Wadax Atlantis Reference Server

When we designed and built the Atlantis Reference DAC, our goal was to redefine the musical possibilities of digital media. We succeeded! A combination of solid, sound engineering and breakthrough technology, the Reference DAC has been universally recognised by the world's most exacting reviewers as not just better than competing products, but better by a considerable margin. Setting a completely new benchmark for performance, it has quickly become THE Reference, the product against which all others are measured.

Now, using the same rigorous design approach, WADAX has turned its attention to server technology. We have questioned accepted wisdom – whether it is to do with operational protocols or circuit topology: We have applied the same exhaustive attention to engineering detail – whether it's the chassis design or the future-proof, card-cage construction: Where conventional hardware, thinking and solutions have proved inadequate or a gate on performance, we have redesigned or reinvented. The result is the Wadax Atlantis Reference Server – a server like no other. It uses unique, breakthrough technologies to deliver musical performance that other servers can't hope to match. But more than that, our goal was to match unrivalled musical performance with the unprecedented reach and access of streamed music and high-res file replay. Once again, Reference has to mean Reference. Once again, we have succeeded.

Isolation from Spurious Noise and Power Supply Artefacts

Digital signals are vulnerable: They can be impacted by microphonic interference and RFI/EMI induced noise, degraded by poorly executed transfer standards and badly engineered connectors. Preserving their integrity means first protecting them from external influences…

Research into the fundamental engineering parameters limiting the performance of existing streamers quickly established power supply quality and related noise as critical factors in undermining the quality and integrity of stored and streamed music files. Predominantly based on computer hardware, many servers rely on stock power supplies and regulation, even if they are fed from an audio grade transformer.

The Reference Server is driven by a heavily regulated, multi-stage power supply derived directly from the supplies developed for the Reference DAC. It is so sophisticated and so quiet that the noise-floor of the DC reaching the unit's active devices is almost impossible to measure. It's so quiet, that during development we needed to rely on virtual modelling and to develop entirely new measurement protocols to assess advances in performance.

• 3 large proprietary power transformers
• 5 stages of power supply regulation
• Over 200 discrete parts
• Optimized for rejection of external conducted and radiated emissions while also extracting and eliminating the naturally generated electromagnetic noise inside the chassis.
• Mechanically decoupled from critical circuitry to avoid any possible cross-contamination into the critical digital circuitry.
• Based on the proven Reference DAC power supply topology

But there's no such thing as too much power supply, so the Reference Server is supplied ready to accept the upcoming, external Reference PSU, a full-chassis upgrade that results in almost complete freedom from AC noise, ground noise, RFI and EMI induced interference, establishing the foundation for unprecedented performance from streamed music and file replay.

Isolation from Mechanical and Electrical Breakthrough

The Reference Server's precision machined chassis is a complex and ultra-rigid construction that doesn't just isolate vulnerable data from the outside world, it isolates the individual sections within the server itself, mechanically and electrically grounding each critical section, preventing the transfer of mechanical or radiated energy from one to another. Safe from external noise sources, the massive outer housings and precise card slots for each separate circuit block ensure that your fragile digital data is safe from self noise generated within the replay chain too.

• Machined from 150 kg of high-spec aluminium alloy.
• The chassis assembly is constructed from more than 50 individual, precision-machined parts.
• Parts are classified and assembled according to their mechanical and vibratory behaviour, to create a sophisticated mechanical cascade, designed specifically to transport and dissipate structural energy.

Digital Waveform Control

The Wadax digital components employ our own MusIC Chip 2 technology, a feed-forward error correction system that compensates for time, amplitude and phase errors in the D-to-A conversion path. Using the same technique – adding the inverse of the transfer function error to the signal – we realised that it would be possible to compensate for the bit waveform distortion in the USB interlink. But whereas in our DACs, we are dealing with a closed system of known elements, with a universal USB interface, the corrective applied would have to be user adjustable. Our response to this challenge is the Digital Waveform Control, a set of three rotary knobs that allow users to adjust/compensate for errors in the rise-time and amplitude of the sent signal as well as the spacing on the return channel (counteracting echoes and reflections). Users can establish three, pre-set compensations, to match the replay characteristics of different streaming services or locally stored files.

• DWC optimizes the sound of the USB interface: The only user-adaptive USB physical layer interface used in the audio industry.
• Extreme complexity: Constructed from more than 200 parts mounted on 12 proprietary circuit boards.
• Extreme attention paid to electrical and mechanical isolation and decoupling.

AKASA Interface

Having developed the DWC feed-forward correction, we set out to further advance the interface technology, developing our own, proprietary optical connection to optimise transfer of the incredibly complex and fragile musical files. Working in conjunction with a leading Japanese optical-engineering corporation to create the fibre-optics, and Neutrik for the connectors, we designed and built the AKASA optical interface. A proprietary solution that requires installation of dedicated driver and receiver boards in the Reference Server and Reference DAC, AKASA raises the performance bar further than even we thought possible, eclipsing not only all existing digital standards, but challenging the musical performance of all available audio sources. With AKASA, file replay finally comes of age.

Roon Browser Integration

Sorting and handling files, maintaining compatibility across platforms and updates is a massive software-based challenge. Rather than devoting huge efforts to creating our own file-browser we prefer to concentrate on engineering and operational issues. For that reason, we have incorporated the Roon browser into the Reference Server, the most intuitive and comprehensive browser available. Not only does it make the Reference Server incredibly easy to use, it ensures cross-compatibility with existing Roon-based storage and libraries. By far the most widely used storage system, this creates the easiest upgrade/transfer path for users to access material stored on existing Nucleus and NAS drive systems.