Weiss thread, DAC1 / DAC2 / DAC202 / DAC501-2 / MAN301 / Medus / INT204

Yeah sure… using the stock smps. I’ve farad LPS 9v for future experiments. Complements my Metrum pavane dac.

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…also interesting, because for the ess9018 DAC chip a bit overhyped :wink: …pricewise for an Weiss product very good, but in comparison with other DACs in the market still too expensive (chip and features).

Yes, I’m for sure biased with my upgraded 501 mkii with ESS9038 pro :wink:

Thanks for sharing!

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I’ve tried good number of ESS dacs in the past & own a couple for my opamp rolling experiments.
One thing is clear that 205 is in a league of its own. It is not plagued by typical ESS tuning. Even the stock smps sounds impressive. I don’t want to jump on LPSU rolling train yet. The sound is pretty dynamic, bass resolve & slam are well balanced. No treble issues whatsoever. 205 is a very engaging dac. I’ve to give credit to my friend who has Merging NADAC/LPS/after dark clock. He was very confident about the sound & how it is different from the rest.

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It is well known fact that implementation matters more than just the chip itself. 204/205 has 1612 in IV stage & discrete LPF which was adopted from MAN 301 golden module.This module’s LPF stage was inspired from Weiss’s op1bp (now discontinued) discrete opamps.

Thanks for the insights! Fully agree to implementation, but I’d have assumed the use similar architecture to 501/502.

Price wise for sure I’d not go anymore for 501…

I guess the question for me is does it sound like a 501 or does it have its own sound? Is opamp rolling an option on it, didn’t know?

The biggest draw for me to be honest is the form factor as small upscale DACs in a desk friendly format are few and far between.

501/502mk2 design is very different. It has a DSP which converts everything to 195khz. 100mhz (cchd575) clock generator close to single dac(9038pro) chip. Separate circuit for hp amp.

check out this white paper on dac 50X4ch & internal pics of dac boards.

Weiss DAC 204 is now on headphones.com

I’m wondering, when was the 205 released?
Seems this unit has been out for a while. In Jun of this year, the DAC reached the 1300$ price. after the review of the 204 and the supply changes the price of the 205 went up to 2600$. I really want to try this DAC, but the price is kind of high if compared to brand new Yggy OG (Soon to be out) or the Wandla

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If you have a good DDC then there is no need for 204. 205 with farad LPS & su6 ddc sounds very good. It has a good synergy with rest of my system. Stock tuning(filter) is well implemented. I’d tried the above combo with optical rendu/LPS & diretta/rpi4(gentooplayer OS)/LPS & preferred the latter by a good margin. I briefly tried HQP 4x upsampling & really liked the results.I’ll be listening to the stock sound for a couple of months then I’ll introduce hqp/PGGP in the chain.

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20k :exploding_head:

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Seems he need to keep up with competitor pricing… to crowdy in the <10k niche :grinning:

I know from someone who has spoken directly with Daniel, that also he is “surprised”, why non-pro-audio aka audiophiles folks pay so much for D/A. Sure technology wise it is more in the 4k range, but DSP sofware you pay for…

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