Weiss DAC204 DAC & DDC Review - It's good at what it does, what it does is...different
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ส.ค. 2024
- Thanks to @loefiden2546 for the loan of DAC204!
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Weiss Website for...
DAC204: weiss.ch/products/highend-hif...
DAC205: weiss.ch/products/highend-hif...
INT204: weiss.ch/products/highend-hif...
My reviews of some mentioned gear:
Berkeley Alpha S2: • What Gear is My Gear? ...
Chord Hugo 2: • What Gear is My Gear? ...
Focal Utopia (OG): 1) • Focal Utopia Headphone...
2) • What Gear is My Gear? ...
Headamp GS-X Mini: www.head-fi.org/showcase/head...
HiFiMan HE1000v2se: • HiFiMan HE1000v2 Steal...
HiFiMan HE1000se: 1) • HiFiMan HE1000se Headp...
2) • What Gear is My Gear? ...
HiFiMan Susvara: 1) • HiFiMan Susvara - Summ...
2) • What Gear is My Gear? ...
Rosson RAD-0: • Rosson RAD-0 Headphone...
Singxer SU-2: • Singxer SU-2 USB Audio...
Violectric HPA-V281: • What Gear Is My Gear? ...
Small Green Computer power supplies: www.smallgreencomputer.com/co...
Timestamps...
00:00 Intro, Pricing, Disclaimer
00:50 Shameless Self Promotion
01:17 What is the DAC204?
04:15 Takeaways
05:04 Build & Features
07:30 Power Supply
08:36 Use Cases?
11:31 Test Gear
14:05 DAC Sound
17:17 DDC Sound
18:25 Swapping Power Supplies
19:24 Balanced vs SE Outputs
20:08 Which Input(s) to use?
20:55 Comparison with Chord Hugo 2
22:38 Final Thoughts
Remember that Weiss is all about studio and mastering gear. They're not an audiophile company at all. In that context, I would find that feature set quite useful. The PCM outputs would be sent to either a room correction system like a Trinov or, directly to speakers with build in digital inputs and DSP, like most Genelecs. The DAC side of things would then be used for a reference headphone stack. Quite useful actually.
That's roughly the use case I was mentioning. I can see that being more common in pro audio than consumer audio. Still feels even more nichey than our already nichey hobby. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Thank you sir, your ownership of Hugo 2 is helpful for me as I was thinking on Qutest upgrade which I have for 5th year now and was actually looking into Weiss lineup. Seems not worth it to chase the wild goose here. I really enjoy qutest and the only downside is that it needs a good source to really shine. Sensitive to PSU too so lot's of room for improvements/tweaks
I upgraded from the chord Qutest. The Weiss is worth the upgrade in my opinion. I have spent a month with the Weiss Dac 204. It has a bigger soundstage, better imaging and can bring out detail that I was unable to get with the Qutest. I had the Qutest for 4 years and I loved it. The one complaint I have with the Weiss is there gain stage. I wish they had left it out. I think it sounds better with the gain turned off. Weiss and Chord are both really f’n good. While I may prefer the Weiss some might prefer to stay with the Qutest. It all good.
Hi. I am a Chord Qutest user, and I really like the sound it generates, especially when paired with the Eversolo DMP A6 streamer.
I also use a passive PRE Khozmo Acoustic.
I was wondering about this Weiss, for better sound, especially that in the PRE, I have XLR inputs, which the Qutest does not have.
After your description, I felt rather WEISS and Qutest, they will sound similar, and such a "swap" generating a cost of around 1500 - 2000e may not be worth such a high cost.
Thanks for the review and for the reply.
Balanced outputs have always sounded better than single ended, especially in a balanced designs. Some people are just noticing this.
Wave Theory, I feel it would be more informative and presentable if you install the video camera as Zeos does, you will not have to hold the product in your hand and we will get to see the product better.
Don't know what happened, but TH-cam unsubscribed me. Lucky to have fundet you Alain!
thats one of the dac than was capable of downscale or downsampling without compromise the interpolation
DACs seem to have a gap after the $1,000 mark. I'm actually interested in a different dac to oppose my bifrost.
Very impressed with your presentation. Knowledgeable, educated, well versed in the field. Thank you. I am currently looking to upgrade my Benchmark 3B Dac, listen to Rock and Roll only, 85 to 90 DB, large listening area, great acoustics, go figure, just lucky I guess. It seems that the Weiss unit is on par with what I have, was hoping many steps above. About 30K invested, Can you suggest the next level up, 5K my limit or close to it. Pass X250.8 my heart and soul. Will further evaluate you site for suggestions. Thanks, Quite impressed. Robert TN
Thank you for the kind words. I have very limited experience with gear that gets much pricier than this Weiss. My personal DAC is the discontinued Berkeley Alpha S2. I love it. But, let me link you to some work done by a friend of mine who is one of my "audio mentors." He has scaled many a mountain in this hobby and explains what he hears very well. He has a couple of articles about VERY high end DACs: www.sonusapparatus.com/author/m0n/. Hope that helps!
Umm isn't that converter also usable as the USB interface for the DAC itself? I mean the cheaper one without it comes with no USB. So you would need to use a DDC of some sort if you needed to use a USB in. And since he sells one already. He just put them together in one box.
I read somewhere that the 205 uses their own clock on spdif. Can you confirm? If so, the dac’s performance isn’t depending on the streamer’s clock, right?
You will not get any feed back from this 🤡
What is the spdif rca output is it same as mininoptical output jack?
“Sounds like a lot of supernatural bologna to me,” “Supernatural perhaps, bologna perhaps not.”😉
The ddc allows the unit to process Dsdso it is more useful than imply…the205 has no ddc and does not process dsd
I have had an Audio Note dac, that did no hires. Nor USB. Just coax. You can imagine, you do not throw away Audio Note, but are curious what the hires fuzz is about?! Could that be a case for this dac?
Is the 205 going to offer the same SQ as the 204?
I feel that it will based off research I’ve done.
The niche use case doesn't seem right to me, I want a straight dac, the fact that it has ddc built in seems like a bonus, not a negative. Maybe I am missing something. Real problem I see, is thing is now $3,500.
At almost $3k you're getting to the point that there's no excuse for the balanced outs being better than the single-ended outs.
Good ballanced will allways be better than good unballanced.
@@mariodrv Absolutely not true. While there are some inherent advantages to a balanced design, saying that balanced is always better than single-ended is a myth. It all comes down to how it's designed.
@@Michael_mki233 Where did I say that it is allways better?
@@mariodrv You're joking, right? It's exactly what you said. "Good ballanced will allways be better than good unballanced." Your exact words. I just copied and pasted them for you so you could re-read them. Spelling errors and all.
@@Michael_mki233
But you obviously do not understand.
How does it compare to your top dac?
How does it compare to your top reference?
“Unique”, is not variable as in very or somewhat unique. It is either unique or not unique.
Not rare at all. Imagine if (1) you have a NONOS tube DAC that does Redbook better than your DSD DAC and you want to keep both, (2) the NONOS DAC does not have a USB input, (3) you prefer the hardware converted DSD to PCM to the ubiquitous software converted DSD to PCM and (4) if you have high sensitivity speakers or a high gain system, you have no less than 4 different voltage output levels to help adjusting your system so the volume control on your tube preamp will have a usable range. How many out there have a tube preamp that gets too loud with their volume set at 8 o'clock?
XLR does NOT sound better than RCA on this DAC! It's twice as loud for the same setting and the brain thinks louder is better.
that power supply thingy is a joke !
measurements?
17:03 NOOO not good company... Qtest is 1500Euro and if you don't rush you can find it for even 1000 Euros brand new. That is 3200Euro 2-3 times the price. That is called garbage, not good company. If I would say Qtest was on the level with iFi Neo iDSD, that would not be a good company no matter how much people love the Neo iDSD. That one is good for 500 Euro not 1000-1500Euro.
*Promo sm*
I learnt nothing
Hm italian made.. Inyerestin'... peace!
Intéressant indeed
Cecilian
Just tryin'.. U guys off..
Its swiss But not the knife... Its Least.. peace!
What? Are you ok? You high on mushroom or something?
Wutevet Nevermind
Man, you look good and talk good, but your review has no connection whatsoever with reality. I have this DAC and have compared it to many other DACs in different systems. Are you listeniing to music through a hearing device on your ear?