Cheers!
 

Thanks for the warm welcome guys!

And thanks Wyred for the excellent products; perhaps also a word of appreciation to all the reviewers, anonymous and professional - singing the praises of Wyred is a service to all audiophiles - certainly for me it allowed me to purchase my first Wyred product (the ST1000) with some confidence. That was some eight years ago.

As you can tell from my system, I'm a fan. And there's an STi500 in another room for a basic 2.1 home theatre, with a projector and an Oppo Blu-ray player.

What's more I can vouch for their great reliability - no issues at all. Several friends have purchased Wyred products after hearing the system - and they too are very satisfied.

I'll post a follow up re the Recovery/DAC 2V2 SE in a few weeks.
R.

Well I just pulled the trigger on the 10th Anniversary Edition DAC-2v2. The list price delta between the SE and this is $700, but with the weekend specials the price difference was $260, so that seemed like a no brainer. I used to have the original DAC-2 I purchased on here from Dan, so I'm looking forward to their latest and greatest.

Awesome... you will love the DAC!

I got the 10th Anniversary DAC-2 today. I must say I was torn between the regular SE version with the green OLED and darker case since it'll sit next to my MCD500 and figured the lights would match better. But, the red LED screen on the 10th is almost more like a dark orange/lighter red and it is as crisp as can be. Also there's a configureable dimmer so the point is kind of moot anyway. The champagne finish is beautiful and I'm going to reorganize my TV rack so that the Mac Mini sits on top of it. The aluminum feet are also a nice aesthetic upgrade over the standard feet. Will I be able to tell a difference in hand matched resistors that already have a .1% tolerance? I doubt it, but from an aesthetic standpoint and value of the Black Friday sale I couldn't be happier. Now to plug this thing in and see if I have an extra pair of balanced cables so I can A/B it with my McIntosh D100. I previously found the standard DAC-2 to be about on par w/the D100 so I suspect this will be a no brainer. I'll create a separate thread after I've had ample time to cable everything up, listen and play around with the settings.

Great new review!

http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/20...ersary-review/

"I would – and did – happily put this sub-$5k thoroughbred up against all manner of more expensive competition. Ultimately I can say this DAC has challenged my view of what can be accomplished for less than five grand – spending more doesn’t tend to achieve tangible benefits, and in most cases I’d choose the Wyred option hands down. It’s that good."

We have received several great reviews on the DAC. Always good to hear!

Very nice! I still don't have enough time on mine to give a proper writeup as of yet.

Follow up re Recovery + DAC 2v2 SE
 

Hello again.

A brief follow up, the DAC 2v2 SE now a few months old. Well, it's all the more clear that the Recovery justifies its place in the system.

Simply taking the Recovery away, and leaving everything else as is, results in less definition. This translates (in my system at least) to less precision in the placement of instruments across the soundstage, less drive in the bass, and (most unexpectedly) a noticeable etch in the highs. The latter really was unexpected, as I always thought that the highs were a strength of the system. Without the Recovery, I found myself playing familiar tracks at a slightly reduced volume level in order to avoid the glare in the highs - perhaps it would not have been a serious issue without the direct comparison against the system including the Recovery; but, once the improvement is heard, it's very hard to go back.

What's more, the DAC 2v2 SE has a facility where you can adjust the "Jitter Eliminator." The Wyred staff suggest decreasing the jitter elimination can improve the sound - and I agree. My experience, once the unit has some hours on it, then it's pretty clear that the sonics feel more spacious and natural with less jitter elimination. And here is where the Recovery comes in - I found that I could use a very low (one asterisk) jitter elimination with the Recovery: practically speaking, there are no drop outs. However, without the Recovery, the same tracks seem to generate drop-outs - to the point where I had to increase the jitter elimination back to the factory setting (three asterisks).

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has had a similar experience.

Another interesting finding - the DAC 2v2 SE seems to enjoy upsampled tracks far more than the original DAC 2 DSD SE. Previously, I had Pure Music 3 feeding the original 44.1 signals from ripped CDs (Apple Lossless)- I didn't find upsampling of much benefit, and, at times, felt it might add an unnatural quality to things - I say "might" as it wasn't something that obvious, but certainly I could not convince myself that upsampling improved the listening experience. With the version 2, upsampling to 352.8 does bring a nice benefit - things sound richer, with more depth to the soundstage, a hint more openness and ease. With or without the Recovery, these benefits seems to be there.

Anyway, the DAC 2v2 SE is great - and all the greater with the Recovery.

Cheers,
Robert

I've used both the Recovery and Remedy on my 10th DAC2 and have the same results with the jitter eliminator all the way down. Never had a single dropout.

It's been a while since this thread was activated.

I'm considering upgrading my DAC2DSDSE to the new 2V2 spec with 9038pro and femto clock, so wondering if anyone here who has taken the same route can help me decide.

I did this and it is a worth while update. I think the 2V2SE is so much smoother without losing detail and more analogue - no digital glare.

I am really glad I upgraded.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, yes, it's always good to get feedback from others who have walked the path, particularly with some time elapsed.

I think I'll do it but still working out whether to upgrade existing or whether to buy the anniversary model. Can't go wrong either way of course.

Great thread... I have a DAC 2 and considering doing the upgrade to the DAC-2v2SE. Also thinking of perhaps buying a trade in DAC-2v2SE instead of doing the upgrade. The price difference is only about $250 or so and I would end up with an extra Day that I could sell or use in another system. Is the upgrade from the DAC2 to the DAC-2v2SE that dramatic?

Look for my previous and others posts to this topic. The upgrade is well worth the cost IMHO.

It took me awhile to like the sound of my 10th anniversary DAC2, but I have to say it sounds great. I don't know if it's "break in" or whatever, but it did take some time to warm up to it. To me the original DAC2 and the Mc D100 sounded very similar, but the 10th is in a different league so I wouldn't hesitate to upgrade from the regular DAC2 to the 2v2SE.

Thank you both for the encouragement!

QQ about the upgrade: Using the original W4S Dac-2, I notice that the display does not update if Qobuz songs change from 44.1kHz/16-bit to 24-bit – 96.00 kHz. Is this fixed in the upgrades?

seattlesounders... Welcome to AA! :wave:

Hello Sesttlesounders,

This is very odd behavior, are you sure the player is changing the sample rate. What device is the source - a computer? In the audio setup, you should be able to change sample rates to test the DAC but the rate displayed is the rate calculated based on what the DAC is being sent. I'm sure after the upgrade the dac will be working properly but it is likely a setting issue within your OS causing the behavior.

Talk to you soon and welcome to the thread!

Thanks w4s. The source is an ultrarendu attached via USB if that helps?

I would Check with JR to see what is happening. He is very familiar with our DACs and can likely help with this.
EJ