Wadax Pre 1 Mk 2 line stage / DAC with streamer

Leica trades considered. Notes: a. The film on the front color display is for shipment protection. It is removable by the purchaser to insure a scratch free display upon delivery. b. Local demo within a 100 mile radius can be accommodated. c. The unit will connect by: 1: RCA SPDIF 2: BNC SPDIF 3: AES/EBU 4: Streaming UPNP 5: TOSLINK 6: USB d. No phono stage is installed. The unit has been factory reconditioned and fully updated for software and firmware Jan 2016. This was done to bring the unit to 2016 specifications, not because it needed repair. It will ship in a brand new factory box and come with a full two year factory warranty. The conditions of which are in the factory manual. The Wadax PRE 1 Mk2 is a one box line stage and DAC, elegantly packaged and amazingly well built. See Roy Gregory's April 2014 review excerpted below from the Audio Beat or Michael Fremer's earlier Stereophile review. Excerpts from Gregory's magnificently written and well judged review, "The substantial base chassis that contains the audio circuitry is milled from solid billet aluminum and is covered by a second milled case that drops over it like the top of a shoebox, the whole clamped, clamshell construction creating a dense, inert capsule for the audio circuits. The contrasting front panel is a model of minimalism, offering just two beautifully weighted rotary controls and a large central display. An engraved top plate is rebated into the cover, its brushed metallic finish matching the knobs and contrasting with the monochrome paint and Nextel finish of the case. The result is classy, clean and understated, while the whole 22kg (49-pound) chassis rests on four stainless-steel cone feet, indicating just how seriously Wadax take the issue of mechanical energy and draining it out of their product. Comparing the performance of the Pre 1 Mk 2 driving power amps direct to its unattenuated output played via the Connoisseur 4.2 LE or VTL 7.5 Series III line stages is a sobering experience. It’s not that the Wadax is better than the two established high-end units (although, as is the way of things, it is better in some respects) but the ease with which it holds its own that's significant. I actually embarked on a bypass test, running the analog outputs of the Wadia S7i through the Pre 1 Mk 2's inputs and out into the Connoisseur, and comparing them to a direct link, S7i to Connoisseur. The sound through the Wadax was actually better! It was crisper, cleaner, clearer and better separated and organized. The energy in the playing was more concentrated and more directed, with a greater sense of purpose, all of which sounds unlikely until you remember that the Wadax DAC contains some very clever digital-domain algorithms. By bringing all of the digital functions inside a single chassis (including the Hermes streamer) they can be close-coupled to a single master clock, significantly reducing jitter levels across the signal path. The analog output from the DAC is then passed through an I/V stage and anti-alias filter before reaching the discrete analog output stage. Volume control is achieved through a hybrid solution, employing both digital scaling and sliding gain in the output stage, rather than conventional attenuation. This gives incredibly precise 0.5dB steps without any loss of resolution, the level translated to a numerical readout on the main display. The Wadax Pre 1 Mk 2 is up there with the best DACs I’ve used. It compares favorably with the best and most esoteric line stages and it allows switching and control of both analog and digital source components. This is no computer playing at audio. This is a genuine high-end component, built to high-end standards, run through with high-end thinking, and make no mistake, it offers genuine high-end performance. If high-end audio is about no-compromise engineering and performance, then you don’t get much higher end than this.