ashtray

I got three set ups at home.. (at the moment) Music room (two separate dedicated 16 amp mains from the distribution board with 16 amp "klang module" fusaes) Audio Research VSi55 integrated amp Audio Research DAC7 da converter Audio Physic Tempo 6 speakers Analysis plus Power Oval 2 power cables everywhere Analysis plus Solo Crystal Oval Interconnects Analysis plus Solo Crystal Oval 8 speaker cables Dedicated Audio Computer built by me containing separate psu and only 1 seagate disc. Running vista 64. Livingroom (dedicated 16 amp mains from distribution board) Krell KAV 250a amp Krell KAV 250p pre Benchmark DAC-1 usb da converter Martin Logan Vista speakers Nordost heimdal interconnects Analysis plus Silver Oval speaker cables Analysis plus Power Oval 2 power cables Dedicated Media Computer built by me containing separate psu, running vista 64. Office Copland CSA 14 integrated amp Audio Note DAC1x da converter Quad 12L speakers Musical fidelity X-CAN v3 headphone amp Musical fidelity X-PSU v3 power supply Sennheiser HD650 with Zu cables mobius cable Audio Note speaker cables Audio Note digital cable Van Der Hul interconnects M-Audio Firewire 410 soundcard for interface conversion Thats about it! And oh yeah the music of choice... Used to be a techno and dance music producer so quite a bit of onshka onshka onshka it still is, would say about 40%. It's especially easy to get hi res dance music. A really nice music store is Beatport.com which provides 44,1 wav files at an extra charge of £1 per track. Then Its jazz most of it contemporary, favorites is Herbie Hancock's The Joni Letters and patricia barber's mythologies. Pretty much of really easy and soft acustic tracks from Jeff Buckley, Feist, Think, Norah Jones, Eva Cassidy etc. And Rock, a bit harder like Tool and Queens Of The Stone Age. Chilled electronic music like Booka Shade, Shpongle, Trentemoeller, Nitin Sawhney, a lot of trip hop stuff from Ninja Tunes label. And then It's what I think is blues and folk music like Eric Bibb and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand etc Apart from my reference tracks (which contains purpose made ref tracks from stereophile etc and a selection of truly great recordings) I listen to almost everything except latin music and opera. Not that I dont like it just that I dont got any good stuff

Thanx Coops. Make sure to use both Minerva and DAC7 together when and if you got the possibility. would be very interesting to read about your experience with the combo. I have spent some time thinking of the results I got and I'm extremely curious about Weiss Vesta interface converter vs. Minerva as interface converter. The dealer that borrowed me the Minerva says that Minerva got the same chips inside (exept for the da that is) and that Minerva will do the interface convert just as good. Find this a little bit hard to take the word for it. I hope time will tell. Anyway, I was having one of the hiend daydreaming thingies and imaged the Appogee digitals Big Ben as master clock the Vesta as interface converter and the DAC7 for converting to analogue! Wow, that threesome could be something.. Yes i know, that will be impossible to try out without heavily modding the Vesta since it dont support external masterclock out of the box. But maybe Weiss clock is just as good as Appogees.. But some questions will never be answered.. If the Vesta shows up the store I'll grab it and the Minerva and do the comparison.

Hi all, After a rather overwhelming listening session with the boys my thoughts on Weiss Minerva firewire da converter became truth (with modification that is). I haven't never really been all that turned on about hooking up expensive equipment on the other side of an usb circuit, dont fell right. When I first read about Weiss doing a series of hifi gear I was glad and a bit surprised. Weiss have since my studio days always appealed to me with delicious sound outboard equipment. Rather pricey but drop dead good. I've on my hifi streak untill now found converters and transports to be the most fun, been chancing backwards and forwards a couple of years and at this point I got converters from Audio Note, Benchmark and Audio Research in the dedicated musicroom (read the room that my wife dont bother me in All except Audio Note got usb and I have computers as digital transports throughout the house. My biggest curiosity was to hear out the Minerva as a interface converter between firewire and synchronous aes/ebu or spdif at the converter side. Actually Weiss Vesta was my first choice but the hifi store didn't get It yet. Although it didn't hurt to hear out what all the fuzz is about with the conversion also! What did the Minerva sound like as a firewire da converter? My highly unprofessional terms goes some like this... Very nice! To my surprise the Minerva didn't put out the music in that analytic way pro gear usually do, no the sound was very relaxed indeed. Not all that weighty though. Sound was very smooth all the way and seemed almost thin compared to my Audio Research dac7 who got very deep and weighty bottom end. It did sound better than the Benchmark using both usb and spdif but not that glorious as the dac7. Minerva would be the new fav if not AR got it so right with the new dac7. And as a interface converter? Just like a expected and what I afraid the Minerva did a great job as a firewire interface converter and got the dac7 to sing like I haven't heard it before! The sound stage took a step toward me and opened up further. And to my satisfaction the deep weighty end was still there! Yes, this combo is surly great. The best I heard up to this point but I haven't stepped over to me my friends reference cd transport/dac combo the studious and sexy Moon Andromeda and done a/b comparison which have been crushing all converters we've thrown at it so far. But I think this combo could beat it! The andromeda is no longer around so I think testing out statement out will be hard Returning the Minerva tomorrow will sadly be one of thous moments which reviewers always lived with, accepted and moved on through. I will miss It for sure. I dont know if Weiss didn't do the converter right, Audio research did the interfaces wrong or if I'm miles away from knowing what this phenomena a raised from. In short, the Minerva lost quite big against DAC7 in stand alone but the DAC7 sounds the best together with the Minerva! Thats my story of it so far. Thanx and yes, this is my 2:cond post here ever! Happy listening!

Hi all, New to this forum, kind of anyway.. haven't posted anything since now. I got an Minerva this weekend for evaluation and got some trouble since I (stupendously listened to my friend.. ) and installed Vista 64-bit sp1 on the audio computer. It seems that 64-bit drivers only are in beta but is there a way for me to get a hold of the betas or do I miss out some detail? I am really curious about the Minerva which I planned to evaluate very thorough. I'm sitting with 3 dac converters and a second firewire soundcard that I'll throw interface conversion comparison on and a couple of friends on the way to join in on the digital end of anal hifi'ism %-) What do I do?? *Update* I took one of my other computers with 32-bit OS and installed the Weiss drivers.. Not my first choice but a rather good audio computer it proved to be Anyways.. Now I have some interesting notes on Minerva da converter I'll share with you. I'll put in a new post called "Weiss Minerva da converter measured and weighted!"