I have the M3 Ultra DAP from Shanling, while I feel it does the job quite well, it lack something that my desktop system provides, a sense of wider and cleaner presentation.
Do you feel like the WA-EX that you have would make a major differnece vs an entry level DAP?
I don't want to raise unnecessary hype and expectations.
In any case, I have always thought that in the audio chain, the master role is played by the final transducers (speakers, headphones, IEMs) and the source audio.
Everything in between has its place, but it's marginal to the two points above.
However I must say that in this case I am at least perplexed.
And I tried different DACs (also shanling), no TOTL, but decent.
To answer your question, I tell you that the differences you might hear depend a lot on the music you listen to and the IEM you are using.
At the moment I'm using S12-PROs (therefore quite brilliant) and listening to male and female voices from DSD source.
And, yes, I feel a strong difference.
Probably if I listened to LEGATO and DANCE music, I wouldn't hear much difference.
But my ear is not very refined, others would probably hear the differences even in that case.
