MontanaJoe
Member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2026
- Messages
- 64
You really have no self respect or self reflection. But that’s YOUR problem
Hello WADAX
- Thread starter exupgh12
- Start date
crwilli
Well-known member
Painting a pretty broad brush buddy. Goodbye!
MontanaJoe
Member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2026
- Messages
- 64
Hey pal if the shoe fits, which apparently with you it’s a perfect fit
Randy Myers
Well-known member
Thank you. I never even commented in this post until this guy started calling other members names and posting snarky disrespectful replies. I simply stated that the Shark has always frond on these types of post... it was like a bomb went off inside of his head. As long-time users I believe that you and I both have the right to ask new members to show some respect to other forum members.
MontanaJoe
Member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2026
- Messages
- 64
Randy Myers
Well-known member
Most disrespectful person I have ever seen in any forum, audio of otherwise. This has got to be a little kid because adults do not talk this way to other forum members.
MontanaJoe
Member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2026
- Messages
- 64
The utter hypocrisy of self anointed on this thread
First of all not one political post was made by me to this thread YOU all derailed. I appropriately castigated a hyperbolic post by some “audiophile” and his 10 followers who made some absurd claim that was made to what? Denigrate the op or inflate the poster’s own purchase. That is hardly political. You may not like it but too bad.
ONLY to be then attacked with TDS, “my man”, 70%, etc claims of politics when the ONLY ones bringing up politics are the self anointed WHO claim to be the proponents of equal rights and tolerance EXCEPT when it comes to them, and their little world, when they think they have some special rights as it pertains to posting on these threads. So by analogy, if someone JUST moved into your neighborhood Myers does that mean THEY don’t have the rights?
Hysterical but of course expected hypocrisy by those least capable of seeing it
First of all not one political post was made by me to this thread YOU all derailed. I appropriately castigated a hyperbolic post by some “audiophile” and his 10 followers who made some absurd claim that was made to what? Denigrate the op or inflate the poster’s own purchase. That is hardly political. You may not like it but too bad.
ONLY to be then attacked with TDS, “my man”, 70%, etc claims of politics when the ONLY ones bringing up politics are the self anointed WHO claim to be the proponents of equal rights and tolerance EXCEPT when it comes to them, and their little world, when they think they have some special rights as it pertains to posting on these threads. So by analogy, if someone JUST moved into your neighborhood Myers does that mean THEY don’t have the rights?
Hysterical but of course expected hypocrisy by those least capable of seeing it
You like talking in an echo chamber
MontanaJoe
Member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2026
- Messages
- 64
So stop working so hard
Why do you people keep responding.
You get some thrill going round and round in your echo chamber??
By the way, read YOUR own post to see who was making a political keywarrior post about Trump and what YOU interpreted him saying, MAGA forum, Reagan, etc. WTF does that have to do with anything about my reply to that hyperbolic post regarding “audiophiles” that you and your pals found so offensive.
Lmao
Amazing
BendingWave
Well-known member
speaking of Wadax and its happy users of the Studio Players
Randy Myers
Well-known member
Very glad to hear you are happy with it. I have always heard good things about Wadax, and it is always talked about as being one the very best.
Can you tell me, does the DAC support DSD512? I use HQPlayer and everything I play is sent to my T+A in DSD512/48 (or as T+A lists it on the display, 24M6).
BendingWave
Well-known member
AI Overview
Based on the available information, the Wadax Studio Player does not support DSD512. The officially listed DSD support for the unit includes DSD64, DSD128, and DSD256 streaming.
The Absolute SoundKey details regarding the Wadax Studio Player's capabilities include:
- Supported Formats: It supports DSD streaming up to DSD256, as well as MQA, and PCM via Tidal/Qobuz Connect.
- Disc Support: It is designed for Red Book (CD) and Scarlett Book (SACD)
Randy Myers
Well-known member
Ok, thank you. DSD256 is the first (or should I say lowest) Native DSD format, and the one that most record companies are now archiving their libraries in. I very much prefer Native DSD and since the DAC supports DSD512/48... well gotta use it
.
- Thread Author
- #76
The Wadax "house sound" is defined by a sense of naturalness and ease that makes the digital nature of the source effectively disappear. The bass textures are exceptionally rich, and the midrange possesses a presence reminiscent of high-end analog.
With remarkable transient speed and dynamic agility, the system brings the energy of a live performance directly into the room. This realism isn't just about "slam"; it is the way sonic images emerge vividly from a pitch-black background that makes the music feel truly alive.
The tonality is world class, offering a dense, lifelike midrange that avoids being overly romantic. Most importantly, the Wadax is entirely free of the mechanical grain common to many other DACs, resulting in a sound that is profoundly organic.
With remarkable transient speed and dynamic agility, the system brings the energy of a live performance directly into the room. This realism isn't just about "slam"; it is the way sonic images emerge vividly from a pitch-black background that makes the music feel truly alive.
The tonality is world class, offering a dense, lifelike midrange that avoids being overly romantic. Most importantly, the Wadax is entirely free of the mechanical grain common to many other DACs, resulting in a sound that is profoundly organic.
Michaels HiFi
Well-known member
Fantastic description. Thank you.
- Thread Author
- #78
Listening Impressions After Three Weeks - What the SP does for me that others don't
The Studio Player, or should i say Wadax in general, does something different from every DAC that has passed through my system, and many others that i have listened to in other familiar or less familiar systems. It doesn't just present the recording. It presents the composition itself.
Most DACs I've listened to, with a handful of top-tier exceptions, make excellent music, but the gap between them and the analog experience remains wide. With analog, I get the natural flow of the notes and the exact space between them. With digital, even when the result is impressive, it tends to stay in a technical dimension and doesn't always pull you in. The Wadax manages to produce that same elusive organicity that turns a collection of instruments into a synchronized ensemble playing a live work.
The Jaco Pastorius album (Donna Lee, Come On, Come Over) is a great test for this. His virtuosic control of the fretless and the fusion of jazz and funk create an exceptional vibrancy. Through the Studio Player, his bass stops chasing the rhythm and becomes the anchor that leads it with confidence. You feel the rhythm section breathing inside the room.
That feeling intensifies on Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Give it Away). The chemistry between bass and drums is the beating heart of that record. In a system with phenomenal timing, the groove becomes uncompromising and locked in, to the point where the instruments merge into a single organic entity. You stop only hearing the bass lead melody and rhythm simultaneously and start feeling it as something physical, almost tangible.
With Marcus Miller on M2 (Power), the system is pushed to its limits, forced to handle a bass line that is both brutally powerful and precise as a Swiss watch. And yet, the Wadax rises to the challenge with astonishing ease. It preserves a sense of rhythmic coherence that feels almost unreal; the bass doesn’t just go deep, it tightens like a coiled spring, anchoring the entire ensemble with unwavering confidence.
At some point, something shifts. You stop hearing digital playback as a sequence of samples. Instead, the groove becomes tangible, almost physical - a driving force that propels the music forward, pulling you into its momentum.
Bill Evans's piano on Everybody Digs Bill Evans sounds like a grand piano playing in a room, with the resonance of a real wooden body, not a high-resolution simulation of one.
On Avi Kaplan's The Summit (same track name), Kaplan's bass and baritone voice becomes the ultimate test of a system’s ability to convey human texture. The Wadax doesn’t just reproduce the low frequencies; it reaches deeper, uncovering the fine nuances of vocal cords in motion, the subtle friction between notes that gives a voice its soul. Then there is the space itself that comes alive. Each image is wrapped in a cushion of air that feels almost tangible, as if you could reach out and sense its presence. Kaplan’s voice doesn’t merely play in the room - it arrives. A human presence, organic and grounded, carrying real weight and density, standing there in space as something you don’t just hear, but experience.
That precision carries through to the horns. Sonny Rollins's saxophone on Way Out West, and the trumpets of Miles Davis and Donald Byrd, gain body and texture that makes them sound exactly as they should: alive, breathing, and rough in precisely the right measure. Even a bowed string, in this system, manages to convey the physical sensation of tightened gut on wood and lacquer.
That said, every DAC I've owned until now sounded unmistakably like a digital source, with no room for confusion. The Studio Player manages to close the gap precisely in the areas where digital tends to fail: building rich tonal body and rhythmic coherence.
It hasn't closed the gap completely. Vinyl has an organic quality, a kind of aliveness that's difficult to put into words; no digital source today can mimic. But this is the first time I've found myself reaching for the digital selector far more often than I expected to. When an audiophile who is deeply invested in analog starts choosing the other side of the switch at that frequency, it says something worth taking seriously.
That it also makes DACs costing twice as much sound like products from a previous era is almost beside the point — a bonus on top of something more personal. It's the most significant digital step I've experienced since the Oladra joined the system, and I don't say that lightly.
Will I eventually add the dedicated PSU and clock? Time will tell. For now, what I can say is this: if you run a revealing system and musicality matters more to you than analytical performance, put it on your list. Just know what you're signing up for — a lot of sleepless nights you never planned on having.
The Studio Player, or should i say Wadax in general, does something different from every DAC that has passed through my system, and many others that i have listened to in other familiar or less familiar systems. It doesn't just present the recording. It presents the composition itself.
Most DACs I've listened to, with a handful of top-tier exceptions, make excellent music, but the gap between them and the analog experience remains wide. With analog, I get the natural flow of the notes and the exact space between them. With digital, even when the result is impressive, it tends to stay in a technical dimension and doesn't always pull you in. The Wadax manages to produce that same elusive organicity that turns a collection of instruments into a synchronized ensemble playing a live work.
Timing
One of the most immediate differences shows up in timing. Not technical precision in the dry sense; my previous DAC was also precise. This is something else, deeper and more essential. It's the shift from hearing "well-produced instruments" to feeling a band playing together as a single entity.The Jaco Pastorius album (Donna Lee, Come On, Come Over) is a great test for this. His virtuosic control of the fretless and the fusion of jazz and funk create an exceptional vibrancy. Through the Studio Player, his bass stops chasing the rhythm and becomes the anchor that leads it with confidence. You feel the rhythm section breathing inside the room.
That feeling intensifies on Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Give it Away). The chemistry between bass and drums is the beating heart of that record. In a system with phenomenal timing, the groove becomes uncompromising and locked in, to the point where the instruments merge into a single organic entity. You stop only hearing the bass lead melody and rhythm simultaneously and start feeling it as something physical, almost tangible.
With Marcus Miller on M2 (Power), the system is pushed to its limits, forced to handle a bass line that is both brutally powerful and precise as a Swiss watch. And yet, the Wadax rises to the challenge with astonishing ease. It preserves a sense of rhythmic coherence that feels almost unreal; the bass doesn’t just go deep, it tightens like a coiled spring, anchoring the entire ensemble with unwavering confidence.
At some point, something shifts. You stop hearing digital playback as a sequence of samples. Instead, the groove becomes tangible, almost physical - a driving force that propels the music forward, pulling you into its momentum.
Tonal Density
After timing, tonal density. This is where the Studio Player reveals what it can actually do with color. It extracts the original timbre from inside the instruments themselves.Bill Evans's piano on Everybody Digs Bill Evans sounds like a grand piano playing in a room, with the resonance of a real wooden body, not a high-resolution simulation of one.
On Avi Kaplan's The Summit (same track name), Kaplan's bass and baritone voice becomes the ultimate test of a system’s ability to convey human texture. The Wadax doesn’t just reproduce the low frequencies; it reaches deeper, uncovering the fine nuances of vocal cords in motion, the subtle friction between notes that gives a voice its soul. Then there is the space itself that comes alive. Each image is wrapped in a cushion of air that feels almost tangible, as if you could reach out and sense its presence. Kaplan’s voice doesn’t merely play in the room - it arrives. A human presence, organic and grounded, carrying real weight and density, standing there in space as something you don’t just hear, but experience.
That precision carries through to the horns. Sonny Rollins's saxophone on Way Out West, and the trumpets of Miles Davis and Donald Byrd, gain body and texture that makes them sound exactly as they should: alive, breathing, and rough in precisely the right measure. Even a bowed string, in this system, manages to convey the physical sensation of tightened gut on wood and lacquer.
Compared to Analog
The analog comparison is, for me, a critical parameter. The Brinkmann/Madake/Edison combination is a reference through which I evaluate every digital source in the system. The short version: analog is still king, and it remained so even after many hours with the Reference in different systems.That said, every DAC I've owned until now sounded unmistakably like a digital source, with no room for confusion. The Studio Player manages to close the gap precisely in the areas where digital tends to fail: building rich tonal body and rhythmic coherence.
It hasn't closed the gap completely. Vinyl has an organic quality, a kind of aliveness that's difficult to put into words; no digital source today can mimic. But this is the first time I've found myself reaching for the digital selector far more often than I expected to. When an audiophile who is deeply invested in analog starts choosing the other side of the switch at that frequency, it says something worth taking seriously.
Bottom Line
The Studio Player makes me happy!That it also makes DACs costing twice as much sound like products from a previous era is almost beside the point — a bonus on top of something more personal. It's the most significant digital step I've experienced since the Oladra joined the system, and I don't say that lightly.
Will I eventually add the dedicated PSU and clock? Time will tell. For now, what I can say is this: if you run a revealing system and musicality matters more to you than analytical performance, put it on your list. Just know what you're signing up for — a lot of sleepless nights you never planned on having.
Michaels HiFi
Well-known member
That took some serious time and effort to write up. Nicely done.
- Thread Author
- #80