Wyred DACS

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the quick update! Looking forward to hearing more from your "serious evaluation".

What is it about using windows that makes it far from optimum? If I were to get this, I'd be using it with my laptop which is Windows Vista Home Premium....would this not be compatible or not recommended?

Thanks

The guy whose reference system we tried it out on did some further investigation when I left and this is what he posted in an unrelated thread on another forum (it was about a DAC shootout we were at):

Bill had a normal Laptop and I think he was using I River (it was J River) software. First impressions were ! well a little underwhelming. Nice and smooth to be sure , top end seemed a little down to me and the bass was Ahh lazy ! It did nothing wrong but it did nothing right either ! the ConnorNM24 killed it in my view. OK so bill leaves and I thought I’d just drop my Compaq laptop on and feed it some of my wav files from I tunes. HOLY SMOKE what just happened, It was instantly competitive with the NM24. This little alloy brick thingy must be very sensitive to what USB signal it’s fed. More on this device soon when we feed it with a Mac mini ( as recommended by Eric Hider ) It did however trail behind the NM24 overall and particularly in the bass , being still a touch inarticulate and rounded. Resolution was very good with no hardness or detectable digititis evident Perhaps with MacMini integration we could have a real competitor. Although Mr Hider has’nt stated what DAC is being used it sounds very 1704 ish to me.

So bottom line here is even with a bog standard windows machine we were achieving results comparable to an uber expensive heavily tweaked statement DAC. However this is getting a bit out of the scope of this thread. For you guys it is probably best to follow it on the thread in Audio Circles where I will be posting this stuff.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=74816.440

Thanks
Bill

I haven't tried their cables yet, but going from single ended to balanced did give me a larger soundstage.

i've had a Wyerd DAC1 running for about a week now - previously, i owned Weiss Minerva and Musical Fidelity Tri Vista... the Wyred is my favorite of the three. seems to combine the best traits of my prior DACs - has the detail and resolution of the Weiss, while maintaining the extraordinary soundstage and realism of the Tri Vista. it's a fantastic DAC, and a ridiculous bargain at its price.

@Ronwills... i've used balanced cables from audio art and sound silver - both sound fantastic, albeit slightly different.