Please recommend: DAx Decade/wadia64.4/AA Capitole

Guys,

I am looking for a s/h CD player/DAC. I can get a DAX Decade + transport, a Wadia 64.4 + transport or an Aero Audio Capitole markII for about the same money.

My music tastes are mainly heavy rock / metal.

Which one would you recommend?

 

From your list I only have experience of the DAC Decade. A point that may be of interest is that the Decade can be upgraded by the manufacturer to give a worthwhile performance improvement by fitting Black Gate capacitors, a usefull upgrade for later on when the upgrade bug bites.

Regards
Gary

 

My recollection of the Wadia is dim, so I won't comment. The AA I have heard recently, it's a very good player which should suit your musical taste well.

 

Decade out of that lot, the older wadia, I don't feel will cut it, the AA is far too nice a presenation to do proper rock, a great player for sure, but rock isn't is forte'

 

you say dax + transport. if that's an AudioSynthesis transport with Ncode, then just go for it. It adds a new dimension with accoustic, though I'm not sure how you would notice with heavy rock / metal ;-)

 

Ditton,
unfortunately I dont think I can afford the AudioSynthesis transport. I was more thinking of a PC drive into a USB card or Squeezebox into the Decade.

One more question, you dont think DAC technology has moved on and left the DAX Decade behind, do you? In general are the latest and greatest 192KHz or whatever sampling DACs better than the older 44KHz ones?

 

greg,
i use a squeezebox 2 / decade and everytime i think i've got it's sound nailed it surprises me by digging out a bit of detail i missed before or a rythmic subtlety that i'd not heard with my previous kit.
the thing is a/s kit isn't immediatley in your face impressive like (say) a naim cd player however you can just listen for hours (like i do every day as i work at home) and either rock out, chill out or go wave your hands in the air crazy as the mood takes you.
if you can;t tell, i really like the decade sb2 combo and doubt i'll upgrade unless i win the lottery and even then i'm not sure what i'd go for then.
yes i've heard other kit that does specific things better but nothing that (to my ears) sounds as good.
here's a tip. if you have a preamp go for a dax-2. this doesn;t have the volume control, dithering or natty display but with the npc filter option it's just as good as the decade and can be had for half the price.
cheers


julian

 

No not in my book.

All the CD players I hav heard that get to the heart of the musical message use old multibit technology and lack upsampling in all it's forms.

Don't get me wrong, the Capitole and dCS gear are very impressive and offer alternative presentations majoring on imaging and air. Somehow both of them seem to lose something in the process IMO which may well be important to you if you are a rock fan.

My favourite CD player/Dac is of course the Marantz CD7 at sensible money second hand. The Dax is very good indeed, maybe slightly less involving than the Marantz, but very even handed and not exposed in any area IMO.

The Marantz is an integrated player with digital inputs, which I use for an Apple music server. This offers the best of both worlds but it seems to be the case that a dedicated transport does outperform PC based alternatives in the final analysis.

Another player to consider would be the Sim Moon Eclipse, again a multibit player and offering a digital input. Sourced s/h from the states they work out at around £2K and voltage conversion is apparently a simple switch in the PSU.

 

I plan to run the DAX Decade /AA capitole/other directly into a class D power amp with no preamp.

 

Capitole needs a preamp IMO. Sounds a hell of a lot better with one.

 

I don't think the Wadia 64 has a pre out function, I could be wrong on this.

I have heard it, actually with the Wadia Transport I've just sold, and it was very pleasant and didn't do anything wrong but really didn't do much right either, worth a demo though if its easy to get hold of, but I'm sure it still needs a pre in the system to work
PK

 

The AA definately need a pre-amp its so much better with one (Ex AA owner)

 

Why don't you get a Benchmark Dac1?

 

The benchmark needs a pre-amp even more so (IMHO)

 

Thanks guys, I am going to demo the DAX Decade. I will let you how I get on.