Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE

[chessman]

I just obtained this stereo preamp and I am impressed right out of the box. Now, of course, I realize it will need to break in for a good while - the manufacturer recommends 200 hours. And I have not heard the range of gear that many of you have and own. But for $1999 this preamp is amazing.

Wyred claims this preamp is a sort of hybrid between passive and active, it is fully balanced, and sports a number of interesting engineering choices. I am a lawyer and not an engineer so my technical opinions are suspect, but I sure am convinced so far. I am running low volume (staying in passive range) in a 24 x 16 x 7 room and this jewel is maintaining iron fisted control over the bass, with outstanding attack and decay, and wonderful imaging. Oh, and it is playing nicely with my Wilson Sophia II's and my "lowrent" Emotiva MPS-1 amp.

[Face]

I have the scaled down version of it in my STI-500 and it's the best piece of gear I've owned so far.

[klipschfan]

Great review from 6moons. Their new DAC's should be a winner as well!.

6moons audio reviews: Wyred4Sound STP

[Face]

I have a DAC-2 on order, should be here the middle of next month.

[akai]

Received my Wyred4Sound DAC1 on Friday, so far so good.

mP

[Audio 1]

A good friend of mine owns the STP SE pre-amp and it is amazing that this piece sounds so good for the asking price.

[JohnThomas]

Originally Posted by akai

Received my Wyred4Sound DAC1 on Friday, so far so good.

mP

So what is the house sound of your Wyred Dac-1? What can you compare it to?

John

[akai]

John:

I am not sure how to describe the house sound of W4S, perhaps people that are familiar with Cullen Circuits products especially their mod of PS Audio products can better describe their signature more accurately. I only have about 30 hours on the DAC, the manual suggests up to 200 hours of burn in.

The only thing I can say is the soundstage is both wide and deep, Led Zeppelin's "In My Time of Dying", the drum is at least 7' behind the speakers (my speakers are 4' from the wall - the illusion went beyond the wall), images are precise, you can pinpoint all the instruments both vertically and horizontally.

The best way to describe it is from PS Audio Newsletter - March 2010 - Under -3D Holographic Sound

What is stereo imaging? It is the ability of a stereo system to create a life-like three-dimensional soundstage behind the loudspeakers. Behind the loudspeakers? “But, the sound is coming out of the front of the loudspeaker; how could sound come from behind it? ” Counter intuitive, yes. Correct, no.

Why would the sound appear to come from behind the loudspeaker? It’s all an illusion - but one that makes sense if you picture a typical setup for a recording. Imagine how one would make a recording of a group of musicians on stage. You would set a pair of microphones on the front of the stage pointing towards the musicians that are playing and you would start recording. Your ears are doing the same thing: pointing towards the stage and listening. Everything you are hearing is happening in front of you, but behind the microphones.

Now imagine replacing the microphones with loudspeakers. Forget the fact that the loudspeakers are pointing at you. If everything is working correctly (the room, the equipment, the recordings) then the loudspeakers should reproduce exactly what the microphones picked up and recreate the same space - behind the microphones.

I was thinking about asking Dan (J Dandy) to review this DAC since he did the shootout between the MCD500 and the OPPO SE, this DAC uses the same Sabre chips but newer (32bits vs. 24bits). I think Dan is quite familiar with the sound of the MCD500 and perhaps can tell us more about the similarities and differences of this DAC to the MCD500.

So far I am quite happy with the DAC.

mP

[chessman]

The new preamp is approaching 50 hours of use at this point. The mid-range has gotten even better. Dynamics and details were strong right out of the gate. It has been fun to play a familiar cd and have the "whoa, I never heard that before!" reaction.

One of the best moments came when I made my daughter sit down to listen. She has often endured a listening session using my music to show off the latest improvement. This time I got smarter. I had her play one of her favorite cds. Three notes in her jaw had dropped and just stayed there. We listened to the whole thing. She was astounded. I was beyond pleased with myself.

[chessman]

The W4S STP-SE has about 120 hours on it now and has settled down very nicely. I have been using Neil Young as a test case since his voice is well known to me, as well as a Broadway musical I must have heard a 1000 times in college. Vocals are now very natural sounding with a very realistic timbre to them. Before break-in the vocals were a tad thin and dry. Now they are neutral, but realistic. I cannot recommend this unit highly enough - it is a great value for the money.