CD/SACD-проигрыватели и транспорты — WADAX Studio • Player

The Studio Player is a one-box source from Wadax, the Spanish maker of digital electronics founded in Madrid in 2006 by Javier Guadalajara, and it brings together a CD and SACD drive, network streaming, D/A conversion and volume control. It belongs to the Studio Collection and uses technology from the Atlantis Reference DAC, sharing its DAC circuit in a less elaborate implementation. It was introduced at the Munich show and has shipped since the second quarter of 2024 at USD 39,800 and EUR 35,000.

Key specs that matter

The drive plays Red Book CD and Scarlett Book SACD through a 5 inch disc drawer, and on hybrid discs the owner chooses which layer to play. Processing is Wadax's dual-differential musIC 3 fixed-point engine with 128-bit feed-forward error correction and 12.8 GB/s of internal data transfer. The analogue output is one pair of balanced XLR sockets, fixed or variable, with RCA outputs and a headphone jack as options. Output level can be set to 1, 2 or 4 V, and output impedance to one of 16 steps from 0.4 to 600 ohm. Digital outputs are S/PDIF on RCA and BNC and AES/EBU, each at 32 to 192 kHz and 16 to 24 bit, and two BNC clock inputs are provided. Power supply rail noise is 0.5 µV from 1 Hz to 100 kHz. The player measures 48 x 35 x 20.4 cm and weighs 32 kg.

Engineering and use context

The feed-forward system maps the error mechanisms of the DAC with a method Wadax calls Adaptive Delta Hilbert Mapping and corrects their time and phase errors before conversion. The circuit runs balanced in dual-mono form, keeping complete separation of the left and right channels, and the DAC boards are modular so they can be replaced for later upgrades. Five initial DC regulation stages feed 30 local regulators placed next to the circuits they supply. More than 4,500 discrete parts sit on 40 circuit boards, and the chassis uses 620 custom-machined parts in 14 materials and alloys. Streaming covers Spotify, TIDAL including MAX, Qobuz Connect, Audirvana and UPnP, with DSD64 to DSD256 and MQA certification, and the AirPlay implementation avoids asynchronous resampling. A 5 inch capacitive colour touchscreen with 800 x 480 pixels sets the volume step size, balance and polarity inversion, and firmware updates arrive over the internet. The optional Studio Clock reduces total jitter to 20 fs, and the Studio PSU adds an outboard supply.

Pairing

With variable XLR output, the Studio Player drives power amplifiers directly, and the adjustable output level and impedance let it match a preamplifier's input.

Alternatives

The Wadax Atlantis Reference Transport is the disc transport without a DAC, with the THOR PRO optical engine and an Akasa optical link to the converter.