W4S DAC

I have the W4S 10th anniversary DAC, one of the reviewers put it up against his VPI turntable with a $5,000 Japanese cartridge and he said it was every bit as analog sounding, on that review I bought it because it also had a 30-day trial period and I can tell you this it is extremely analog sounding and when it can go Head to Head with DACs that cost three to five times more that saying a lot to me and it also depends on your associated equipment and wiring as well, I only use rectangular OCC single crystal wire throughout my whole system cuz I found it to be the best wire for audio on the market even far superior to the round OCC and even more superior to anything OFC at any price and my associated equipment is very high in as well I use a sim audio p8 preamp and a sim audio w8 amp which I will be soon upgrading to the new 861 amp, I put this DAC up against the SIM audio $15,000 DAC and it was far superior, and if you read the reviews it's gone up against many DAC's double and triple the price and beaten them, I think this is one of those giant killers that doesn't get enough press.

@navyachts 

I hope you picked this up in viewing my system and I should have mentioned I use the 10th with the Wyred USB ISO and DC Recovery products.   The reclocking USB and DC filters further increase performance by lowering jitter further removing digital glare, lowering noise floor providing better retrieval of secondary harmonics and decay as well as imaging and staging, and more liquidity.  Ditch the supplied pig tail USB and wall wart and use you favorite cable and after market switching or linear 5V DC supply.  I found the improvement notable.  I did not do the head to head comparison with the 2 Recovery in line.  Should have. Of course there are better reclockers and linear power supplies but this was an improvement at a reasonable spend.  Recommended.  

@magnuman @jsalerno277 thanks guys, I may just give the DAC a shot!

jsalerno277,

How did you find the improvement to your speakers when you put them on the Townshend podiums? When I did it to my speakers it was a revelation it was as if I had upgraded the electronics to far more expensive gear.

@magnuman 

I confirm your observation that the improvement was to a degree equivalent as changing a major component.  While this may seem like a theme, the Podiums produced better clarity, less background noise, better imaging and staging, and more detail retrieval, especially base detail, and better micro and macro dynamics.  I believe in vibration isolation.  All electronics are isolated with a number or products as well as the Podiums for the speakers.  I found better performance with the speaker spikes left on rather than the recommended set-up with spikes off and direct speaker contact with the Podiums.  However, I am sure this is speaker and room dependent and you should conduct your own evaluation.