Wyred DACS

Hi All

I thought I posted my review from last Saturday but it still doesn't seem to be there. Rather than post it again and have two posts if it does eventually appear I will give a link to audio circles where I also posted it:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=83276.20

Bottom line from me is - yes it is very good but more expensive DAC's can beat it - and it was not scary close to the one that did beat it. And from my perspective that USB issue is very maddening. I will contact EJ about it and try to get it sorted out - but I am not looking forward to it. I am sure it will eventually get rectified one way of another but bug hunting and rectification is not my idea of fun. I worked as a programmer for 30 years with 20 year as a senior programmer/team leader. I grew to hate it then and now I am retired thought my days of doing it were over - I was wrong.

Thanks
Bill

Hi Again All

Had a chance to put the WFS into my system and ho-rah ho-rah actually got it to work by using the Kernel Streaming mode of J River as recommended by EJ at WFS. Even got the 192/24 bit up-sampling working. Already I can say it is a few notches above the Audio GD Compass I was using before - but I already knew that from the comparisons we had done. Interestingly it may have toned down a bit of metallic glare and sibilance control that I put down to the little tripath amp I was previously using. Will report further as my listening progresses.

Thanks
Bill

Now I got the 192/24 bit up-sampling working and have been listening for a few hours- WOW - the detail this thing retrieves is quite simply breathtaking. For example did you know there was a bit of tape hiss in parts of Christina Aguilera Back to Basics - neither did I - but I heard it very clearly. Not only that but the slight glare and sibilance my system had has now been reduced to the point you have to concentrate a bit to hear it most of the time. I think while Mikes DAC is better hearing it this way (ie via up-sampling and asynchronous USB) may level the playing field a bit. There even less doubt in my mind now computer audio is the future.

Thanks
Bill

Hi Guys

Been playing around with the DAC and have noticed the right side is louder than the left. I don't know why we didn't notice it before - all I can think of is when we were testing it the balance was adjusted to compensate or maybe it only happens on the USB input.

However this seems to a known issue:
http://www.wyred4sound.com/

Anyway I have contacted EJ at WFS and put in a service request to get a new top cover assembly. I suspect simply adjusting the balance will resolve the issue in the interim so will continue checking it out until the fix arrives.

Thanks
Bill

I just noticed the note on the W4S web site about this.
My DAC 2 was shipped from W4S on Friday, hopefully it has the fix.