 The Swiss company Weiss is almost unknown on commercial market. And this is because it manufactures things for the professional market, servicing mostly recording and post production studios. But a few years ago, it prepared the converter Medea, and a year ago the accompanying drive Jason, and attacked the terrain of home audio. It is known, that coming from one field to another – and this both ways – is incredibly difficult. Those are different people, different requirements and finally a different culture. Those are closed communities, with different languages of describing the sound, different attitudes and even different approaches on how to listen. This is incredible, because both groups are involved in the same: bringing music from the real world and placing it in the virtual world of rotating discs. But there is no consensus and probably there will never be one. On one hand the pro people are annoyed with high prices of the hi-end devices, they cannot understand the magic of the connecting cables, power cables and tweaks, on the other hand the audiophiles do not value the pro people high, due to the – in general – low quality of the recordings, and, ignoring what they discovered some time ago, that the cables and tweaks influence the sound in the same way the equipment does. Like I say: those things are not consensual, there is no plane, where some kind of agreement could be achieved. Unless… Unless we talk about studios devoted to high sound quality, like Stockfisch, Chesky, Telarc on one hand ECM, ACT, JVC on the other. )
Anyway – those worlds affiliate seldom. But sometimes the romance explodes with power showing, that the tensions are really big there. We do not deal often with a meeting between the pro and hi-end world, but it does happen sometimes. In case of the loudspeaker world we can mention Dynaudio, ADAM, ATC, PMC or Bowers&Wilkins B&W, who has no separate pro division, but its loudspeakers are used among others in the Abbey Road studios. In electronics the best example will be Bryston. Those are not all the players, but this selections shows, that we deal with something marginal here, and that those companies are regarded as very specialized companies, even on a specialist market like the audiophile one. Sometimes the entry of professionals has influence beyond the accepted boundaries and leaves a long lasting impression. In case of digital sources we had two such cases that turned everything over the top. I am thinking about dCS and EMM Labs. The first company showed what can be done with the PCM 16/44.1 signal and introduced a new device on the market – upsampler (D/D converter) and the latter looked at the SACD format and the processing of DSD. And this is the world Weiss is entering. Will it leave a print of its being there? I do not know, I am not a fairy. But since two years a few big companies (like Avantgarde Acoustic) uses the Medea converter while designing their devices. So it is worth to take a look at Weiss. But this time we will do it a bit different. We will test a product from the professional part of Weiss – the converter DAC1-Mk2. This because the commercial DAC Medea is actually the same device, just equipped with additional analog unbalanced outputs and RCA S/PDIF digital inputs. And in another enclosure. And it costs three times as much… Now as Weiss has only a balanced AES/EBU and Toslink inputs, I used as transport the player Electrocompaniet EMC 1UP and the drive DP90 (the comparison of the DP90/DC91 with newer variants HERE). Interestingly the XLR output of the latter is marked as HPC (High-Performance Connector), what could mean, that the signal is coded in some way, but no – the DAC-1 Mk2 accepted it without any problems. It was more difficult with the 24/96 signal – here I used the Arcam Solo Movie with its DVD-ROM drive and a laptop with an USB to AES/EBU converter, from which I played various WAV files with material prepared for testing some time ago by Ms. Karolina Gleinert with recordings from master tapes prepared for the Polish Jazz series re-mastering. The files were in 24/96 and 24/44.1 format. I listened to the DAC on my system with XLR/RCA converters as well as with the balanced preamplifier Luxman C-1000f. SOUND )
Similar to all other devices sent for testing, first Weiss had to make duty. In its case this was watching movies… It turned out, that at the same day I unpacked and made photos of it, one of my friends brought me some films to watch, among them Into the Wild directed by Sean Penn. This is the kind of film that brought the cinema from a fare attraction into being equal to painting, sculpting or theater. It even surpassed the theater – in my opinion – especially Polish theater, unfortunately. This is an incredible film, very long, but you watch it holding your breath, and even if you do not share the beliefs of the main character, if you would do it differently, still the truth of this history, its message make it be remembered for a long time. Anyway most part of the sound track was kept in original, meaning it was not done in post-synch (like in 99% of other films). This allowed me to feel the climate of the sequences, because even if sound made this way is not superb technically, it carries the truth not found in elaborate post-production. And in these fresh, true sound surroundings from time to time enters the music of Eddie Vedder (the vocalist of Pearl Jam). Only a guitar and a voice, but it sounds brilliant! Like I mentioned, I listened to the film using the Swiss converter. It was love at first sight. And even when later it turned out, that like every other device it has its strengths and downfalls, still the first contact “oriented” me to the Weiss. And from the beginning, although I was not yet aware of that, this defined the strengths and the weaknesses of the DAC versus the reference devices. I must say from the very beginning, that the DAC1-Mk2 is a device telling the story of the midrange. I am simplifying a bit, but “all about midrange” could be the advertising slogan of the device. All instruments are big, have the right volume, regardless of the fact if we listen quiet or loud. At the same time they are vivid and deep. Really splendidly sounded the jazz discs I listened to, starting with the vibraphone of Terry Gibbs from the disc of the group A Jazz Band Ball (Mode/Muzak, MZCS-1172, CD), through Gene Ammons’ saxophone from the disc Makes It Happen (Argo/Cadet/Universal Music Japan, UCCC-9028, CD), ending with the guitars and percussion of the best – in my opinion – album from Myslovitz Skalary. Mieczyki. Neonki (Pomaton/EMI, 5 60159 2, CCD), with the subtitle Improwizacje (improvisations). I called upon quite a broad spectrum of aesthetics, recording time, etc, to underline the universal character of such sound. Due to that fullness and ability to get the individual elements (instruments) from the background, the Weiss converter is in line with devices like DAC DCC2 SE EMM Labs or the CD player CDC Nagra. This is a similar approach to the sound: the midrange is in the center, even if we admit, that the tonal balance is kept very well. Because this is not that the treble is cut. No, no, that is not true! Comparing with my Lektor Prime, or the Accuphase Dp90/DC91 it can be heard, that the top part of the treble is led softer by the Weiss, has a more rounded attack, but is not missing anything. I even say more – with recording in high resolution, like Somethin’ Else Cannonball Adderley in the 24/96 version (Blue Note/Classic Records, HDAD 2009, DVD-A 24/96+24/192) the cymbals sounded incredibly energetic, without overdraw, but really strong, almost live. On the CD players, the same material in CD version, sounded more closed, without such depth and energy. )
And still… The frequency range extremes are subordinate to that what the midrange does. But this is not due to them being laid back, but through lesser resolution and energy. The vocalists and instruments, operating in a similar range, sound incredibly well with the Weiss. Better than from my Prime and from the mentioned Accuphase. I think, that this can only be compared to the Accuphase DP-700 and the Lektor Grand (their comparison HERE). This is not yet the same level, but it gets close. I think the Weiss gets closest to the DP-700, mostly due to the incredibly vivid vocals. And this regardless if we listen loud or quiet. Perry Como, from the disc tastefully prepared by the Sinatra Society of Japan The Scene Changes (RCA/BMG Japan, XQAM-1024, CD) sounded with an incredible intensity. The same was with the ladies from the accompanying The Anita Kerr Quartet. This is why Vedder made such an electrifying impression – the resolution of this sub-range, not appearing as detailness cut from context, but as naturality, with detail and energy, all this makes us believe we deal with a real event. I called upon the DVD-Audio disc from Adderley. This was not by coincidence. As it seems, the Weiss converter was made with high resolution sound in mind. As it sounds nice with CDs, very nice, with a magic midrange, with the 24/96 signal it sounds just brilliant. I have a lot of such discs, but I do not listen to them often, mostly testing multi-format players, because almost in 100% of the cases, my player plays the same material from the CD better than the tested devices the DVD-A. This time everything was different. Since years I am a supporter of the PCM 24/96 and 24/192 formats, while I appreciate the SACD format (DSD), but also acknowledging many problems that cannot be surpassed. Through the years, looking at subsequent generations of multi-format devices, it reached me, that the companies do not want to develop it, and that they do not really know how to do it. Weiss is different – this is the second converter, after the splendid DAC Delius from dCS, that really shows and releases the potential PCM HD. Fantastically sounded the DVD-A 24/96 disc from the special edition of the album Love The Beatles (Apple/Capitol/EMI, 3 80789 2, DVD-A+CCD; review HERE). The CD, or rather CCD version of this disc (because I am sure, some kind of copy protection was used there) is harsh and shrill, especially in the stronger pieces, like Get Back or Help!. Due to the LP version I know, that this is not a problem of recording and mix, but the carrier and the almost criminal behavior of not adhering to the Compact Disc format. With the Weiss the 24/96 version sounded almost like the vinyl one. Maybe there was no fluency and coherence as from the black disc, but the treble and bass were better defined from the digital carrier. In general the sound was very smooth, deep and completely devoted from brightening that is so annoying in the CCD discs. )
Now the Swiss converter is incredibly sensitive to all changes in front of it. The exchange of the digital AES/EBU cable between it and the ECM 1 UP Electrocompaniet for a better one (Acrolink) instantly made the transmission more dense and improved the treble. This is not all: the Cannonball disc, like all DVD-A issued by Classic Records, has two sides – one 24/96 and one 24/192. The 24/96 version is prepared from a 24/192 master tape using a dCS downsampler. It turns out, that every DVD player makes the same thing before outputting the signal to the digital socket: when we play the 24/192 version, still 24/96 appears on the interface (or even worse – 24/48 if the manufacturer decided so). I compared the version studio mastered at 24/96 with the player downsampled one. Dear Sirs! The difference was colossal, in favor of the first version. When I allowed the player to take control, then Muddy Waters, from the brilliant disc Folk Singer (Arista Records/Classic Records, HDAD 2008, DVD-A 24/96+24/192) slowed down, the fantastic drawing of the guitar disappeared somewhere, its bite disappeared. Also the dynamic, which should be on a level of 144dB with a 24 bit recording, was much more compressed. The distance between a studio product and the player DSP was clear. And I used a DVD-ROM drive of a all-in-one Arcam Solo Movie 5.1 (review HERE), with a TOSLINK interface! Although the cable was nice, it was the glass fiber Wireworld Supernova 5+, but a fact remains a fact. And I am writing about 24/96 sound not because I believe in the rebirth of the DVD-A format, even in the Blu-Ray (the MLP compression is a part of the BR license), but from two other reasons. First, the era of Internet shopping is around the corner, together with the usage of hard disk players, and here we are not limited by the parameters of the converter, because we can buy material with resolutions up to 24/192, and secondly, it is necessary to try CD material using the D/D converter (upsampler) Purcell from dCS. It can output a signal 24/192 made from 16/44.1 by a double AES2 link (two AES/EBU cables). The Weiss accepts that signal. The same way the signal was transferred between the Purcell and Delius, and the effects were splendid. In my opinion it was much better than, the now used by dCS, conversion PCM-DSD. In this way we get an absolutely top CD source. A bigger problem will be with the supply of Internet based or DVD-A material. There are no hard disk players with AES/EBU not even mentioning AES2. But there are docking stations for iPod from Wadia and MSB Technology with digital output, including AES/EBU. And the iPod can carry 24/96 material in lossless compression AIFF. But this is rather the future. Here and now the Weiss sounds with a splendid sound from any source. From HD, 24/96, 24/48, 24/192 or even Dolby Digital compressed soundtracks, when in 20/48 format (that is the format the sound is in Into the Wild) it will be significantly better than from CD. Without any doubt it can be heard, that it was designed with such recordings in mind. And even the advanced upsampling process cannot replace simply more information. This is a splendid converter for 1/3 of the price of the commercial (non pro) version. DESCRIPTION )
The Weiss converter is a standard 1U device (1U or 1 unit is a standard height in studio devices and equals 1.75” – 44.45mm), prepared to be mounted in a rack with other devices. To explain: a rack is a kind of cabinet that houses studio devices. The Weiss DAC has “wings” that allow it to be screwed tight to the rack, but those can be removed and the DAC can be used as a standard device. Doing that, the DAC still will remind of professional products, but not in such an obvious way. This way of montage implies that no feet are attached to the device. Wide, but thin, rubber feet are standard equipment, and they are just glued to the bottom plate of the chassis. So if we want to use the Weiss, we should think about a good support. The easiest way will be to buy Vibrapod cones, or better the Finite Elemente Ceraball feet. They will need to be mounted using blu-tac or a similar thing. The front of the device, as usual for a studio device, is clean, intuitive and not very beautiful. But in contrast to many home devices, this is not ugliness, but just emanation of the utilitarian character of the unit. The front is made from white varnished metal plate. Looking from the left we have: The back, just like the front, immediately informs about the studio roots of the Weiss. This because almost all inputs are balanced: three digital inputs AES/EBU and one TOSLINK (S/PDIF), three AES/EBU outputs, parallel (they can be used to monitor the inputs), input for an external remote and balanced XLR outputs (pin2 is hot). Between the latter a small switch is placed, choosing the output level – high +15dBu or +27dBu and low 0dBu. This is important information: switching to unbalanced cables the pin 3 cannot be connected to the ground! According to the manufacturer we can send the signal with any sampling frequency by a single cable, up to 192kHz. This was limited to 96kHz, but modern transmitters and receivers this is no longer the case, as we have seen during the test of the Casea Cepheus. But it is better to send signals of 88.2kHz and up by means of two XLR cables (format AES2). At this moment I know only two consumer transports capable of doing that: Blu from the Choral series of Chord Electronics and the pioneer of this solution, older dCS drive. In the studio this format is much more popular. )
Taking off the top cover we see a very thorough and thought through SMD montage and a circuit that resembles the dCS products. We have surface mount and separate power supplies (fed from secondary windings coming from one big toroidal transformer) for the separate sections. I counted four big bridges and lots of stabilizing circuits. The digital inputs and outputs are buffered by input transformers, what guarantees ideal impedance. Just behind them there is a source selector and AKM digital receivers. And later: two smaller DSP chips in sockets (one for each channel), then external memory ICs and a big DSP chip. Behind those we see another DSP chip, the powerful Sharc from Analog Devices, usually found in home cinema sound processors. The digital signal gets heavily processed before it reaches the converters. Next to each chip stabilizing circuitry is visible. And just before the output from this section we see two, nice, big, temperature and mechanically compensated tact clocks, separate for 44.1kHz and 48kHz. They allow for not using a PLL loop to synthesize frequencies different than the native one – and those loops usually introduce their distortion. The output section is separated from the digital one with a solid shield. The circuit is mounted on a separate PCB, with plates on both sides working as heat sinks for stabilizing and amplifying circuits. The transistors and stabilizers get awfully hot, what makes the whole chassis hot. Good ventilation around the DAC is a must. The D/A conversion is done by two stereo Analog Devices AD1853 converters (one for each channel). Those are multi-bit delta-sigma chips with 116dB dynamics, thus with 19 bit of real resolution. Behind those the signal is processed in AD797 ICs – those are not very common in home devices, but splendid low noise and low distortion units with very quick signal raise times. Those work in the I/V conversion as well as in amplifying and buffering circuits. The manufacturer claims they operate in class A with negligible output impedance. To get a sense where the calculating power is needed in this converter I read the company materials. They state that the DSP chips are responsible for reclocking in many stages, with different algorithms, and this is used to minimize the jitter, upsampling to 192kHz and de-emphasis.
CDs FROM JAPAN  |
||||||||||||||||||||
| © Copyright HIGH Fidelity 2008, Created by B | ||||||||||||||||||||
