Wadax is building their product line around their digital expertise, putting it in their speakers and using it in their phono preamp [as I understand it].
They were very excited about Mike Fremer throwing out his phono stage and preamp and using their PRE 1 instead [I have not been keeping up with Stereophile either before CES or after, so do not know the scoop – but I think sometimes Mike does things that do not makes sense from the point of view of a typical audiophile who wants their system to sound its best. This may be one of those times – or maybe not].
They were silly enough to ask me if I had ‘ever heard digital better than this?’ and luckily, while I was trying to think about the digital here and how to be honest and polite at the same time, the conversation had moved on [Audio Note, Emm Labs, Audio Aero, Zanden, perhaps Neodio and probably forgetting a few]. Not that the digital was bad or anything, I’d probably place it above most other digital, perhaps even Esoteric, perhaps not. It didn’t seem to have digital artifacts, erring instead, possibly, on the side of removing too much information along with the artifacts.
There were other problems with the sound here that would have had a tendency to obscure some of the good stuff the digital might be doing – specifically the sound had a lot of unevenness between the highs, the mids and the lows [and none of which were exceptional, unlike, say, a not-so-well-integrated horn driver or ribbon driver – where the driver can sound great in its specific freq. range]. I blamed these effects on integration problems with the drivers in their new speakers, but I could be completely off base here. There was also a lack of harmonic color and midi- and micro- dynamics and.. well…
…. my expectation here were fairly high – as I took photos and sat down to listen it was obvious that they were going for the high-performance part of the high-end and are trying new things. I do think this *is* the right way to design speakers in the modern era – with most everything built into the speaker but the source. Hopefully they will continue in their quest and we’ll get to hear them again at the next shows.
Wadax Audio ‘La Paison’ speakers
Wadax Audio ‘La Paison’ speakers
Wadax Audio ‘La Paison’ speakers
Wadax Audio ‘La Paison’ speakers rear
Wadax Audio ‘La Paison’ speakers rear binding posts
Wadax Audio ‘La Paison’ speakers
Wadax PRE 1 preamplifier. I took so many photos of this, and the rest were too out of focus to use.
Brinkmann Oasis turntable
Brinkmann Oasis turntable
Brinkmann Oasis turntable with Brinkmann Pi cartridge
CH Precision CD player
CH Precision CD player with remote control – cool how it must be magnetized? to stick to the side of the chassis like that [maybe the chassis is magnetized in that area?]
The Sonorus reel to reel tape player
The Sonorus reel to reel tape player from below
