audionewbi
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2010
- Posts
- 10,610
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- 6,040
Part 1- How I came to learn about them?
Those of you guys who know me I am big about Japanese audio market, I follow all the blogs that I can. One day as I was browsing AV Watch I happen to come across an interesting looking device which got my attention. Upon further research I stumbled across the Waversa Facebook, I PM their FB page which I was promptly was answered too. I ended up asking a lot of question, eventually got in contact with Mr Junho Shin, the CEO of the company who has been so patient with my endless question.
Our discussion led to talking about his upcoming products in portable world, some of which he is debuting this coming wee at fujia-avic headphone festival, and I asked whether I can cover his product over at head-fi and I invited him over at our forum. Thankfully he accepted my invite
I like to take this moment to welcome Mr Shin to our forum, I believe his username is Waversa.
Part 2- A brief introduction about the company
Waversa system is a Korean based company established in the year 2012 as a high end exclusively company. To say that is not far as they do far more than just sale their own product, they are still consultant for various other field, far too diverse for me to mention but it all involves designing somewhat sophisticate circuitries. Waversa actually did not begin their career as a high end audio company but more as consultant and manufacturer of medical supplies, chips used for video and audio processing for various private and government agencies. Their research and venture into high end audio is based on two decades of doing research for other companies.
The high end local market knows them best by their W DAC3 however they have experience in designing digital amp as well as tube based pre-amps and recently there V DAC which is just too complicated for me to wrap my head around and i will not pretend I cna.
Part 3- Waversa Product-line
As state in previous section Waversa is well known in Korean high end market for their DAC and digital AMP. However lately they are developing few head-fi specific products. Below I have placed the product that they currently have ready for purchase in their local market, in the following section I will discuss the products that I think head-fi will interest head-fi.
Currently Waversa systems have a number of very exciting project under development so the final product list will be known once their official site is finalised but for now just to give you guys an idea of what they do I have included a table below to give you an idea of their product and how they categorise them.
Source
Top: Pictures above are from the last audio show in Korea, powering Symphony 9 speakers
Top: W DAC3
Top: W DAC3 which incorporate a modular design making it easy for future upgrades
Top: W DAC3 has 1900 LED lights that light and display all that you need to know about your current song; Bottom: W AMP2
Top: Waversa V DAC,
Part 4- WAP (Waversa Audio Processor)
What makes Waversa Systems different than other product is their WAP, which stands for Waversa Audio Processor. How it function to be honest is not as straight forward for me to be able to explain without making a grossly oversimplifying the entire process. WAP is essentially a set of algorithm that tries to essentially fix the Quantisation error that take place in the Analog to Digital conversion process. They classify their WAP system using levels, highest would he level 9 currently and they are hoping to improve on that future in future.
What makes things more interesting is that they don’t only use this in there DAC but also in there digital amps.
Hopefully Junho can answer your technical question more carefully.
Part 5-Few question that I asked Mr Shin
In order to best understand the product-line and design philosophy of Waversa I thought I ask a set of question from Mr Shin and here are his answers:
Question 1: What is your background? How long have you been designing your products?
IT engineering for 25 years. And audio development in 20 years. Audio business is 2.5 years.
Computer Architecture and Audio/Video processing is major.
Question 2: What does Waversa mean?
Wave + Versatile
Question 3: When you design your product what is your reference setting, aim?
With our products with several speaker system and headphone.
Speaker : B&W, Magico, Avalon.
Headphone : HD800, HD800S, Abyss.
Question 4: Which of your product do you favour the most?
All
Question 6: What is the role of the FPGA in your design?
Audio processing for reconstruct original analog signal.
Question 7: What were you aiming when you were designing the WMP-D2?
D2 is one of flagship amplifier of Waversa Systems. So it should cover all kind of headphone.
Question 8: Do you have any plans for releasing a budget-fi, cheaper product product?
WMP-S2 will be release soon, it will be ver affordable.
Question 9: Will you even venture into designing a dedicated music player?
We have designed prototype but I think it market will move to smartphone with DAC/AMP.
Question 10: What do you think of formats like DSD, MQA, PCM, which one do you prefer and what do you think the future of portable audio will be like?
PCM is best and most of contents are based on PCM. Conversion to other format always cause degradation.
Part 6- Waversa portable products
As you might have noticed before the two portable audio I was alluring to before are the WMP-D2, which will be debuting next week at the infamous fujiya-avic headphone festival, and the WMP-S2 which Mr Shin is quiet proud of and is still trying to finalise, from what I am told all is done and it should be in production real soon.
Below is all the information currently I have available about this two product. I asked Mr Shin a number of question regarding these two products and here are his answers.
6.1 WMP-D2
1-What makes D2 special?
It has full functional high end dac, pre amplifier and headphone amplifier.
2- How much of your flagship sound do you think D2 is able to replicate?
It is not replicated because it uses WAP Level 9 and very sophisticate current control method for output.
3-To whom will you recommend D2?
Very high impedance headphone user, but it can work equally well with anything lower-impedance.
4- What particular headphone do you recommend for D2?
Abyss, HD800S
WMP-D2 specs
WMP-D2 has got me excited. This product made my research about their company. It is designed based on the same standard as their flagship products. It is designed to be a flagship portable dac/amp capable of powering everyone favourite gears non-electrostatic headphone, whether it is an Abyss or their UREM, even the apple EarPods which Mr Shin reports few people at various show were blown away by how the D2 scales up even the EarPods.
Some go you might have noticed two things which stands about the design 1)the finish and 2) the connectors. Recently it has become popular to release produce in various metallic finishing. The copper finishing tend to cost more and I did ask whether it has any improvement in there design. I was told the copper cost more and is purely for aethstetic and adds will not impact the performance. The cheaper model is the standard black finishing and measure and performs equally well.
The second thing that you that stands more is the included headphone connectors:3 pin unbalanced and 4 pin balanced. The reason why they went with this is to reduce space and improve durability. The adapter is supplied for user and those who believe in cables can experiment with it.
Impedance can be adjusted by user however it is mostly a feature that is there for user to decide whether they like the change in sound. The impedance by deign is very low, it is more the sufficient for those multiple BA IEM. What D2 allows for the user to vary the current output, this should help with those low impedance planar which like high output current. Ofcourse changing current output also various the sound for multiple BA, once again it is for the user to experiment
Top: Back of the PCB board
Top: Circuit board of D2, fully discrete with 4 ES9018 DAC.
Top: MOSFET output stage
The volume is controlled by MAS6116 which is they are proud of using in their design. Two stereo MAS6116 used for full balanced volume control. I let you guys google this and find out its significance.
They are also working or releasing a short micro USB to USB-B. They are working on releasing a number of very exciting accessories such as leather case, balance cable and all those good stuff that we enthusiast love to.
Top: The back side of WMP-D2.
6.2- WMP-S2
1-What makes S2 special?
Small but beautiful sound.
2- How comparable is S2 to D2, ignoring their ability to power things like abyss headphone, but purely based on sound alone
Actual output resolution is different.
3-To whom will you recommend S2?
Student and newbie for head-fi.
4- What particular headphone do you recommend for S2?
All earphones and headphone with easy drive.
The official specs of of S2 is not out yet so more information will be made available once I have them. All I know is they are very proud of wha they were able to achieve with this.
For now enjoy the pictures.
Information regarding about various products, please use google chrome to translate
W DAC/W AMP2, W SmartHUB information: http://www.hificlub.co.kr/web10/board/brd_wz_view_n10.asp?table=brd_10199&pid=10286&f_lid=100247&lid=100&level=0&ishtml=c&p_f_lid=100277&p_lid=100
Waversa V DAC: http://www.audiooutlet.co.kr/ao/mall/ao_prod_view.asp?sale_code=11220
Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/waversa/
Official site: http://zionote.com/waversasystems/
AV Show link: http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20160414_753198.html
Those of you guys who know me I am big about Japanese audio market, I follow all the blogs that I can. One day as I was browsing AV Watch I happen to come across an interesting looking device which got my attention. Upon further research I stumbled across the Waversa Facebook, I PM their FB page which I was promptly was answered too. I ended up asking a lot of question, eventually got in contact with Mr Junho Shin, the CEO of the company who has been so patient with my endless question.
Our discussion led to talking about his upcoming products in portable world, some of which he is debuting this coming wee at fujia-avic headphone festival, and I asked whether I can cover his product over at head-fi and I invited him over at our forum. Thankfully he accepted my invite
I like to take this moment to welcome Mr Shin to our forum, I believe his username is Waversa.
Part 2- A brief introduction about the company
Waversa system is a Korean based company established in the year 2012 as a high end exclusively company. To say that is not far as they do far more than just sale their own product, they are still consultant for various other field, far too diverse for me to mention but it all involves designing somewhat sophisticate circuitries. Waversa actually did not begin their career as a high end audio company but more as consultant and manufacturer of medical supplies, chips used for video and audio processing for various private and government agencies. Their research and venture into high end audio is based on two decades of doing research for other companies.
The high end local market knows them best by their W DAC3 however they have experience in designing digital amp as well as tube based pre-amps and recently there V DAC which is just too complicated for me to wrap my head around and i will not pretend I cna.
Part 3- Waversa Product-line
As state in previous section Waversa is well known in Korean high end market for their DAC and digital AMP. However lately they are developing few head-fi specific products. Below I have placed the product that they currently have ready for purchase in their local market, in the following section I will discuss the products that I think head-fi will interest head-fi.
Currently Waversa systems have a number of very exciting project under development so the final product list will be known once their official site is finalised but for now just to give you guys an idea of what they do I have included a table below to give you an idea of their product and how they categorise them.
Source
Top: Pictures above are from the last audio show in Korea, powering Symphony 9 speakers
Top: W DAC3
Top: W DAC3 which incorporate a modular design making it easy for future upgrades
Top: W DAC3 has 1900 LED lights that light and display all that you need to know about your current song; Bottom: W AMP2
Top: Waversa V DAC,
Part 4- WAP (Waversa Audio Processor)
What makes Waversa Systems different than other product is their WAP, which stands for Waversa Audio Processor. How it function to be honest is not as straight forward for me to be able to explain without making a grossly oversimplifying the entire process. WAP is essentially a set of algorithm that tries to essentially fix the Quantisation error that take place in the Analog to Digital conversion process. They classify their WAP system using levels, highest would he level 9 currently and they are hoping to improve on that future in future.
What makes things more interesting is that they don’t only use this in there DAC but also in there digital amps.
Hopefully Junho can answer your technical question more carefully.
Part 5-Few question that I asked Mr Shin
In order to best understand the product-line and design philosophy of Waversa I thought I ask a set of question from Mr Shin and here are his answers:
Question 1: What is your background? How long have you been designing your products?
IT engineering for 25 years. And audio development in 20 years. Audio business is 2.5 years.
Computer Architecture and Audio/Video processing is major.
Question 2: What does Waversa mean?
Wave + Versatile
Question 3: When you design your product what is your reference setting, aim?
With our products with several speaker system and headphone.
Speaker : B&W, Magico, Avalon.
Headphone : HD800, HD800S, Abyss.
Question 4: Which of your product do you favour the most?
All
Question 6: What is the role of the FPGA in your design?
Audio processing for reconstruct original analog signal.
Question 7: What were you aiming when you were designing the WMP-D2?
D2 is one of flagship amplifier of Waversa Systems. So it should cover all kind of headphone.
Question 8: Do you have any plans for releasing a budget-fi, cheaper product product?
WMP-S2 will be release soon, it will be ver affordable.
Question 9: Will you even venture into designing a dedicated music player?
We have designed prototype but I think it market will move to smartphone with DAC/AMP.
Question 10: What do you think of formats like DSD, MQA, PCM, which one do you prefer and what do you think the future of portable audio will be like?
PCM is best and most of contents are based on PCM. Conversion to other format always cause degradation.
Part 6- Waversa portable products
As you might have noticed before the two portable audio I was alluring to before are the WMP-D2, which will be debuting next week at the infamous fujiya-avic headphone festival, and the WMP-S2 which Mr Shin is quiet proud of and is still trying to finalise, from what I am told all is done and it should be in production real soon.
Below is all the information currently I have available about this two product. I asked Mr Shin a number of question regarding these two products and here are his answers.
6.1 WMP-D2
1-What makes D2 special?
It has full functional high end dac, pre amplifier and headphone amplifier.
2- How much of your flagship sound do you think D2 is able to replicate?
It is not replicated because it uses WAP Level 9 and very sophisticate current control method for output.
3-To whom will you recommend D2?
Very high impedance headphone user, but it can work equally well with anything lower-impedance.
4- What particular headphone do you recommend for D2?
Abyss, HD800S
WMP-D2 specs
- Strong output ranging from 4 ~ 8 Watts
- Impedance control system corresponding to different headphone
- And the impedance control signal path without lowering resolution according to the digital current control by a parallel connection of four DAC chip
- From digital to analog fully balanced discrete circuitry
- Balanced, unbalanced output support
- Automotive Grade MOSFET
- Landscape equipped with high-end analog volume only
- High quality with ES9018K-2M DAC Chip
- Dual MEMS-precision clock
- That clock asynchronous USB Module
- Sophisticated algorithms WAP (9 dogs processing engine. W DAC3 5 engine.I)
- 32bit / 384 kHz resolution sound
- S / N ratio: 135dB
- Ultra-Wideband Frequency range: 5Hz ~ 180kHz
- Built-in 4000mAh high capacity lithium-ion battery
WMP-D2 has got me excited. This product made my research about their company. It is designed based on the same standard as their flagship products. It is designed to be a flagship portable dac/amp capable of powering everyone favourite gears non-electrostatic headphone, whether it is an Abyss or their UREM, even the apple EarPods which Mr Shin reports few people at various show were blown away by how the D2 scales up even the EarPods.
Some go you might have noticed two things which stands about the design 1)the finish and 2) the connectors. Recently it has become popular to release produce in various metallic finishing. The copper finishing tend to cost more and I did ask whether it has any improvement in there design. I was told the copper cost more and is purely for aethstetic and adds will not impact the performance. The cheaper model is the standard black finishing and measure and performs equally well.
The second thing that you that stands more is the included headphone connectors:3 pin unbalanced and 4 pin balanced. The reason why they went with this is to reduce space and improve durability. The adapter is supplied for user and those who believe in cables can experiment with it.
Impedance can be adjusted by user however it is mostly a feature that is there for user to decide whether they like the change in sound. The impedance by deign is very low, it is more the sufficient for those multiple BA IEM. What D2 allows for the user to vary the current output, this should help with those low impedance planar which like high output current. Ofcourse changing current output also various the sound for multiple BA, once again it is for the user to experiment
Top: Back of the PCB board
Top: Circuit board of D2, fully discrete with 4 ES9018 DAC.
Top: MOSFET output stage
The volume is controlled by MAS6116 which is they are proud of using in their design. Two stereo MAS6116 used for full balanced volume control. I let you guys google this and find out its significance.
They are also working or releasing a short micro USB to USB-B. They are working on releasing a number of very exciting accessories such as leather case, balance cable and all those good stuff that we enthusiast love to.
Top: The back side of WMP-D2.
6.2- WMP-S2
1-What makes S2 special?
Small but beautiful sound.
2- How comparable is S2 to D2, ignoring their ability to power things like abyss headphone, but purely based on sound alone
Actual output resolution is different.
3-To whom will you recommend S2?
Student and newbie for head-fi.
4- What particular headphone do you recommend for S2?
All earphones and headphone with easy drive.
The official specs of of S2 is not out yet so more information will be made available once I have them. All I know is they are very proud of wha they were able to achieve with this.
For now enjoy the pictures.
Information regarding about various products, please use google chrome to translate
W DAC/W AMP2, W SmartHUB information: http://www.hificlub.co.kr/web10/board/brd_wz_view_n10.asp?table=brd_10199&pid=10286&f_lid=100247&lid=100&level=0&ishtml=c&p_f_lid=100277&p_lid=100
Waversa V DAC: http://www.audiooutlet.co.kr/ao/mall/ao_prod_view.asp?sale_code=11220
Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/waversa/
Official site: http://zionote.com/waversasystems/
AV Show link: http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20160414_753198.html
