Wyred 4 Sound DAC1 or DAC2?

I thought that was you :-) Not to be ahh sexist but most can't tell that the gear has changed, all looks the same to them.. Silence is golden. oh may want to check this out:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/wyred4/dac.html

Now, that my W4S DAC-2 has arrived two days ago and has been playing continuously since, I'll try to help someone else probably having the same dilemma as me.
I won't be able to make a sound comparison between DAc-1 and DAC-2, for I never had them both, but I can compare them from the feature difference perspective and how they worked for me.
1. Asynchronous USB. It works superbly with the W4S drivers. I'm using Foobar with Kernel streaming. My previous PS Audio DLIII with Cullen IV mods never sounded as good via USB as via SPDIF coax. USB was always grainy. That forced me to keep my docking station (that's how I was getting SPDIF out) and to employ a decent digital interconnect. Now I am connecting the DAC-2 via its included USB cable and the sound was never better in my system.
2. Volume control. This is a killer feature. I always liked my Musical Fidelity A3CR preamp. I don't have the least bad thing to say about it. But I felt weird every time I thought about it and saw just an attenuator on steroids. This is because I have only one source, my computer, playing lossless flac 16/44.1 or hi-res files. The volume control in DAC-2 is the cleanest possible and working in the digital domain is superb. The Sabre DAC chip works internally in 32 bits, thus all samples, be them 16 or 24 bit in depth need to be upscaled prior to D/A conversion. The digital attenuation DAC-2 applies is in fact less upscaling. It is a lot of room, (48 dB for 24 bit streams and 96 dB for 16 bit streams), before any resolution is lost due to this process. According to Robert Harley, 20 bit audio is state-of-the-art and the last 4 bits in 24 bit processing are "marketing bits". This makes for, in fact, 72 dB of attenuation margin inside DAC-2 even for hi-res streams before any resolution loss occurs.
This is the theoretical support for what my experience with DAC-2 attests. The volume control of the DAC-2 works excellently even when paired with a 31KOhm input impedance power amp. In stark contrast with the bad experience I had when trying to feed the Benchmark directly into my power amp, DAC-2 delivers. DAC-2 directly into my MF A3CR power amp sounds significantly better than the PS Audio through MF A3CR preamp.
On top of this, the nice features possible when operating in the digital domain let me configure the volume control such as the max voltage outputted by the DAC-2 is 1V. This is exactly what my power amp needs to go full bore. Thus I'm not worried that I could ever overload it.

Thus, to sum up. The $499 difference between DAC-1 and DAC-2 allowed me to eliminate a coax digital interconnect, a docking station, a preamplifier, a PS Audio xStream Prelude SC power cord and a pair of Audioquest Columbia with 72V DBS interconnects. All this while giving me the best sound I've ever had in my system.

I know that DAC-2 has an improved power supply when compared to DAC-1. This should, at least in theory, result in better sound. Of course, I cannot say anything in this regard, for I never listened to DAC-1. But, for me at least, even if DAC-1 and DCA-2 sound the same, the 2 features mentioned above made the DAC-2 the better choice.

Of course, this is only my opinion.

Hi Mihaitaa,
Can you comment in more details the sound quality between the DAC-2 and PS Audio DLIII with Cullen IV mods? I have the PS Audio DLIII with Cullen III mods. I know the USB on the PS Audio is inferior to SPDIF coax. What about comparing coax on both DACS? I would expect DAC-2 to be better because of the higher price and newer technology, but is it that much better? Or is the difference quite subtle? For someone who enjoys music, and a decent sub $3000 (simaudio I3 + totem staff) system, are you going to be able to walk into a room and say, "wow, the DAC-2 is so much better"?

Happybob,

The main issue, when trying to answer your question, is that, as I wrote in this thread, I first sold and then bought. Thus I couldn't A/B PS Audio and W4S DACs on equal basis.
The moment I got the DAC-2, DL3 and the preamp were gone.
Never got to run DAC-2 through the same preamp as the DL3. I noticed improved dynamics and clarity with W4S, better extension both ways, highs and lows and better imaging. The soundstage is so "real", I feel I could touch things in it. Also more texture and inner detail. All these quite substantially, not at all that subtle. And my W4S is still far from fully broken-in (still < 200 hours). As it breaks in, became a bit brighter now. I'm expecting from it to "shed off this brightness" as stated in the manual.
From my experience with Benchmark directly in my power amp, the MF preamp never worsened the sound, to the contrary, thus I infer that the improvements are mostly, albeit not totally, due to the DAC-2 itself. Eliminating the preamp and a set of interconnects definitely helped in immediacy and clarity.
Thus, as a guy with a modest system (MF A3CR power amp and Sonus Faber Concerto Domus speakers), I could still say "damn, this DAC-2 is really a nice step up from the DL3".
Again, this is only my opinion.

It is certainly a step up from my Theta Pro Progeny...I'm really enjoying all the details and richness of the music. I changed many things in the system within about a month's time so it was hard to say what was doing what at first...but it is all working together nicely and we are spending hours listening. We have just over 110 hours on it now, it was brighter at first, bass a bit "wooly" and I noted early on that the vocals were rather "hot" sounding. Around 80 hours showed a marked improvement with vocals sounding terrific and bass tight and huge soundstage happening. Just gets smoother and richer sounding by the day, really happy with it. I am just using it in balanced mode with the Squeezebox, one of these days I'll figure out high res and hook it to the IMAC. They are in different rooms and I'm not sure just how to work all that out...always something new to learn about in this hobby these days.