Pivo

Hi Steve I see you're now using a Weiss product too... There was a small and hardly mentionable difference between Pure Music and Amarra through the Profire. In fact, based on what I recalled from listening through the Profire, I ended up buying PM instead of Amarra. However, when playing through the Weiss INT202, the differences were more noticeable. Through PM, the Weiss sounded brittle. In fact, one of the reasons that I took so long to report back on my findings is because I wasn't sure that I wanted to keep the INT202 having been listening to it only through PM: it was very detailed with PM but I started finding it fatiguing. I also kept on vacillating between sending the INT202 back and therefore incurring the shipping costs (in addition to the import duties that I had already paid) and living with it and the harshness - but also the amazing detail. Amarra resolved that dilemma conclusively. I don't think I'm losing any of the detail I heard with PM but it's not at all fatiguing. With PM I would listen to a few bars of a track, spell-bound by the detail but then hurry on to the next track and then the next. With Amarra, I just let it play through the song, without any need to rush past it. In retrospect I realised that I was skipping tracks to try to get past the "glare" in PM. To reiterate, on the Profire this subtlety doesn't feature - I was happy with either PM or Amarra through the Profire. The Profire still remains the next best option to the Weiss as far as I'm concerned and I have tried a ton of kit in my system. Note that I've been auditioning the demo version of Amarra Mini. Hope this helps and thanks for the interest. Brian

Folks, I think this will be last installment on this topic. I've had the Weiss INT202 in my system now for a few weeks and I've auditioned it with my old Mac Mini and (only now previous generation) Mac Book Pro. Reference equipment the long-serving Profire 610 and my Wadia WT 2000. The Weiss is, quite simply, marvelous. It digs detail out of the music that I didn't know was there and, provided you use it with Amarra (not Pure Music), it's smooth and extremely listenable. Bass extends way down and tops sparkle. Soundstage is three-dimensional and resolution of detail is spine-chilling. With Pure Music, I find the Weiss too analytical and somewhat brash at the top end, almost grainy and noisy. I can safely say, for the first time since messing around with computer audio, that I'm hearing stuff that I had never heard before on recordings. I had started using the computer as a source for a means to shuffle conveniently through my music collection. I had no idea we could actually improve so conclusively on a high-end CD transport such as my Wadia. My favourite set-up is now, therefore: Mac Book Pro, iTunes + Amarra -> d+ Oyaide Firewire 800-400 cable -> Weiss INT202 -> Shinyata RCA S/PDIF cable; Second place (and less than half the price): Mac Mini, iTunes + Pure Music -> home-made Firewire cable -> Profire 610 -> Homegrown Audio 75Ohm RCA S/PDIF cable; If your device has no Firewire output, the Halide Bridge is a good choice and, depending on the source, almost as good as the Profire set-up. I can, and have, listened at length to the Weiss (plus Amarra): it's smooth enough to listen to all night but resolved enough to make out subtleties and nuances in the music - background breaths, voices in the background, backing vocals that I had never heard before - that prick your ears up in delight every now and again. Daniel Weiss' gamble of sending me the INT202 without prior payment has certainly paid off. An important lesson that emerged during my auditioning is the variation in the quality of the recording between re-masterings. Comparing a CD to its high-res download was senseless because of the differences - which I attribute to re-mastering. For example, HD Tracks' Rebecca Pidgeon's "Spanish Harlem" sounds so different from the CD that they could almost be from different recording sessions. The same could be said for Steely Dan's Gaucho, (also remastered for HD Tracks?). The issue of iTunes' inability to play FLAC is an irritation. But at least I can now focus again on music, being satisfied with the "player". I'll now start trawling the music sources threads and see where they take me. I hope my observations were of use for CA readers. Brian

Here are a few interesting observations from a brief shoot-out between some digital sources: 1. Macbook Pro playing through Halide Bridge; 2. Mac Mini playing through Profire 610; BDP-1 High-Resolution Digital Music Player; Reference 1: Wadia WT 2000; Reference 2: Teac VRDS 20 with Trichord precision clock and never connected power supply Very briefly, the best-sounding device is the modified Teac: deep, controlled, extended bass, shimmering tops, lots of air. 2nd: the Wadia: stodgier bass and recessed tops compared with the Teac. The surprise for me was the Macbook Pro through the Halide Bridge: SURPRISINGLY good and better than the Mac Mini through the Profire. The Mac Mini was playing through iTunes without Amarra or Pure Music which is an obvious disadvantage but the Macbook Pro with teh Halide and Amarra, Pure Music or Ayerwave sounded decidedly better. I suspect the Mac Mini would have been as good but this is the first time I've heard a device playing through a USB device that can stand up against the Mac Mini and Profire combination. The Bryston was out of the running: lifeless to my taste. More later: The next test is the new Mac Mini and MacBook Air. There has to be a reason that USB sounds so good on the newer Mac and I want to explore that. Later

Steve I've changed my login having lost my battle with Yahoo and CA to manage my password. This is Brian(!) Yes, I know the Weiss and Profire 610 use the same DICE II chip - that's the reason I was prepared to buy the Profire without having tried it. And I have not been disappointed. I'm hoping for an experience similar to what I had a few years ago: an informed friend compared his modified $300 Panasonic AV receiver with my ~$6,000 Krell plus ~$6,000 Wadia DAC and I was surprised how well it stood up! The Panasonic used the same chipset as TacT so that led me to auditioning the TacT and subsequently replacing the Wadia DAC and Krell with my current TacT set-up. I'm hoping that the execution of the DICE II in the Weiss improves on the Profire 610 in the same way that the TacT improved on the Panasonic in my example. But I'll remain open-minded. I think I've reached the limit of what the Profire can achieve sonically. Although in standard mode it betters all other devices I've tried yet I'm not fully satisfied. Perhaps the Weiss will take me a step forward? Daniel Weiss has informed me concerning the INT202, AFI1 and DAC2 that: "The three units you mention all use the same electronics regarding firewire to S/PDIF conversion, so I suggest you go with the least expensive one which is the INT202". BTW, I will also be auditioning a Bryston BDP-1 over the coming weekend and report on that. Its price is similar to a Mac Mini plus the Weiss INT202 which it could replace. I must admit to being sceptical about the Bryston. In fact, an audiophile I know is considering buying the Bryston so I've invited him to audition it against the Mac + Profire. It will arguably address the question of how well a PC + Soundcard competes against a Mac + Firewire interface. Regarding using the Profire as a DAC, I can't connect a DAC to my system since I have no means for connecting an analogue source. So, no, haven't tried it as a DAC. Brian