D/A Converter Wadax Atlantis Reference DAC Silver

Atlantis Reference DAC — a modular three-chassis converter with musIC error correction and dual-mono power supply

The Atlantis Reference DAC is the flagship digital-to-analogue converter from Wadax, built around the company's proprietary musIC 3 feed-forward error correction process with 128-bit internal resolution. It was born out of findings from the manufacturer's development programme: once the noise and error levels of individual circuit blocks drop below a certain threshold, the influence of clock noise, power supply interference and mechanical vibration becomes audibly discernible. The design therefore combines a dual-mono architecture with complete physical and electrical channel separation and a fully modular card-cage construction with 23 printed circuit boards.

The musIC process works in the time domain. The error mechanisms of the chosen DAC chip are mapped under load using Adaptive Delta Hilbert Mapping; on this basis the algorithm calculates the linear and non-linear error arising from the incoming signal and feeds an inverse signal to the input. Correction thus takes place in real time and addresses the amplitude-dependent timing and phase deviations — precisely those that manifest themselves in conventional decoding chains as so-called digital sound. The process demands a throughput of 12.8 GB/s. Timing reference duties are handled by the Zepto Reference clock with a doubled master clock frequency and total jitter of 12 fs, while the digital circuits are time-aligned to 100 ps.

The power supply is implemented as a physically and electrically independent dual-mono design with 10 purpose-wound transformers, six cascaded regulation stages at the AC input and over 30 local regulation stages in a distributed topology. Total noise across the supply rails measures 0.5 µV in the 1 Hz – 100 kHz band, which translates into a low noise floor, legible micro-detail and dynamic authority. Electrical silence is complemented by mechanical isolation: the left and right channels are separated, the power supply components are physically distanced from sensitive signal circuits and the massive chassis sections drain vibrational energy away. The chassis is milled from solid billets of five different aerospace-grade alloys, with over 320 kg of material and more than 100 hours of hand assembly going into production. The three enclosures can be arranged either linearly or vertically.

Connectivity covers USB (32–384 kHz, 16/24/32 bit, DSD64/128/256, MQA), 2× S/PDIF RCA, 2× S/PDIF BNC, 2× AES-EBU and a native Reference Wadax Link with triple AES-EBU for native PCM and DSD, supplemented by RJ45; the WADAX Akasa optical module is available as an option. The balanced XLR outputs offer adjustable level (1/2/4 V) and a wide choice of output impedances from 0.4 to 600 ohms, allowing precise matching to the input of a preamplifier or power amplifier. Operation is handled by a 5" capacitive touchscreen with 800×480 resolution, while the modular construction and firmware updates via the Wadax at Home cloud allow key blocks to be upgraded directly in the user's system.

Key features

• Error correction: Dual-differential musIC 3, 128-bit internal processing
• Architecture: Fully balanced dual-mono with separated channels
• Power supply: 10 transformers, noise 0.5 µV (1 Hz–100 kHz)
• Clocking: Zepto Reference clock with 12 fs jitter
• Construction: Modular card-cage with 23 printed circuit boards
• Outputs: XLR with selectable level and output impedance