My short time with the SW1X VDT IV has come to an end and would you believe I got so lost in listening to music that I completely forgot to do the WAV vs FLAC comparison that I had promised. So for anybody interested, you will have to wait until I receive delivery of my personal unit.
I’d like to take this opportunity to expand on why I didn’t even bother doing the comparison. Simple answer is because I was so in LOVE with this device that I stopped analysing the sound (for the most part) and just spent hours and hours listening to albums.
The device itself is simplicity personified. I connected it to my WiFi repeater and transferred all the WAV files onto the internal storage on the device. From here using the Volumio remote app I played my media. One can stream (using uPnp) on the device but I wanted to hear this device at its best.
What does this device sound like then, well I’ll give it a go as I can draw on my thoughts from a few days that I’ve spent with the device.
When I first fired up the device and began playing music, the first thing that struck me was the added weight to the music and the soundstage. I have a very congested room yet somehow my listening space seemed to be much larger.
As the device settled in, which took a few hours, I was smitten. It brought about so much tonal richness, so much energy. The sound is layered, superbly articulate and the top end is airy without a hint of hardness/harshness. The MacBook Pro, Abbas DDC in comparison sounded small, thin and lacking in dynamics.
When I did my CEC TLOX and Abbas DDC comparison I highlighted that the CEC sounded flat in comparison to the Abbas. Well it’s much more of the same here. The delta of improvement between the Abbas and CEC was noticeable but with the VDT IV compared to the Abbas, it’s a giant leap.
It’s fair to say that the SW1X VDT IV has brought improvements that I had no idea were missing from my system. My personal preference in hifi is for tonal accuracy and a realism to the sound. Now that could mean different things to different people but I want the idea of a live performance in my room and this device delivered this in abundance. The holographic imaging the VDT IV exhibits is beguiling. In the past I’ve mentioned that I find it difficult to live without a tube device in my system as I feel the tonal density is diminished and the sound becomes flat or less engaging. This device shows this to be the case perhaps even more so than my DAC does. On that note, I can confidently say, I don’t think there is a DAC out there which wouldn’t sound considerably better when partnered with this device.
I’m sure readers will think I’m just salivating over a new toy but please don’t underestimate what I’m saying. This device is exceptional! I’d be surprised if I hear any digital source device from any other brand that could even match this device let alone improve on it. And guess what this is level 4 from SW1X. They have a mouth watering Level 5 version which is well and truly out of my budget.
If you’re wondering how it compares to my Vertere SG1, Dark Sabre, SW1X LPU II SPECIAL analogue setup, I didn’t do a fair comparison but on the few records that I played I would have to say I favoured the digital setup.
Different processing paths generate different digital noise, so even though the data spat out of the two files towards the DAC is the same, the processing effort and path used to produce that data stream most definitely is not.