John Darko
First came Ferrum’s flagship headphone amplifier, OOR (€1995). Then came the Polish company’s flagship DAC and pre-amplifier, WANDLA (€2795). Now comes WANDLA HP, which adds a 4.4mm balanced headphone output to WANDLA’s front panel. Single-ended headphones get their hook-up via a supplied 4.4mm to 6.35mm adapter. Behind the 4.4mm socket sits an IC-based headphone amplifier circuit that, according to the manufacturer, will deliver 3.5 Watts into 50 Ohms to run close to OOR’s audible performance.
WANDLA HP is still built around the original WANDLA’s ESS Sabre ES9038PRO D/A conversion chip, complete with custom current-to-voltage (I/V) conversion and SERCE processing platform that runs on an ARM chip to marshal and pre-process audio streams arriving over six digital inputs: USB, AES/EBU, HDMI ARC, I2S, S/PDIF and TOSLINK.
We also still get WANDLA’s front-panel touchscreen, fully-balanced circuit topology (with balanced XLR pre-amplifier outputs), a choice of digital or analogue volume attenuation and Dynamic Digital Filtering (DDF) designed by HQPlayer’s Jussi Laako.
Add Ferrum’s outboard HYPOS power supply (€1195) for even higher audible performance.
The WANDLA HP will sell for US$3295 or €3295 when it begins shipping on November 15th.
Further information: Ferrum
