Intro
Contents
In 2018, seems like ages ago, colleagues Jaap and Yung went on a road trip to Switzerland. There they visited a number of audio greats, including Weiss Engineering. The meeting with owner Daniel Weiss was cordial and to this day there is a very nice and friendly contact. You can read about all their adventures here, but today we are talking about the Weiss DAC204. A d/a converter without streamer, volume control or fancy display, but with a few other interesting features. Let’s check it out!
What a cute little box! We had already seen some pictures, but we didn’t see this one coming. With a width and height of barely 10 cm, this is one of the smallest devices we have tested. Small but nice. This really is a back to basics d/a converter with no frills. No screen, no preamp and no streamer. But with a lot of lights and four old-skool toggle switches. One for on/off, two for frequency and bitrate and one to select the inputs.
Speaking of inputs, the DAC204 only has three. Optical, Coaxial and USB. A bit sparse in today’s landscape. We do get, and those are much less common, three digital outputs. AES/EBU, BNC and coaxial. This means you can implement the DAC204 in different configurations and also use it as a DDC (digital to digital converter). For analogue out there is a choice between XLR and RCA. The external power supply is a run of the mill wallwart adapter. But you can connect a nice linear power supply to it like the Weiss PSU102 that was not included. Important to note: there is a cheaper DAC205 for those who only need the dac part.
Quirky
It’s not just the outside that deviates from the norm. Striking choices have also been made inside. For example, Daniel Weiss opts for the now almost antique ESS 9018S dac chip. The DAC204 can play DSD streams, but everything is internally converted to PCM176.4 kHz. And you have to manually increase the gain by 10 or 20 dB depending on your amplifier. All rather different approaches to designing a dac. All extras, like the d-esser or the equalizer, which you find on the 501 and 502, are not present here.
Everything reminds u of their pro-audio background. And while the design may not be everyone’s cup of tea, there isn’t the slightest doubt about the quality of the device itself. This dac costs a few quid but is entirely developed and manufactured in Switzerland, Uster, and Daniel Weiss’ years of experience are handed to you for free. This kind of knowledge is actually priceless. On top of that, the company is very open and approachable. With a bit of luck, you are emailing with the man “himself. That’s how big the commitment of this living legend is.