Review and Measurements of Wyred4Sound DAC-2v2 SE DAC

[Nango]

Hope this is not the last one in the 4-digits price segment you get sent for testing purposes !!

 

[NTomokawa]

Yikes.

How these "high-end" manufacturers get things wrong while Topping/SMSL/Khadas don't, I do not know.

If one really wants to spend more than a Topping/SMSL/Khadas, look at the Benchmark brand. Of course, I'd argue that instead of audible improvements, one is paying for expanded capabilities, potentially better longevity and better customer support when paying that kind of price.

Now... femtoclock? What was that brand that made a rubidium word clock again?

 

[jaynyc]

Any chance the AES or SPDIF inputs might perform differently ?

 

[Ralf Stocker]

That the manufacturers are not ashamed to ask for such a garbage almost $ 4000? They use 100x lower-noise voltage regulator and still have a lot of spikes in the spectrum. Real experts! hehe!

 

[NTomokawa]

That the manufacturers are not ashamed to ask for such a garbage almost $ 4000?

I think "high-end audio" is one of the few markets where manufacturers can sell objective garbage and pure snake oil at massively inflated prices.

And the buyers swallow it all, hook, line and sinker. Because "music is meant to be heard, not measured".

 

[gvl]

I do wonder how does the price formation occur for products like this.

 

[The Dragon]

BTW, my sincere appreciation for members who are increasingly loaning me expensive gear to measure. And importantly accept the data for what it is. Many people would rather not know. I continue to be impressed by how people want to know even though they have spent thousands of dollars.

And we appreciate your willingness to honestly measure and evaluate these audio components. This has brought a great deal of hate speech toward you and this site from folks on other forums that either do not understand or apparently can't handle the truth. Thanks for taking the heat! We appreciate it! I, for one, stand up for you when I can...

 

[NTomokawa]

I do wonder how does the price formation occur for products like this.

Pulled out of the air, or whatever the designer was smoking at the time.

This machine has at least some technological challenge and difficulty in it. The worst and most shameless offenders (in my opinion) are "tweaks" such as a piece of rock one places atop their equipment because it does... something... quantum... magic... what?

...And the rock costs $10 000.

 

[The Dragon]

I think "high-end audio" is one of the few markets where manufacturers can sell objective garbage and pure snake oil at massively inflated prices.

And the buyers swallow it all, hook, line and sinker. Because "music is meant to be heard, not measured".

This happens in many different markets for many different items. However, us audiophiles do seem to be especially gullible sometimes. Even with my education in engineering, I have been swayed by marketing hype many times in the past. However, this site helps to keep things in perspective for me.

 

[graz_lag]

I do wonder how does the price formation occur for products like this.

More or less as for a $100K car, a common four-wheel one ...

 

[gvl]

More or less as for a $100K car, a common four-wheel one ...

I disagree. At least $100K cars tend to be better than $15k ones in one way or another.

 

[NTomokawa]

More or less as for a $100K car, a common four-wheel one ...

I don't think the car analogy is adequate, because at those prices, one is getting either huge amounts of power or huge amounts of luxury. Often both.

Unlike what we have here, which, if I may borrow the car analogy, is something like the bodywork of a Ferrari bolted atop the rolling chassis and engine of a Yugo. And it's being sold at Ferrari prices.

I'm not a car guy...

 

[gvl]

The ES9038PRO is designed to be a state of the art 8-channel DAC chip. Using it in a stereo configuration is no easy task thanks to the massive output current.

One would think the margin on this product would motivate the designer, alas this was not meant to be. It is possible they just slapped the new chip on their 9018 boards to make it look sexier.

 

[miero]

Tested DAC does not seem like DAC-2v2 SE version. At least the "DAC-2v2SE LIMITED EDITION" looks different:
- https://darko.audio/2017/12/wyred-4-sound-dac2v2se-10th-anniversary-review/

 

[Blumlein 88]

That the manufacturers are not ashamed to ask for such a garbage almost $ 4000? They use 100x lower-noise voltage regulator and still have a lot of spikes in the spectrum. Real experts! hehe!

Correction 100x faster and lower noise. It must be mostly the faster being realized.

 

[NTomokawa]

Tested DAC does not seem like DAC-2v2 SE version. At least the "DAC-2v2SE LIMITED EDITION" looks different:
- https://darko.audio/2017/12/wyred-4-sound-dac2v2se-10th-anniversary-review/

See https://wyred4sound.com/products/digital-converters/dac-2v2-series

Also: https://wyred4sound.com/products/digital-converters/dac-2v2se-10th-anniversary-limited-edition

• $4 500 USD
• Has no UL/ETL mark

 

[Blumlein 88]

I do wonder how does the price formation occur for products like this.

It might be a reasonable markup for the cost of the exotic parts they put in.

 

[Spirit84]

Try to follow:
More than a few year ago I bought this:
PS Audio Digital Link III Dac.
I sent the brand new dac to a gentleman named Rick Cullen.
Who is Rick Cullen? Well, apparently he is an engineer who actually designed this dac for PS Audio.
Mr. Cullen, at the time, ran a company called Cullen Circuits and was offering mods for this dac that
would take the sound into seventh heaven. So I had the dac modded to the:
Cullen Circuits Stage 4 Modification which cost me a lot of money.
You can read all about it here (9.5 out of 10):
http://10audio.com/psaud_dl3_cullen4mod.htm
Cullen Circuits no longer exists.
Where did he go to work after closing?
Wyred 4 Sound!!
I still use the dac but now Amir's testing makes me wonder.
If I had the balls I would bite the shipping charge bullet and ship it to Amir from Toronto and see how it actually measures.

 

[graz_lag]

... However, us audiophiles do seem to be especially gullible sometimes. Even with my education in engineering, I have been swayed by marketing hype many times in the past. However, this site helps to keep things in perspective for me.

We had no choice until now ...
Do you go want to lose yourself in bricks and mortar auditoriums over a weekend ? Good, but you do not find there any Topping / Khadas / SMSL / JDS Labs ... etc ...
You admire and dream (and audition perhaps ...) the same brands we see here now suffering with poor measurements ...
But of course you do not know that. Then, you spend days on the net searching for this and that review of the gears you have auditioned over the last weekend ... and Bang ! It is at that point in the process that you get caught in the net ...
We were simply Ignorant ones, of course with a capital I ...
AFAIAC

 

[gvl]

It might be a reasonable markup for the cost of the exotic parts they put in.

Use of exotic wood for the casework would make the price more justifiable.