JeffMann
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2014
- Posts
- 441
- Likes
- 361
I recently purchased a Wyred-4-sound 2V2SE 10th Anniversary Limited Edition DAC and it has transformed the sound of my headphone-based audio system to such a remarkable degree that I have finally achieved a 50-year old goal of owning an audio system that is "musically accurate" and that can very accurately reproduce the sound of classical music instruments and opera voices.
Some background history that will describe my personal history as an audiophile.
I first became an audiophile in 1968 when I was 19 years old. In the 1970s I didn't have enough money to purchase an expensive high-end audio system, but that situation changed in the 1980s when I owned a speaker-based audio system that cost about $50,000. I owned both a fully-loaded Linn Sondek LP12 LP-turntable and also a VPI TNT turntable with a Graham arm and a $3,000 cartridge. I only used tube pre-amplifiers and amplifiers - manufactured by companies like Audio Research, Conrad Johnson and Cary Audio. I owned about 3,000 LPs (mainly classical music and opera music).
In 1986 I moved to northern New Jersey and I lived about 50 miles outside New York City. I started to go to opera performances at the Metropolitan Opera House and classical music concerts at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall at least once per week. My constant exposure to "live" classical music and opera made me increasingly dissatisfied with the sound quality of my high-end audio system because it couldn't come close enough to accurately reproducing the sound of "live" acoustic instruments. I eventually stopped listening to my audio system and I finally sold all my audio equipment and my entire LP-collection in 2001 just before I moved to Salt Lake City. I had given up on the idea of being an audiophile (although I remained a music-lover) and I simply purchased a Marantz CD-player and a Sennheiser HD600 headphone (which I plugged into the CD-player's headphone jack) so that I could episodically listen to classical music and opera. The sound quality of my headphone-based system was mediocre, but I didn't expect much from a digital-based audio system that used a headphone (rather than a speaker) to reproduce music. I only realised that a headphone-based system could possibly satisfy a disgruntled audiophile (like me) when I upgraded my headphone to a Sennheiser HD800 headphone and when I purchased a Violectric V281 headphone amplifier. That combination re-awakened my latent audiophile inclinations, and I started to regularly upgrade my headphone-based system - hoping to finally achieve my life-long goal of owning an audio system that could closely reproduce the sound quality of "live" acoustic musical instruments and opera voices. I subsequently purchased a PS Audio PWT CD-transport and an Anedio D2 DAC and I replaced my HD800 headphone with a HiFiMan HE1000 headphone. These changes made significant improvements in my audio system's ability to mimic the sound of "live" acoustic musical instruments and opera voices, but there was still a significant gap between the sound of my audio system and "live" classical music instruments. Replacing my HE1000 headphone with a Susvara headphone, and replacing my Anedio D2 DAC with a Matrix Sabre-X Pro DAC, made my audio system even more "musically accurate" but my goal of owning an audio system that could accurately mimic the sound of "live" acoustic musical instruments remained elusive. That situation serendipitously changed when I recently replaced my Matrix Sabre-X Pro DAC with a Wyred-4-sound 2V2SE 10th Anniversary Limited Edition DAC.
I was not even aware of the Wyred-4-sound company and its DACs until I read John Grandberg's very positive review of the Wyred-4-sound 2V2SE 10th Anniversary Limited Edition DAC at https://darko.audio/2017/12/wyred-4-sound-dac2v2se-10th-anniversary-review. The review was so effusively positive that I decided to purchase the DAC. It only took one day to realise that this DAC was much better than my Matrix SabreX Pro DAC and that my audio system's sound quality was much better. Within a week - after listening to a large variety of classical music recordings (eg. string quartets, violin/cello/piano concertos, and symphonic/opera music) - I serendipitously realised that I had finally achieved a decades-long goal of owning a "musically accurate" audio system that could very closely mimic the sound quality of "live" classical musical instruments and opera voices. I then decided to post my positive personal impressions in a hifi.org forum owners thread devoted to that specific DAC, but I discovered that there was no thread devoted to the Wyred-4-sound 2V2SE 10th Anniversary Limited Edition DAC. I therefore decided to start this appreciation thread because I am curious as to whether other owners of this remarkable DAC have the same positive impression of this DAC (as described my John Grandberg in his audio equipment review) and whether they also believe that it is has made their audio system much more "musically accurate" (as described by me in this thread).
Jeff.
Some background history that will describe my personal history as an audiophile.
I first became an audiophile in 1968 when I was 19 years old. In the 1970s I didn't have enough money to purchase an expensive high-end audio system, but that situation changed in the 1980s when I owned a speaker-based audio system that cost about $50,000. I owned both a fully-loaded Linn Sondek LP12 LP-turntable and also a VPI TNT turntable with a Graham arm and a $3,000 cartridge. I only used tube pre-amplifiers and amplifiers - manufactured by companies like Audio Research, Conrad Johnson and Cary Audio. I owned about 3,000 LPs (mainly classical music and opera music).
In 1986 I moved to northern New Jersey and I lived about 50 miles outside New York City. I started to go to opera performances at the Metropolitan Opera House and classical music concerts at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall at least once per week. My constant exposure to "live" classical music and opera made me increasingly dissatisfied with the sound quality of my high-end audio system because it couldn't come close enough to accurately reproducing the sound of "live" acoustic instruments. I eventually stopped listening to my audio system and I finally sold all my audio equipment and my entire LP-collection in 2001 just before I moved to Salt Lake City. I had given up on the idea of being an audiophile (although I remained a music-lover) and I simply purchased a Marantz CD-player and a Sennheiser HD600 headphone (which I plugged into the CD-player's headphone jack) so that I could episodically listen to classical music and opera. The sound quality of my headphone-based system was mediocre, but I didn't expect much from a digital-based audio system that used a headphone (rather than a speaker) to reproduce music. I only realised that a headphone-based system could possibly satisfy a disgruntled audiophile (like me) when I upgraded my headphone to a Sennheiser HD800 headphone and when I purchased a Violectric V281 headphone amplifier. That combination re-awakened my latent audiophile inclinations, and I started to regularly upgrade my headphone-based system - hoping to finally achieve my life-long goal of owning an audio system that could closely reproduce the sound quality of "live" acoustic musical instruments and opera voices. I subsequently purchased a PS Audio PWT CD-transport and an Anedio D2 DAC and I replaced my HD800 headphone with a HiFiMan HE1000 headphone. These changes made significant improvements in my audio system's ability to mimic the sound of "live" acoustic musical instruments and opera voices, but there was still a significant gap between the sound of my audio system and "live" classical music instruments. Replacing my HE1000 headphone with a Susvara headphone, and replacing my Anedio D2 DAC with a Matrix Sabre-X Pro DAC, made my audio system even more "musically accurate" but my goal of owning an audio system that could accurately mimic the sound of "live" acoustic musical instruments remained elusive. That situation serendipitously changed when I recently replaced my Matrix Sabre-X Pro DAC with a Wyred-4-sound 2V2SE 10th Anniversary Limited Edition DAC.
I was not even aware of the Wyred-4-sound company and its DACs until I read John Grandberg's very positive review of the Wyred-4-sound 2V2SE 10th Anniversary Limited Edition DAC at https://darko.audio/2017/12/wyred-4-sound-dac2v2se-10th-anniversary-review. The review was so effusively positive that I decided to purchase the DAC. It only took one day to realise that this DAC was much better than my Matrix SabreX Pro DAC and that my audio system's sound quality was much better. Within a week - after listening to a large variety of classical music recordings (eg. string quartets, violin/cello/piano concertos, and symphonic/opera music) - I serendipitously realised that I had finally achieved a decades-long goal of owning a "musically accurate" audio system that could very closely mimic the sound quality of "live" classical musical instruments and opera voices. I then decided to post my positive personal impressions in a hifi.org forum owners thread devoted to that specific DAC, but I discovered that there was no thread devoted to the Wyred-4-sound 2V2SE 10th Anniversary Limited Edition DAC. I therefore decided to start this appreciation thread because I am curious as to whether other owners of this remarkable DAC have the same positive impression of this DAC (as described my John Grandberg in his audio equipment review) and whether they also believe that it is has made their audio system much more "musically accurate" (as described by me in this thread).
Jeff.
Last edited: