Wadax Atlantis Reference Transport System
Atlantis Transport is an optical media player that can read CD, SACD, DVD-Audio, Blu Ray pure Audio discs. Atlantis Transport is the result of the alignment of various elements: latest research and development done for the Atlantis DAC, a deep understanding of factors that must be accounted and preserved from a digital audio stream –many of them never applied before to optical disc readers- and the appearance in the market of the latest generation of digital circuitry and optical pickups.
Atlantis Transport is based on a custom optical engine: Wadax THOR 1.3. Milled around a solid metal alloy of a specific formulation and combined with a complex selection of materials to guarantee performance, isolation and damping. Its unique power supply design, mechanical stability, clocking topology and interfacing all align to provide the most musical and accurate optical readout digital audio mechanism ever developed.
Outputs are provided for interconnect with any DAC (RCA SPDIF, XLR AES-EBU), or the Wadax Link can be used for the best and most accurate possible digital audio link. Wadax Link is intended to be used with Atlantis DAC only.
THOR OPTICAL MECHANISM
To have a full control of data readout, a proprietary optical mechanism has been designed. Its name is Thor and it is the most elaborate and sophisticated optical pick-up mechanism ever designed. Thor was developed in over 15 months of intensive R&D, involving state-of-the-art FEA (Finite Element Analysis) simulation techniques. FEA can predict the multi-disciplinary behavior and minimize sensitivity to vibrations, electromagnetic emissions, mechanical stability and how they interact between each other. FEA is usually applied in the most sophisticated industrial designs, like airplane wings, Formula 1 cars,.
Some of the advantages are:
1. Predictable mechanical influence from the environment to the delicate optical pickup. Optical pickup should be immune from mechanical vibration.
2. Mechanical vibrations: In a CD or SACD, rotation speed is constantly changing. This generates a collateral effect. Vibrations need to be routed away from the pickup as quickly as possible and damped in their way out. This optimisation solution is done by FEA.
3. Induced static charge build-up: A CD is made of policarbonate (plastics). It stores static charge transferred to it. When you play a CD, the static charge starts to spin too. Lenz's Law states that any charge in motion creates an electromagnetic wave. This wave radiates right on top of the optical block to the electrical photodiode. The use of FEA minimises this effect by re-routing such unwanted induced currents away from the critical areas by design.
UNIQUE MOTORIZED LOADING
Atlantis Transport is the only top loading optical reader ever to incorporate a motorized vertical disc loader and facilitate disc manipulation. The moving block has 35mm of vertical displacement that runs its way in 2.5 seconds. 2 custom motors integrated into the Thor mechanism provide the mechanical engine for this.
NATIVE SACD AND NATIVE PCM PLAYBACK
Atlantis Transport reads the native content of the disc being played and delivers an unaltered bit-accurate audio stream. Regardless of the media type used.
In the case of SACD, to enjoy the pure, bit-perfect, native DSD stream of an SACD, an Atlantis DAC is required. For this, a custom Wadax Link connection is required (dual Ethernet cable) and the encrypted DSD stream is sent through it.
POWER SUPPLY: THE ADVANCED TOPOLOGY OF ATLANTIS DAC POWER SUPPLY IS FULLY EMPLOYED IN ATLANTIS TRANSPORT.
The power supply of Atlantis Transport has a key importance in final results. Two proprietary transformers designed specifically for the Transport are the entry door to a very special power supply design. Following the research done for the Atlantis DAC power supply, inherits its key concept of contant AC line monitoring to optimize power transfer and minimize noise at the output of the power supply.
CUSTOM PCB
Atlantis Transport is an extremely sophisticated player composed of 10 Wadax circuit boards, 5 motors, 2 large custom transformers, a proprietary optical mechanism, a super advanced software that manages all subsystems in the unit plus some unique features not found elsewhere in the industry.
ADVANCED FEATURES
A powerful processor manages all subsystems in Atlantis Transport and handles all different sensors mounted in the chassis. As a result of this resources, a set of advanced features have been developed to achieve the best possible out of an optical disc replay.
VIBRATION MONITOR
Vibration effects are very important in playback results. The impact of cones, racks, floor,. is long known to influence final results. To find the best tuning possible of al