De-ja Vu?

8 Voice polyphonic, 2 Oscillators per voice, SSM filters , sequencer, editing of wavetables via WaveTerm, play samples from WaveTerm B, Multi-timbral and 12 bit samples (compressed 16Bit).

The 2.3 was a huge step up from the 2.2, it offered the same great sound but with extras, 12bit sample playback when used with a waveterm, Midi as standard and multi-timbral. The 2.3 soon became popular though again its high price tag made it somewhat of an 'elite-est' synth to own and use. To add to its complexity you could switch the 2.3 into '2.2' mode without any great effort so you could get a front end and panel display that users were familiar with.

Techy stuff

The Wave 2.3 has the same principle behind its operation as the wave 2.2, but with one big difference it has 12Bit SRAM and not 8Bit.
What this means for you and I is that when you playback samples you can use 12Bit samples and not 8Bit (Using Waveterm B), giving a much cleaner sound for playback of samples. However if you use soley the internal wavetables you are still using 8Bit waveforms so you can still have the grungyness of 8Bit. The other big benefit is that its multitimbral, you can have upto 8 sounds. Combined with the waveterms sequencer this makes for a truly fantastic sound.

Here are some pictures, of its insides, firstly two Voice boards, one from an early 2.3 and one from a later one.
The left hand one is the early version, the right hand on the newer.

Spot the difference?

The difference is only slight. Its the four variable resistors on the upper edge of the PCB (right hand side in picture), these are to adjust the DC offset on the filter chips, They're not normally needed and hence on the later models were dropped.

Now we have 3 proz boards, all from 2.3's!!!
Again left to right, first 2.3, middle 2.3 and most recent 2.3

Spot the difference part 2?

ok the differences, the older board has a TONNE of mod wires and extra chips.
The middle one has a few differences (couple of capacitors missing, different resistor values)
the right hand one is the most up-to-date version I have seen.

At the bottom of each board (as viewed from the photo) the chips you see are the SRAM, you can clearly see
24chips, These give you 512Kbyte of 12Bit ram.
The top of the board holds the Phase accumulator and its structure is almost the same to that of the 2.2.

There are also a few differences in the mother board and a few minor changes in the CPU board.