Introducing the WANDLA GoldenSound Edition!

I'm excited to announce a collaboration product with Ferrum, the WANDLA GoldenSound Edition!
USA: headphones.com...
UK: www.hifonix.co...
EU: Contact your local dealer
For existing WANDLA owners, a conversion will be available for $600 at a later date.
Conversion means the user will receive a GoldenSound edition firmware, which can be flashed to their WANDLA. This firmware will be specific to their unit and the process of conversion will be reversible
The WANDLA GoldenSound Edition has six key aspects:
- Elevated digital headroom - Many modern musical tracks are produced in a waythat 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 in below paragraphs. Therefore, 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, and enjoy a higher quality sound. Moreover, due to its DSP functions, now this sound can be even more tailored to your personal taste.
- 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 allows the user to enjoy a warmer, richer sound without directly changing frequency response, and without the other drawbacks commonly found in tube based devices such as increased noise.
- Hardware Voltage Adjustment - - Hardware Voltage Adjustment - The WANDLA GoldenSound Edition benefits from a hardware level output voltage adjustment, allowing the user to swap between just below 10 Vrms output to a 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 voltage control instead. While we originally intended to achieve this by digital attenuation, new insights brought us another, better solution. By using the analog voltage regulation, we can even get older revisions of the WANDLA board closer to v4.0, where this functionality is achieved by hardware as well, but only by a different part. This solution means all WANDLA users will be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
- 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 processing power of WANDLA’s SERCE module. Therefore, to ensure seamless operation, MQA decoder is not available in GoldenSound Edition.
👕 Merch! 👕: shop.goldensou...
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The GoldenSound youtube channel, and all content is created and owned by GoldenSound LTD

[@GoldenSound]

The WANDLA GoldenSound edition will be available exclusively at headphones.com in North America, and through Ferrum dealers in other regions. It will retail for $3295. For existing WANDLA owners, a conversion will be available for $600 at a later date. Conversion means the user will receive a GoldenSound edition firmware, which can be flashed to their WANDLA. This firmware will be specific to their unit and the process of conversion will be reversible I'm hyped for you guys to hear this!

[@Daryl42]

I JUST bought a Wandla. I’m glad there’s an upgrade coming.

[@ucsdgemini]

$600 for just a firmware upgrade seems a bit steep. Why so much?

[@EricRhodeslives]

@GensUnaSumus09

[@FukemStudios]

Thank you GoldenSound!😢 I was just ready too pull the trigger on the Holo Audio Cyan 2 now I see this WANDLA GoldenSound Edition! ..Damn you!😠🤬🤣🤣

[@cbmore28]

Any idea when this edition will be available to purchase?

[@T4cC0re]

MQA getting removed is my favourite feature, tbh :D

[@nitraM321]

it has zero impact if it's not MQA in the first place, i guess they removed it to recover some space

[@TheWorldTeacher]

😂

[@marcusloo767]

I like that the first example of intersample over was sicko mode

[@eruilluvitar]

I cannot _wait_ to hear this! I love my WANDLA and am really excited at the idea of everything you've worked on adding!

[@radiofreealbemuth]

The spatial enhancement is what peaks my interest 🤔

[@bobsykes]

Interesting. Will I be able to hear this thing at CanJam NYC later this month? I would definitely want to try before I buy (or at least be able to return it). I am, honestly, skeptical of baking in specific processing algorithms into DSP, so I'm a little wary about the spacial processing you guys have come up with. Those effects generally don't age well. A couple of side notes. Tubes produce multiple even order harmonics as well as some low order odd harmonics, not just second order harmonic distortion, so the model you're using is not an accurate model of any tube amp. (Tubes also add traces of reverb both through self excitement and though microphonics). Increased digital headroom is an absolute must in certain designs of oversampling DACs, such as the ESS ones, and converters like Benchmarks have provided 3.5 dB of extra headroom since their previous generation many years ago. R2R DACs don't suffer from this problem, possibly one of the reasons people prefer them in many cases despite thier having generally poorer linearity. All that said, I am really interested to hear this DAC. I have no doubt you've done some really good things here, especially for headphone listeners.

[@DBravo29er]

I love this collab!!

[@nick_g]

Finally some thoughtful signal processing. Linear, neutral, transparent is all fine and good, but if I’m paying up then I want improvement. I want something to sound even better

[@adamgreenhill110]

You, sir, are a legend.

[@PiercingSight]

Do you have an audio demo of the spatial enhancement? I would love to hear what it does!

[@evolutionaryfield4091]

I am patiently waiting for the video about A&K firmwares!

[@camerong4944]

These engineers are true masterminds. They are literally circuit bending features into existence here.

[@fredrikholmgren3710]

This is awsome! I'll be ordering one when it hits swedish stores, now if they just would make a Streamer transport with the ability to connect a usb dvd rom and a hardrive so one could rip cd's. Then the ferrum stack would be awsome :)

[@gibgun]

Congrats golden! I am looking forward to upgrading

[@AlainSTO]

Getting the Bliss and honestly, I wasn't thinking about a Wandla, until now, as the DAC. Those enhancements won me over and has me wondering if it's the choice now over the Spring 3.

[@mw3640]

Awesome! I want mine updated with this edition so bad.. bought it based on your review. Please bring it to Europe as well! Should be easy as they are based out of Poland.

[@GoldenSound]

It will be! It's exclusive to Headphones.com in North America, but will be available through other Ferrum dealers in other regions

[@mw3640]

@@GoldenSoundAwesome, thank you!

[@omoveja8185]

Will it support DSD ? If so, natively so?

[@mikeyc7072]

“ditto” - Inquiring minds need to know👍😎

[@johnratcliffe6438]

I guess my immediate questions are: 1. Does WANDLA need Hypsos? Is there a genuine, discernable improvement with it? 2. How does WANDLA GSE compare to May KTE? Which is going to be better? Congratulations on the collaboration 👏

[@GoldenSound]

1) It doesn't 'need' it, but there is an improvement. Really just depends whether the HYPSOS fits into your budget or not 2) Depends how you look at it. From a pure SQ perspective, ignoring all features, I feel the May has a higher performance ceiling IF you're willing to use HQPlayer. If you're not, then WANDLA may work better (NOS sounds quite different so mostly depends whether you like NOS or prefer OS). The features though could be the tipping point for many, I'm using the WANDLA permanently in my headphone system now mostly due to the spatial enhancement.

[@johnratcliffe6438]

@@GoldenSound Interesting. Is the spatial enhancement similar to the crossfeed feature in HM1?

[@GoldenSound]

@@johnratcliffe6438 The spatial enhancement here is different to the HM1. The HM1 was definitely an inspiration as it was the first product I tried that took a different approach to spatial alteration, but with this we were able to go further, and also offer different options that work for speakers and headphones

[@DEALUX]

@@johnratcliffe6438 Probably some kind of phase trick. There aren't that many ways to alter perceived spatial effects.

[@johnratcliffe6438]

@@GoldenSound Out of curiosity, which HPA is WANDLA now feeding?

[@elgingaragegym]

Well now I'm in!

[@wadez1000]

This seems like wallhack tier gaming dac :D

[@sarcese52]

If you were to compare the Wanda GSE with the T+A Dac200 and the Holo Audio May KTE Dac, what would your comments be?

[@CedricRachmad]

Good stuff! This flexibility is why I bought the Wandla. I wonder though if room correction would negate a lot of these enhancements?? I use REW to measure my room and added filters in Roon. It makes a big difference (also spatially)!

[@cbmore28]

Ok, I’m extremely interested. Good performance in a desktop size! Something the Holo May can’t quite pull off although it sounds fantastic. Can you give an estimated date this should be available for purchase or if pre-orders will be accepted?

[@GoldenSound]

Will be available in a couple weeks, shortly after CanJam NY

[@taidee]

Congratulations Golden Sound, nicely done.

[@Gjarllarhorn1]

"NO MQA" as a feature, I approve

[@invisiblekid99]

"Waaaah you removed MQA!" LOL. MQA is as usuful as the HI-Res sticker.

[@Nuevo_El_Nagual]

I'm ready to upgrade my Wandla, send me invoice. LOL

[@cbmore28]

Where does this fit in your DAC ratings? At the price this is being released at it's quite close in price to a Holo Spring 3? If you rate the Spring 3 getting close to the level of the May where does the Wandla GSE fit it?

[@riccitone]

Man, is this for real? I had no ideas this was even possible in the design domain. These are thoughtfully and skillfully implemented features, while getting out of the way of the music. I want one 🙏🏼👍🏼

[@xavengarcia851]

@GoldenSound Is the usb port galvanically isolated?

[@stephenp5697]

I’m very excited for this product! Is it as warm and rich as the Holo Audio Spring3 (my current reference)? Thanks!

[@GoldenSound]

Less so stock, but a bit warmer if you enable the tube mode!

[@089300230]

Your Holo spring has a special fuse I side as default... Try one of qsa in your new Wandla and you will be shocked..

[@saamees9783]

Hi there, please can you cover The Ferrum's with book shelf/ tower speakers and with other your recent high end Amplifiers you have reviewed here and the headphones. Please, do more videos/ reviews ........... 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🙂🙂🙂🙂

[@mariodrv]

Wonder if Amir will dare to touch this one. xD

[@GensUnaSumus09]

Who listens to Amir anyway? Who base their buying decisions on measurements only, without a proper listening test? (it needs to synergize with the rest of your gear, measurements can't give you a full picture of how a unit will sound, your sonic preferences might be different than others, etc.). I mean, he very often bases his subjective opinions on measurements only (and when he do listen to the gear he's measuring, his approach doesn't make much sense to me either). Even his test methodology is flawed, even though he likes to promote it as superior to any other methods. He comes off as arrogant, biased and untrustworthy, as well. He's a good example of objectivist thinking gone astray. Note: He was like a wind of fresh air several years ago when he started ASR, as it was a good counter to the subjectivist attitude and snake-oil BS out there. But he's taking it to the other extreme. Fundamentalism is never a good thing...

[@hificonnect8731]

As ferrum distributor - this is the BEST Dac ever!! And i cant wait to have it here in stock!! Would appreciate if rhis info was sent to us first ....and not been uldated by my clients...

[@TheWorldTeacher]

Ferrum were slow in responding to my email, so that is unsurprising. 😢

[@hificonnect8731]

never had a problem in this department...@@TheWorldTeacher

[@bomt697]

How does this stack up with HOLO Sound Spring 3 KTE w/ preamp? Both seem close in price point

[@Brjoszka]

@GoldenSound ?

[@ramasuharman7962]

@goldensound you stated in your hypsos oor review: "The SINAD/THD+N value is limited by PSU noise it seems. This PSU noise is due to leakage from the HYPSOS. It can be eliminated by using the stock power supply, but in doing so you’d lose the transient power correction capability of the HYPSOS, so whether the HYPSOS or stock PSU will give a better sound". Is it correct that hypsos leakage may spread out to other gear through AV line?

[@Malangsufi]

I wonder if one day you can partner with the likes of Hiby to make your own tweaked DSP on them.

[@morespinach9832]

Does Wandla have remote control and “automatic source selection”?

[@michabuszynski7326]

That's interesting but "scary" for me us well. Last time i heart about spacial presentation in Delta Sigma Dac, was when i bought Smsl VMV D2 based on some YT review saying it's at the level of Denafrips Venus II. That was the day i sold my Ares II and gues what.... Ares II half price of V2 biiten it easly and i lost 1000$. Im owner of Pontus 12th, R2R "sound" is good to me science i went from Delta Sigma. But im also curious about Tube mode science im considering Tube preamp. Could You please provide more info how this dac compares to Holo r2rs and Denafrips R2rs ? If You Could go back in time when You made those R2R dac reviews and have this one siting on Your desk at the same time what would You say on the comparison ? Thanks for Your work and knowledge

[@GoldenSound]

The May DAC has a higher performance ceiling than the WANDLA but you have to be willing to use HQPlayer. I still own the May, but am no longer using it in my headphone setup, the spatial enhancement is much more of a benefit than the difference in SQ for me. Plus WANDLA has excellent filters from the HQPlayer dev built in so it's quite a bit more convenient. I prefer this to denafrips though outright

[@krakentortoise7531]

Wow this is amazing Golden. Nice work

[@enjoshi-godrez8775]

Probably wise to upload it here. The Headphone channel wouldn't let it down for a 3k dac. I hope qudelix can develop a solution like this.

[@solrq8349]

Hi does the WANDLA synergies really well with susvara + Enleum 23R setup?

[@supabayes3284]

Great! How long did you take to collaborate with Ferrum on this?

[@trubadyr99]

Intriguing...

[@sarcese52]

Also, who makes the acoustic treatments on the wall behind the Sopra 3 Speakers in this video?

[@GoldenSound]

Those are from GIK, I've got a video on the setup here if interested! kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGKsma2rfKmeoaM

[@nespressoman]

How does this compare to the Holo May or the Spring 3 Kitsune? Thanks.

[@erichieger7386]

Congratulations 🎉🎉

[@hishamhussein4282]

Just ordered one to pair with my oor amplifier! Wondering if it is best to bypass volume control on the Wandla and use the Oor volume?

[@rzezniqq]

Hi Cameron, what's your cut from each unit sold?

[@secretsimon1897]

I wish it was an R2R DAC or at least with latest AKM flagship.

[@kmnaniak]

nice, I wonder how it differs from DIRAC enhancement

[@GoldenSound]

DIRAC is a room correction tool, so that alters frequency response to correct for colourations from the room and speakers. That's a different thing

[@kmnaniak]

@@GoldenSound DIRAC has different solutions and Sensaround is for headphones also available in some headphone amplifiers

[@defyinggravity1689]

Hello I'm using holo spring3 kte and saw your comment on forum. You said pcm1536 is more the thing than dsd1024. Would you explain why you think so?? I'm choosing between pcm1536 and dsd1024

[@EricRhodeslives]

Can we pre-order?

[@GoldenSound]

If in the US, it'll just be available through headphones.com once ready, no need to pre-order. If elsewhere, it'll be available through normal Ferrum dealers but may be worth contacting them in advance to see if they'll stock it and/or request a unit

[@mw3640]

Maybe a dumb question, but how does the increased headroom relate to output? Will the fix of headroom decrease output volume, do the opposite or do nothing at all? I am asking since I have a power amp with low watt and so I need a fair amount of output to play with.

[@defyinggravity1689]

Hello. Would you recommend best dac for dsd? I am using spring3 kte with hqplayer and looking for better performance on dsd.

[@dangerzone007]

Slightly off topic but why is it sometimes more difficult to produce bass in headphones. Does it have something to do with the capacitors being too small to maintain sufficient current during bass transients. Or is it that the drivers don't have a good large linear excursion.

[@sjqideez6626]

The TH900 begs to differ

[@dangerzone007]

@@sjqideez6626 what do you mean?

[@KXP70]

​@@dangerzone007 the Fostex TH900 has phenomenal bass.

[@Tsukino_u]

@@dangerzone007 just give it a listen, the th900 slams like no other, may i ask what reference you're using when talking about poor bass reproduction, perhaps you are using a headphone with minimal ear side coupling/seal that creates sub-bass to drop off?

[@dangerzone007]

@@Tsukino_u Have a look at Passion for sound video a few days ago "is bass really more difficult to produce" let me know what you think. I'm trying to work out why some amplifiers slam and others don't.

[@Yodamanjaro]

Seeing that you're getting a cut of these sales (I assume), how much of this was known when you gave a glowing review to the original Wandla?

[@invisiblekid99]

Omfg how long has the Wandla been out. You people.

[@Yodamanjaro]

@@invisiblekid99About as long for something like this to release.

[@invisiblekid99]

@@Yodamanjaroyou l know that just about everyone has given this a glowing review.

[@GoldenSound]

This project didn't exist until after the review came out.

[@GensUnaSumus09]

@@invisiblekid99 True (I've only seen one negative review, and that review didn't even make sense to me), but that's not what he's asking about. You seem to have reading comprehension issues. My comment to his question is: It shouldn't be relevant. It's still possible to give a positive review based on performance and quality alone, and not other factors. Many people seem to believe that if a unit was sent by the company for review (for example), then the review itself can't be trusted by default (due to lack of integrity, etc.). Yes, in some cases that might be true, but not always.

[@FukemStudios]

I am a bit confused! Is this mainly for Head Phone use only? Is this just as good with tower speakers in all modes? ...Thanks!

[@GoldenSound]

The tube mode and impact+ options can be used for both, nothing that ties them to one category. And for the spatial enhancement we have a headphone mode and a speaker mode which work slightly differently to best suit each use case. I use both speakers and headphones so I wanted to make sure it worked well on both!

[@earthoid]

It sounds tempting, and my tax returns for 2023 totaled $3288 so I would only have to kick in $7 more. However, I have a wife and a limited retirement budget to deal with. (add sad sounding violins here)

[@BiffyCallum]

Have you spoken or written about those Zu speakers anywhere? A fellow brit is interested in them!

[@Mr0Tubby]

is this better than a modi??

[@bigblueocean]

Nah. 😂

[@Ustaleone]

This is $3295. I was expecting this to be expensive but, damn. Not for me.

[@fabifri]

@@Ustaleone just get youself a RME ADI-2 DAC and call it a day.

[@invisiblekid99]

@@fabifriit ain’t that good.

[@fabifri]

@@invisiblekid99 for sure. I have no doubt that RME has no Idea what they are doing. They released the ADI-2 for years to DOMINATE. And most likely... they will do it again. In a few years or so i guess, with no stress. 😅 As long as the Team around Uwe and Matthias stays around. 👍

[@colanitower]

A buildin version for the Tesla Model S with sound characteristics on special setting L when in Ludicrous mode. I'm sure Elon Musk would want one 😊

[@amanieux]

are there pc or android software that does these kind of spatial enhancements ?

[@jaybrodnax]

When is it releasing?

[@Nightjar726]

Can this be used with a preamp of our choice and bypass its own preamp?

[@GoldenSound]

yep! When in 'bypass' mode the preamp circuitry is disabled and not in the signal path and you can use an external preamp of choice

[@anthonybird6499]

Hi,can we upgrade the current version of the wandla to the golden sound edition

[@GoldenSound]

There will be an upgrade available for $600 shortly after launch :)

[@GensUnaSumus09]

@@GoldenSound Thanks, but the real question is: Is it a pure software upgrade or do you have to return your Wandla to get it upgraded? (hardware modifications required?)

[@invisiblekid99]

@@GensUnaSumus09Christ do not listen?

[@GensUnaSumus09]

@@invisiblekid99 Do YOU listen?

[@GensUnaSumus09]

@@invisiblekid99 Do YOU listen? The question is not answered in the description or in the video. Do you even understand the question?

[@BassDad8]

Well I stopped back to remove my less than respectful comment, but it looks like it has already been deleted. Apologies. Best of luck with the collab. I think its a tough price point, but then again, it's way out of my budget anyway. What I am sure of is that it is probably freaking amazing. ☮ Oh and just a long overdue compliment. What you did with the MQA expose was absolutely amazing. And there's no reason to apologize for not including it. You saved a LOT of people a LOT of money in the long run. Cheers to you!

[@blanknam3d]

Spotted your name at the end of the latest Techquickie video credited as part of the ECC Squad... Didn't know you were also part of LMG's fact-checking group!

[@el_arte]

Once compressed, forever compressed, there is no recovering from that; information has been lost during mastering. Even adjusting output level won’t fix it. Spatial enhancement is always a parlor trick, as it’s always some way of accentuating differences between channels. There is no end of such effects than can be achieved with DSP via AudioUnit, VST, LV2 plugins. As far as misconfiguring the ESS delta-sigma DAC, analog stage modifications are a neat trick and a totally valid alternative to tube distortion. Now make it for $1K.

[@kieran1348]

How does the stack up to the t+a dac200 dsd

[@aussie8114]

I would want EQ.

[@DEALUX]

I am a bit confused about the headroom part. Which DACs you measured distort on those tracks? And wouldn't you be able to fix that for free by using some kind of volume normalization anyway?

[@thatreddot6005]

No modern decent DAC has an issue with intersample modulation... either they have headroom or operate in 32bit (or both). After the DA conversion the signal is just voltage and this problem no longer exists. Potential issues with intersample modulation is also something that should be addressed during the mastering of music and several tools exist to handle it just fine at that stage so it doesn't become an issue later. Any half decent mastering engineer will have this addressed. You can actually see this if you have an RME DAC as you can loopback the signal pre and post processing by the DAC (ie- see the difference between the digital signals). If you take his example of the Sia song, the pre processing indeed shows issues, but if you look at the post DAC signal, all those issues are gone and there's no more problems with signals wanting to go past 0 dBFS. Maybe not the best example, because RME DACs have 3dB internal headroom to handle this and give a clean proper sine wave without clipping anything off. But, it's not like this is some new feature DACs lack before now... And yes, if you are unlucky enough to have a poorly designed DAC that will audibly distort when it gets a signal that it wants to translate to >0dBFS (Pontus II for example, someone measured it here: forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/intersample-overs-distortion-can-your-dac-or-software-player-reduce-it.1173425/#post-31921027) you can just reduce the input volume by 1-3dB and the issue will go away, but this will come at the cost of a reduced dynamic range for everything that doesn't have this problem as you are essentially compressing the signal (ie. bit perfect isn't there anymore if it was).

[@zelareka]

does the spacial improvement work for speakers?

[@GoldenSound]

Yep! There's one mode for speakers and one for headphones. I listen to speakers and headphones about equally myself so it was important to me to have this feature tailored to both categories

[@nitraM321]

a special edition, but no review ?

[@carlosalvarez7445]

Well, kudos for putting MQA aside, but... no DSD? 😢

[@GoldenSound]

It has DSD support!

[@Javingil]

Hey golden when do you think 465 review will come out?

[@GoldenSound]

Whenever I'm able to borrow one from someone to review. Still very keen to review it!

[@Javingil]

@@GoldenSound 🤞hope you do ! So lil of it is known but everyone’s take on it seems similar. Hard to explain, try it out if you can. I’ll have to wait till September to get to exp myself.

[@jaybrodnax]

WANT

[@c34webb]

Heard the Wandla and preferred the Gustard r26 over it and the Denafrips Terminator over that. Interested in the new goldensound features though

[@johnratcliffe6438]

Who is selling this in the UK please?

[@DaBigBoo_]

you can afford 50£ for the delivery if you can afford 3000£ for the amp

[@SergeySedlovsky]

So, basically an iFi version of WANDLA

[@invisiblekid99]

Only done properly.

[@Tacet137]

That would mean it's broken and measures like crap. We are talking leagues above ifi.

[@invisiblekid99]

@@Tacet137ifi lol. Jesus Christ why would you use them as a measurement of greatness. PMSL. They are VW testing of the audio world. Like seriously?! IFI?

[@dr.zoidberg4313]

Looks tits. Looking forward to the reviews.

[@richcarless7740]

All very nice, however feels like something that could be a HQPlayer filter. I guess the point is, not everyone can be bothered with the whole HQPlayer hooharr.

[@GoldenSound]

Actually the HQPlayer developer was involved with the development of the Wandla from the start. He was the one that made the Wanda's oversampling filters. He's done some great stuff

[@tdg176]

Can normal wandla users not just download a update to get all of these features? Seems like there should be no reason why.

[@invisiblekid99]

Did you actually listen? This is all available as a download at some point

[@GensUnaSumus09]

@@invisiblekid99 Please point us to the exact moment in the video where this was stated, if it was in fact stated. When I look at the transcript, it was never made explicitly clear.

[@invisiblekid99]

@@GensUnaSumus09 it’s in the description. Omg.

[@GensUnaSumus09]

@@invisiblekid99 I've read the description. And it doesn't answer the question. In fact, if you watch the video and read the description, you get the impression that they're making hardware modifications to newer models. We expect many of these features to be available via download, but what is being asked is: Do we get ALL these features via firmware updates? What are we eventually missing if we only do firmware updates? Is a hardware modification required to even use the new firmware? (Besides: If an existing owner only wants firmware updates: Do we still have to pay $600, or maybe a bit less?) BTW: First you said listen, then you refer to the description (without even quoting any text). It seems to me you don't even understand the question.

[@GoldenSound]

Existing WANDLA can be converted to the GoldenSound Edition for $600. Significant development time and work has gone into the changes in this. I figured existing WANDLA owners would be a bit annoyed if they couldn't get the changes but if it was free this never would have been a thing in the first place. Engineers have to get paid

[@dangerzone007]

$3.3k wow that's expensive. How about making something with the same features at around about the same cost as a mojo 2 and Geshelli Labs J2.

[@GoldenSound]

If it was possible to do so I'd love to but it's not unfortunately. The geshelli doesn't have any sort of Compute unit and doesn't Compare with the Wandla in terms of sound quality. Great for the money though, I love what Geshelli does and they're some of the best value around with good no nonsense designs. The mojo 2 is an excellent product and one I use myself, but FPGA programming requires VERY expensive developers and therefore for a project with features like this, it'd be extremely expensive to develop and would only be possible to financially recoup development costs if a huge number of units were going to be sold.

[@dangerzone007]

@@GoldenSound if you do it in hardware it doesn't have to be computerised.

[@beefsupreme510]

Seems kinda gimmicky since you can currently do most of this stuff in Roon right now for $12.49 a month. Crossfeed, bass eq, 3db headroom at the source, etc. If you want tube sound just grab a tube amp & get the real thing

[@GensUnaSumus09]

Not the same thing. I also use Roon, but having it supported in the DAC and having to rely on Roon is two different things. Not everybody wants or can use Roon.

[@CedricRachmad]

I wonder the same. Added EQ adjustments based on REW measurements, which alters the sound significantly in my room. Question is if there would be any added value to this firmware update??

[@invisiblekid99]

I’ve said before about cross feed, if you’re listening to Maggot Brain by Funkadelic why the hell would you want to compress that stereo??!

[@GoldenSound]

That's one of the reasons I don't like crossfeed, it often compresses the stereo image and pushes things out in front of you. Spatial enhancement on this works differently :)

[@WorldView22]

Chord pricing without the Chord performance?

[@GoldenSound]

I preferred the WANDLA over all the Chord DACs besides DAVE

[@joseluishernandezseptien]

⁠@@GoldenSound Does it mean that you like DAVE more? 😮

[@raymondwebby2441]

@@joseluishernandezseptienhe prefers he DAVE+MScaler more but not the DAVE by itself alone.

[@joseluishernandezseptien]

Thank you for replying! @@raymondwebby2441

[@eminent2003]

halow

[@joseluishernandezseptien]

You are one of the top tier supporters 🤯 omg, how’s your experience being a supporter? I have thought about jumping in as well in the future.

[@eminent2003]

@@joseluishernandezseptien haloe one shall if so desires early access to this type content and the goldenchild direct

[@damncritics]

The features have would have sold me on this. But god *damn* is it far, far out of my budget.

[@Izlude99]

I don't think this "reviewer" has been transparent enough throughout this whole process. The fact that he awarded WANDLA as DAC of the year not too long ago while not disclosing that he had an upcoming work together with Ferrum sounds like a conflict of interest and deserves greater scrutinity.

[@GoldenSound]

My review of the Wandla was done before this project was agreed. Also I did make a disclosure (and in fact well before this in my chat as well): twitter.com/GoldenSoundHiFi/status/1743695673088758197 I wanted to work with Ferrum BECAUSE the wandla was so good

[@albeklik8055]

It is a fucking gadget😢

[@invisiblekid99]

Ahhhh didums. Why the *uck are you here?