2022 Golden Ear: Wadax Reference Server

Wadax Reference Server

$59,000 ($76,495 with Akasa optical interface)

This crazy-expensive server must be mated to Wadax’s equally crazy-expensive ($225,000) Reference DAC to realize both products’ performance potentials. That’s because the custom, proprietary Akasa optical interface between the two elevates their already state-of-the-art performance to an entirely new realm. But if you have the dough and the significant rack space, there is no better sounding digital front end, in my experience. The Server and its optical interface took the system to the next level of timbral realism, soundstaging, resolution, and bass performance. The Wadax pair overcomes so many of digital’s shortcomings, particularly in its ability to create a palpable sense of three dimensionality, in liquidity of timbre, and in clarity of instrumental line. The Server’s bass is revelatory, resolving pitch, dynamics, and texture in acoustic and electric bass convincingly. Moreover, unique front-panel controls allow you to fine-tune the Server to your system without changing the data. The Server reveals, for the first time, the potential of digital files in that it makes those files, streamed or stored on the integral 2TB drive, high-res or Red Book, sound like remastered versions.