1ST IMPRESSIONSAlright, here are some impressions that I promised. Sorry for the delay. Been sick and busy. You'll notice my references to my ears being messed up. I was at AK Fest and got sick while there and came home with a sinus and ear infection and the plane REALLY messed me up.
My source is an Oppo BD983 Special Edition and a Squuezebox Touch. Speakers are Salk Songtowers (ribbon tweeter version). Preamp is a Van Alstine Transcendence 8 (tube) and my amp is a Van Alstine Ultravalve (tube). Room is moderately treated with GIK acoustic treatments.
If you want to know more about my set up. Here you go:
SET UP:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=systems;area=browse;system=1367Gallery:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallery;area=browse;album=3359When I first got the Touch I did comparisons using the analog outs and found the Touch to be much better than the Duet (used to have) but not on the same level as the Oppo. BTW, my gear is a Van Alstine T8 tube preamp, Van Alstine Ultravalve tube amp, feeding Salk Songtowers with Ribbon Tweeter upgrade. Let me know if you have any questions.
I need to preface again that my ears aren't perfect yet from a ear/sinus infection I had last week. That being said, I at least wanted to throw out what "I think" I hear. 
Day One: Upon first turning it on and throughout the whole listening session the low end seemed VERY pronounced and the highs were harsh. Even though my hearing wasn't good this day I was concerned that this DAC was tuned very weird to some weirdo personal taste. Shortly after starting the session, I opened the manual and noticed these things being listed as what will sound better as it breaks in. Interesting. In hind sight, I don't know if this is honestly what I heard or if my hearing was so messed up that I actually had the volume very loud because my ears were clogged up but my ear wasn't picking up much in the midrange and only the lows and highs were getting through to my ear.
Day Two: Hearing isn't perfect but much better. What I did was burn a copy of a Playlist from iTunes to make comparisons to the SB Touch quicker for comparing sources (from Apple Lossless). I went back and forth listening to the CD via the Oppo, then the CD through the DAC, then the same track on the SB through the DAC. I felt no need to compare the analog outs from the SB to the DAC as I had already compared the SB analogs to the Oppo when I first got it and felt right away that the Oppo was better.
In short, it is very apparent that there is tighter low end in the DAC. The low end also DOES come through with much more ease. When playing through the Oppo SE, it sounds great but the low end gets a bit lost in the mix in comparison to the W4S. Switching over to the DAC, the low end stands out more but not in a way that feels it is "pushing" the low end. It sounds very nice giving me a punchier sound overall but still has the organic and natural feel that I’m used to with the Oppo. Going back and forth, the Oppo now feels bass shy. The combo of this more pronounced and clean low end along with my room treatments really lend well together. I'd guess if my room was left untreated, this low end might get muddied up with the bad loading that I get in my left front corner.
Another thing I noticed was smoother transients. No matter the instrument, the attacks and dissolves had a nice smoothness to them. The last thing that stood out to me was the subtleties it picked out in the recordings. Vocals had more air around them. A few tracks in particular that point this out is Eva's 'What a Wonderful World' and Jack Johnson's 'All At Once'. Eva's track has some analog hiss in the background of the track that is very apparent towards the beginning. This was even more noticeable using the W4S. On the JJ track, he has some feedback going on in his guitar at the beginning in the background when it is just his vocals. Again, this stood out even more using the DAC and I could hear more of the nuances within the actual feedback itself vs just being feedback if that makes sense. On vocals with a bit of echo or reverb, it was more apparent through the DAC. The decay of the reverb hung around a bit longer than I'm used to. In the end, I think this DAC is REALLY pulling out every ounce of detail that is there, be it good or bad. Just like any other piece of high quality gear, better recordings sound that much better and weaker recordings sound that much weaker.
As for the comparisons I did, I don't think I could pick out the Oppo vs the SB running through the DAC in a blind test. There was a few times that I felt the Oppo as a source through the DAC sounded ever so slightly better than the SB but I wouldn't put money on it. In the end, this is a good thing as it shows that getting the bits to the DAC be it from a disc or a music server it will get great sound. As I pointed out above, I can say that I AM liking the DAC better than my Oppo SE. I think taking such a pristine presentation out of the DAC and running through the tubes in my preamp and amp make a great combo. I'd love to do a direct comparison of this DAC to the Eastern Electric DAC that uses the same Sabre chip but has the tube stage. Hopefully someday, I'll find someone in the area that gets one and we can do this comparison. Just not convinced that 3 levels of tubes is the sound that will be to my liking.
As of now, I'm happy with my purchase. It is doing what I wanted it to do. Make my SB Touch sound just as good or better than my Oppo SE and so far it seems to be achieving that by out performing it. I'm obviously not going to recommend someone spend $900 on an Oppo SE and a $1K on this DAC for a pairing. But since I already have the Oppo SE, I plan on keeping it.
I got one and have been using it this week. Short answer is that I do really like it. My source has been an Oppo BDP983 Special Edition which I have LOVED. I feel the W4S dac has a nearly identical presentation but excels a little bit in low end definition and punch and more detail. I notice more details in the recording and things like echo or reverb sustain more clearly.
I previously owned a PS Audio DL3 which I thought was very good. I stopped using it after getting the Oppo SE upgrade because I liked the Oppo SE better (more natural sounding). So without doing a direct comparison, I could feel pretty confident that it is since the Oppo itself outperformed it IMO. With some of the upgrades I have made in my system with gear and room treatments, my set up is pretty revealing.
On a functionality basis, I have only used the coax inputs via Oppo and SB Touch. Using the DAC, I can't tell the difference between CD vs lossless files. But swithcing over to a CD through the Oppo, I could tell it isn't quite as good. I've been able to play 24/96 stuff through the SB Touch and even higher resolution via bluray from the Oppo. When I tried an SACD it didn't work though. Not sure if it doesn't support that multiple or if I have a setting wrong in the Oppo. I need to research this.
Hope this helps. For ME, I think it IS worth the $1K price of admission. My goal as been to match or exceed my Oppo performance for my SB Touch and I've accomplished that. Is it for everybody? Not sure. I really like the sound of the Sabre in the Oppo SE, so for me it was perfect. Love to do some shootouts with other DACs if I meet some folks in the Pacific NW that has others.
