Digital Processor Reviews

The marriage of little streaming computers to DACs was at first a shotgun thing, a way to add Swiss Army knife capabilities at a price point. That was back when it was cutting-edge to have a NAS server full of digital files on the home network, and when commercial streaming was new, primitive, and lossy. Remember Pandora? Cool idea, but who wants to sit through ads and not be able to skip over more than a handful of disliked tunes every hour. Then Spotify came along. Then Apple and Amazon jumped in, and that's all she wrote. Eventually, streaming even got around to us audiophiles who desired lossless audio of at least CD resolution. Viva Qobuz!

The EXN100 is Cambridge Audio's state-of-the-art streaming DAC. It's half of the new EX line; the other half is the EXA100 integrated amplifier.

After it was delivered, I weighed the box containing Wattson Audio's DAC-equipped Madison LE Streamer on my bathroom scale. It was hardly bigger than a shoebox. It weighed 8.3lb.

When I opened the main box, I found two smaller boxes. The little brown one contained a fist-sized power supply in a chassis of extruded aluminum, with a label attached that said "AC/DC Hybrid Adaptor" next to a circle containing a sun cross symbol and the words "Designed, Engineered and Built in Switzerland" in capital letters circling its top edge. Below the circle was more writing: "Wattson Audio—a CH Precision company."

The Wattson Madison LE's 2.3lb chassis was inside a larger white box with black block letters saying "Madison." Under that, written in cursive, were the words "Lounge Edition." The L in LE is for Lounge, not Limited as you might expect.

I've reviewed a few DACs but never one this small, light, and elegantly formed.

More than five years have passed since I evaluated the original, Canada-made DV2 D/A converter ($30,000 in 2019) from EMM Labs. Since then, I've heard it and other top DACs—many of them at audio shows; some in my reference system—and my appreciation for what the original DV2 could deliver has only increased.

Now arrive two new components, the DV2's twin successors: the DV2i, an "integrated" stereo D/A converter with a software-driven, high-resolution digital volume control, and the subject of this review, the DA2i, a straight D/A with no volume control. Both cost $35,000.

In Gramophone Dreams #88, I described the sound of TEAC's VRDS-701T CD transport as "dense and precise in a way I had never previously heard from digital." I went on to explain, "by 'dense,' I mean there was a tangible corporeality effected by seemingly infinite quantities of small, tightly packed molecules of musical information."

What I noticed most during the review period was the extraordinary volume of data the 701T was vacuuming off those pits and lands and turning into music. As I have gotten to know it better, what I've noticed most is how the 701T sorts and delivers all that data in a manner that makes every DAC I pair it with sound more corporal and dynamic.

As I wrote that review, I wondered how the 701T would perform partnered with its matching UD-701N converter/streamer/preamplifier and how the TEAC flagship DAC's sound character would compare to flagship DACs from HoloAudio, Denafrips, and dCS.

In my early years in audio, I witnessed the rise and fall of the AM-FM receiver, first in vacuum tube mono and later in solid state stereo. Some of them grew to be behemoths, supporting multiple inputs, equalizers, dual speaker zones, and powerful amplifiers. When radio sources receded in popularity and with the rise of CDs, cable TV, and DVD, radio receivers were replaced by A/V receivers in the mainstream market.

Today, the ascension of streaming as the conduit for both audio and video content has nudged these, too, from the center stage. One can stream content from the bewildering variety of products with internet access including cell phones, smart TVs, almost any computer, and of course, dedicated streaming devices from the cheap-and-cheerful to seriously audiophile. If your music is on the web or on a NAS, many of these will let you browse for it, find it, and play it.

A few summers ago, I briefly got it in my head that I could become a wine connoisseur. This was due to a very generous and unexpected gift. A local acquaintance had passed away, and his wife wanted to rid her basement of his small wine collection.

I don't know why I was chosen as the lucky recipient, but after stammering half a dozen thank-yous, I suddenly owned about 150 fine wines. A few carried four-figure price tags.

Reliably telling a Pinot Grigio from a Chardonnay isn't part of my skill set. Grape varieties, terroir, vintages? You might as well ask a toddler to become conversant in quantum mechanics. Still, I was intrigued by the bottles and amused by the ridiculousness of the situation. Me, an oenophile? I supposed I could pretend, and I did.

After opening and drinking, with my wife, a 1988 Château Léoville Barton, I wrote an over-the-top review and emailed it to a wine-loving friend for his amusement. "I beheld Hawthorn berries and beef stock along with a suggestion of blonde tobacco. Other than the obvious green walnut, there was a top note of wet Baja beach at dawn, mixing subtly with minke-whale flatulence and a hint of two-day-old scallop innards. Finally, with subsequent sips, I detected the aroma of the well-worn merkin of a Honduran sex worker. All in all, not a bad wine."

Eat your heart out, Robert Parker!

For music listening circa 2024, streaming is both the present and the future. Physical formats are still around, and they are still the best choice in some cases, as with deluxe reissues of beloved albums, which may add value with extra live performances, full-resolution surround sound, and other perks. The niche vinyl market continues to thrive, and that business model obviously works for releases of a few thousand copies. (It also works, apparently, for releases of hundreds of thousands of T-Swift platters to be displayed on shelves and hung on walls.)

But facts is facts: Streaming is now the only mass medium for listening to recorded music—the primary carrier for music—and has been for a few years now. According to RIAA statistics, the crossover year was 2016. That's when, in revenue terms, streaming outpaced physical formats. By 2022, the latest full year tabulated, streaming accounted for 84% of US recorded-music revenue.

So what's a long-time audiophile, born into the analog world, with strong roots in physical media, supposed to do?