Wadia "alive and well"

Well, like Dean, I can listen to it for hours on end and it's not tiring at all I don't have a problem with people not liking the 64, I'm very happy with mine and that's all that matters really but it's sad to think that some potential buyers might be put off by all this stuff about hardness I guess anyone about to spend £1500+ on a DAC would have the sense to listen and decide for themselves.

Michael.

 

Chaps,

One thing I've learnt about hifi equipment in such a short space of time is that different pieces of equipment react differently in the various systems into which they are inserted. Recounting a negative experience with a particular piece of equipment is highly unlikely to put off potential buyers. The DAC64 is good but in the three system configurations in which it was tried, it sounded too full-on as if the loudness button has been engaged but could not then be disengaged. Again, it sounded strident in my system environment. It may have been a synergy thing but just because myself and a few others on this board have picked-up on what we regard as the DAC64's weaknesses, doesn't make it a bad product. Far from it. Alhough, if I were still using tube amplifiers, it would be high on my list to purchase.

On another but related note, one player that was also a guest at Lawrie Mansions but that I forgot to mention was the Ayre CX-7. For the money which is USD 2,950 (and which I think costs GBP 2,950 in the U.K.) it has many positive qualities to it's sound notably it's rythmic bass, clean but musical sound and engaging performance. It was preferred over the Wadia 302 (which is around GBP 1,000 more expensive) in the value fo money stakes. The Ayre player appeared to be well balanced across all frequencies and there was not a hint of brightness to it's sound. It's sound was not too disimilar to what I own right now and in many instances, it was hard to tell them apart although I am using 'oldish' digital gear with no upsampling which I think is a marketing gimmick anyway. One thing I did not like about the Ayre CX-7 however, was that I found the top plate to be a bit rattly which I felt caused it to resonate. Trying to tighten the screws did not work as they were tight enough. Funnily enough, I read a local review of this player yesterday and the reviewer also commented on the rattly top plate and I know he wasn't listening to the same player that I had at home. However, if you are a tweak freak, then you'd love this player as it is very responsive to power cord changes and isolation devices. It would have been great to try a Seismic sink under it but none was available although using vibrapods seemed to add some more weight to the presentation. So there you have it.

Of all the players I had at home, the Krell SACD Standard was the one that surprised me the most as it's redbook section simply played music. I am on record for declaring that I dislike the Krell sound especially their amplifiers (that I've heard) but with this player, I think Krell has redeemed itself in my books (temporarily). It is a toe-tapping player indeed and for a multi-format and surround sound capable player, it is very good. We tried it on it's balanced connections which are around 6dB higher than the single-ended connections and on the wide-bandwidth Karan Acoustics amplifiers, it was superb. Again, power cords from Siltech and Transparent affected the sound for the 'subjectively' better. One negative point about the Krell is that it's transport is noisy although it is not intrusive and I reckon this could be easily fixed by the factory. Also, it has too many tiny buttons which resemble spots on a teenager's face. Some of those buttons contain the different filter settings which are very effective unlike the two filters at the back of the Ayre-CX-7 player which did nothing. I won't go into details on it's SACD performance suffice to say that it is good although nothing can be taken away from it's red-book section on which 95% of the listening was done. As mentioned before, the Krell would be invited again to Lawrie Mansions (maybe late next year) but for the other units, well they were sent back with a note saying "I'll call if I need you". Btw, thanks guys for all your best wishes which will be passed onto Mrs. Lawrie.





Enjoy the music,

Lawrie.

 

It's funny, one of our local Portuguese audio scribes recently compared the Krell SACD standard against the Chord DAC64 and rated them both very highly but favoured the DAC64

As to the Krell sound, I'm going to be demoing their new integrated (KAV-400xi) in my system tonight - I've heard it in the shop and it's not your typical Krell sound at all.

Michael.