weiss dac 202
- Thread starter Pedro83
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Cereal Killer
432
Especially since when you look inside it, and find it contains very little.
Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
It is State of the Art ( for the moment at least )!
Keith.
Keith.
SteveS1
I heard that, pardon?
Muzzer is right, but we know it doesn't always follow.
I have had one since last week. The long and short is that it takes the DAC2's strengths and moves things on to a surprising degree. The resolution is increased. The impression is one of much improved refinement and delicacy. Rendition of voices is the first thing that really strikes you, but piano, percussion and anywhere the music gets a bit complex benefits considerably. Brass has life and sharpness without ever becoming ragged.
The unit looks neat in black and is very well made. Attention to detail both with the device navigation and the literature and packaging is very impressive. The new menu is very easy, just push the volume knob and scroll/select for each setting.
Really enjoying me choons, very happy bunny. It is a lot of money, but not compared to CDPs I've owned. I use a Mac predominately and occasionally spin a CD via Meridian 500.
Steve
I have had one since last week. The long and short is that it takes the DAC2's strengths and moves things on to a surprising degree. The resolution is increased. The impression is one of much improved refinement and delicacy. Rendition of voices is the first thing that really strikes you, but piano, percussion and anywhere the music gets a bit complex benefits considerably. Brass has life and sharpness without ever becoming ragged.
The unit looks neat in black and is very well made. Attention to detail both with the device navigation and the literature and packaging is very impressive. The new menu is very easy, just push the volume knob and scroll/select for each setting.
Really enjoying me choons, very happy bunny. It is a lot of money, but not compared to CDPs I've owned. I use a Mac predominately and occasionally spin a CD via Meridian 500.
Steve
Hi Keith,
I see that its analogue output stages use op amps. Do you know which ones?
grivois
Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
Grivois Hi, Daniel hasn't told me how the 202 is implemented, where did you read it had op-amps?
Keith.
Keith.
Hi Keith,
I was surprised because it's widely acknowledged that the noise performance of a discrete output stage can be superior to one with opamps. This is from the manual:
"The DAC202 employs separate output stages for the main
output and the headphone output. Both stages use state of the
art operational amplifiers with high slew rate."
http://www.weiss-highend.ch/dac202/documents/dac202-manual.pdf
grivois
SteveS1
I heard that, pardon?
Oh shoot. You mean it could have been even better but for the designer not knowing that simple fact? Damn.
Is his face red, or what?
from some googling
Two additional differences between the Minerva and the DAC202 are the newly designed analog output stages and newly designed D to A converter. Peaking inside the DAC202 one can see the nicely segregated main analog output stage. The DAC202 offers separate output stages for the main and headphone outputs. Weiss elected to use very good operational amplifiers (opamps) with a high slew rate, and a low impedance topology. According to Daniel this makes the DAC202 even more impervious to cabling and impedance mismatches between DAC and amplifier. The new redesigned D to A converter uses two converters per channel as well as separate converters for the main and headphone outputs.
Two additional differences between the Minerva and the DAC202 are the newly designed analog output stages and newly designed D to A converter. Peaking inside the DAC202 one can see the nicely segregated main analog output stage. The DAC202 offers separate output stages for the main and headphone outputs. Weiss elected to use very good operational amplifiers (opamps) with a high slew rate, and a low impedance topology. According to Daniel this makes the DAC202 even more impervious to cabling and impedance mismatches between DAC and amplifier. The new redesigned D to A converter uses two converters per channel as well as separate converters for the main and headphone outputs.
Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
Muz Hi, you may well be right, all I can say is that the Weiss is the best sounding dac I have yet heard,and I try to listen to everything.
Keith.
Avonessence
Hiking Consistency Rapporteur
I find all this very interesting, computer audio and DAC's.
The one thing that it does remind me of is when CD was first released, CD was hailed as the new much superior format, but we have all experienced that nearly 30 years later, CD can be as good as vinyl.
Obviously computer audio is all relatively new at the moment, so a couple of questions........
How does it compare to general CD players it terms of musical enjoyment?
How do you think it will compare to say a Rega Saturn CDP, which has had 20 years of experience put into it, alongwith technological enhancements?
Darth Vader
From the Dark Side
My friend Google is your friend. Took me 30sec to find someone who had compared the Saturn against other things a DAC1 which he in fact prefered and commented that the Saturn wasn't worth the money (in his opinion). If you then search again you'll find other DAC comparisons that puts said DAC1 way down in the list and the 202 at the top.
I could give links but I don't think that I should link to other HiFi foums when its so easy to search yourself.
Cheers,
DV
Please do, for the lazy among us.
Cereal Killer
432
DAC1-HDR is great, it uses some of the finest op-amps in it's output stages, along with a near perfect benchtest results its hard to beat - in a correct setup.
Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
Avon Hi, well the data is the same, I have compared the Mac/DAC to a lot of expensive cd players, obviously all the elements of 'computer audio' are important, the way data is transferred, the implementation of the chip and the analogue output.
I haven't heard the new Rega cd but I hope to soon.
Keith.
I haven't heard the new Rega cd but I hope to soon.
Keith.
Darth Vader
From the Dark Side
Agreed. For the money yes. You have to spend quite a lot more (law of diminishing returns) to better it. Those that do cost getting on for 3 times the price. See here http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Suggested-Hardware-List (since I was asked for links by lazy M) You can also read the review from the same site.
Cheers,
DV
SteveS1
I heard that, pardon?
Hi,
I don't see it as another format, just a more flexible way to access the same format (CD 16/44 files). The fact that higher res formats may be available is a side issue for me. I'm mainly interested in the improved access and playback of music that I already own, or that is available on CD.
To that end, all it had to do sonically was match what I was getting from my CD player (Naim CDS3). That happened some time back and I'm pleased to say has considerably moved on from that. There are some things to become familiar with in order not to mess up the output from a computer or Mac, but once that is cracked it's fine. Pick up a decent transport and you retain the CD player element anyway. So it's not a matter of either/or.
Steve