It all started when we were developing the WA8 Eclipse. We learned that in order to reduce the size greatly, it needs to be with transistors. Introducing the WA11 PASSPORT, an ultra-compact high-performance headphone amplifier and DAC. Over the course of 3-years of intensive research and 9 working prototypes deployed in real-world applications. WA11 delivers an audiophile sound quality that rivals many desktop systems and with the features users dream of.
Weighing at 413g and 24mm thick, the WA11 PASSPORT is a battery-powered, fully-balanced headphone amplifier and DAC running in a Class-A topology. It is capable of driving the most demanding full-size headphones while maintaining an ultra-low noise floor for reference in-ear monitors. The DAC is an ESS Sabre capable of decoding PCM up to 24-bit/384kHz and up to DSD128. There is also a 4.4mm balanced input for use with balanced sources such as a modern digital-audio-player (DAP), home CD player or DAC.
The future is USB-C. And WA11 has two of them - one for data, one for charging. Separating the two allows the user to listen and recharge the internal battery simultaneously. This feature extends the industry leading 7 hrs. of playtime immensely.
