For all Weiss source gear
Did the price just increase massively recently? Or have i been under the inpression weiss is a lot cheaper than it is? I though the 501 had an 8k rrp but apparently its 9500?
I think thatās about what it was to start off with, perhaps gained an extra 500 bucks
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You can probably get some dealers lower than that new, even for a 502, which is about a grand higher MSRP
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Can you? Ive only talked to 2 dealers but they both told me no real discounts to be had. I just assumed that was no discount on 8k not 9.5k 
I was talking recently to one about some power gear and mentioned the 502 as an interest, and they gave me a price they could get me one for that surprised me a little since I didnāt think they got discounted much.
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Youāre loaded to the point of being able to buy new retail pricing? Iām slumming it at the 2nd hand bins. Damn man, congratz! lol
I will be putting some thoughts on this DAC in the coming days. Unfortunately 1/3 into 2022 I still donāt have my speakers so I havenāt been able to really to delve into a 2 CH system description. I find myself either afraid or unsure of how to describe sound stage and dimentionality while listening to headphones but as long as Iāve had the Weiss, thatās the only listening Iāve been able to do.
Impressions on the organicness and detail retrival as compared to a Yggy and Amber 3 it that itās clearly a next level DAC. Like the Yggy and the Amber, it is not a clinical or dry sounding DAC in the slightest but it does present the listener with a tonality andā¦ Iām struggling for the word here.
ā¦ a texture to the sound that is far more real or tangible. Meaning I can sense things happening and an audio recording that although I could hear previously, this makes it where I can hear and almost feel it, in a tangible way. The way that one would look at a painting on a canvas and know that itās not smooth. Instead this lets me feel the texture of that canvas but it does this the music. I am more aware of the space and the dimentionality of the room a recording was made.
I canāt say that itās āfunā in the way a Yggy is, or that it is as grand in the way it shows your the content youāre listening to as the Amber 3, but everything about it just feels right, natural and with the right amount of body. Not in the least bit lean or bright but it has a very good bit of detail retrieval that I miscategorized as analytical when I first heard it but it was simply because Iād never been able to discern the level of micro detail in my music that I was listening to.
An entire other aspect of this DAC that must be taken into consideration is the signal processing capability of it. It canāt be discounted even though Iāve only dabbled in it and in the end, Iām too chicken to delve into things beyond trying the de-esser and the vinyl mode. The DAC can do room correction, offers 3 bands of parametric equalization that will allow you to fix a great deal of transducer imperfections. Room correction and the one feature that I am most looking forward to trying when I get my speakers, dynamics and loudness EQ. Which will allow me to have improved late night listening sessions at lower volumes now that Iām an apartment dweller.
Another very nice āquality of lifeā setting is that it will allow you to have different configurations for how you set ALL of the signal processing and allow you to assign one for each of your outputs. XLR, RCA, and HP so you can have multiple down stream signals and have each one configured to the transducer at the end instead of having to swich back and forth every time you switch amps. That sounds like a trivial thing but when you think about how much quality of life that adds to those that switch between amps a lot, itās a great thing.
One last note, there was a time in this hobby when I would have scoffed at spending in excess of $10k on a DAC. Buying this DAC was a bit of a leap of faith. I had good guidance based on my requirement from @M0N but I can whole heatedly say that this was worth the expense over the previous Yggy, Amber 3 investment level I was previously sitting on, but I also can say that it takes an entire chain, I have tried the DAC on three sub $1K headphone amps and they all improved, but none really showed the potential and the quality of the source. You need the full complimentary chain. The LTA UL does show this DAC well and itās a solid pairing with very good synergy.
Thatās it for now, as Iāll leave more thoughts here going forward.
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Funnyā¦ I was just sensing something very similar as I listen to The Wall for the first time with the Berkeley Ref in the chain and then I read this and thoughtā¦yes, this! And Iām just listening on my R70x since thatās the last thing I was listening with before taking the La Voce out. The jump from the La Voce S3, as good as it is, took me by surprise. Iāve never noticed this much texture, layering, depth, nuance, articulation before with this album.
Anyway, back to Weiss. The 501/502 really do seem like awesome āAIOā units.
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Rofl. Afford it or not, no way im paying like 40% over used pricing. I had asked expecting somewhere right around 7k or maybe even a hair lower (cause i thought rrp was 8 ). Insta buy price was 6200. I didnt quite realize just how far prices were from thatā¦
Hahahaha. Yup. Compaired against yggy a fewt times and its just not even fair.
The feeling is mutual. Not having much to refrence in tbe tier doesnt help that but the weiss just feeling so damn neautral and natural makes it much harder to describe than something more overtly colored imo.
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un embelished, just the truth of what is and isnāt there.
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According to the link below, Weiss updated the DAC 501/502 recently:
Iāve read on other forums that among other things, Weiss updated the DAC chip from the ESS 9018K2M to the ESS9038 PRO, but Weiss doesnāt clarify this on their website.
@dB_Cooper
Do you know which version you have?
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Iād read about that a few months ago, so it was earlier this year. Iāve got the MK1 but there are two portions to the MK2. The DAC is chip is newer but they also replace the analog section allowing it to do all sorts of flavors of four channel outputs, mixing matching center channel, subs, and other setup with crosstalk cancellation and such.
Iām a 2-Ch guy but I can see how this would be good for someone using the DAC as a pre in a multi speaker multi amp surround type of environment.
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Thanks for the information.
I understand that the update adds flexibility for four channels but I wonder if it also makes any changes (hopefully for the better) to just 2-channel sound quality. Hopefully someone will be able to do a comparison someday.
I asked a dealer about the update and he seemed to suggest that the Mk2 update coincided with the recent price increase - ie. any orders of the 501/502 with the increased price would be the Mk2 version. However, Iām not sure if this is fact or speculation.
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Just fwiw, I asked about this specifically to TMR and was told all prices went and mk2 was a āsilent revisionā so I would not go off of the RRP when purchased as a determining factor. That said, weiss has been excelent to talk with over email so im sure they could tell you if you had mk1 or m2 if you send them a SN or something
This seems to be conflicting information but according to someone I communicated with at TMR, the 4-channel version of the Weiss DAC 501 is $11,495 - ie. itās a distinct version from the standard 2-channel version and costs $1,800 more.
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There are 2 things to the 4 Ch version, one is the 4 Ch part, thatās just SW and Weiss will update existing DACs to 4 Ch if someone wants to. The other part is the newer DAC chip and updated analog out to better support the 4 ch capabilities. So yeah, there are hardware differences. The only reason they stated for actually switching to a newer DAC chip is for the faster capabilities from what I read since it would have to deal with 4 ch processing. The DAC can have a different DSP profile for each channel and thatās the fundamental reason for the change.
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Spent some time tonight testing the functionality of the 502ās loudness DSP plugin. No speakers, still. Figured Iād try it on the D8KP because of the commentary from some of you that it suffers a bit from reduced dynamics and a slight anemic bass component when itās played low. I will first state that apparently I listen at high enough levels that I donāt notice this effect until I turned the volume down about -5 ~ 6 dB lower than I normally have my receiver set to or when a track thatās recorded at a much lower level pops up, esp if Iād been listening to a highly compressed recording previously and had turned the volume down.
ā¦all that said, Weiss to the rescue. The thing works and can be adjusted quite a bit. Itās odd to experience because the effect is as if you click the volume up a notch but only on the spacial queues of the lower frequencies, giving them more perceived presence but it doesnāt actually raise the volume on anything and from the lower mids on up they remain the same, what you hear is more of the spacial queues that give us a sense of the size/volume of a room. Itās similar to what you hear when turning a well integrated subwoofer off and on in the middle of a song.
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I think on the old A/V receiver we had for a surround system the Loudness on that did something similar (but probably much cruder). Almost like a neighbor courtesy adjuster.
It completely screws with the sound if you forget to turn it off and then raise the volume. lol
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