DanG

For me the best combination of convenience and sound comes from having a DAC with remote-controlled input switching, high resolution (32 bit) digital volume control and an analog bypass to acommodate analog sources. I'm using the Wyred 4 Sound DAC2 and it sounds great to me. Obviously (to me) the analog output stages have been thoughfully developed and incorporated to provide fine quality from digital sources. When I need to use an analog source, I use my old analog preamp connected to the analog bypass ("home theater bypass") of the DAC2, so I still have a all analog signal path if I want it (for playing LP's) while also having the convenience and subjective sound beefiness provided by the DAC's analog output stages for my digital sources. DanG

Chris, thank you for the Sonos review. I've been using the Sonos system for several years and it is, to me, the exemplary balance of ease of use, features and outstanding customer support. While I understand others preference for Squeezebox or other products, the Sonos approach is so simplified and well developed that it's hard to fault for the things that it does. My only complaint (more like a strong wish) is that there is no support of 24 bit content. If the system handled 24/96 content, I'd have to say it was darned near perfect for me.<br /> <br /> And speaking of darned near perfect, Sonos tech support is first-rate. There are many resources available but the fact that you can pick up the phone, call a toll-free number, and talk to a support tech free of charge is sooo satisfying (and seemingly rare these days). I have had problems like loosing the mapping of my NAS music drive and other "simple" computer issues (I'm no computer whiz), that the support tech solved easily and with a friendly and positive attitude. They can take control of your computer remotely (with your permission) and get to the root of the issues right away.<br /> <br /> Their products always seem well thought out and debugged before release. And the darned thing just works. That's the bottom line for me. Thanks for the review of the S5. I look forward to more reviews and insight from CA into the Sonos system in the future. CA Rocks!<br /> <br /> DanG<br />

Scot, it has to be connected to a monitor first, so it can capture and store the EDID info. Then it can "impersonate" that EDID without having the EDID "doner" connected anymore. I can physically disconnect the output HDMI cable and the unit continues to do its thing without the cable or destination component connected.

There's also the Kramer FC-46 unit to do this job too. I works well and has optical and coaxial spdif out, plus the unit can capture, store and recall a default EDID setting. http://www.kramer-us.com/downloads/pdf/product/6/FC-46.pdf It's a bit more expensive, but it does the EDID capture if you need it...

Well, I have my unit back from W4S. There was nothing wrong with the unit I sent in, the problem was on my end. In my setup I'm using the unbalanced and balanced outputs on the DAC2 simultaneously. Unbalanced to drive a power amp directly, balanced to drive a Behringer DCX2496 which feeds an amp to drive the LF drivers of my speakers. The problem was with a mis-wired XLR cable, which caused the entire right channel to short out. FYI, the unbalanced connectors are hardwired to the balanced outputs, so any fault in one is reflected in the other, hence the entire right channel went silent because of the mis-wiring fault in the XLR cable. The DAC2 withstood driving this (almost) short circuit for days without ill effects, besides no sound, so I will say that this thing is robust! Final judgment, my fault for incomplete troubleshooting. EJ called me to discuss the possible issues, and was very helpful and understanding. I will rate the W4S customer service a solid A. Very responsive. EJ said he opened up my unit and did a visual inspection of every solder joint that could possibly be a culprit for an intermittent problem (which I ended up not having). He also updated the firmware while the unit was in the shop. After all this he shipped the unit back via overnight service! Now I have the unit back up and running and installed/integrated into my system. As far as a review goes, I am probably not very good at this stuff, but my impressions are of relaxed and well defined sound that’s very compelling. My previous DAC was a Lucid DA9624 (a mostly pro unit, now discontinued), and I was generally satisfied with its' sound, until I got this new setup to show me what else is possible. Previously I ran the Lucid's output into a Meridian 502 balanced preamp which I have since sold. Now the W4S DAC2 is my DAC and control component. I have my Sonos and Oppo DV-980H digital outputs as spdif inputs 1 & 2, my Kramer FC-24 HDMI audio de-embedder in Toslink input 1 and my PC (Win 7, J River MC) connected via USB. I used most of the advice Chris gave for configuring the PC/Win7 and JRMC with the exception that I'm using the W4S driver rather than ASIO. I am getting sample rates that match the source on the DAC2 display, so I think everything's working as it should. I'm using an active USB-2 extender to get the USB signal from my server PC (at the back of the room) to the DAC2 (at the front of the room). I can tell you this, the music played through the JRMC/USB route sounds excellent to me. Very relaxed and detailed, especially with higher-rez material. Listening to Brian Bromberg's "Jaco" and Beatles LOVE DVD-A tracks, ripped via DVD-A Explorer at 24/96 sound superb! I've never had so much fun and satisfaction listening to these recordings as I have through this new setup. Music is very easy and compelling to listen to when the source music is good. The emotion of music played on this new setup with the W4S is very accessible. I don't have a lot of audiophile terminology, but where music matters most to me, in the emotion, this new DAC now transmits musical emotion as directly as listening to a good LP. That's high praise in my book. Now that I've figured out my initial problems, the DAC2 is working flawlessly. I still have a bit more setup to do, like setting the digital attenuation ranges, but even with the default settings this thing is taking me to new sound/pleasure places. DanG

Well, I ran my unit in for over 200 hours before listening to it. Much to my dismay when I finally got ready to listen, the right channel was dead. I tried all the usual troubleshooting, pulling the output cables from the working left channel output to the right channel and nothing... So W4S gave me a return authorization number and I've returned the unit to be repaired under warranty. I'll have the firmware updated while they have it. Not a stellar start, but it is a brand new product. While burning-in I sent the DAC a "playlist" queue from Sonos that repeated indefinitely. I'd change the DAC2 output level from low, medium to moderately high every day or so. And I turned the unit off overnight a couple of times during the burn in period. I cabled the output of the DAC2 to my amplifier (so the DAC2 saw an output load), but kept the amp powered off during break-in. So, hopefully I'll know what the problem is/was soon. I'll report back then. EJ and the folks at W4S couldn't be nicer and have been very apologetic and responsive about the whole situation.

Hi Stefano. My DAC 2 arrived last week and I've been burning it in with non-stop music since then (though not listening to it). I estimate I have 200 hours on it now. I'm redoing my setup (I sold my older Meridian 500 series gear) and planning on using the DAC2 as my control center. I have an old Apt Holman preamp that I'm using as a analog/phono pre, and I'll be running that through the DAC2's HT bypass. So once I sort all that stuff out and get things running I'll try and report back. It's a pretty impressive unit, a bit bigger and heavier than I imagined. The display is a little small to read from my listening chair. I'm anxious to try the USB connection with 24/96 files. I've been using Sonos only in the past, and it's limited to 16/48. I'm looking forward to trying JRiver and the DAC2....

Hi ackcheng. Just wanted to let you know that I contacted Atlona tech support and asked about the data rates I could expect from their HD570 HDMI audio de-embedder. Here is my question and the customer services rep (Alex) responses: (First, my question): "Regarding the AT-HD570, if 24 bit, 96K LPCM audio exists at the HDMI input, will the optical port of the AT-HD570 output 24/96 LPCM, or will the HDCP Compliant nature of the box output a lesser quality, lower rate LPCM?" "Hello, I’m sorry for the delayed response, we have been catching up on our emails due to the holidays in the past 2 weeks. I will have to do some more research to see if the HDCP lowers the LPCM. None of the prior research I didn’t on this suggested that it lowers the quality but I’m not positive because everything was not to specific. I will ask my product manager and get back to you tomorrow morning. Is that okay? Once again I’m sorry for the delayed response." Thank you Alex" Then a few days later I got this response: "Hello, I first want to thank you for your patience. Second the HD570 Does provide 24/96. I just spoke with my product manager and he said it does. We are going to update the website soon to show that spec. Thank you Alex" So I would expect that you can get higher-rez from the Atlana. Maybe you have a setting wrong on your disc player that's not allowing the HDMI stream to contain the resolutions you're looking for. I have a very similar unit by Kramer (the FC-46) and it's working quite well for me. I'm getting PCM streams of 88.2K from SACD's. It took a bit of fussing to get the settings right, but now it's working like a champ. Hope this is helpful to you. DanG

First of all, this is the greatest forum. Thank you Ted and Harald and others. You help and suggestions are most appreciated. So Ted, I did as you and Oppo support suggested. I turned off the audio-over HDMI and wow! I'm getting a lock at 96K Hz from both of my DVD-A's. Eureka! And Ted, thanks for your tips. It's kinda weird, but I was getting 48K PCM over the de-embedded HDMI (I still don't know if it was 16 or 24 bits). But turning off the audio-over-HDMI setting, I'm getting 96K out of the S/PDIF port of the Oppo. And the front panel display indicated DVD-A for both settings. So now my only small dissapointment is that I have to change menu settings to switch between playing DVD-A and SACD. But my real goal is to record those hi-rez bit streams to my hard drive (this is Computer Audiophile after all) and then serve them to my system via my firewire connected TC Electronic Konnekt 8. 88.2K for SACD and 96K for DVD-A. I don't want to have to deal with discs at all in the long term. My only challenge is one interface for all resolutions. I am a long-time, very happy user of Sonos. But Sonos is 16 bit only. And, Sonos doesn't publically speculate on future improvements to their interface. I understand that the Squeezebox Touch will do 24/96 and I hope that selling point will encourage Sonos to counter with that feature too. I've already been told by Sonos tech support that their hardware is ready for some implementation of 24/96. I'd love to have all my hi-rez files served by Sonos. But until that day comes, I'll have to switch to another PC-based interface to play the hi-rez files. More complication when I really want more simplicity of operation. I don't mind playing with my playback hardware to get all this set up (it's really fun in hobbiest kinda way), but to switch between the Sonos handheld interface and a PC based interface is a pain. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't complain. At least I'm making progress. DanG

Here an update: DanG said" "Ted, I'm not sure how you're getting 192k out of the S/PDIF jack on the 980. I can get 48K from that connection when playing DVD video discs, but when playing DVD-A discs, I get nothing from the S/PDIF output. " Well, here's something that just happened. Once I play the DVD-A disc's audio de-embedded from the HDMI, if I pull the cable from the de-embedder and put the S/PDIF cable into the Oppo's S/PDIF output the DAC will lock onto a 48k signal. This must be the 16 bit / 48K, "regular" DVD video's digital audio output. This has me wondering what I'm really getting from the HDMI, de-embedded version from a DVD-A. 24 or 16 bit? I only own two DVD-A's so it's not a big deal for me. I own quite a few SACD's so they're of greater interest to me. The DAC does lock on to 88.2K when de-embedding the PCM from the HDMI output while plaing SACD. It would be nice if someone else could share their experiences with this, especially if their DAC reports not only sample rate, but bit depth too. DanG

Hi Harald. Thanks for bringing this up. I just looked at the menu of the DVD-A disc and I don't see a place to make choices about the type of tracks/groups. And if it makes any difference, my setup is two-channel only. I don't have any surround decoding or additional channels of amp/spkrs. Do you know of a way to choose which group of tracks to access? I'm getting the audio from the HDMI stream. I don't have a cable in the S/PDIF, digital audio output of the Oppo 980. Another slight mystery is the bit depth of the audio de-embedded from the HDMI output. My DAC reports sample rate, but not bit depth. I'm assuming that what I'm getting is 24 bit when the DAC locks on to the de-embedded audio from the HDMI stream. Any experience you can share in this regard would be most appreciated. DanG

Ted, I'm not sure how you're getting 192k out of the S/PDIF jack on the 980. I can get 48K from that connection when playing DVD video discs, but when playing DVD-A discs, I get nothing from the S/PDIF output. My DAC won't lock at all. I wonder how it is that you're getting 192k from the S/PDIF output? DVD-A should put out nothing digital from that output. I'm only getting digital because I'm stripping (de-embedding) it from the HDMI stream. Do you have a modified player or do you have some additional info you can share with me? DanG

In case anyone is still interested I wanted to report my latest "adventures" in de-embedding PCM audio from HDMI streams. So.... I bought the Kramer FC-46 HDMI de-embedder and now have spent the better part of a morning trying to make this work as I envisioned. So far, so good. I'm using the Oppo DV-980H. I've consulted the manual again and have the audio setup menu configured as: Audio Setup (menu) EQ Type = Off Sound Field = Off Digital Output = PCM Audio Tone = 00 Pro Logic II = Off HDMI Audio = LPCM SACD over HDMI = PCM Dolby Digital Setup = Dual Mono = Stereo Dynamic = DRC Off I tried the following SACD’s Mingus Ah Um / Charles Mingus Columbia SADC CS65512 locks and plays @ 88.2 KHz Bill Evans Trio – Waltz for Debby Analog Productions CAPJ 9399 SA locks and plays @ 88.2 KHz And the following DVD-A’s The Beatles Love Capital 0946 8 79810 2 3 locks and plays @ 48 KHz Brian Bromberg – Jaco A440 Music A440 – 4022 locks and plays @ 48 KHz Interestingly the Brian Bromberg disc says on the front cover that it’s mastered 24bit/96khz, and it’s 5.1 Surround Sound. I’m a bit disappointed that the DVD-A’s are locking at 48kHz only. I can only assume that HDCP may have something to do with it. I was really hoping for a higher sample rate. My DAC will do 96K. But I have to say the 24 bit, 48kHz PCM sounds darn good. Theoretically I should be able to also capture/record these PCM bit streams to my NAS and play them back via my TC Electronic Konnekt 8 via S/PDIF coax to my DAC (or even use the DAC in the Konnekt). I’d welcome any input or experience anyone may have in this regard. Emmodad, you seem up to speed on all this :-). That’s the next trial on my list. DanG

Hi Bialykot. It just so happens that I have a setup very similar to the one you're describing. I have a Meridian 502 pre, 507.24 CD and 518 digital processor. I also have been using Sonos with an external DAC for several years now. I can definitely recommend the Sonos for convenience, and good sound quality. In my "serious" system I use a Sonos ZP90, SPDIF (coax) digital out into the 518 then AES/EBU out of the 518 into a Lucid DA9624 DAC, balanced out of the DAC into the 502. It sounds very good. I have compared the ripped CD on the Sonos rig to the same CD played on the 507. It's close but I'd still give the nod to the 507 for a bit more natural, organic character. We're talking subtle differences here. I love the Sonos, and their customer service is GREAT! And, unlike some other digital "transport systems", Sonos just plain works. Very well thought out and executed. Recommended! DanG

Hi mdavies. I think you could use the Cronus and Nova together just as you propose. Use the Nova as a multi-input DAC feeding a line input on the Cronus, whose other line inputs would accept your analog sources. You could even use the Nova's amp if your speakers allow passive biamping by using the "Home Theater" bypass function on the Nova. Cronus on the HF and Nova on the LF for instance. Balancing the two amp sections might be tricky... I don't own a Cronus, but I do own a Rogue Model 88 power amp and a Nova. I would call the Rogue a bit more "modern" tube sound (I run mine in the ultralinear mode) and the Nova's mos-fet amp leaning towards a bit softer solid state sound. So, I thing they're quite compatable sound character-wise, though the Rogue's amp will have a bit more frequency variation with speakers because of its higher output source impedance. I'd say jump in and play with it and see if you find some kind of hybrid combination that floats your boat. Just remember, DON'T operate the Cronus without a speaker load attached to it! Have fun, Dan