For all ECP gear
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Beat me to it. I have a walnut x.3 dac. It is based off a wolfson chip, and it seems very few were made. Even the SBAF forums has little info for sound so I will be going in blind, i cant even find the original msrp. Fingers crossed itll be a nice pairing.
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Original MSRP was around $1350
If I am not wrong only 5-6 were made
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Yes that is the thread, a lot of info on the build but not much after. Looks like a 1 or 2 prototypes then 5 final revisions
I have linked the impressions thread. It has a lot of notes on the sound from the loaner tour. There is another pretty long build thread.
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Yes you are right. My bad. At the end of the build thread they said they hoped for impressions soon. SBAF has a lot of multiple threads per item, 1 for build, 1 for impressions, 1 for mods, 1 for goofin around in.
Early impressions are pretty good. It feels very “polite” with the BHC and Atrium. It may be a little too eased with the smooth Atrium and rounded BHC natures. The mandolin on “Battle of Evermore” feels a bit more like window dressing than with other dacs. They dont fully engage and rock out like i expect.
It does add a little intimacy to certain tracks which has added a nice touch to a acoustic sets.
It does fit in very nicely to the whole setup
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Hello,
the Wolfson chips are still very good for today’s applications.
It is a pity that there were very few good implementations.
Currently I have the Little Dot Dac 1 equipped with the Wolsfon on the Euforia amplifier, purely from the musical side, it is really great, I like it more than the Ak4497 chip, although this is not necessarily bad.
With DDC you can still get a bit more out of it.
Of course there is always something better and it is a pity that the ECP Walnut Dac is no longer available.
It would probably have been a nice implementation.
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Yes, my old Cowon J3 had a very nice wolfson implementation.
Quoting here because this matches my first few hours impression extremely well. I have an old Cowon Dap that had a Wolfson and it matched here as well, though i used Cowon’s excellent EQ and DSP to excite it more.
The Walnut would probably be an excellent match for brighter amps and cans. I can see the Headamp GS-X amps being a good balance here. It did help with more aggressive tubes in my BHC.
I felt the Bifrost 2 with the BHC could be a bit too much at times and it felt more intimate/closer in. I didnt try a tamer tube set with this as getting the bf2 rigged up is a pia with undoing and redoing the set up in 2 tight spots.
The walnut was wider and more polite. It did have this weird feel like you were listening to music through a window instead of actually being in the same room. Like you passed by a bar with the front doors open and a band is playing. No issues with the usb for me coming out of the lumin. I did hear digital noise picked up somewhere at times but i cant say it was the dac, too inconsistent to pin down.
I am still not sure if this is for me. Ideally I would love something between this and the bf2. It is gorgeous and compact, and it matches the simplicity i want. I may try it at the desk but not sure i want to step into the usb windows audio driver world and possible pc noise. The bf2 unison reigns there and is dead quiet to boot.
It is a rare piece so i may be inclined to keep it, but dont be surprised if i sell it and look for another bf2.
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I agree with you a good bit about the Wm8741.
I don’t have the Walnut but I have had 2 Dacs with this chip.
My impressions are relatively similar in that respect.
I think it is still one of the most musical chips you can get if you can find a dac with the right implementation.
I recently connected my Little Dot Dac 1 to my Euforia amp and listened to it with the Auteur and it was damn good to listen to.
I also agree with you that it can make bright headphones glow.
I was quite surprised in that respect.
It’s probably not the walnut level you have but it will be technically better than my Little Dot dac which is also disadvantaged by the old usb implementation.
Can only give the tip to keep the Walnut for bad days or to pull in every now and then to kick it.
Or simply when it’s just for fun.
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I would like to keep it, but it may be the first thing to go if i need money for something else. I am looking for a DHSA amp which @M0N and @PaisleyUnderground noted tend to be brighter so it may pair well with that (or a bf2 may be better there too, who knows until we try)
It also has an Amanero usb implementation as well, which has been used on very high end dacs, so it isnt a slouch.
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A little more listening today and some general observations vs a BF2.
The Walnut is for sure lighter on it’s feet and gives a bit more air and seperation to the total presentation. More nimble overall. Really kind of started liking this for orchestral music. Details are there but they arent as called upon and prominently up front as the bf2. The small details such as the rattle or strings, or a bow being out down seem to come and go quicker. Not sure if that is a general speed thing or just the Walnut not being as resolving of those things. Cleaner with its timing making things feel tidier.
The BF2 leans more heavy and visceral. It for sure beats out the Walnut on the bottom end, more full and you can feel it more. I wont say it is fully punchier or slammier as its not a hard hit but if you love also hearing the bass guitar in rock songs the BF2 does it better. More intimate and in front of you, details are more prominent. More in your head and less space, not congested but objects are closer to each other. Overall not afraid to let it “rip” and embrace some good power chords.
Surprise 3rd contender, an asus essence stu ive had for ages based on a Ti PCM1792A chip. It is a middle ground but closer to the bf2. Stage is slightly bigger than the bf2 by 3 hairs, but it is a little lighter and tighter like the walnut. I keep thinking maybe i stick with this one but the timbre is off, and the overall resolution is “fuzzier” and can be a bit condensed on itself. Oddly enough it is the most black background-ed and maybe most detailed/detail forward. My favorite part is hearing the tracks of a song being turned on, that extra little fuzz, and the swell of instruments slowly building up almost like they are heating up. It is oddly resolving of those things. The other dacs tend to just have the volume grow and dont present that “how the song was made” extra part.
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Do you happen to have a picture of the layout of the walnut?
Great, crisp report from you again, by the way 
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I’d like to see what capacitors they have installed there.
I’m thinking of doing something to my Little dot.
I’ve seen two or three things that might help to get something out of it.
I could only take a rough look at what it looks like inside, but unfortunately I have to take it completely apart if I want to find out more.
Roughly speaking I have 2 op amp slots which could be very interesting 2 Burson v5i op amps could make quite a difference.
And maybe 2-3 capacitors to replace if there are any from Audio note otherwise maybe Nichicon Fine gold.
Here is a good ending comparison I thought of after the above post.
With the Walnut, percussion is lighter but more exact and technical feeling. Like the line is being fed on a long printout via machine.
On the BF2, it is looser but you feel it more. Kind of like its getting into a groove with a jam band. It all dances around more.
Both are toe tapping but for different reasons.
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^^^ i heard theyre not really meant to be opened but plenty of pics in there. It is the build thread so skim through it and you should find what you need.
Thank you 
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I will take a look,
.
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Yeah, very simple but extremely pleasing design language all around from ECP. I love the spalted maple on mine.
I know they had some black chassis and padauk wood amps.
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So ECP stuff is a little bit of an enigma as all the info for them are buried across multiple threads on SBAF. What i gather is the designs, and most first runs, and prototypes are made by one guy, Doug aka dsavitsk. After that he may do more runs himself or it seems often those designs are passed on to another person to produce. From what I see Doug seems to be in close consolation when a 3rd party takes something over and he seems to give final inspection and approval. My walnut was made this way, 3rd party with Doug over looking it and going by his approval. This did also lead to some extremely niche 1 offs, as in a Ravenswood with silver transformers. Which after the owner told me about he said “oh i shouldnt of even mentioned that” in a tone that he let go a CIA deep secret.
So the thread for the DSHA-3F:
Once again I find SBAF not organized well and hard to navigate. It was spoken about on other threads but this was the main thread talking about the amp revival.
The guy doing the work this time is CEE TEE aka CEE TEE. It looks like a big reason Doug is not doing this anymore is the metal shop he used was victim of the pandemic and something tells me other shops wouldnt take up the project in small quantities or at a decent cost.
I asked a few questions as i have been looking for a 3F for a while…
Questions & Answers
What isnt the clearest is if same circuit means a 1 for 1 same layout, or same schematic laid out in a way the circuit is the “same” but actual dimensions are altered. I am not sure the exact dimensions of the original but this one is listed as 8"x9"x2" which is smallish.
Pretty detailed and zoomable pictures of the board are on the product page. DSHA-3FN – NITSCH
I do not know if there are many pics of the original runs to compare boards but i think it would be well worth it. Parts are also said to be the same but looking at that pic i wonder if cap upgrades are an easy job. There is an in chassis LPS that i wonder if it could be modded to an external one. Other ECP stuff looked easy to open up but normally was deceptively elaborate to service.
I am assuming the factory is doing the metal case and the pcb and assembly is done in house, but that should be fact checked.
This run will be the 3F amorphous core. No 3-non-F (which there is an extremely small amount of), and no 3F nickel cores. Transformers will also not be swappable like the older 3 F. This one WILL have a switch to go from BAL in to SE in, original was BAL xlr only. It could take an SE to BAL cable meaning you didnt need a balanced signal per say. The out looks to still be BAL only. And that HAS TO BE BAL. No drop the ground tricks allowed or something will break.
Of course the questions are is will this sound the same? I think that depends on how identical the circuit is and how much the chassis will affect things. I assume the chassis will be a little less high quality than before but also the price reflects that some too.
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