Vaughn Loudspeakers has had an extremely long relationship with Wavelength Audio, in fact we would not be here at all if it were not from design help and encouragement from Gordon Rankin of Wavelength. As many of you are aware we show at RMAF every year with Wavelength and have won numerous accolades and best in shows over the years. This is not surprising as the Vaughn Loudspeakers are voiced using Wavelength Dacs and amplifiers. Our high efficiency and simple crossovers get the most of SET or other quality low powered amplifiers. The purity, musicality, and dynamics are hard to believe from 8-12 watt amplifiers.
Vaughn is in a unique position to represent Wavelength and to guide you through their wonderful products.
about
WAVELENGTH
Gordon Rankin, the founder and designer of Wavelength Audio, is responsible for among other things the first consumer DAC to employ Asynchronous USB. You can find his Asynchronous USB Steamlength™ technology in a number of highly regarded DACs including his own Crimson, Cosecant, Brick, and Proton as well the Halide DAC HD, AudioQuest Dragonfly, Grace M903, Aesthetix USB products, Ayre DX-5, QA-9 and the Berkley Alpha USB.
What are the advantages of using tubes in a DAC?
Really two reasons:
1) I can do the same thing with one tube that another company does with 38 discrete transistors or a couple of op-amps (which has 100's of transistors). Each active component to me adds some kind of texture to the sound. If you limit that to one device then you are not changing the sound as much. Tubes are expensive and using all custom transformers adds extensively to the cost but the results are worth it.
2) Tubes + transformers act as a low pass filter to high frequency noise. If you have say a JFET or bipolar transistor after a high speed switching DAC then they will just pass that noise along. But tubes mated with transformers will cut that stuff right off and provide a wonderfully large wide open stage.
What are the audible effects of jitter?
As a musician it just makes a total mess of the music. The sounds all closed in and the instruments blur. Most people listen to music and hear the total piece for what it is. I on the other hand like to tear apart music and find instruments and lines for each part and jitter really messes that up for me.