W4S DAC

I have the W4S DAC 2DSDse and I have absolutely no regrets or issues with it, a very analog sounding DAC. The nice thing about W4S is that you can buy one of the lesser versions of the DAC and 5h3n send it in to be upgraded as budget allows.

5 years at the speed that digital tech has been moving forward is almost an eternity today. ASR reviewed the "DAC-2v2 SE DAC" a few years ago, and while I do not make judgement based on measurements alone, there were some obvious findings that show that the unit under test had some issues. In the case of the findings, their product was not capable of what they were saying it would do. This is not an opinion in any case, it is a clear limitation of the circuits of the device based on engineering that totally affects the performance. Would there be an audible issue? The review suggests that the faults and limitations may be audible. Maybe this is why we are not seeing a lot of enthusiasm around this company's products? Get yourself a current DAC that has good reviews and be happy for many years.. 

W4s always made good products and they were more popular several years ago, but I think the huge influx of excellent dacs from China killed them. Who’s going to buy a 5k W4s when they can buy a Terminator or a May that every major reviewer went crazy over? Also, W4s is using ESS chips, which are not popular now in higher priced dacs, where buyers either want ladder, fpga or vintage chips.