ukiro

They did change it, but I found the sound to be flatter and more lifeless than my iPhone4. Not by a lot, but enough to make me feel somewhat disappointed. Engadget did a somewhat shoddy test for this and indicated that the 4S would have the best audio, but I skipped that model so I can't say: Smartphones for audiophiles: is the iPhone 5 more musical than its rivals?

Vinyl rules! The physical format I truly hate are CD's. In this household we only play digital from the NAS, vinyl, or tapes(!). CD's are ripped and stowed away. Edit: and yes, I'm 30-something… Girlfriend, who is even more anti-CD and pro-vinyl, is still in her twenties.

A vortexbox with IEEE1394 would be ideal as a poor man's MAN301 – i've been considering it myself for a while — but there are no linux drivers of course. I was considering keeping the squeezebox, but SOtM USB seems like a very neat solution. The only question then is control: Will you be using mpad or mpod? Sorry to drift off topic…

Kaka, yes you can upgrade an existing DAC202 to add USB. More info (and some measurements) from the asian distributor here: http://designwsound.com/dwsblog/2012/03/dac202u-usb/

It's very important to note that Daniel Weiss has never been strictly against USB. When he designed computer interfaces from the beginning (DAC1 and Minerva), it was because he discovered the FW chip he's using and loved its performance. It's simple pragmatism: At the time there were no equivalent USB interfaces, and coming from the pro market where Firewire is still the golden standard, it was an obvious choice. When I interviewed him a little over a year ago he hinted that he was looking at USB and was very open in saying that it could probably be implemented in a way to render excellent performance. And here we are now…

MAN301 actually has slightly better sound quality than DAC202 thanks to its lack of headphone output; the DAC chips are instead configured to give another 3 dB of signal/noise ratio. This is all in theory but it's at least not any worse than DAC202. If you want headphone output and a bit more flexibility, go with DAC/Mac. If you want a very, very simply to use system where you just slip in a disc and it gets ripped, tagged and assigned artwork automatically, then check out MAN301. The file format is not proprietary so you can always play through something else later. I also like that it relies on external storage, unlike the Aurender units. Also note that the jitter suppression of the Weiss units is among the best on the planet. See the Stereophile review for measurements. This means that ergonomics is really your only proper concern when shopping for a source, since any jitter will be destroyed by the DAC. A Squeezebox Touch will provide bit-transparent 24/96 and should be indistinguishable from an Aurender unit for example. Run a higher end NAS as a server and use an iPad as remote and you'll get a pretty nice system (albeit sans the automated ripping/tagging) without breaking the bank. I'm using the DAC202/Squeezebox combo myself, and the only hassle is that my NAS is a bit weak. Go with a Synology 1512+ rather than anything from Netgear, is my advice. I also have to wonder what dealer you've gone to that insists discs will always sound better. Surely it isn't Audio Concept? They are very much into conputers as a source, and I see no point in shopping for high end audio anywhere else in Stockholm.

I wrote about my impressions here, in my blog. It's no full review but might be of some help, perhaps.

It would depend on the DAC's ability to suppress jitter. Both interfaces should be bit perfect (unless you fiddle with digital volume control), so on a DAC with very solid clocking/reclocking/PLL the difference should be practically impossible to hear. This will of course vary due to more parameters, like music data resolution, cabling, interface implementations, etc. I have not spent much time actively trying to find differences between interfaces, but my experience with Weiss DAC202 so far is that I have never noticed any change in sound between toslink, electrical S/PDIF and FireWire. Given time it's probably possible to find some, but they're not immediately obvious to me at least. With other dacs you may (or may not) find greater variation in performance between sources.

I would recommend filter A for redbook material with the Weiss DAC202. A lot of the time I struggle to hear a difference, but when I do the A filter bests the B filter in pretty much the same parameters you described the PS Audio unit to be superior in. I'm not saying this will tilt the comparison in favor of Weiss as the change might be too subtle, but it's certainly worth considering.

I interviewed Daniel Weiss when he visited the High End Fair here in Stockholm in February this year. The resulting article was originally published in Swedish but I decided to also post the original English transcript on my blog as I figured some of you would be interested. Read here: Interview: Daniel Weiss.

My only comment is that it would have been interesting to test the Devialet along with the Weiss Int202 also. The combo has something special to it, which explains why the Devialet folks themselves are using it when demoing the D-Premier with computer based music. You're right, that would have been an interesting comparison, and I allude to it in the end when I mention that a better and less jitter prone source might have shifted the balance more in favor of Devialet. This experience humbled me when it comes to writing reviews. The amount of things you need to cover and consider in order to make a fair judgement is immense. The 6 or so hours I had at my disposal is much too little for that, but it's still more than many fellow consumers can get, which accentuates how difficult it is to ensure your purchase is well thought through. Regarding barrows' comment, there's the whitepaper and there's the patent application. The former makes it clear that even analogue inputs are digitized internally since its volume control is in the digital domain, and the latter goes through the hybrid "ADH" amplification in greater detail.

The blindfold issue is there with pretty much every audio review ever, and I think that as long as you try to stay aware of your biases you can be fair anyway. I believe our objectivity was pretty good this time; While we had heard the Weiss DAC before and expected great things from it, I had been hyped up about Devialet for a very long time, manically reading about it well over a year. So I don't think this was a matter of seeking confirmation of pre-concieved ideas, we were truly excited to see which was the best. Regarding the terms I used to describe the Devialet's sound, I must say I find your comment a bit difficult to understand. Certainly the character—or lack of character for that matter—of a component can convey more or less of those attributes. A poorly constructed amp or DAC might convey a sense of strain, stiffness and apprehension, which naturally means that the opposite is also possible, as was the case with D-Premier. As I stated in the text though, I'm not a pro reviewer or journalist (and english isn't my native language either), so despite this rebuttal I do appreciate that you took time to read and comment on it. Thank you.

I've finally finished the promised write-up on my comparison between the Devialet amp and a Weiss DAC202 feeding my Pass INT-150. Now I expect Bernard to find faults with it, but hopefully it will be of some interest at least =) Read here.

Thank you Barrows for bringing us back on topic from that rather unnecessary detour. Indeed Wireworld make very competent products, and I do in fact use their cables from source to dac, as well as dac to amp. It just strikes me as very careless to let that copy slip through; I work in advertising and understand that this is not written by the engineers, but it should be in everyone's interest to have them sign off on these texts to ensure they're not as ridiculous as this one. They have actually managed to write sales text that scares of potential buyers rather than the intended opposite.

Yeah I have no issues at all with the Katz quote either. It's the Wireworld sales text that's a bit wonky in some places.