Digital Drive: Re: benchmark dac1 lessloss 2004 by schs

I do not know the difference between the Wadia 830 and 860, I owned a model 830 and compared it to the Rega CD player with DAC2004 acting as a master. Was the same dac chip used in the Wadia 830 and 860? I do not know, so maybe my comments regarding the comparison are not valid for the Wadia 860.
But I can give oyu some of my impressions with the Lessloss DAC:

I would describe the DAC2004 as much more detailed and natural sounding that the Wadia 830. Sometimes, the Wadia gave me the image of a very deep room (especially when listening to jazz combos and live recordings), but the DAC2004 sounded more precise and the precise roominformation is what makes music sounding better for me. And the DAC2004 produces the same precise image in low frequencies - on some recordings, I could hear details in the bass that I simply had never heard before when playing the same recording with the Wadia.
So overall, I'd say that the details (especially low freq.), the natural sound and the precicsion are the aspects that changed the most when I switched to the DAC2004.
When I bought the DAC2004 and the Rega player, I ordered the rigid connection (sort of pipes, no flexibility at all). After a while, I changed the pipes and got the cables from Lessloss. Again, this was a good thing: for one, it's more practical (you can move the DAC2004 and the player independently) and the sound quality was improved as well.
The best quality is attained when slaving the player to the DAC2004, Lessloss explains this in length on their web site, if you need further infos on this you can find this here on this site as well.

There are things to keep in mind when ordering the DAC2004: the Lessloss people are very helpful, if you need for certain reasons a special setup just ask them about it. Before I ordered my DAC2004 I exchanged a lot of e-mail with them, I got almost immediate responses to all of my questions.
When I looked around for a new player I was looking for a simple solution, I needed just a way to play CDs and feed the signal to my speakers (my setup today : Rega player as transport -> DAC 2004, master mode , incl. volume control -> active speakers). If you are looking for a DAC with options to switch between multiple sources, if you need other options like additional filtering options or room correction then I guess the DAC2004 will not be the right solution (but I do not know what Lessloss can integrate in the DAC on request, easiest way to find out: just ask them).
In the daily handling of the Rega/DAC2004 combo there is really nothing special to write about - it simply works. Playback time with the DAC2004 is more than 10 hours which is plenty enough for me. Before I had seen the DAC2004 internally I thought that the procedure to change the batteries is not an optimal solution, but now that I opened the DAC2004 once and had a look at the way the DAC is built I can cofirm that it's really a matter of minutes to change the batteries if needed.
As I said in my mini-review a while ago, the only thing that I missed (and still miss a bit) is a better indicator of the charging level of the batteries. With a playback time of more than 10 hours it's not really a problem, but still: it would be nice to better know about the remaining power.