Wadia 16 digital output (SPDIF) quality. One of the best ever.

I have had an inquiry about a quality of the Wadia 16 SPDIF output, so I made this short video.
I do not know why you would want to use a player with probably the best DAC ever made on board as a transport, but someone wanted to know...

[@kenwuesq]

How much more engineering effort would other companies need to achieve this square wave? Is it a matter of better parts or better design? I have a CEC TL5 using AES and I’m afraid to see its square wave, but it sounds good enough.

[@hear-net-au]

Better design. C. E. C. appear to mangle their SPIDIF output on purpose. You can see some of C. E. C. traces by searching CEC on my channel

[@kenwuesq]

@@hear-net-au Thanks for the information. Yes, I’ve seen the CEC “waves” in your and Lampizator’s sites. One of these days, I’ll compare the sound from AES vs SPDIF to see if I hear the difference. I’ll admit that I bought the CEC because I like CD loading mechanisms that are out of the ordinary like my Naim CD5si and Rega Apollo. I don’t have “golden ears.”

[@net_news]

do you think a modern cd transport with i2s output could be better?

[@hear-net-au]

I2S is the same as spdif but split into parts. I don't like modern units, because of their poor loaders and mechanisms

[@net_news]

@@hear-net-au absolutelly I don't like them either... I like i2s though and I think It would be an interesting comparison. Wadia 16 spdif vs modern i2s transport. 😱

[@NackDSP]

Hilarious. A digital interface makes a square wave.

[@hear-net-au]

You would think so, wouldn't you? But at 1.5MHz it does not look that square. Philips players have triangular output which looks like Sydney opera House sails. C.E.C. ones - depending on model look like waves or signatures of a drunken doctor. Really square ones are a rarity.