Ferrum Audio WANDLA GOLDENSOUND EDITION GEN 2 Reference Pre Dac

Description

GEN 2 FEATURES:

WANDLA GoldenSound Edition managed to add three great features to the original WANDLA. One to enhance the sheer impact in the lower frequency, one to simulate the warmth of a tube stage and one to offer an enhancement in the third dimension. With GoldenSound Edition Gen 2 these three features, called Impact+, Tube Mode and Spatial Enhancement, were completely overhauled and each got their own Ferrum Sweet Spot Tuning! 

Impact+ now offers seven distinct shape settings (Reference, Ref+, Smooth, Kick+, DD-Comp, DD-Comp+, and Sub-Bass) and lets you regulate the impact level from 10% to 130%. Tube Mode now introduces the sound signature of five tubes (EL34, KT88, 300B, 2A3 and 7062) with reproduction up to the 7th harmonic and lets you regulate the levels from 10% to 200% in search of your personal perfect setting. Spatial Enhancement now introduces Transient Compensation. This setting fine-tunes the spatial enhancement algorithm and provides improved processing for high frequency transients, resulting in a vastly more realistic three-dimensional staging without unwanted shifts in imaging often caused by traditional crossfeed. GoldenSound Edition Gen 2 introduces ultimate customization on top of all of the original settings for both speakers and headphones. Something great just got even better

Gen 2 Tube Mode - You can now choose your tube sound signature by choosing one of five popular tube designs and adjusting the level of its effect. Enter Ferrum’s Sweet Spot Tuning for Tube Sound. 

Gen 2 Impact+ - You can now control your low-end sound signature by choosing one of seven predesigned settings of bass and dynamics and adjusting its level. Enter Ferrum’s Sweet Spot Tuning for Impact+. 

Gen 2 Spatial Enhancement - You can now independently toggle the spatial effect, select your output mode (Headphones/Speakers), and engage the new Transient Compensation to fine-tune the imaging. Enter Ferrum’s Sweet Spot Tuning for Spatial Enhancement. 

Next to these great new features you get to keep all features of the original WANDLA (except MQA), like its SERCE DSP module, WANDLA’s balanced design, the proprietary amplification, optimized digital inputs, finely tuned DA conversion, Dynamic Digital Filtering, ease of use via WANDLA’s touch screen, Ferrum’s Streaming Control Technology and 4TSD voltage sensing capabilities when combined with HYPSOS. 

We also offer the possibility to turn your original WANDLA or WANDLA HP into WANDLA GoldenSound Edition Gen 2 (and back again) using our Ferrum Converting Plugin completely free of charge for GoldenSound and original Converting Plugin owners. The GoldenSound Edition Gen 2 Converting Plugin will be available in our shop at www.ferrum.audio/product/ wandla-goldensound-edition-converting-plugin/

GEN 2 Specifications:

Operation: Fully balanced, proprietary IC line amp 

DAC chip: ESS Sabre ES9038PRO 

DAC resolution: 768k/32bit, DSD 512 

Digital inputs: - AES/EBU (up to 192 kHz/24bit, DoP 64) 

- Optical S/PDIF (up to 96 kHz/24bit) 

- Coaxial S/PDIF (up to 192 kHz/24bit, DoP 64) 

- USB-C (up to 768 kHz/32bit, DSD 512) 

- ARC (up to 192 kHz/24bit), TV input with CEC 

- I2S (up to 768 kHz/32bit, DSD 512), PS Audio® compatible 

Analog inputs: RCA 

Analog input Vmax: 9.5 V RMS (2 – 3.5 V RMS recommended) 

Analogue input imp: 47 kΩ 

Line outputs: balanced XLR; unbalanced RCA 

Volume control: analogue with bypass option / digital for DAC operation only 

Output level PRO: @0 dBFS, 1 kHz sine 8 V RMS balanced, 4 V RMS unbalanced 

Output level REDbook: @0 dBFS, 1 kHz sine 3.5 V RMS balanced, 1.75 V RMS unbalanced 

Frequency response: 10 Hz - 200 kHz +/- 0.1 dB analog inputs 

DAC THD: -121 dB (0.00009 %); THD+N: -115 dB (unweighted) 

Analog input THD: -123 dB @ 2 V RMS level 

Dyn. range analog: 127 dB (A-weighted) 

Dyn. range digital: 119 dB (A-weighted) 

Crosstalk: -120 dB for 1kHz, better than -100 dB for 20Hz -20kHz 

Output impedance: 22 Ω unbalanced 

Output impedance: 44 Ω balanced 

Power consumption: 10 W idle / 15 W max 

Power inputs: 5.5/2.5 mm DC connector centre positive 

proprietary FPL 4-pin DC connector (FPL) 22-30 VDC 

Power adapter: 100-240 VAC to 24 VDC 

Dimensions: 21.7 x 20.6 x 5 cm 

(WxDxH) 8.6 x 8.1 x 2.0 inch 

Remote control: included 

Weight: 1.8 kg / 3.97 lbs 

GEN 1 Details:

With the new WANDLA Dac, the Ferrum Audio team are making a statement to the current and next generation of music lovers. WANDLA represents tomorrow’s standard of high end digital-to-analog conversion. Think of WANDLA like a Formula 1 racing car. Like the F1 constructor’s team building the best racing car, Ferrum created the best engine for The Converter. WANDLA offers flagship audio quality at an unprecedented price. While WANDLA performs very good right out of the box it is made to excel above and beyond when used together with HYPSOS. Using the proprietary Ferrum Power Link (FPL) connection both components will perform to their maximum, unleashing unheard of musicality

WANDLA GoldenSound Edition Features and Changes:

Elevated digital headroom: Many modern musical tracks are produced in a way that leaves very little headroom in the recording, often referred to as the “Loudness Wars”, This can cause clipping and additional distortion during playback on most DACs due to the oversampling filter being unable to accurately reconstruct strong transients. The WANDLA has its own digital processing headroom, but GoldenSound Edition has elevated headroom to accommodate it to its additional DSP functions, which are described below, and therefore, unlike the vast majority of available DACs, the WANDLA GoldenSound Edition is highly immune to intersample overs even in bypass mode at full output level, allowing you to play back any music free from additional distortion.

Spatial Enhancement: The WANDLA GoldenSound Edition features a unique spatial enhancement that utilizes the power of the Ferrum SERCE module to provide an expanded soundstage and improved clarity of separation between musical elements, whilst avoiding the drawbacks commonly found in other approaches. A Headphone Mode and a Speaker Mode are offered to provide an enhancement tailored to each use-case, and this is achieved without any coloration to the frequency response, no additional distortion, and no tricks like added reverb.

Tube Mode: The WANDLA GoldenSound Edition features a tube mode, which intentionally increases the even-order harmonic distortion produced by the DAC, similar to the distortion added by a tube amplifier. This provides a warmer, richer sound without directly changing frequency response, and without the other drawbacks commonly found in tube based devices such as increased noise.

Impact +: The WANDLA GoldenSound Edition features an Impact + function for those that enjoy a little more low-end in their music listening experience. Though rather than a basic bass-shelf, this feature uses a customized two-band EQ which not only elevates bass but provides additional punch and dynamic impact.

No MQA: The WANDLA GoldenSound Edition no longer uses any MQA processing, with all content being kept as untouched PCM other than if you choose to enable one of the sound tuning features. All of DSP functions of WANDLA GoldenSound Edition are extensively using the processing power of the WANDLA’s SERCE module. Therefore, to ensure seamless operation, MQA decoder is not available in the GoldenSound Edition.

Hardware Voltage Adjustment: The WANDLA GoldenSound Edition includes a hardware level output voltage adjustment, allowing the user to swap between just below 10 Vrms output to just below 4 Vrms output. This is facilitated via a dedicated hardware voltage divider in the output stage of the DAC, allowing the user to select lower output voltage and ensure compatibility with all amplifiers, without a need to use any digital volume control, or to have analog volume control components in the signal path. This hardware voltage divider will be available on the standard edition of WANDLA and WANDLA GoldenSound Edition units starting with board revision v4.0.

Revisions older than v4.0 will support this functionality but do so in a slightly different way. These revisions will use the existing analog volume control chips instead.

*We will post Wanda (to GSE) upgrade details as soon as we receive them from Ferrum*

Specifications:

DAC chip: ESS Sabre ES9038PRO

DAC resolution: 768 kHz / 32 bit, DSD 512

Digital inputs:

• USB Type-C (up to PCM 768 kHz / 32 bit, DSD 512, DoP 256)
• I2S (up to PCM 768 kHz / 32 bit, DSD 512, DoP 256), PS Audio® compatible
  
• ARC (up to PCM 192 kHz / 24 bit), TV input with CEC
  
• AES (up to PCM 192 kHz / 24 bit, DoP 64)
  
• Coaxial S/PDIF (up to PCM 192 kHz / 24 bit, DoP 64)
  
• Optical S/PDIF (up to PCM 96 kHz / 24 bit*)

*May work up to PCM 192 kHz and DoP 64 – depending of customer optical cable and transmitter

Analog inputs: RCA

Analog input Vmax: 9.5 VRMS (2 – 3.5 VRMS recommended)

Analog input impedance: 47 kΩ

Line outputs: balanced XLR, unbalanced RCA

Volume control: analogue with bypass option / digital for DAC operation only

Output level (@ 0 dBFS / 1 kHz sine):

• PRO: 8 VRMS balanced, 4 VRMS unbalanced
• Red Book: 3.5 VRMS balanced, 1.75 VRMS unbalanced

DAC THD: -121 dB (0.00009 %), THD+N: -115 dB unweighted

Analog input THD: -123 dB @ 2 VRMS

Dynamic range (A-weighted): 127 dB analog, 119 dB digital

Crosstalk: -120 dB for 1 kHz, better than -100 dB for 20 Hz – 20 kHz

Output impedance: 22 Ω unbalanced, 44 Ω balanced

Power consumption: 10 W idle, 15 W max

Power inputs (22-30 VDC):

• 5.5/2.5 mm DC connector, center positive
• Proprietary Ferrum Power Link (FPL) 4-pin DC connector

Power adapter: 100-240 VAC to 24 VDC