Stereophile Weiss DAC202 review now online
The review I discussed in my previous post is now available online here. There’s another recent DAC202 review by Nicholas Bedworth for Positive Feedback with lots of very good technical information, but whose subjective conclusions I found a bit weird and littered with a bit of unfortunate mumbo jumbo. He claims to get better sound when bypassing the units internal clocking which goes against all my own experience, the Stereophile measurements and Daniel Weiss’ own... Read More
Stereophile reviews Weiss DAC202
This post is borderline obnoxiously self-congratulatory, so apologies for that. It’s been a while since I updated you on the progress of my hi-fi journey. In short, I bought the Weiss DAC202 this summer, after concluding that adding it to my Pass INT-150 amplifier gave a more satisfying sound than replacing both with a Devialet D-Premier. I’m very very happy with my purchase and whenever I listen through another digital source I’m struck by how flat and unenthusiastic... Read More
What I’ve learnt from a year in the gym
Here’s a post not concerning music or hifi equipment. If you only care about those topics, you’re done now. Physical health should concern everyone though, and while this is just me rambling about my own experiences, I hope some of you might find it interesting. Like a lot of people I have a rich history of shamefully neglected gym memberships and broken new years resolutions. I’ve never been properly fat — the worst shape I’ve ever been in was when I... Read More
New music: Incoming records, fall 2011
Here’s some records that are on their way here. I’ve linked each cover image to a site where you can listen to some samples and/or buy them. Spanning from the grimmest of noise and metal to serene piano improvisations and soothing drones, it’s quite an eclectic blend yet with a distincty autumnal mood: imagegrid {padding-right:11px; padding-bottom:11px;} img {padding-right:11px; padding-bottom:11px;} Read More
Lost Theory Festival: Ambient DJ set preview
I’m playing two sets at the Lost Theory Festival in Croatia August 17-22 (that’s soon!). My ambient set will be Sunday morning 6.30-11, so it’s a looong one. Before I knew I’d be playing in daylight I made a shorter promo mix – I might play slightly sunnier stuff at the festival, but this mix turned out pretty nice so here you go, enjoy! My goa trance DJ set is saturday morning 07-09, after Derango and before Dimension 5. Read More
New music: Sitaar-Tah! — “Semimimimimin”
Aquarius Records of San Fransisco run a web shop that’s looking quite distinctly 1990′s, which is not a high mark in 2011. But what they lack in web savvy, they make up in spades when it comes to dedication. Their newsletters, which are now running double pace and are sent out weekly, have reviews written by the staff themselves, unlike pretty much every other record shop on the planet who just copy the distributor mumbo jumbo verbatim. This is practically a full... Read More
New music: Harsh acid techno
If you’re reading this blog thanks to my audiophile posts, you’re likely—although not entirely guaranteed—to find the following music overwhelmingly noisy. That warning aside, I do love brutally distorted Roland TB-303 mayhem. Two such records that have spent many, many years in my wantlist finally arrived in the mail today: DATacide – The Extasy Of Communication Woody McBride – Rattlesnake It feels surreal that these are now 18 and 17 years old,... Read More
New music: Spectrum Spools
Seeing as this has turned into a hifi blog, I thought it’d be appropriate to remedy something I find missing in a lot of audio writing, namely new music. And not more Diana Krall albums or reissues of relics from 40 years ago; I mean truly new and adventurous music on the outer brinks of the artform. I might not manage to write about everything I buy, but by setting the bar reasonably low I should hopefully have enough writing stamina to give a bit of insight and inspiration... Read More
Interview: Daniel Weiss
Daniel Weiss is one of the worlds foremost authorities on digital sound and his products have had great success both in pro audio and among audiophiles around the world. In February he visited Stockholm and the high-end fair to present his latest creation MAN202, a combined DAC, network streamer, CD player and ripping station. After closing time on the first day I got a chance to talk to him over a few beers. This interview is quite technical at times, but key phrases have been... Read More
Devialet D-Premier vs Weiss DAC202
These are interesting times if you’re in the market for a server based, high-end stereo system. Separate DAC’s, this once forsaken component category, is in the midst of a magnificent resurgence. It doesn’t end there, either: You can find any combination of streamer, storage, DAC and digital amplifier on the market today. While this abundance of choice and competition in the marketplace is very appealing, it makes consumer decisions difficult. Should you opt... Read More
Tidal & Burmester
Way too hard, bright and mechanical sound here. I’ve still never heard speakers with these ceramic elements sound pleasant. They also have standmounts for 249000 SEK, which seems very difficult to justify: Read More
Canton
Didn’t bother listening to these this year — I’ve heard the speakers before and have always been underwhelmed. Read More
Bowers & Whatthehell
Ok now they’re just kidding, right? RIGHT? Read More
A Weiss MAN
Let’s all pray I run out of pun titles soon. Anyway, here’s Daniel Weiss demonstrating his iPad interface for the new MAN202 network player/dac. I made a lengthy interview with him that will be available in english soon, with TONS of juicy details on his products. Here’s the MAN202: Read More
Stockholm hi-end 2011
I’ve spent the weekend at the Stockholm hi-end show, and will post some phone cam pics and comments before I forget everything. I know you shouldn’t judge stuff based on show rooms, but I like judging stuff! So ingest with the appropriate amounts of salt. Read More
Weiss MAN 202
In my previous post I mentioned and made some wishes for Weiss’ rumored server / ethernet interface thingamajig that I anticipated we might get to see at CES. Well I was fairly right and the cat’s out of the bag (click to enlarge): Via: Design With Sound Blog I wonder if the built-in DAC is identical to DAC 202. If not, what if I want a DAC202 and one of these as a server and/or ethernet interface; Do I have to pay for a DAC I won’t need? Read More
DAC to the future
In the near-eternity that’s passed since my last post I’ve had another go at the Weiss DAC 202, this time comparing it to Esoteric D-07 in the neat little setup pictured above. Since Weiss was already holding up very well against the mightier D-05 it’s no surprise the smaller D-07 got its ass whupped. It had a narrower and flatter soundstage, less instrument separation, much less bass and lacking all the voluminous lushness of the Weiss unit. We went back and... Read More
DAC battle, round 1
This was also posted in the computeraudiophile.com forums. I’ve patiently waited for Esoteric’s D-07 since it was announced last year. It has still to find its way to Sweden though, apparently due to a change of distributor for western Europe. My DAC fund is still a work in progress, but today I decided to stop waiting for the D-07 and instead test the D-05 against Weiss’ DAC202, to at least get a sense of the difference in “brand sound”. I... Read More
Digital domestic decisions
I have been running a Windows-based, self-assembled computer as our home server for the last few years. It’s served us very well; The thick chassis walls, rubber-suspended hard drives and passive CPU cooling made it almost entirely silent. The dedicated RAID card kept my 4x500GB Samsung drives in order and provided both adequate speed and a basic level of security for our precious music archive (ripped from our own records, mind you). It ran Squeezebox Server for music... Read More
Hunt for hifi XIV: Speak of the devil…
It turns out my previous post was rather prophetic: …We’ll see if it gets to stay. Read More
