Introduced in 2023, the WANDLA quickly became the bestseller of Polish brand Ferrum, founded by Marcin Hamerla, a former associate of Mytek. Based on algorithms revised over months on the test bench, this digital DAC-preamplifier protects one of the best conversion chips on the market, the ESS9038PRO, protected power supplies and highly developed digital and analog circuitry. In addition to its AES/EBU, optical, coaxial and USB-C digital inputs, it also offers two HDMI ARC and I2S ports, plus a pair of analog RCA inputs and RCA and XLR outputs. To enhance its performance, it was already possible to combine the WANDLA with the HYPSOS separate power supply, a product we have in duplicate at VUmètre to stabilize the power supply of our Internet boxes in two of our auditoriums.
But since March, thanks to GoldenSound media, the WANDLA has been upgraded in a new eponymous edition, which gains numerous settings, described in this video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCg1hiDSNsQ) or taken up on https://goldensound.audio and recalled below:
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.
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.
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.
To perfect all the above functions and make the most of the SERCE module’s processing power, this Goldensound edition no longer features MQA. But as you’ll have noticed from our numerous reviews, we at VUmètre have never believed in this codec, which seems to us already outdated in its advantages, and a far cry from what the aforementioned functions can provide.
In Europe, the €2 795 WANDLA is available in a Goldensound version at €3 295, or your WANDLA can be upgraded for €600; in the USA, it goes from $2 795 to $3 295, with an upgrade to $600 for WANDLA owners wishing to switch to this new version. We willl be talking about it soon in a VUmètre test bench!
