Weiss DAC205 DAC Review

[Waxx]

Weiss was very relevant 10 to 30 years ago, and pricing was always very high (but the quality then also). But it seems they did not move on or this is an older unit. Today that price is not worth it anymore, i agree. RME is better for pro audio, and for hifi there are many way cheaper options that beat that with ease.

 

[amirm]

BTW they both use the ES9018S chip.

If so, they are extracting pretty good performance out of that DAC, the issues I found notwithstanding.

 

[TonyJZX]

Audiogon Discussion Forum

I am now searching for a new DAC to replace my Oppo UDP-205 and High End Munich 2023 was the event I was waiting for to hear about new announcements. I...

forum.audiogon.com

The Weiss DAC 204 is Here. Why this is the best DAC buy of 2023. |

This is the Weiss DAC 204 which is a HIGH END DAC for middle of the road money. This DAC competes with others that will cost you thousands more! My review///

www.stevehuffphoto.com

seem to be current items?

 

[Gio]

What a pleasure to see that money don't make (musical) happiness.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

Audiogon Discussion Forum

I am now searching for a new DAC to replace my Oppo UDP-205 and High End Munich 2023 was the event I was waiting for to hear about new announcements. I...

forum.audiogon.com

The Weiss DAC 204 is Here. Why this is the best DAC buy of 2023. |

This is the Weiss DAC 204 which is a HIGH END DAC for middle of the road money. This DAC competes with others that will cost you thousands more! My review///

www.stevehuffphoto.com

seem to be current items?

Yes it seems like.
https://weiss.ch/products/highend-hifi/dac205/

ps. considering ess9018 chip it's a very good device that is competently designed. The only puzzle is multitone - but I assume it will change drastically with tones that are not full scale.

 

[IAtaman]

Audiogon Discussion Forum

I am now searching for a new DAC to replace my Oppo UDP-205 and High End Munich 2023 was the event I was waiting for to hear about new announcements. I...

forum.audiogon.com

The Weiss DAC 204 is Here. Why this is the best DAC buy of 2023. |

This is the Weiss DAC 204 which is a HIGH END DAC for middle of the road money. This DAC competes with others that will cost you thousands more! My review///

www.stevehuffphoto.com

seem to be current items?

Ha! Love this Steve Huff Guy. Wonder what type of oil he uses for his mustache

He says : This DAC has a clarity and crispness that I have never heard in this price range.

Tru dat. You gotta go down to $200 range to get that level of clarity these days.

I think the appropriate rating for this DAC would be no panther as it is mostly irrelevant today outside of the realm of engineering curiosity.

 

[daniboun]

If so, they are extracting pretty good performance out of that DAC, the issues I found notwithstanding.

I imagine that you are putting things into perspective given the age of this ESS chip)

 

[see_no_evil]

test results indicate that is not wise

LOL @amirm

 

[Rja4000]

Your guess is as good as mine as to why we have such high levels of intermodulation distortion.

Looks like saturation, doesn't it ?
Did you try decreasing level by a few dBs ?

 

[voodooless]

What a pleasure to see that money don't make (musical) happiness.

This review doesn't prove that. Thousands of people spend inordinate amounts of money on audio stuff, and seem to be perfectly happy doing that

 

[Yevhen]

Jitter performance is another head scratcher

It seems like the charge pump filter in PLL is set too narrow

 

[Hayabusa]

But then single tone 50 Hz performance is superb:
View attachment 333887

What is happening at almost DC? Weird...

 

[ocinn]

Just to offer some general insight.

Weiss has a lot of pedigree in the pro world (and therefore amazing customer support). Many professionals buy their products, only because it’s a proven industry standard.

RME, UA, Benchmark, Lynx, etc also are proven, industry standard manufacturers with pro level support, and their products generally perform much better so there isn’t really an excuse to go with Weiss over the former.

However, it is not fair to compare products like this with consumer level gear like Topping, SMSL, etc…. as, proven track record of reliability, flawless driver development, and ultra-short turnaround support infrastructure outweigh bleeding edge technical performance in professional settings.

I’ve said this quote before but I’ll say it again:

Problematic gear for enthusiasts (like most on this forum) costs them inconvenience.

Problematic gear for professionals can cost them tens of thousands of dollars of downtime and loss of clients and a severely damaged reputation.

 

[TNT]

...but test results indicate that is not wise.

...

Pun intended ;-)

//

 

[TNT]

charge pump filter in PLL is set too narrow

Care to expand?

//

 

[DHT 845]

$2,600 (?) for something that should have cost $100 max provided it was well constructed, but clearly it isn't.

 

[AudioSceptic]

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.
View attachment 333869
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:
View attachment 333870
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:
View attachment 333871

This is quite competent performance although very shy of state of the art:
View attachment 333874

View attachment 333875

Setting output to max gain and sweeping input we get:
View attachment 333877

Noise performance is excellent:
View attachment 333876

IMD distortion shows mid-level increase which tends to imply less than ideal implement of ESS (?) DAC:
View attachment 333879

Linearity is excellent:
View attachment 333880

My standard multitone test runs at 192 kHz which I can't use over Toslink so ran a 44.1 kHz version:
View attachment 333881

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:
View attachment 333886

But then single tone 50 Hz performance is superb:
View attachment 333887

We see the typical DAC IC filter:
View attachment 333889

THD+N vs frequency is very good:
View attachment 333890

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/

This gives the impression that it's a current product <https://weiss.ch/products/highend-hifi/dac205/#information> and that it's "pro quality". Whatever is the case, the performance and features do not justify such a high price. Perhaps a lot of money was wasted on 4 converters per channel, and wouldn't a "pro" device have Chord-level filtering?

 

[AudioSceptic]

I shared weeks ago the Measurements of the DAC204, they are almost the same :
The WEISS DAC205 offers the same conversion quality but it does not accept digital audio via USB and does not perform DSD to PCM conversion.

We are therefore OK to say that it does not live up to its price) and that the DAC205 does not provide anything more than the DAC204. BTW they both use the ES9018S chip.

Weiss DAC204 Measurements - GoldenSound

The Weiss DAC204 is much more affordable than the 502, but unfortunately the surprisingly mediocre performance makes it tough to justify.

goldensound.audio

DAC204

View attachment 333909

View attachment 333910
View attachment 333911

View attachment 333912

The Weiss website says it used 4 converters per channel. Does that mean 8x 9018 in total?

 

[TonyJZX]

The Weiss website says it used 4 converters per channel. Does that mean 8x 9018 in total?

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?attachments/1702452144179-png.333892/

if it truly had 8 or even 4 you would see them?

 

[JustJones]

It can still be ordered on Vintage King. Maybe pros should stick with RME, Benchmark and Lynx .

Weiss Engineering DAC205 Professional D/A Converter

Stereo 24-bit/192 kHz D/A converter featuring four D/A converters per audio channel operated in parallel for enhanced signal to noise performance

vintageking.com