player with the Ulta analog DAC chips in it.
Remember you cannot judge q whole label by one recording either.
Regards |
@nonoise I feel like I had been living under the rocks.. All these great options.. I am struggling to curb my itch to move from the D03X to D10X.. I need intervention.. |
Well the Wadia was pretty good with other recordings. Anyhow, you may not be right on these chips. The first three Wadia 16 reviews I turned up say 'Super'. 'Simply the best'. 'One of the best CD players ever made. Hmmm Choice of chips can be personal and a company like Wadia ought to be able to be trusted not to use turkeys. How come their engineers and listening staff couldn't hear the problem and you can? Digital audio using solid state components will always be an issue. All transistors were hard and grainy from the very get go and many still are. It's not so easy replicating an analogue experience with a stepped digital representation and a jittery clock interface. DACS are the main issue with digital sound and in my view the problem may never be solved. I'm not sure I've EVER heard a good digital recording of massed strings - these are really prone to hardness and especially grain. Many LPs have much more concert realism on this. One could say that using digital storage to listen to analogue sound is like starting with an apple, changing it into an orange and then changing it back to an apple again so we can eat it. Obviously the repeated conversions are likely to change the character of the apple and it may not be so good to eat. In my experience fiddling with stuff rarely improves it. On 'one duff disc' of course I hear what you say but if you pay a premium price for a bad recording/production/disc from what should be a reputable company, it kinda puts you off buying more. They don't tax returns - indeed I bought it in the US at a show and live in UK. It is important such companies as Chesky run very tight quality control for their own good as well as that of their customers. |
@rman9 ,I'm right there with you on the upgrade itch and don't feel bad about the rock you live under. It offers great insulation from the heat. 😄 I'm doing my level best to hold off on getting a newer and matching SACD player for my new integrated. My old one sounds fantastic with the new integrated and two different associates at MusicDirect told me that my 8 yr old SACD player is still a great sounding unit and that I wouldn't get that much of an upgrade with the newer one. You'd think they'd like to move more product but they've always been on the level with me, yet... All the best, |
