This is a review and detailed measurements of the Weiss DAC205. It was kindly sent to me and appears to be recently discontinued. Original price (I think) was around $2,600.
While the case looks pretty basic, it is fine with me. Sure, for that kind of money, you would want it to have an OLED display with every feature imaginable but you are not going to get that. Nor will you be able to connect using USB as the only inputs are Toslink and Coax. Back side shows the typical connections:
Again, for this price I expect to see built-in power supply but an external switcher is provided.
The two switches provide different levels of output although none are compliant with our standard as you see below in measurements.
Weiss DAC205 XLR Measurements
The closest I could get to 4 volt was 2.4 volts:
This is quite competent performance although very shy of state of the art:
Setting output to max gain and sweeping input we get:
Noise performance is excellent:
IMD distortion shows mid-level increase which tends to imply less than ideal implement of ESS (?) DAC:
Linearity is excellent:
My standard multitone test runs at 192 kHz which I can't use over Toslink so ran a 44.1 kHz version:
Your guess is as good as mine as to why we have such high levels of intermodulation distortion. I checked against a Topping D70s by moving the cables and running the same identical test and none of that was there. So clearly this is a problem with the unit (same happened over coax).
Jitter performance is another head scratcher:
But then single tone 50 Hz performance is superb:
We see the typical DAC IC filter:
THD+N vs frequency is very good:
Conclusions
The performance of DAC205 is excellent in a number of tests but there are some really odd results in a couple of tests. Company speaks highly of their jitter reduction but we are seeing the worst jitter I have ever measured in a performant DAC. The multitone test results is a real puzzle. Even if the performance was good, we would need USB support and pricing below $500 even if the unit is made in Switzerland. High-end products that garner such high list price come with vary fancy casework and pride of ownership. None of that is here. Folks are supposed to buy on reputation but test results indicate that is not wise.
I can't recommend the Weiss DAC205 even if it were still being sold. I see used ones as high as $2,000. No justification for that.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
While the case looks pretty basic, it is fine with me. Sure, for that kind of money, you would want it to have an OLED display with every feature imaginable but you are not going to get that. Nor will you be able to connect using USB as the only inputs are Toslink and Coax. Back side shows the typical connections:
Again, for this price I expect to see built-in power supply but an external switcher is provided.
The two switches provide different levels of output although none are compliant with our standard as you see below in measurements.
Weiss DAC205 XLR Measurements
The closest I could get to 4 volt was 2.4 volts:
This is quite competent performance although very shy of state of the art:
Setting output to max gain and sweeping input we get:
Noise performance is excellent:
IMD distortion shows mid-level increase which tends to imply less than ideal implement of ESS (?) DAC:
Linearity is excellent:
My standard multitone test runs at 192 kHz which I can't use over Toslink so ran a 44.1 kHz version:
Your guess is as good as mine as to why we have such high levels of intermodulation distortion. I checked against a Topping D70s by moving the cables and running the same identical test and none of that was there. So clearly this is a problem with the unit (same happened over coax).
Jitter performance is another head scratcher:
But then single tone 50 Hz performance is superb:
We see the typical DAC IC filter:
THD+N vs frequency is very good:
Conclusions
The performance of DAC205 is excellent in a number of tests but there are some really odd results in a couple of tests. Company speaks highly of their jitter reduction but we are seeing the worst jitter I have ever measured in a performant DAC. The multitone test results is a real puzzle. Even if the performance was good, we would need USB support and pricing below $500 even if the unit is made in Switzerland. High-end products that garner such high list price come with vary fancy casework and pride of ownership. None of that is here. Folks are supposed to buy on reputation but test results indicate that is not wise.
I can't recommend the Weiss DAC205 even if it were still being sold. I see used ones as high as $2,000. No justification for that.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Then again, it's always fun to see them make a mockery out of themselves 
