Wyred DACS

Cutterfilm wrote:

I'm going straight from my DAC-2 to my Musical Fidelity A3.2cr amp and it's sounding a little harsh in the upper register.

Do you notice this harshness more when using lots of attenuation, or is it present equally throughout the DAC2's entire attenuation range?
Can you discern any (other) changes in sound quality as attenuation increases?
I may be getting this DAC some day and would like to know more about the attenuator's audible characteristics. Thanks.

Yea it makes sense. The reason I up-sampled everything to 192/24 is I thought it reduced the sibilance control issue better. But what I found was the mac operating system was better, and with further experimenting I found Play with no up-sampling sounded better again - clearer and more neutral to my ears. However interestingly today when we checked out Play on the Tranquility one of the guys thought the bass was a problem. My advice is to suck it and see.

Thanks
Bill

I am at a loss to understand why Bhobba suffers from glare and sibilance from W4S. From my experience, I could not attribute that to the DAC itself but must conclude its source is upstream in Bhobba's system or in his cables. I have been using the W4S DAC2 for a few months now, probably have about 50 - 75 hrs on it, and if anything I find it on the laid back side of the spectrum (not unpleasantly so , although this may change with greater use.

My source is a CEC TL-1X through a Stealth Sextet AES/EBU digicable to DAC set at fixed output.

Overall, I think it is an exceptional DAC regardless of price and facilities. When those are taken into account it is the proverbial steal. And I went from a Dodson 218, no slouch itself though perhaps a bit dated at this point.

Neal

I agree, no glare or sibilance here with my DAC-1 or DAC-2. Maybe he has an impedance mismatch or just poor synergy?

@Face and Nglazer,

Thanks for your points and thoughts. Much appreciated.

Your speculations are exactly the kinds of things, especially the variables of impedance mismatch or poor synergy that daunt me in the DAC ugrade selection process.

Wyred and others don't seem too enthusiastic about a trial period, or mention of a "loaner," and while I understand their point of view regarding this, a poor fit into a system could be expensive on a number of annoying levels. Even the idea of going to a dealer and listening to the DACs in question is problematic given these variables.

I continue to be very interested in audiogoners' careful and thoughtful recommendations; I'm definitely not interested in a bandwagon rah-rah approach.

:) listening,

Ed