Sometime in August, 2023 we received a call from our friend Brandon Lauer from WADAX “hey buddy, what are you going to do at the Dutch Audio Event this year?” My answer was soon followed by the question if we wanted to play with the WADAX Reference Atlantis combination. Ehhh… Perhaps the most beautiful spring in the world, but probably also one of the most prestigious. Strengthened by the agreement to first put him through his paces in our listening room, it was of course the unique opportunity to first marvel at this piece of art ourselves. The rest is history.

JAVIER Guadalajara

The introduction of the WADAX Reference Atlantis caused quite a landslide. International Ultra High End reviewers were constantly talking about it – this is revolutionary. It catapulted WADAX into the spotlight where it may seem like the brand came out of the blue. Although the Spanish WADAX is a fairly young company, its roots start with Angel Guadelajara, father of WADAX founder and chief engineer Javier. Growing up in his father’s High-End Audio distribution and Product Development business, Javier was brought up with the value of true-to-life music reproduction. Javier’s father’s exceptional knowledge of Signal Processing continues in his son, which is combined with various intensive studies and research with which he specializes in Digital Signal Processing and Error Correction. In 2004, his research led to the development of a unique chip: musIC with feed-forward, load-sensitive, error correction. It was the start of WADAX, after which the first full-fledged product saw the light of day in 2011.

Still, it will be a few more years before the world gets to know WADAX more widely when they do in 2017, with the introduction of optimized musIC 2 chip in the Atlantis Digital Line. The Atlantis Reference DAC will follow in 2019 and the Atlantis Reference Server in 2020. A combination in which WADAX has really not imposed any limitations other than the limits of what can be made. The combination makes an indelible impression in High End Audioland and changes the perception of what is possible within digital music reproduction. The name Reference will last forever because the modular technology within the Atlantis Reference DAC and Streamer can simply evolve with every development. It is the realization of a project (X) that started as a dream and will flow into everything Javier does. Brand name WADAX – the combination of the speech form of Javier’s surname GUADAlajara and project X – has been specifically chosen so that the brand name is pronounced the same all over the world. And he will, because this brand is going to give the class of digital to analog conversion a completely new dimension. We are convinced of that!

WADAX STUDIO PLAYER

Fair is fair. The Reference Atlantis fulfills a class that belongs to rare dreams for us too. After the shows (and insisting for months that we had ‘lost’ the set) he went back to Spain. Since that moment we have been eagerly awaiting the promised model that would be well below the price level of the Reference Atlantis. That wait is now over, the WADAX Studio Player has finally arrived at Reference Sounds and is not leaving here either!

The Studio Player combines all the knowledge of WADAX in one beautiful chassis as the ultimate total solution: DAC, Streamer and CD/SACD player including Hi-Resolution Hybrid Volume Control. In addition, the actual digital-to-analog conversion is identical to the superlative WADAX Atlantis Reference DAC. The modular structure makes the Studio Player a player for life that grows with the technological evolution within WADAX.
The Studio Player is an impressive work of art. Beautifully organic in sculpture with a two-tone chassis in which the silk matt silver, arched top and bottom plate stand out boldly against the black base chassis. Like an oyster guarding its pearl, they protect more than 4500 discrete components spread over 40 individual circuit boards from the outside world.
Completely balanced and built in dual mono style where both the digital and analog signal processing as well as the left and right signal are completely separated and isolated. The power supply – the foundation of every audio signal – has been optimized to the last detail, resulting in an extremely low ripple of 0.5 microvolts. Five different DC rails followed by 30 independent, local control circuits deliver exactly what each circuit needs. Perfection at its best.

FEED FORWARD ERROR CORRECTION

WADAX’s holistic approach is in itself enough to teleport the Studio Player to the absolute top in the world. Yet a large part of WADAX’s ability to communicate music with unprecedented authenticity lies in its unique, self-developed Feed Forward Error Correction technology. It is the technology that forms the foundation of WADAX and answers the question why digital – no matter how good it can sometimes be – still sounds ‘digital’. Intrinsic to digital-to-analogue conversion is the creeping ‘pollution’ due to errors and non-linearities during and after conversion process. They add something that has nothing to do with the original or mask the smallest nuances that make the difference between good and magical.

Since 2004, WADAX has been committed to analyzing this contamination and developing a unique algorithm that can effectively correct or reduce errors introduced by the conversion in real time. Explained in a highly simplified manner, the special algorithm in the WADAX MusIC Processor maps the non-linearities introduced by the circuit, introduces an inverted variant of this error with which it cancels out with the final output signal. In reality, this requires enormous computing capacity as it maps the errors of the DAC under load to apply minimal but crucial feed-forward corrections. However, the result is difficult to express in words. Our first introduction to WADAX mainly evokes ‘frameless’. As if with every DAC so far, no matter how beautiful, we have listened to a fixed framework within which the sound image was captured. With WADAX, that framework seems to have disappeared. Free from any boundaries in depth, width and height. Just lifelike.

The ability to adjust both the output level (output voltage) of the Player and the output impedance on the system allows you to truly customize the WADAX Studio Player to perfection.

At the time of writing, there is one WADAX Studio Player available in the BeNeLux, at Reference Sounds. If you want to experience the class of this extraordinary Studio Player for yourself, we would be happy to make a personal appointment for you.