Antelope Zodiac DAC
Wyred4Sound DAC-2
Another person for these especially when I see outlets like Six Moons make comments like these:
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/antelope/zodiac.htmlFor 2.500 pro-audio smackers, the Zodiac Plus offers features which in equivalent audiophile currency buy considerably less from established USB DAC leaders like Ayre and Wavelength.
While the Wyred4Sound DAC2 does meet the Antelope nearly head on, it lacks its headphone sockets, oven-controlled clock, mono function, analog volume control, word-clock and analog inputs.
Besides still not knowing what an "oven controlled clock" is, the intrigue comes down to: How close in terms of performance does the W4 DAC-2 really get? Some of those features I don't think I personally need.
It retaliates however with remote control and a $1.000 savings. Where Wyred's 24/192 USB interface and firmware were outsourced, Antelope's was developed in-house. Ditto for their 64-bit clock-control algorithms.
Fair enough on that.
And then Zodiac Gold goes to $3500 for the likes of these:
What turns a Plus into a Gold? "The standard Zodiac does up to 96Khz via optical and USB and 192Khz via S/PDIF. The Gold does up to 384Khz via USB and has a stepped attenuator with gold relays and a cool remote control. BurrBrown's 1792-A chip is applied across all three models and the Gold's circuitry differs from the Plus primarily in the analogue domain." To source software that was actually recorded at 384kHz and is made available to consumers at that data density seems quite futuristic still but remote control and purist attenuation certainly do cater to audiophiles.
And that's yet a different level of intrigue.
I don't mean this in a pointed way towards any person, product, company, etc. but I try to find the sweet spot for performance and value and I'm a bit leery when I see a lot of market-ese and such.
So how close does something like a W4 DAC-2 or even a PerfectWave Dac get to the likes of at least the Zodiac Plus?
The W4 DAC2 is the newest Sabre chip, the Perfectwave is the Wolfson 8741 if I recall correctly, and the Zodiacs all use Burr Brown 1792s for whatever that's worth.
