Description: Single-box CD player with remote control, digital-domain volume control, 32x-oversampling DigiMaster decoding software operating with 24-bit precision, and balanced and unbalanced analog outputs. Digital inputs and outputs are optional. Digital resolution: 21 bits. Maximum output level: adjustable from 250mV to 4.4V to optimize volume-control action (4.4V RMS default). Measured frequency response: -3dB at 20kHz. Output impedance: <15 ohms. Power consumption: 25W.
Dimensions: 17" W by 7" H (including 0.5" spiked feet) by 16" D. Weight: 42 lbs.…
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
The Wadia 850 was auditioned in a system featuring primarily Thiel CS6 loudspeakers driven by a pair of Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks. I also used B&W Silver Signatures driven by a Pass Labs Aleph 3. Comparison digital sources were a Mark Levinson No.30.5 HDCD D/A processor driven by a Mark Levinson No.31.5 transport via an Illuminati AES/EBU cable, and Balanced Audio Technology VK-D5 and Mark Levinson No.39 CD players. Line preamplifier (when used) was a Mark Levinson No.380S.
The interconnects used were all balanced: Madrigal CZ Gel-1 and…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
As supplied, the Wadia 850's maximum output level was 4.33V RMS, this measured at both the balanced and unbalanced jacks. Its output impedance from the balanced outputs was 16 ohms from below 20Hz to 20kHz; from the unbalanced outputs I measured 0.5 ohm! The output signal was in the correct (noninverted) polarity from both sets of outputs. The volume control operated in accurate 0.5dB steps, with superb channel matching. With an indicated setting of "99" equivalent to full level, "87" was -6dB and "75" -12dB. A setting of "5" was equivalent to -47.15dB, with "0"…
Wadia owners who don't intend to use an analog preamplifier should get their dealer to adjust the 850's internal gain setting to give an output that allows them to use the player's digital volume control in this region if they are to get full resolution. In practice, and given the probability that the noise floor is at least partly due to dither, I expect that attenuating the signal by up to 12dB (volume control set to "75") will not result in audible loss of resolution. Certainly I heard no difference in quality with the volume control set to this range.
The 850 offers good linearity,…
Attacking the compact disc has lately become almost a blood sport among audiophiles and audio writers. Not a month goes by that I don't read—often in Stereophile—some vehement statement about how CDs are a musical abomination.
The attack is two-pronged. On one flank, the CD is under assault as being vastly inferior to the "about-to-be-introduced" DVD audio format, with its 96kHz sampling rate and 24-bit word length. On the other, CD is charged with offering absolutely no potential for providing musical satisfaction.
The first line of attack—that we should abandon the CD because…
STEVE EARLE: Train a Comin'
Steve Earle, guitar, harmonica, vocals; Peter Rowan, guitar, mandolin, mandola, vocals; Norman Blake, guitar, dobro, fiddle, Hawaiian guitar; Roy Huskey, acoustic bass; Emmylou Harris, vocals
Winter Harvest WH 3302-2 (CD only). Steve Earle, William Alsobrook, prods.; Wayne Neuendorf, Mike Elliot, engs. ADD. TT: 40:01
Steve Earle, guitar, harmonica, vocals; Peter Rowan, guitar, mandolin, mandola, vocals; Norman Blake, guitar, dobro, fiddle, Hawaiian guitar; Roy Huskey, acoustic bass; Emmylou Harris, vocals
Winter Harvest WH 3302-2 (CD only). Steve Earle, William Alsobrook, prods.; Wayne Neuendorf, Mike Elliot, engs. ADD. TT: 40:01
Steve Earle has taken a mighty rough road. Though Guitar Town gets my vote for Best Country Record of the '80s—the songwriting genius of Hank Williams Sr. with a twang-stomp punk edge, and a fine protest album of redneck rant to boot—…
Having just spent the last four days at the 2004 Audio Engineering Society conference in San Francisco, I was struck by the sunny enthusiasm shared by many industry professionals for 5.1-channel surround-sound music.
We've got a smattering of provocative multichannel releases trickling out on SACD and DVD-Audio, and hordes of 5.1 home-theater systems sold, but I don't remember seeing a survey anywhere, ever, that said that the greater music-buying public would purchase more discs if someone would only add surround. Nor do I remember ever seeing information anywhere that the public at…
It was 20 years ago that I appeared on one of the UK's equivalents of NBC's Today show to comment on the launch of CD. I wanted to talk about digital technology, but my host was more interested in the medium's lack of surface noise, which he demonstrated by showing that a disc smeared with butter and marmalade—this was breakfast television, remember—would play without skipping. (Actually, it wouldn't play; after the jammy CD was loaded, the program cut to a pretaped segment in which the player had a pristine disc inside it.)
I flashed back to this talking-head experience when I…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Remote-controlled CD player with volume and balance controls, dual-differential 24-bit DACs, unbalanced and balanced analog outputs, AES/EBU (XLR) and S/PDIF (RCA) digital outputs, and S/PDIF (TosLink and RCA) digital inputs. Maximum output level: 2.225V unbalanced, 4.45V balanced. Frequency response: 10Hz-20kHz, +0dB/-0.3dB. Channel separation: >110dB. Dynamic range: 96dB (10Hz-30kHz). Signal/noise: 105dB (10Hz-30kHz). THD: 0.002% at 1kHz, 0dBFS (10Hz-30kHz). Intermodulation: <0.005%. Linearity error: <2dB to below -90dBFS; <2dB to below…
Sidebar 2: System
Digital sources: Mark Levinson No.31.5 CD transport & No.30.6 D/A processor; dCS 972 upsampler; Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista SACD player; Technics DVD-A10 DVD-Audio player; Classé CDP-10 CD player.
Preamplification: Mark Levinson No.380S.
Power amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H and Musical Fidelity kW monoblocks (the latter using dual power supplies)
Loudspeakers: PSB Platinum T8 and Revel Ultima Studio.
Cables: Datalinks: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, AudioQuest SVD-4 S/PDIF. Interconnect: Madrigal CZ Gel-1 (No.390S and Classé, balanced), Ayre…