Göbel + WADAX + CH Precision + A/V RoomService

I couldn’t decide what was more impressive, the larger-than-life personality of Bending Wave USA distributor Eliot Goldman or the massive products shown in his WADAX/Goebel room. Either way, I was grateful for the room’s bright light, which gave everything a fresh-scrubbed sheen and made it much easier than most rooms to photograph.

Goldman brought his Stereophile-featured Göbel High End Divin Marquis loudspeakers ($80,000/pair) AND Madrid-manufactured WADAX digital front-end to the Capital Audiofest. That front end comprises the Atlantis Reference Transport ($59,800), Atlantis Reference DAC ($145,000), and Atlantis Reference Server ($70,000). Amplification was the CH Precision L1 Dual Mono Preamplifier ($34,500) with two Parasound JC1+ monoblock power amplifiers ($17,998/pair). Cabling was by Göbel: Lacorde Statement interconnects ($7000 for a 1m pair), Lacorde Statement speaker cables ($23,000/ for a 10' pair), Lacorde Statement power cords ($8500 each), and Ethernet cable ($5100 for an unknown length). Norman Varney and A/V RoomService Limited’s Equipment Vibration Protectors (EVPs)—which I have found beneficial under my amplifiers—supported the WADAX gear.

Shchedrin’s arrangement of Bizet’s Carmen Suite, Vladimir Spivakov conducting the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, was reproduced with images of stunning precision and solidity stunning populating a soundstage of remarkable scale. Castanets and woodblocks danced well outside the speakers as massed strings swept me up and away with large dynamic strides.

COMMENTS
thethanimal's picture

Speaker cables that cost more than the amplifiers sending the juice through them?

partain's picture

...one must suspend disbelief .

JoeE SP9's picture

I don't care how good the Wadax DAC may sound. It's looks place it squarely in the "not in my room" category. It's almost as if they went out of their way to make it unpleasant to look at.

It's definitely the worst looking DAC I've ever seen. The looks place it right up their with some of the truly bizarre looking Japanese receivers of the 1980's.

The term that comes to mind is BFU (Butt F'n Ugly).

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