wadia790 －－－WADIA出的怪兽级别的东西

davidxtb

交易区新帖推荐

          Wadia PowerDAC- 390 Controller/  790 towers/270 Transport
            
The one and only Wadia PowerDAC System complete with 270 trasport  - Wadia's Statement engineering masterpiece. Drive your speakers direct without interconnects or preamps, only pure ST optical digital signal conveyance and one pair of speaker cables. Ideal for ultradynamic play, especially with Wilson or other high performance speakers.     Awesome techno look and massively built - a real sculptural work of art. PowerDac has 24 bit resolution, Wilson mirrors, Swift Current and ClockLink technologies all pushed to the absolute limit. Processing at 2.8 MHz.
Comes with original hardcover manual, cones, remotes, all ST optical cables, crates and boxes. Some minor dings on side and back of transport
Retail Price: $80,000

DEMO PRICE: $39,500




Despite having built a reputation over the last 16 years as a producer of digital audio masterpieces of the highest regard, Wadia still remains an enigma in the world hi-fi. It is a company that faced its demise in late 2000, only to be quickly reborn again under strong new ownership. Since then, careless rumors of Wadia's demise have surfaced from time to time, as they have again lately due to stubborn telephone problems encountered during their recent move from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Saline, Michigan. Trust me when I say that Wadia has too much fantastic stuff going on to meet its demise in the foreseeable future.

On May 19, 2004, I was given a tour of their new Saline headquarters by Head-Fi member jefemeister (Jeff Brockmole), a Wadia engineer. On the day of my visit, Wadia's new HQ was a nearly-completed work-in-progress. Having visited their previous HQ in Ann Arbor a few times (they hosted a Head-Fi meet for us there a year ago), it was very clear to me that Wadia is clearly ramping up to meet the high demand for their products (that currently exceeds their production levels), as well as to continue the ongoing innovation that has made most of their products legendary. Their new Saline facility is a definite upgrade, with far more square footage dedicated to engineering, production, and service than their previous HQ, all of it custom-designed to Wadia's specifications. And their new listening room….their new listening room….well, I'll get to that shortly.

Following is a photo summary of some of the things I saw at the new Wadia HQ that I was allowed to photograph:

Now this (below) is an audiophile-approved conference room! Hales Transcendence Five loudspeakers up front flank either side of the large projection screen. (The Post-It note on the projection screen had me laughing, reading "This is NOT a whiteboard!") Completion of this conference room will include the installation of a Hales center channel and Hales Trascendence Three speakers as surrounds.

This corridor leading to the production side of the facilities (below) will eventually be host to an exhibit that will have me coming back for another visit: a Wadia timeline display. This display will include a sample of every single product ever manufactured by Wadia.

On the floor, on the right side of the photo, are several incomplete 790 PowerDAC towers in various states of assembly.

Let’s take a closer look inside those 790 PowerDACs (below):


For those of you not familiar with the 790 PowerDAC, it was a statement product by Wadia that combined the best DAC architecture they could develop at the time (I believe it was around 1999), coupled with digital amplification to directly drive loudspeakers. To this day, the abundant technology that came from developing the 790 PowerDAC continues to permeate Wadia’s product line, and the DAC architecture they developed for the 790 PowerDAC was way ahead of its time, and still considered technologically cutting-edge five years later. How does it sound? Well, I’ve heard the 790 PowerDAC at Wadia’s old building, where it was powering a system sitting in the middle of a very open area (read: far from acoustically ideal). Now that they have it in a proper listening room (which I’ll get to shortly), the 790 PowerDAC is part of one of the best audio setups I’ve ever heard (I will be editing my post in the “Best Setups You’ve Ever Heard” thread to include this one). The 790 PowerDAC retailed for $85,000 and weighs about 600 pounds. Want one? Good luck. I believe there are only three fully operational 790 PowerDAC setups in the world, and they’re all spoken for.

As might be expected, the production area was loaded with interesting things to look at. The day of my visit was a day before full production resumed, so it wasn't as full of people and things as it would be the following day, but there was still much to take in.

While cruising through the production area, I was greeted by Paul McNeill (below), a Glaswegian with a hilarious, deadpan sense of humor -- something I imagine will come in handy (in combination with his background as a lifelong audiophile and seasoned executive) as the new General Manager of Wadia. Based on my conversations with everyone at Wadia, there is much to do, and so much going on, as they continue to expand their production capabilities and innovate new products. Though our meeting was brief, it seemed very clear to me that Paul is a man up to the tasks.



What Paul is leaning against are the digital audiophile dreams of many, soon to be fulfilled -- more Wadia 302’s than I took the time to count, in the process of being assembled (below):



Being in Wadia’s development and production areas is being in audiogeek heaven. Yes, seeing their final products, always built to extremes, is a treat; but being able to see all of the parts that go into making them, that’s something most people (including Wadia component owners) rarely get a chance to see. Here are just a few of the groovy things I saw:

Open up a Wadia 861 or Wadia 270, and this (below) is the transport you'll find inside:


Open up a Wadia 861se or 270se, and this (below) is the platter and bridge you'll find inside:



Notice the se platter is colored green to prevent laser reflections. Also, the bridge/clamping mechanism is a lot beefier than the already-beefy one found in the standard 861 and 270. There are other improvements to the transport used in the 861se and 270se that further reduce mechanical sound and vibration.

This is jefemeister (Jeff Brockmole) holding a 0.1-Farad Nichicon Super-Through capacitor with the Wadia logo on it (below). Two of these are used in each Wadia PowerDAC tower (so four total for the two channels/towers). I believe they may be selling these capacitors, as the PowerDAC is no longer being manufactured. (I can imagine Mikhail from SinglePower drooling over these caps! )



Speaking of PowerDAC parts, this is John Schaffer (Vice President, Sales & Marketing) holding a transformer that was used in the PowerDAC (below). I believe there are two of these in each of the PowerDAC's two towers.



As the VP, Sales & Marketing, John will obviously play a key role in Wadia’s future push into the U.S. market. They've been successful in the U.S., and have big plans to increase their presence here further. John is someone I've spoken with on several occasions over the last year or two, and his enthusiasm and market knowledge inspire confidence in Wadia's bright future.

Here are some other interesting sights from the production area:

(Below, clockwise from top-left) The front panel from a Wadia 861, as you can see, is substantial, to say the least. ▪ Also very hefty is the left-side corner of a Wadia 302 front panel -- one of several pieces of what is actually a rather intricately assembled face. ▪ Most Wadia CD components will sit on a shelf too far to reach from one’s listening seat -- so, to make sure you can feel the heft of Wadia from anywhere, they craft their remote control chassis from a solid block of aluminum (drop one of these on your foot, and an X-ray would likely be doctor's orders).

So, as a Wadia engineer, what does our fellow Head-Fi’er jefemeister actually do? Rather than attempt to explain everything he does, and how it applies to their products, I’ll show you a photo of an example of his work. Below is a photo of three components that Jeff designed that go into a Wadia 302. (Below, from top to bottom) Display controller ▪ Display ▪ Transport interface. (Jeff also wrote all the control software for the Wadia 302.)

(Below, clockwise from top-left) A DAC board from the Wadia 302 ▪ A DAC board from the Wadia 861 ▪ The front side of a silver Wadia 302.

If I had to pick a favorite part of the tour, it would definitely be relaxing in Wadia’s new listening room with my own CD’s. This room is as extreme as the components they build. How so? First of all, the entire foundation of the room is cut off from the rest of the building (despite the fact that the listening room sits somewhere in the middle of the building). The walls contain four layers of drywall, a layer of acoustic foam insulation, and another special layer of sheetrock (click here to see how thick the walls are). The door is a studio door, with a mechanism at the bottom of the door that drops a barrier between the bottom of the door and the floor when the door is closed (click here to see it). The listening room has its own HVAC system. The louvers have been removed from the air outlets so they don’t rattle. I believe even the carpet is a type made for this kind of room. Every single outlet in the room is on its own circuit-breaker. There are two isolation transformers for the room, at least one of which (if I recall correctly) weighs approximately 700 pounds. The room’s dimensions are based on the Golden Ratio method described on Cardas’ web site. And, as you can see from the photos below, there is extensive acoustic treatment in the room. Soon, even more custom-bult acoustic treatment will be built in place, targeting the bass region.

The components that were hooked up in the room at the time of my visit were the Wadia 7 CD Transport (which has its own outboard power supply, and is still considered a top transport choice) feeding the Wadia 790 PowerDAC, which in turn was driving a pair of Hales Transcendence Eight loudspeakers. Coupled with the carefully constructed room, how did this system sound? Oh. My. Goodness. Having just attended a private piano recital the previous weekend, the first thing I wanted to hear in the listening room was piano; so in went Tord Gustavsen Trio's Changing Places and, as the CD started, into the room entered Tord and his mates. Permeated with mellow, romantic cadences, and all three musicians playing with beautifully gentle restraint, Changing Places calls for moderate volume levels to achieve they're right here realism. The challenge with music like this is achieving the room-fill at modest amplitude that live instruments can do so well, but that audio systems typically fail at. As did the Steinway concert grand at last weekend’s recital, the Wadia rig was able to make even Gustavsen’s softest piano notes waft through the room, seemingly from corner to corner (and, if you look at the photos below, you’ll see it is quite a large room), with the convincing immediacy of live piano.

Other CD’s I used to listen to that rig included Modest Mouse’s Good News For People Who Love Bad News and The Moon & Anarctica, XTC’s Nonsuch, and Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (a gift from Head-Fi’er elrod-tom -- thanks again, Tom). If you’d peeked in the window during Modest Mouse’s “Float On,” you’d have seen me almost jumping out of my seat and lip-syncing the hilariously upbeat lyrics (I wouldn’t sing out loud and adulterate the sound of the rig, man!) -- and the sight would have largely been the same during XTC’s “Peter Pumpkinhead.” And on Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson, Ben Webster’s tenor sax never sounded more breathy through anything else I’ve played this CD through than it did through that rig. Especially with this CD and Tord Gustavsen Trio’s CD (especially with the latter), it was clear that this rig gets its hands around treble presentation correctly, which is where most CD players begin to at least let go of reality a little. Not so with this rig -- analog-like treble wholeness and presentation is a hallmark of every Wadia component I’ve ever listened to.

Long story short, this rig presented with outstanding realism -- easily the best of any digitally-fronted system I've yet heard.


Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to listen to production Wadia 921 monoblock DACs (I heard prototypes last year). Any 921’s they had were either shipped, or at HE2004 in New York. In addition to the Wadia timeline display they’re building, the opportunity to hang out with the 921 monoblock DACs will be sure to draw me in for another visit.

I want to thank Wadia for the awesome tour of their new home. I’ll be back!

You can visit Wadia's web site at http://www.wadia.com.

[ 本帖最后由 davidxtb 于 2012-11-18 00:09 编辑 ]

davidxtb

The End of Analog As We Knew It?
By Jon Iverson • Posted: Mar 21, 1999
First with CD players, then digital preamps, and recently amplifiers, digital technology has ground inexorably through the audio chain. Several companies have been developing ways to shorten the analog path or remove it entirely. Meridian's "digital" loudspeakers come to mind, as well as the amplifiers from manufacturers Spectron and TacT.

Wadia has been in the digital audio business just about as long as anyone, and says that its digital amplifier approach, known as the PowerDAC, was part of its original business plan from eight years ago. Peter Bohacek of Wadia says that "It was viewed at the time as a natural outgrowth of the Wadia philosophy of digital audio, namely that the best way to process and convert a digital audio signal is to have the digital-to-analog conversion be the very last step before the loudspeakers.

"For years, work continued on the PowerDAC as we waited for transistor and IC technology to improve, but the turning point came in 1997 with the arrival of the Wadia Swift Current circuit. The Swift Current is a patented, custom integrated circuit that performs high-output current-to-voltage conversion without negative feedback. At that point, it became possible to build a very simple circuit that fulfilled our sonic requirements, plus offered reliable performance into any high-end loudspeaker."

According to Bohacek, the PowerDAC replaces a conventional system's D/A converter, preamplifier, interconnect cables, and power amp with a far simpler signal path. "It is a D/A converter whose output can drive loudspeakers directly. The PowerDAC has a high-voltage current-to-voltage stage and high-current output stage that together are capable of driving even the most demanding loudspeakers. The PowerDAC's number of circuit stages is comparable to that of a conventional D/A converter; they are simply higher-powered stages."

Wadia says that the first PowerDAC system is a no-compromise "statement product" designed to go head-to-head with the "best-respected, most expensive DAC/preamp/power amp combinations on the market." The PowerDAC system comprises two types of components: a digital controller called the 390, and a 790 PowerDAC mono tower for each channel. The 390 Digital Controller is an interface between the digital sources and the 790 PowerDAC towers.

In the initial version, the 390 controller accepts a wide variety of digital formats, up to 24-bit/96kHz. In addition, Wadia claims that the 390 is designed to be expandable and upgradeable to accept future formats by using modular input cards (including real estate for new connector types, and decoding/decrypting circuitry that may be required for new digital formats), along with configurable digital output (the eight outputs can be clock, data, or both). "With the 390 Digital Controller as the interface to digital sources," says Bohacek, "the 790 PowerDAC towers are independent of changes in the digital audio format. Even if a new format is introduced, such as multichannel DVD-Audio with MLP, or SACD, the Wadia 390 controller could be upgraded to accept these signals and transmit them to multiple 790 PowerDAC towers."

In another break with power-amplifier tradition, the PowerDAC will not have a conventional power rating. Wadia feels that, because the PowerDAC has a digital input, it is not possible to drive it into clipping with traditional methods used for testing power. This makes it tough for Wadia to publish a power specification that adheres to the time-honored method. Bohacek says that "we can make the assertion that the 790 PowerDAC towers have sufficient power to drive any high-end loudspeaker---even those with low impedance or efficiency, such as the Thiel CS5---to satisfying levels." A meaningful maximum output specification would be the 790's peak-peak voltage swing into an 8 ohm load at 0dBFS, but when John Atkinson asked this question of Wadia personnel at the recent CES, no answer was forthcoming.

The company has not announced a final price for the PowerDAC 790, but says it will be comparable in price to functionally equivalent reference-level systems (DAC, preamp, and power amps) from other high-end companies. Bohacek states that "we plan to introduce less expensive versions as quickly as they can be developed. Like the 790 PowerDAC, they will be cost-effective, sonically superior alternatives to conventional amplifiers. We do not have target dates or prices yet, but some of these products will be aimed at the mid-priced home-theater market."

Not shy about what Wadia has achieved, Bohacek concludes that "after 10 years of business, we have enough understanding of the high-end market to realize that no one is going to buy a product like the PowerDAC unless they are convinced that it sounds better than the alternatives from established amplifier companies. If we were not completely convinced that the 790 PowerDAC outperforms every DAC, preamp, and power amp on the market regardless of price, we simply would not introduce it. But we are."

紫气东来

打怪兽去

davidxtb

The Best in Show Reporting   

SoundStage!        LIVE ShowStoppers! Series 1

   

   

The stately 250-pound Wadia 790    PowerDAC, a digital-to-analog converter with "variable power" to drive    loudspeakers directly.

   

   

The Wadia 790 PowerDAC with the    top off. Specifications include 32-times re-sampling at 96kHz and true 24-bit resolution.    The 790 PowerDAC is upgradeable to 192kHz processing; the price is approximately $50,000    per pair. Ian White, SoundStage!'s resident Jedi, commented on the striking    similarity in appearance between the 790 PowerDAC and the helmet of Boba Fett.

OzZ

这是啥 太怪异了

davidxtb

Wadia Power DAC的理念和模拟线路设计都确实有独到之处，后期的WADIA模拟电路也是以POWER DAC的为蓝本，加以简化改进

psman

太霸气了，望而生畏啊！

x-w

这是...解码吗？

amex

解码功放一体机？

davidxtb

是的，集解码，前级，后级功能于一身，从信号拾取直出到箱体单元

amex

这果断不符合米豪门全分体的需求嘛

davidxtb

原帖由 amex 于 2012-11-8 13:23 发表
这果断不符合米豪门全分体的需求嘛

USD80,000
米豪只看价格，不看是否分体。
而且这个比当今的WADIA971+922/931那套贵多了去
这种集合是要付出高昂代价的，所谓分体只是不得已而已的，这种是顶级的合并已然是另外一种极致了

zhaofeihenhao

好震撼！

不喝可口可乐

我还以为我进了英美奥网站了呢，全是日文，哈哈哈

atongmu6666

这东西一般小偷不偷