In 2022 the CD player at 40 years old, doggedly entered middle age. From 1982 to the present day, digital playback has come an awfully long way. Those 40 years have been peppered with many lessons and breakthroughs, many discoveries and new products, and whilst there have been a number of notable high points, my belief is that nothing up till now along that journey, has represented such a large technological and sonic leap as the Wadax Atlantis Reference. If the Sony CDP-101 was the very starting point all those years ago, then the Wadax Reference with its form factor of continuous future evolvement for every owner and every unit in existence, is arguably now the final end point.

In late 2023 I had the privilege of being able to evaluate the full Level 4 Wadax Reference source in my premises in the context of a highly transparent three quarters of a million pound system for over 2 months. Before one even arrives at a long and elaborate conversation about its shocking performance ability and the way it sounds, you are compelled to speak initially of the manner in which the Wadax so completely alters your belief system of the medium of digital music itself. Yes, this is a feat of engineering which has first and foremost, abruptly altered my understanding of the nature of digitally stored and streamed music itself, its ultimate potential, and all of its final limits and possibilities.

Rather than leaping into an awkward quagmire of subjective listening jargon, it’s this fact perhaps which better and more neatly illustrates, just how powerful and high reaching the Wadax truly is. Consider that here is a  product which has the power to completely rewrite your knowledge base of what you thought possible from a particular audio storage medium, all inside even just a fairly brief listening session.

That it is so far ahead, nay divorced, from any other product in the marketplace is a given and any professional review in existence has concluded the same; the Wadax Reference is only competing with itself, there really is no other product out there even remotely like it. What is perhaps not so obvious, is the important ownership notion of the Wadax system as a Formula 1 car, a secure investment for life which is not only conveniently scalable from the outset, but is sold with the gilt edged pledge from the factory that it will never be closed product, but one in perpetual evolution, that will be continuously developed, monitored and upgraded as knowledge, research and development permits; an “Ark of the Covenant” for life. Wadax themselves have hinted that further Levels are already some way through R&D, ready to be unleashed if the competition ever makes any reasonable headway. That of course, isn’t meant to trivialise other digital source products in the marketplace of which there are many highlights and from which one can build remarkable systems. But if one is to have the very best, that is digital which is truly equivalent to the very best Record decks, then this here is it.

The  high cost of the full Level 4 system, with either Sever or Transport or both, is undoubtedly unprecedented, but then the best of anything, and what it has taken to scale that mountain, is never inexpensive. However, Atlantis Reference ownership is scalable in a tiered structure and can begin or even exist for good at Level 1, with standard power cables, inbuilt power supplies and a regular digital interconnect. The standalone DAC is really not so much more expensive than a number of other marketplace competitors and in the case of the Server, it is already lower than the highest cost seen in the industry. After the DAC and Streamer units themselves, we found the Akasa Glass Optical connection particularly revelatory, not only adding so much in pure sound quality terms, but also providing a whole new education on the importance and indeed vast hidden limitations of the digital interconnect in the complete digital chain.

The extraordinary Wadax Atlantis Reference range of products are sold exclusively in the UK through Lotus Hifi, and are now on permanent demonstration.