[XERO1]

https://ferrum.audio/wandla/

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/wandla/
_______________________________________________

This DAC looks promising! And it's currently one of the very few high-end DACs (that I know of) that has a fully-functioning HDMI input (w/ ARC, 44.1-192kHz PCM only, no HDMI pass-thru output). It also has an I2S input, which also uses an HDMI input jack.

MSRP - $2795
Shipping - Mid-April 2023 (ETA)

 

[msing539]

You are fast. And yes, keeping my eye on this one.

 

[Chartreuse]

I struggle with this one. It's got the same ESS ES9038 PRO chip in it as a $450 SMSL SU-9. But this guy costs $2,800, plus a suggested Hypsos pairing, which means the package is $4000.

So basically they've taken a SMSL/Topping-level chipset and priced it into Holo May territory. I don't doubt that there are additional improvements here in the analog section, but even the feature set seems lean compared to what's available for under $1k these days. As a former DAVE owner and current May owner nobody can accuse me of being a DAC skeptic, and I'll reserve judgment until there are some impressions, but I gotta say I'm a bit perplexed.

 

[kingoftown1]

To be fair, ESS chips are used in everything from budget to high end. I don't think you can criticize it just for the DA chip selection. I do agree on the price structuring -- at that type of price point, it seems a little nonsensical not to include the optimal power supply. Realistically, no one's using this thing without a Hypsos, so you're basically at a 4k product. Based on Ferrum's history, I'm sure it'll be good, but there's serious competition in that price bracket.

I wonder how the Wandla will compare with the Erco from a vfm standpoint.

 

[Chartreuse]

To be fair, ESS chips are used in everything from budget to high end. I don't think you can criticize it just for the DA chip selection. I do agree on the price structuring -- at that type of price point, it seems a little nonsensical not to include the optimal power supply. Realistically, no one's using this thing without a Hypsos, so you're basically at a 4k product. Based on Ferrum's history, I'm sure it'll be good, but there's serious competition in that price bracket.

I wonder how the Wandla will compare with the Erco from a vfm standpoint.

I'm not a DAC expert, so feel free to educate me as needed here. But in my mind, the two main functions of a standalone DAC are to 1) Convert a digital signal to an analog one that best matches the original source (duh), and then 2) output an amplified signal with as little noise and distortion as possible.

I've bought a few expensive DACs, and given that the cheap stuff is already measuring really well on point (2), I've attributed the improved performance to the actual DA conversion -- Holo/Chord/Rockna/et al are giving me a fundamentally better analog signal out of the digital input because they're using their own technology to do the conversion. SMSL and Topping do a fine job and measure as good or better on noise and distortion, but they're never going to get to Holo levels of performance as long as they're using those ESS chips.

Now, if the Wandla ends up sounding as good or better than the Holo/Chord/Rockna/etc products at the same price range, I'm going to have a problem because one or both of the following has to be true:

A. The primary digital to analog conversion step is NOT improved by using all the fancy R2R and FPGA technology in lieu of a cheap ESS chip. Rob Watts is wrong, Jeff Zhu is wrong, we've been pouring money into snake oil all this time and ASR is right to be pointing and laughing at us.
B. The amplification section is dramatically more important than the DAC step and that improved performance isn't measurable by distortion, noise, etc.

If (A) is true, then the whole high end DAC game is a farce. I know there are lots of people that believe that, but I'm not one of them. I'm actually not aware of any high-end standalone DAC that uses ESS chips (the Benchmark DAC3 is maybe the highest-end I can think of and still comes in at half the price we're looking at here?), but I'll take your word for it that they're out there. And if (B) is true, then it's awfully weird for Ferrum to not include the high-performance power supply given that it would be foundational to the performance of the unit -- you wouldn't even want to give people the OPTION of using a $2800 DAC that couldn't really get that right.

So anyway that's why I'm confused about this product. If it turns out to be really good then it turns the whole "high end DAC" thing upside down for me and I'll have to re-evaluate how I think about these things.

 

[LoveKnight]

Hopefully this new dac from Ferrum would be from good to great with that price range if it can compete with any Terminator or Holo Spring will be great for me because I live in Australia and many audio gears in this country are so so expensive. Imaging that I have to pay 19k Australia dollars to buy a new Chord Dave make me feel ... empty.

 

[George Hincapie]

Hopefully this new dac from Ferrum would be from good to great with that price range if it can compete with any Terminator or Holo Spring will be great for me because I live in Australia and many audio gears in this country are so so expensive. Imaging that I have to pay 19k Australia dollars to buy a new Chord Dave make me feel ... empty.

ESS can't compete on it's own. But with filters from HQP that are included then it's difficult to say. We will need to listen. I would much prefer them to use flagship AKM.

 

[LucyWu]

One the other hand, one of the finest sounding DACs you'll ever hear is the Merging NADAC. That has a ESS9008 Sabre chip from history - and it's about 10K in Europe.

It's not the chip, but the engineering chops to properly implement it. The Ferum is built by people who have a lot of experience with ESS dac chips, so I am sure this is a very fine product, well built in Europe with aftersales support and staff who earn a reasonable wage.

 

[Arniesb]

https://ferrum.audio/wandla/

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/wandla/
_______________________________________________

This DAC looks promising! And it's currently one of the very few high-end DACs (that I know of) that has a fully-functioning HDMI input (w/ ARC, 44.1-192kHz PCM only, no HDMI pass-thru output). It also has an I2S input, which also uses an HDMI input jack.

MSRP - $2795
Shipping - Mid-April 2023 (ETA)

Doesnt look promising at all. Chinese sub 1k dacs look better on paper.

 

[Chartreuse]

But with filters from HQP that are included then it's difficult to say

The 6moons article seems to indicate that they’re attributing the performance to messing with the digital signal pre-conversion (“conditioning”). There’s plenty of precedent for that (HQP, mscaler), but HQP is so cheap I’m not sure why you’d want to pay so much for an ESS-based DAC that bakes it into the device rather than affording you the flexibility of using it closer to your source.

 

[solid12345]

At first I was intrigued but now I’m disappointed and even a bit confused when I read this on the 6moons article:

It goes without saying that like for their pure head amp and mixed DAC/headfi deck, Hypsos the external switching/linear power supply stands by on ferrum's in-house upgrade path. And no, Hypsos isn't potent enough to power both Wandla and Oor at once when each wants at least 24V but can take up to 30V.

I understand getting maximum power efficiency is always an engineering challenge to solve but it seems like a lost opportunity here to fill in that missing final component of a beautifully connected Hypsos & OOR ecosystem. But what is puzzling me is some of the promotional photos on headphones.com show an ERCO stacked on top and connected by 3-way power splitter but at that point if you have an ERCO for the DAC stage it makes repurchasing a whole other dedicated DAC an expensive proposition. Also if it can’t handle a 3-way connection with the OOR surely even the ERCO still draws too much power? Is this just a product photography mistake by a 3rd party seller?

Also someone who is smarter than me please chime in, if one were to purchase this and you had to only power one device with the Hypsos, is it better to use the Hypsos to power the DAC/preamp stage or save the dedicated power supply for the beefier headphone amp?

 

[XERO1]

Doesnt look promising at all. Chinese sub 1k dacs look better on paper.

But they all sound like a$$ in reality.

At least with Ferrum, it has already been established that they know how to make a great sounding TOTL amp, so hopefully they are capable of making an equally great sounding TOTL DAC. We shall see.

 

[George Hincapie]

But they all sound like a$$ in reality.

At least with Ferrum, it has already been established that they know how to make a great sounding TOTL amp, so hopefully they are capable of making an equally great sounding TOTL DAC. We shall see.

Not with ESS they won't.

 

[Arniesb]

But they all sound like a$$ in reality.

At least with Ferrum, it has already been established that they know how to make a great sounding TOTL amp, so hopefully they are capable of making an equally great sounding TOTL DAC. We shall see.

Making a decent amp doesn't make you a specialist in dac arena.
Gustard products, holo audio products, Matrix x sabre look way better for that price.
Hell even smsl units bellow 1k look better than this.
You know we are not stupid we can see it have nothing special 2k let alone nearly 3k price.

 

[LucyWu]

The people at Ferrum were responsible in large part for making Mytek Dacs - far from cheap, far from poor. Seems a reasonable starting point.