[SCAudiophile]

@bart yes, they definitely do. It's shared by a few makers our there including Eikon Audio who OEMs Wavelet itself and a couple of other companies not able to be mentioned that have also OEM'ed Wavelet for their reference installs of their reference lines. Companies like ATC and others have their own take on active speakers that are well accepted and high quality for many years.

The question you ask is probably the most frequently occuring one regarding the Wavelet platform itself over the years.

Wavelet v1 was an multifunction device with a lot of capability packed in:

- basic volume control / basis "preamp" functions
- XLR and RCA analog inputs, S/PDIF, micro-USB input, other digital inputs
- XLR and RCA analog outputs
- 24/96 DAC
- 56-bit DSP for Room Correction, Active Crossover, etc...
- corresponding ADC if Wavelet is presented with an analog input signal

Wavelet v2 is similar but largely enhanced:

- basic volume control / basis "preamp" functions
- XLR and RCA analog inputs, S/PDIF, full USB Type B input, improved digital inputs S/PDIF and others
- XLR and RCA analog outputs
- 24/192 DAC for analog inputs, AES, S/PDIF, Toslink, that are limited to that,
- 32/384 DAC for asynchronous USB
- 64-bit (huge upgrade) 192 sample-rate DSP for Room Correction, Active Crossover, etc...
- corresponding ADC if Wavelet is presented with an analog input signal
- Stereo Unfold ("Omnio") processing for VALOR and it's SUT top and sides open-baffle speaker array
- "Pseudo" Stereo Unfold (i.e. "Omnio" for phantom array) for certain other Legacy speakers...

SO....

In principle, all you need is Wavelet and an external digital input-enabled source and Wavelet can take the place of 3 devices in one. Hook up your part-active (needs some external amps plus internally-powered amps in speakers) or "full active" versions of Legacy speakers. This is where the confusion comes in,...all the unique permutations. Strictly speaking "you don't need" another DAC or another preamp with Wavelet V1 and V2.

However as we know, something with a good volume control section, even a very high quality bespoke analog one, isn't necessarily a full linestage pre-amplifier to the ultimate audiophile standards. As we all know with any pre-amp, you can improve things by using multiple-specialized power supplies, separating them, separating them out entirely and going 2-chassis, 3-chassis, etc...and many other "SOTA" techniques. You can say the same things for various types and specializations of various "DACS". After all, not all DACs, preamps, etc...are created equally.

While Wavelet can readily serve, and V2 is great improved as the only DAC you need for your server, streamer, transport, etc...it doesn't mean putting a top contender DAC (or DACs for dual-mono) in front of the Wavelet doesn't yield even better results often times orders of magnitude better for the initial decoding.

Same for the pre-amp aspects; by going with an external SOTA DAC if it does not have a good volume control section, you can benefit by feeding Wavelet's analog inputs that SOTA DAC-decoded source and then adding to the quality with a much better SOTA preamp.

If presented with a pure digital input, Wavelet (sticking to V2 now) does the following (at a very high-level of abstraction):

- Real-time analysis of the input digital signal
- Real-time analysis for ambient info
- Applying the revised target function for the Room Correction of the speaker as measured interacting with your room to correct driver wavelaunch in 4 dimensions (Frequency, Phase, Level and TIME); this 4D approach separates Wavelet from everything else AFAIK (Trinnov or XILICA Pro products may permit some of this)
All of the above taking place in the Boehmer board circuitry using capabilities of Analog Devices 64-bit DSP...
- using the Wavelet 24/192 DAC layer then convert the result to analog
- split out the various outputs actively crossed over by Wavelet
- output to speakers and/or external amp(s)

If presented presented with an analog input from a SOTA DAC-Pre or SOTA DAC and separate external preamp, Wavelet v2 does the following:

- convert the incoming analog waveform to 24/192 digital using the onboard ADC layer
(Then proceed as before....)
- Real-time analysis of the input digital signal
- Real-time analysis for ambient info
- Applying the revised target function for the Room Correction of the speaker as measured interacting with your room to correct driver wavelaunch in 4 dimensions (Frequency, Phase, Level and TIME); this 4D approach separates Wavelet from everything else AFAIK (Trinnov or XILICA Pro products may permit some of this)
All of the above taking place in the Boehmer board circuitry using capabilities of Analog Devices 64-bit DSP...
- using the Wavelet 24/192 DAC layer then convert the result to analog
- split out the various outputs actively crossed over by Wavelet
- output to speakers and/or external amp(s)

Why go through the extra external boxes? There are preamps that are far better and full SOTA-level outputs, the better the input Wavelet receives, the better the overall result of what it does.

Same as any other link in an audio system.

Hope this helps......