Audio Mirror WAVE DAC k

The Wave DAC looks interesting for sure. Hopefully Vlad or an early adopter will chime in. I have the Tubadour VI which is amazing. I sent Vlad my III SE in as a trade up. The VI has all the analog qualities of past AM Dac's with an incredible infusion of greater detail, air and more layered spatial presence. Nothing is smoothed over or obscured, very transparent and yet so musical and emotive.

I've had the Wave DAC in my system for the past month along with Vlad's flagship Wave Preamp.  These are both incredible pieces and the synergy between the two is magical.  I've owned & heard many good DAC's over the years but the Wave is way above anything I've heard before.  Prior to the Wave I was using a very good APL HiFi tube DAC & a Denafrips Terminator Plus.  Both of these DAC's sounded very nice but I was missing something.  I wanted more realism, more emotional connection to the music.  The Wave provides amazing transparency, detail & resolution.  The soundstage is wide, deep & has good height.  The bass is incredible and the highs are crisp & clean without being bright.  The mid range is perfect with beautiful vocals.  This is the most analog sounding DAC I've heard.  The separation of instruments & vocals is uncanny.  The listening experience is involving and never fatiguing.  The sound has a weight, presence & density that was missing with my previous DAC's.  I'm very satisfied.  

How much does it cost?

MSRP $22,000

https://audiomirror.com/product/wave-tube-dac/

@hifipassion Do you have any idea how much replacement tubes cost?  What are you streaming with.  What are you streaming with?  I think it has a pretty good USB input.

I'm streaming from an Aurender N10 via USB into the Wave.  The USB input in the wave is excellent.  The Wave does native DSD so I can enjoy DSD files stored on the hard drives in my N10.  I'm using i2s from my Onix SACD transport that sends native DSD to the Wave. Both sources sound great. 

The Wave uses 3 inexpensive Russian tubes.  I think it's about $60 for a set of tubes.

I have the Wave DAC -- I responded brbock on the other site with a pic of the inside of the DAC. We have had ours for maybe 2 1/2 weeks. We have spent every night in front of the system, listening for 2-3 hours. As hifipassion mentioned, the tube replacement is inexpensive. I did replace the rectifier with a vintage 6X5gt, which at first sounded a bit too bright. I was advised by Brent Jessee to give it 50+ hours, and it's absolutely sublime right now. That said, the stock tube compliment makes for shockingly good sound. I can only reiterate what hifipassion said above. We have Lamm preamp/Lamm ML2.1 SET amps and the Wave DAC is astounding. We had the Audio Mirror Tubadour III, the IV and the V. All were excellent, and I could have been satisfied for a long time without making a change. That said, the quality of the playback with the Wave DAC is so fluid, textured, layered in a way I have not ever heard. The vocals are so transparent that you don't hear the tone but the actual vocal chords and the singer's control over their singing. Stringed instruments, piano, they're just amazing. Drums have a natural weight and density to them. And the most unique aspect of the playback is the infinite headroom. When there is a sax solo, or Miles Davis on Bitches Brew, it literally leaps out of the music as you would expect to hear it, and yet rarely do. Usually, the leading instrument feels tethered to the other players and tracks. Not with the Wave DAC. It's a remarkable connection with the music.

I'm a big fan of the Tubadour and have owned a few over the years. Having said that, I don't think AM's charming DIY web design aesthetic is up to par when dealing with $20k+ devices like the Wave. At that level I would expect more info, detailed specs (beyond just "S/N ratio>90db" which is all they say), better photos, etc.

Maybe that is all a work in progress though. I'm intrigued and will keep an eye out.

@996turbo911 Maybe Vlad will see this thread and give us some information.  I have seen him post on here in the past.  

I’d love to hear that DAC and preamp in my system, but I doubt I’ll ever be so lucky.

 

Hello Guys,

Here is some information about WAVE DAC. Took me a little over 2 yrs to design it.

DAC has no capacitors in the signal path. Uses one of the best sounding tube for small signals. I experimented a lot with different tubes. This  was the best sounding one. In the digital part of the DAC I have 6 separate dual regulated, ultra low noise, linear power supplies. Separate transformers(3 pieces)for digital, analog tube section and tube filament. DAC uses the best USB XMOS chip for USB input. Three separate receivers for USB, I2S and the rest(optical, coaxial and AES). It reclocks all the signals. Output transformers are custom made Lundahl. My main goal was to create DAC which not only sounds musical and analog, but to be able to extract all possible information ad details from digital file. Well..... first time I heard the prototype I was building, I was shocked. Honestly I didn't expect to be so good. I expected something a little better than Tubadour VI. I can keep talking about sound, but it's not fair coming from me. It will be more like I am bragging. I compared WAVE DAC to a few super expensive DACs. It sounds better than any of them. I don't want to share all the technical details with you guys, because there are some design secrets which I want to keep it for me. I hope you understand.

Currently I offer a discount of 35% and also a trade in option. You can trade in your Tubadour DAC and also get the 35% discount at the same time. Email me with questions and we can discuss the details. 

@boa2 @hifipassion I really appreciate you guys talking about what you think about the DAC.