USB DAC Recommendation

We are eliminating the fan on the Empirical Audio Overdrive DAC.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Just to be clear, the Tranquility doesn't down sample - that is done by the computer on the fly. If one leaves their files, i.e., hi rez, that way and then changes to a dac that is then capable of the high sample rate - no down sampling is then performed by the computer.

I'd buy the W4S Dac 2 for $1500.00 and use it as a baseline to compare others too. When you find one that's better.. really better, you'll probably be able to get 80+percent back on the W4S, and you'll know, really know, that you got the Dac that suits your ears and system. All the Dac's out there sound different from one another.. buying by the label is always a bad idea.. just my $.02

The problem with the W4S are the proprietary drivers needed to run on the source machine vs. the native OS drivers used by Ayre/Wavelength.

Changes in operating system framework may require these drivers to be updated which could become problematic.

"The problem with the W4S are the proprietary drivers needed to run on the source machine vs. the native OS drivers used by Ayre/Wavelength.

Changes in operating system framework may require these drivers to be updated which could become problematic."

I personally wouldn't really consider this a "problem." You could say the same thing about device that a computer uses which requires drivers. Every single PCI/PCIe sound card, graphics card, network chip, ... all fall into this category.

Sound related OS updates that require driver updates for a dac are going to occur few and far between, if at all, and if/when they do happen, assuming W4S is still around, it would be pretty safe to assume that they will be able to update their drivers.