Calling Weiss Dac2 owners

Read somewhere that Belkin Gold is better than PureAV Silver because the bead suppressor in the latter compromises the sound somewhat! Would anyone with experience of both cables care to share?

James - I have been seeking to test the 6 pin - 4 pin - 6 pin thing, but have been unable to find an adaptor which works so that Weiss recognises the firewire cable.

On the Computer Audiophile site several people have suggested a couple of adaptors which apparently do work, but these seem to be available only in the US and will cost £50+ to ship to UK.

If you find a UK available adaptor which works, please post the details if it seems to make an audio improvement.

Hmm - bit strange. I've got another 6 pin csble on my desk at work that i've modded to remove the power feed. Must bring it home to check if the Weiss will recognise the firewire cable.

James

A Weiss DAC2 arrived in the post this morning for me to play with for a while .
Very easy to set up , unless you are a numpty like me and leave the optical chord cable in the Mac Mini and forget to tell the Mac to output the sound to the Firewire interface instead , hence a few minutes of panic with no sound .

I also have a copy of Amarra Mini on it's way . I have downloaded the demo version which cuts out the sound occasionally but I am struggling to notice a difference so far , maybe the full version will sort that out .

Luckily this is my week off , so lots of listening to do !

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by AS332:

I also have a copy of Amarra Mini on it's way . I have downloaded the demo version which cuts out the sound occasionally but I am struggling to notice a difference so far , maybe the full version will sort that out .

Luckily this is my week off , so lots of listening to do !

Ed

Ed,

You may like to try the demo of Pure Vinyl Recorder, it contains an iTunes music server. It is also much more, as the name suggests it enables vinyl recording.

Unlike Amarra (which I have btw) it is not hardware or codec specific and the results I'm getting are very impressive. There is plenty to play with and it's pretty intuitive. The notes that come with the demo are instructive.

Joe

Try your other dac via the dig out of the DAC2 and in Narrow vs crystal. We've talked about this option here in the past. If Narrow is better as suspected than all is well and will indicate that the dig out is good for future comparisons. It will also tell you how much of any difference you hear is DAC or interface. Have fun.

quote:

Originally posted by Joe Bibb:


You may like to try the demo of Pure Vinyl Recorder, it contains an iTunes music server. It is also much more, as the name suggests it enables vinyl recording.


Joe

Thanks Joe ,
I will give it a go , Keith @ Purite did mention it but I forgot the name .
Do you mean this page ? Which one do you download , the whole suite ?


Ed

JS ,
A Lavry on the end of a Weiss , wow .
Something to try later .

Ed

Ed,

First, the suite then it's just the pv30pr4c.zip (2.6mb)

Joe

Sorry for my editing faux pas, the baby went out with the bathwater.

Thank you .

Ed, What files are you playing through Amarra Mini - if apple lossless then you need to make sure that the version of mini you have will support these as the earlier version would only play AIFF files.

James

Thanks James ,
I'm using Apple Lossless and the Mini is the early 09 version .

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by james n:
Ed, What files are you playing through Amarra Mini - if apple lossless then you need to make sure that the version of mini you have will support these as the earlier version would only play AIFF files.

James

No such nonsense with PV.

Also the latest Amarra 3189 using ALAC does not sound as good as 3177 (AIFF only).

As you know.

Joe

Ed - Amarra mini not the mac mini - if its an early version of Amarra mini then it wont play Apple lossless.

Joe - i need to roll back and check but i found Amarra full 3189 was fine after the update to iTunes. If i get some time i'll give PV a go

oops ! Too many Mini's .

I downloaded the software from the Sonic Studio web site yesterday , so hopefully it should be up to date .

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by AS332:
oops ! Too many Mini's .

I downloaded the software from the Sonic Studio web site yesterday , so hopefully it should be up to date .

Ed

It's easy to try a previous version Ed. I am still not happy with the latest one, 3177 sounds better.

Joe

Just checked the install file and it is 3189 .

Ah ok - strange you are not getting an improvement with the mini - not tried it myself (other than listening to Amarra mini at Joe's) - i'm running full Amarra into a Weiss DAC2 with a Mac mini and the difference between iTunes and Amarra isn't subtle.

Might be worth downloading the full Amarra demo to try out.

James

James ,
Hopefully there will be a copy in the post tomorrow form Purite . Failing that I will take advantage of the 30 day money back full download from sonic studio .

quote:

Originally posted by james n:
Ah ok - strange you are not getting an improvement with the mini - not tried it myself (other than listening to Amarra mini at Joe's) - i'm running full Amarra into a Weiss DAC2 with a Mac mini and the difference between iTunes and Amarra isn't subtle.

Might be worth downloading the full Amarra demo to try out.

James

Perhaps it's also that your rips have improved beyond Itunes or he's still just listening via Itunes due to ALAC. Not familiar enough with Amarra. Just some thoughts. AS332, You could always convert a file to AIFF and see if that does the trick.

quote:

Originally posted by js:
Perhaps it's also that your rips have improved beyond Itunes or he's still just listening via Itunes due to ALAC. Not familiar enough with Amarra. Just some thoughts. AS332, You could always convert a file to AIFF and see if that does the trick.

I've got iTunes or XLD rips of the same discs - they sound the same. Both sound different with Amarra or PV to the same degree. I am finding PV preferable to Amarra's latest release.

Joe

What is PV?

quote:

Originally posted by kent:
What is PV?

Pure Vinyl Recorder

look near top of this page

-
aleg

quote:

Originally posted by Joe Bibb:

quote:

Originally posted by js:
Perhaps it's also that your rips have improved beyond Itunes or he's still just listening via Itunes due to ALAC. Not familiar enough with Amarra. Just some thoughts. AS332, You could always convert a file to AIFF and see if that does the trick.

I've got iTunes or XLD rips of the same discs - they sound the same. Both sound different with Amarra or PV to the same degree. I am finding PV preferable to Amarra's latest release.

Joe

Yes, but I believe James has switched and I would think, due to another point of view. Just noting differences which you have confirmed.

Does PVC bypass the core audio mixer? Would be a theoretical disadvantage if not. Doesn't mean it can't be better and I haven't listened so I don't have an opinion on sound here.

I thought converting to AIFF may be needed to get results with a trial version of Amarra as ALAC wasn't part of the original build.

js,

You might like to try the PV demo, or at least download it and have a read of the notes. I like the playing from memory, rather than disc element and it states that the playback has lower resource overhead than iTunes. It seems to work very well.

Just to add some interest, I have just heard from a user/tester than Amarra 3195 is on it's way and seems to have addressed the 3189 sonic issues and supports gapless.

The thing about PV is it seems agnostic to codec and hardware and it's much cheaper than Amarra with more function, so when Naim Dacs arrive it may be an option whereas Amarra will need supported interface, I think.

Joe