Wadia 321 Bedienungsanleitung PDF herunterladen (Seite 2)

OUTBOARD USB DAC

REPRODUCED FROM HI-FI NEWS | www.hiﬁ news.co.uk

DSD-compatible USB DAC

Made by: Wadia (Fine Sounds Group), New York, USA

Supplied by: Absolute Sounds Ltd, UK

Telephone: 0208 971 3909

Web: www.wadia.com; www.absolutesounds.com

Price: £2798

www.hiﬁ news.co.uk

rom the get-go, Wadia has been

all about digital audio: unlike some

companies which grew into the

digital age, it was founded in the

late 1980s, started out with DACs and has

expanded in the other direction, adding

analogue components to its line-up.

The 321, yours for £2798, isn’t just

a digital-to-analogue converter – in

Wadiaspeak it’s a ‘Decoding Computer’,

echoing the product that started it all,

the Wadia 2000, which carried the same

description [see boxout, p57]. And just in

case you’re in some need of reassurance

that this is something beyond the DAC

norm, the company has made the 321

pretty large and hefty, to match its current

a315 and a320 power ampliﬁ ers and the

m330 media server.

LARGE FOOTPRINT

Finished off with a sleek industrial design,

these components combine a wraparound

aluminium main case, complete with

integral rubber-tipped feet, glass top panel

and ﬁ bre-optic illumination of the logos on

the front and ‘lid’.

However, there’s no getting away from

the fact that this does give the 321 a

somewhat large footprint, meaning some

thought will be needed when it comes to

installing it on a rack or other support. It’s

over 45cm wide, and some 50cm deep

including cables, so it may well overhang

some conventional shelves.

Peering inside, it’s clear that this size

is mainly about providing a visual match

with the likely partnering components

from the Wadia catalogue. As our inside

shot illustrates [see right] the PCBs and

PSUs within are surrounded by quite a lot

of fresh air. As noted in PM’s Lab Report,

one effect of this ‘huddling together for

comfort’ may be some low-level interaction

with the main power supply: not actual

noise through the speakers, but heard as a

warming of the bass. While I get the idea

of keeping cabling as short as possible, it’s

not hard to form an opinion that Wadia

might have made life a bit simpler for itself

had it made full use of the internal space.

Anyway, on the plus side, the Wadia 321

does go beyond many a DAC in that it’s

designed to be used either in conventional

source/ampliﬁ er/speaker systems or directly

into a power ampliﬁ er or active speakers.

To this end, the analogue outputs are of

variable level, delivering a claimed 0-4V

on the RCA outs and double that to the

balanced XLR connections, ﬁ gures that

correlate with PM’s measurements.

Variable outputs on a DAC can help

reduce your system’s box-count as well

as making that price-tag seem more

attractive. Partner it with the a315 stereo

power ampliﬁ er, which sells for just under

£3400 and rated at 150W/8ohm, and you

could have a very neat two-box solution.

A total of six digital inputs are provided,

including two optical, three coaxial and a

high-speed USB, allowing the 321 to cater

both for conventional hi-ﬁ sources and

music-playing computers. Drivers must be

downloaded for PCs running Windows OS,

though none are needed with Mac OSX

computers, and installation is a matter of

‘plug and play’.

What is, however, somewhat unusual

for a modern DAC is that the 321 doesn’t

handle DSD ﬁ les, even over its USB

connection. Given that this is a product

from a US company, where there seems

to more of an appetite for DSD playback

RIGHT: The core of Wadia’s 321 comprises a

legacy Cirrus CS8416 digital input receiver (an

Atmel chip for USB), CS8421 32-bit/192kHz

upsampler and ESS ES9018S (eight-channel) DAC

driving a fully balanced analogue output

The latest in a long line of illustrious DACs from Wadia is beautifully built, with striking

styling, serious heft and – well, quite a lot of fresh air inside. But how does it sound?

Review: Andrew Everard Lab: Paul Miller

Wadia 321

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