Dreadhead

I am currently wavering between the DAD and the Weiss. I hope to give them both a listen and buy one of the two after my return home. The lavry gold intrigues me with it's fully discrete R-2R with automatic calibration but I'm not sure it's worth the 2 grand over the others and the prism is even more than that though it does have the best specs written down (the phase response is insanely accurate). My big question arises because it is possible that the others are just as accurate they just don't state the phase accuracy. I don't need anything above 24/96 so I should be fine with any of them.

Happy Birth(or switch-on)day to you!

Happy birthday Al!!!!

Congrats man! Those some big mama-jamas

I'll be there (hopefully)

Heard very favorable things about this: Aurora 8 I heard the good things here: Prism ADA-8XR multi-channel modular AD/DA converter - How prism ADA 8XR compare with new DAD AX24 DAC in term of soud quality? I'm looking for the best 2 chanel DAC? (do a search on Aurora to find the post)

Well if you want AX24 goodness. I just got a quote for a DAC only with the highest end cards in it for $5990. Figure another 2k or so for 2 channels of DSD/DXD/384/192/etc... AD. Damn you Telarc... that review makes this look pretty attractive considering the "savings" compared to the Lavry Gold or even the Weiss.

In short no.

Dusty, I'm not complaining about it for it being audible., but it's ultrasonic noise that can cause some severe problems for certain types of amps (esp. some op-amps). It's also fairly common with DSD as well to the level that dCS talks about it on their web page.

Be careful with op-amp based amps since it appears that MSB's DACs do not have any low pass filter on the output and has lots of high frequency noise: Stereophile: MSB Platinum Link Plus D/A processor

Sounds like it but I'm not sure. Who knows.

x2

nope. I'll only by the DA not the AD. I won't even be the first: HRX playback using DAD AX24 | Computer Audiophile I'll only be using 24/96 so I'm not so concerned.

Telarc International Adds Digital Audio Denmark's AX24 Converter to Its Recording Arsenal :: :: Musicians, Engineers and Producers Recording with the Mac

I don't think there is any other data on that website because upsampling does not really effect the audible band unless it's done horribly. On the other hand the downsampling can make a big difference (eg look at SRC0.1.2 (linear)). As far as being the same as the chip function I would in general say no but I'm not sure really it depends how the chip does their upsampling. eg Wadia has a couple special schemes for theirs. I don't really know. I know that my DAC3 currently is recieving 94 but upsamples everything to 192 at (or before) the DAC.

Yeah I can see what you're saying but my guess is that is because of the aliasing into higher frequencies above 22.05 kHz which is an option that is allowed but off on the VHQ setting runs. It says specifically that allowing the aliasing (i.e that little hook up at the top of sweep plot) will improve the ringing response. I'm using it to upsample not downsample so I'm less concerned about that one since there is no data to alias.

Just for you vinyl heads: Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - Pro audio guy in Audiophile world I applogize the DAD does 32/384 just in case you need to take up more space I have asked the guy for Vintage King's price on a 2 channel DAC only version of the AX24. We shall see what it is.

If you don't like that plot switch to the distortion (1 kHz plots) or any of the others. SoX in VHQ (very high quality) hands even SRC 0.1.3 a beat down on all settings but in high quality it's not as good. I'm going to stick to linear phase for the SoX too but I will futz with the others.

I've just added a 4th one to my list that I want to hear: DAD AX24 I found a price list: http://www.transaudiogroup.com/uploads/images/products/DAD/DAD_US090107_Pricelist.pdf Telarc just replaced all their Meitner gear with DAD and raved heavily about the improvement. Even selected them using a blind A/B. 384/24 vinyl drops DXD or DSD too.

Well I heard back and it's a demo unit which is good news: That way I can't just keep it. I'll let you guys know when I get it for demo sometime next month or the month after.

They are expensive as hell and rare You might be better to look for the new Spectral gear.

Well the the DAC2 is supposed to use the PCM1792. I believe I read that in the DAC1 all upsampling etc is done outside of the DAC chip all it does is the DAC part. 2 chips per channel I believe. Apparently Daniel Weiss "reserves" the right to replace the chip in the future who knows. DAC chips are cheap but shipping it to Switzerland to get that done would be a PITA.

I am almost certain that the internals are identical to the Medea pics of which are here (note the fact that the chip running everything in the Medea is labeled DAC1P1A ): 6moons audio reviews: Weiss Engineering Jason &*Medea But I will try. I will do the trial, I'm not going to spend that type of money blind.

I'm pretty sure they place a hold for the entire amount. When I wrote them I said I was fine with "buying" it for a trial. So that's likely what would happen. I emailed the guy and thanked him but told him I would need to delay it until after I get back from my holiday. Hopefully they won't have one ready to go when I return and I can wait a month or two before I can get a trial unit fall in love and waste, I mean spend, all that money.

I don't know the details as yet but in the pro industry it appears most of the time all they need is a CC# and that's about it. This is what I got from them: I'm heading out of the country for a week at the end of the week so I will not take them up on it right now but it really is very very tempting.