Weiss DAC204 Review and Measurements

Adding to the above earplug question, I stopped going to loud concerts for about 10 years. I tried to go back with earplugs last year, but it just destroyed the sound for me (not that blasting my eardrums was good sound but there’s visceral energy to it). Do the concert earplugs do a better job of attenuating all frequencies in a more tolerable way?

 

We getting off topic now but I used to have those. Unfortunately they didn’t fit in my ear canals very well and would usually end up falling out if I got moving or blocking out only parts of the sound due to poor fit / bad seal. Also were very uncomfortable for me due to the same poor fit issue.

 

For amplified music that’s not mostly stage noise and with ill suited guitar/bass amps and their settings for the venue, yes you are entirely at their mercy. If you cannot hear anything or it’s as muddy as a ww1 trench, just leave. Acoustic sets, not through a pa, or only vocals through a pa, you’re entirely at the mercy of the venue and band. There are precious few artists that always sound great live.

Also it’s often not the sound guys, who are often only getting 100 bucks + drinks, fault if he’s forced to use some junk with low headroom, bad filters, etc or the venue is horrible mess with poorly installed subwoofers and broken pas from djs. A lot of bigger clubs and arenas are just acoustically horrible.

 

Tangent: Part of why I got really into personal audio as a teen was because live music for genres I was really into (Pinoy pop rock, besides the anime stuff cuz I was already a filthy weeb degenerate by then) was physically painful to get into.

It wasnt until after I got neck-deep into all this weird crud that I started appreciating my grandpa's old jazz records and orchestral stuff.

 

The skilled FOH engineers know the difference between sound reinforcement and sound blast-em-out-of-the-room. Small to medium venue goers are often acclimated to the crap distortion. In fact, if they don't hear that distortion they are unhappy. Meyer and EAW equipped venues will sound "wrong" to them.

 

Every time I see “Weiss” for any reason takes me back to childhood middle school when I traded baseball cards and the shortstop for the Oakland A’s was one Walt Weiss. He later went on to be a coach for the Colorado Rockies. But I digress…

I guess the Weiss pro-audio company has gotten to the DAC world. Their DSP and EQ hardware are some of the TOL pro-audio gear used by mastering engineers. And as @ palms points out, those days are numbered to computer plugins as today’s computers are just more powerful and software is cheaper to make and easier to update. But I digress again…

Yeah, the DAC204 is a older ESS DAC chip. No AES in (although AES out), and a project looking box with a cable wart SMPS, although we can improve this - more on this later. It does have balanced outputs, enough for many to say it’s “pro”, but we have covered this marketed to both the pro-audio community and the hi-fi community.

I will just go on record and say I do agree with @purr1n that:

• It is a peculiar box in shape size and build quality to be “pro”.
• It is an ESS DAC that is free from digital nasties, harsh highs, smooth
• It sounds good, albeit a bit too pricey.

I do agree that there is a “wetness” or thicker sound presentation, but it is also kind of that ESS fake bass. It is just not to the level I have heard on other ESS DACs, but the lows don’t sound very refined, just “softly pushy.”. There is no uneasy super top end brightness, but it does seem brighter than even A2 Yggdrasil, especially in the high mids. It makes the A2 sound a little darker and even smoother on the highs. Going back to the DAC204, the high mids even sound somewhat harsh.

The soundstage is also not particularly wide nor as deep. The expansive A2 outclassed the DAC204 in this regard. The stage is not dead flat, but it is not particularly deep either. Plankton is not bad and does have some fine details, just not quite as nuanced.

The main issue I have with this DAC sound wise is that it has a particularly “hard” or stuffy sound. It does have some push in the mids that made this kind of fatiguing for me. Now yes, I am coming from multibit DACs which are much more relaxed, but this one had a push in the mids that pushed the vocals and kind of takes away from the musicality of it. Maybe because it just has a flatter soundstage or maybe just sounding more strained or strident on the upper mids of things...liquidy low end, more constrained upper end I guess. It’s like the pants don’t match the shirt.

The top end is smooth enough and the overall presentation is probably more leaning in the “warm” category, albeit with a slight bit of pushed mids, like someone left the multi-band limiter on just the mid-band. It may have similarities in tone to the LiM, but not quite the overall depth and expansiveness.

(Side note - I actually have been listening to a modded PS Directstream DAC, and I was commenting to others that it seems like it is missing mids or almost U-shaped.)

Power supply

The stock power supply is a joke. Small cable wart with IEC termination and DC barrel. For such a pricey device, this thing deserves something better. I think the guys at Weiss are relying too much on the robust LT regulators on the inside. Maybe just to sell the upgraded PSU? I have Noise Nuke and it made VAST improvements.

Without the Noise Nuke, the sound is

• More flat staging\
• More piercing
• More bass shy
• Lacking in macrodynamics

With the Noise Nuke

• More clarity
• More definition and impact on the low end
• More overall macrodynamics
• More instrument separation

Most of this review is done with the Noise Nuke plugged in.

A note on output

This is a HOT output DAC. I quickly noticed how much louder it was against my A2. It has three gain settings with two switches. It has a 10 db reduction switch, a 20 db reduction switch, and when both are engaged it is 30 db reduction. I ran my o’l 0 dbfs 1k file through to see what kind of output we got, and here are the results (unbalanced. For balanced, double these numbers):

• Full out: 3.88V
• -10db : 1.23V
• -20db: 0.38V
• -30db: 0.12V

I found that -10db was about the most pleasant setting, even if it was below normal 2V output. It really turned the personality of this DAC from something that was hard and stiff to slightly more loose and organic. In this mode, the sound is closer to the PS Directstream. It gave it a much more relaxed sound and opened up the overall dynamics to not sound quite as stuffy. It still had some of those characteristics, albeit, not as much.

I also found it interesting that Weiss advertises a headphone cable using the direct outs (an L and R three pin XLR cables to one 4-pin XLR). I mean, I guess with that kind of output, I am sure it would power many headphones, but you would need some way of digital volume control. I did not try this because I don’t have the right cabling.

Conclusion

I think two improvements over when Marv had this DAC…1) the power supply vastly improved the sound to something less harsh and less hazy. 2) the -10db switch made this much more relaxed sound and much more up front. Yes, the build quality for such a high priced “pro” item is sus. It still has an up front and anxiousness to the sound. So, it is a smooth DS DAC that is a decent ESS implementation.

 

A2 bested the 204, further bested by A2? I guess Sabre will always be Sabre

 

Thanks for catching that. Lol. I was going to compare it to the staging of this modded PS Audio Directstream DAC that I have here, until I realized that not many people have heard this DAC, especially modded, and would make no sense. So I changed it to the A2 without fixing the rest of it.

Hopefully I will do a writeup on this modded PS DS very soon.

 

I was to echo what @Azimuth suggested about engaging the 10db trim. I realized I had been using it that way on my Whammerdyne+LS3/5a setup but had been using full gain since moving it to my Enleum+Klipsch setup. I gave it a go today and while the improvements are relatively subtle, it was pretty easy to pick out that it:

• Tightened up my bass and made it punchier
• Stage/layering delineation is better
• Felt more balanced across the full frequency spectrum and a tad smoother
• Vocals are more forward

The first and last points were especially helpful to me as I recently made a speaker cable swap from Neotech NES 3004 MK2 to Triode Wire Labs American and was finding that it made the low end fuller than I was accustomed to and vocals felt a tad buried, everything kind of snapped into place with this change.

My one disclaimer would be that the Enleum actually measures (and theoretically performs) better when fed below 2V, which based on @Azimuth measurements meant the 10db trim was helping me get into its better performance range. Not saying there is not some secret sauce to using the gain trims on the Weiss, but could be setup dependent.

@Azimuth and I have been chatting about this and the transformer-modded PS Audio Directsream MK1 quite a bit offline as I currently have a Signature Series DS MK1 on hand right now as well. I have not tried the DS MK1 in my Enleum+Klipsch setup yet but I am going to spend some time in the coming days putting it head-to-head with the Weiss so will also be sharing some thoughts soon.

 

I somehow missed your review in the thread and was later absorbed by the (entertaining) pissing contest and never got to read it until now.

I have the loaner right now and fully agree with your description.

Right off the bat: no, it will not replace my Rockna Wavedream Edition XLR, but I find it performs to the same excellent level as the Vinnie Rossi LIO DAC 2.0!

This is quite impressive for such a tiny box and everyone who's looking for an excellent DAC with small(ish) footprint should put the DAC204 at the top of their list. Now, I only listened to it with the Noise Nuke (which is almost as big as the DAC), but you can always tuck that one away somewhere.

This is the best ESS DAC I've heard, by far (the previous champ was the Bakoon DAC-21 - funny how they are both based on the OG 9018 ). Sound is big, slightly warm, clear, liquid and free of grain or digital nasties. Not the attributes you'd typically use to describe a ESS DAC, but it is the living proof that implementation is really everything.

It feels like an improved Crane Song Solaris: impeccable digital implementation combined with a better performing analog stage that also happens to be tuned more to my preference (no plasticky/robotic timbre).

The price hike is unfortunate, but I'll be keeping an eye out for deals on the used market

 

I was part of the loaner tour and just now getting to put my thoughts down here. First, thank you for letting me join the tour - I genuinely appreciate it. I went through a lot of DAC changes over the last 12 months and it was incredibly helpful to triangulate my thoughts with the Weiss as another TOTL reference. It should be stated upfront that my preference is warm and wet and holographic. I'm a tube guy.

For background, I used an A2 Yggdrasil for 2 years or so, before putting it up against a Holo May KTE and preferring the May's separation and clarity (particularly in the mids). I used the May for 8 months or so, but wanted a counterpoint and sought out the tubiest of tube DACs and worked with Abbas to land on a U1. I planned to roll both the May and U1 side by side, depending on mood and synergy. Anyways, I got the U1 and it was just right for me so I sold the May and now just run the U1 exclusively (I would love to try a Baltic but alas...). So it was great to be able to drop the DAC204 into this story and see how it compared. At the time I had this, I only had the U1 so any head-to-heads are limited to those two, and my comps to the A2 or the May are just based on memory, and I've purposely tried to avoid direct comps there.

My chain: Mac mini to Singxer SU-6 to [Weiss DAC204 / Abbas U1 tube DAC] to DNA Stratus v3 / Cayin HA-300b / Glenn OTL. I used a Mapletree Audio LR1 that I bought from @jnak00 to switch between the DACs.

My overall impression that was the DAC204 was exceptionally detailed and, importantly, was tonally organic. Detail without a natural expression of the music is for Topping (I owned a D90 for an extended period). The May was also exceptionally detailed, maybe a little more layered/separated than either the U1 or 204, but if so then only slightly. And slightly less organic sounding - more fast, accurate than musical. And I guess considering the cost and the footprint of the May, the fact that the Weiss was in the same strata was impressive. You could fit the DAC204 in a duffle bag for a weekend trip.

From my listening, and now this is more about direct comparison to the U1 I had on hand, the DAC204 had fairly tame highs, less so than the U1 (but this was subject to tube rolling, I had to roll a bit to dial the U1 in to make it not hurt). I wouldn't call it rolled off, but the top was tame. It had good thump, but overall felt slightly controlled, muted. It had thump but didn't slam, is the best way I can summarize it.

At this level, I'm splitting hairs and expanding minute differences - but in my notes, I wrote that it came across a little hollow, less dense and thick than the U1, particularly in the lower-mids/upper bass. I felt that the U1 had more sub-bass extension too. The flip side of that is that the solid state Weiss was more balanced than the more v-shaped U1 (more weight down below and a little more cheese grater up top) - and again, this was on the U1 after a lot of tube rolling (though in the end, I haven't strayed too far from stock).

The Weiss had a very expansive stage, and I think bested the U1 on that front. The description that stuck out to me the most frequently, across multiple days of listening, was that the U1 had more dynamic range - on the 204, the peaks were closer to the valleys and I felt the U1 had more extension on both ends.

So in the end, I'm happy and content with the U1 (though I keep looking for good deals on a SFD to compare to) but could very much see a use case for the Weiss, and the tradeoffs were minimal. I've tried to avoid direct comparisons to the Holo May here, but based on relative, indirect comparisons I would have to say it compares quite favorably to it, as the reasons I moved from the May to the U1 were similar to the comps I note above - and in line with my preference for tubes upon tubes.

If I was seeking out a SS DAC and form factor was a consideration, the Weiss is among the best I've heard, including the May KTE. I just think I love my Abbas U1 and the Weiss didn't convince me otherwise. But it's a great DAC, lots of detail, good tonal signature, great stage and just loses to the U1 in slam / heft / pawg / thickness / peaks and valleys.

 

Here's a more complete review of the Weiss DAC204:

I bought one.

The end.

For those who own one, or if allowed for the loaner unit: I'm currently powering it with this 10Ah 8.4V bike light battery pack: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083XM88WR?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

It works great at breaking a ground loop low level hum with the iFi 9V power supply (not earthed) when the DAC is plugged into my Bakoon HPA-21 (battery powered). I'm not sure it is the cleanest power source, as I don't think one can get 8.4V with standard Li-ion or LiFePO4 cells, so there must be a buck converter in there? But it sounds damn good, regardless.

I have a Plixir Statement 9V PSU coming. It's stupid expensive, but people have been praising the (cheaper) Plixir Elite BDC with the DAC204. The hope is that it would match my Rockna Wavedream XLR Edition and I could maybe part with it. I'm not fooling myself too much: nothing has made me want to part with the Wavedream, ever

 

I will probably edit this post a few times but I will wax poetic toward the end and give you the bottom line up front. This is a great sounding D/S DAC but it is too expensive, has unnecessary features, and is too complicated for practical use. It does not do anything bad sound wise, but there are some nitpicks that I think make it easy to overlook. If you want good D/S options you can find good options for 1/5 the price, but they may be slightly less refined. It has been a few months since I used it, but I recall liking the Eversolo DAC-Z8 in my stereo and it gave me similar "good" D/S vibes. Get something like that and spend the other $3,000 on a fancy USB cable.

Now we will talk more about what I experienced but I may just be yelling at the clouds. This DAC had the grave misfortune of following an MSB Platinum DAC IV owned by a buddy of mine. I know this DAC very well but I have never heard it in my own system until last week. Despite being a 15 year old design the MSB is like being kissed on the lips by God Herself. Nothing comes close (except a new MSB) and the Weiss and Spring 3 KTE are simply not good enough when put right next to the MSB. I will try to write thoughts on the MSB in the Holo Spring thread but I may not for fear of embarassing every Holo owner out there. I have two Spring 3 KTEs.

Digital source was Holo Red via Roon PCM tracks only. I fed USB to the Weiss and I2S and AES/EBU to the Spring 3. This was the easiest method. The Holo was at a slight disadvantage not using its USB input. I really wanted the Weiss to have an AES input but oh well. I do not have a good coax SPDIF cable. The Weiss seems to have a good USB input so I never thought once about whether or not USB was a problem. Other elements are Vivid Audio Kaya 90 speakers, tons of room treatment, fancy Kinki Studio speaker cables because I am a sucker, Audia Flight FLS-4 power amp, Holo Serene KTE Preamp, and World's Best Cables Gotham Audio XLR interconnects because I am practical.

I accidentally started with the gain switch at -10dB (I think). I put this back to 0dB and I felt like -10dB sounded a little better. I found this difficult to manage because it is not defined in the manual what each permutation of dip switches correlates to. I did my final listening impressions with both dip switched up which I think is nominal 0dB.

The Weiss DAC 204 does not do anything to make itself sound bad. It just does not seem special for $3500. At least the Holo has a fancy chassis, built in power supply, separate 1-bit DAC for DSD, SOTA USB input, tons of other digital inputs, and practically no noise floor. The DAC 204 has unnecessary features for the home gamer and that is where it really annoys me. A pro may want the digital in-out conversion, DSD-PCM conversion, and tiny size with outboard power supply. I don't think a reasonable home audio enthusiast benefits from these things. I would praise the DAC 204 if it dumped those unneeded features and gave me AES/EBU _input_ and an onboard power supply. Also make it cost $1500. I used to work for a Swiss company and it will remain the highlight of my career so I respect them for what I assume is the typical Swiss manufacturing and engineering approach. However, in today's market I think they would do well to shift their focus.

The Weiss is very light and airy with great detail, separation, and PRaT. This is just how a good D/S DAC sounds to me these days. It excelled at separation and bringing out the low-level details in a way that they were very well defined and pleasantly balanced. There was truly never any harshness in the treble or mid-range. Bass was as deep and impactful as the Spring but slightly more definition. There is a lot of "space" with big reverb tracks and they decay in a very convincing way. The clarity and detail remains very good even when things get super complicated with lots of sound stage elements like Arooj Aftab & James Francies "Autumn Leaves" on Night Reign.

In a lot of ways the Holo Spring 3 KTE is a worse DAC. I did this comparison without HQPlayer. I normally use HQPlayer but it seemed unfair to do that here. HQPlayer PCM or DSD upsampling elevates the Spring 3 KTE to where it needs to be and corrects most of the problems I found here. But the Spring still has some problems that I wish it would fix. Most notably in my system the Spring seems to have an upper mid-bass bloom or bloat. The soundstage sizing is too big and it takes away from definition of the mid-range. Upsampling helps this a bit but it is very obvious without HQPlayer.

Specific elements in the soundstage are wrongly sized on the Spring. A voice appears 2+ feet wide and tall where the Weiss presents a voice more like the size of someone's head (Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud). On other tracks, the Spring will have a right-channel panned voice directly at the speaker drivers, maybe just to the outside. The Weiss had the right-channel voice about 8" inside the speaker (Jason Mraz "Details in the Fabric (Demo)" We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. We Deluxe Edition.). I'd say the Weiss does it slightly more right but the Spring 3 still remains more interesting and engaging because it imparts some drama. Overall the Weiss had a much narrower sound stage and usually captures everything so that it does not extend outside the speakers.

So, different strokes for different DACs. I still prefer the Holo Spring 3 KTE but it is clear where the Spring has deficiencies. The Weiss DAC 204 sounds like many other D/S DACs I have heard recently but fails to deliver anything unique apart from just not being a bad sounding D/S DAC. We need a lot more than that today for $3500. I understand very well what it means to manufacture exceptionally well made products in Switzerland but the DAC 204 feels like a standard product at a premium price. I have 100% confidence that it is exceptionally well engineered and manufactured with great care for quality and precision. I think it would do well to reconsider its market position and could be much more competitive with a few alterations.

Side note, it's super tiny so that's neat. I put it on a single IsoAcoustic isolation puck because I thought it was funny.

 

I actually thought it sounded better on 5 isolation pucks in a perfect pentagon!

Joke aside, the feature set is clearly meant for pro use, where the user can loop the SPDif signal out (from USB) and back in for DSP purpose.
A more consumer-friendly use would be a miniDSP for room correction, for example. But yeah, that’s an expensive proposition.

The one aspect I really like about the DAC204 (besides its excellent D/S sound) is the small size. Not the form factor per se (the DAC205 is a lot more “proportionate”), but the small footprint is great for bedside setup on a nightstand or a small desk.

I’m still tbd on different PSUs. Got the Plixir Statement BDC 9V but didn’t really get to compare it with stock. Got a Farad Super3 7V on the way, too. We shall see…

 

So just boxed it up. Had it for (I think) about 9 days or so. I had it baking for the first 4 solid days before any listening.

I did a direct substitute in my system for my Yggdrasil A1, otherwise chains were identical.

First, I mostly sync up/align with @Greg121986 said. It is the best DSS I’ve heard (I’ve only had a few but…). Its soundstage was as wide as my Yggdrasil, but not quite as expansively deep on my reference classical CDs. Tonality is nicely warm without being artificial or muddy. I did notice some glare occasionally when running it at 0dB, but that was better at -10dB.

Single ended into Kara, it was not up to the Yggdrasil in several ways, width (especially) and depth; balanced was better but see paragraph above.

I actually LOVE it’s form factor; it fits nicely next my Koss ESP950 transformer/step up unit.

I think the build quality is actually quite excellent, not flamboyant, but industrial sturdy in a polished way. However, the power “supply” (and I use that term loosely), is pure excrement. Noise Nuke or equivalent/better is MANDATORY. Which at the street price of this unit is highly insulting.

And that’s the nub, really. I got my Yggdrasil A1 for $1200. This is not particularly any better in any way I could discern in my system - note I ONLY compared via speakers - than my Yggdrasil… and it’s like 3x the price. I suppose if I needed those extra sample rate conversion features, then *maybe* (?).

So, yeah. It’s good. Quite good. But so is my Yggdrasil. Do remember that my hearing is good to around 14K (via my test records and sweeps) via my speakers, so I’m missing 2/3 of that last upper octave. But, one would think that would help ameliorate any HF digital nasties (which I’ve found are incumbent with DSS usually); but once I dropped the gain by 10dB, it didn’t have any more (or less?) than Yggdrasil.

Verdict - hard pass due to price and insultingly excremental power supply. All that said, I’m quite “open” to the idea that a really excellent power supply (e.g battery?) might take it to another level; I could hear that happening. I’m a bit of a clean power freak as it is. (On that topic, the Noise Nuke was connected to my central power service by the Tice Power Block/Titan combo down in the basement).

If I were the product manager for that Swiss Company (I’m actually one in real world for another Swiss company!) I would immediately mandate a complete rethink and redesign of the power aspect. And NO, you don’t get to raise the price

Thanks all for entrusting me with this opportunity!

@ilikebananafudge_ you’re up next, Adam! Sent a PM

 

The Farad Super3 takes it up another level, indeed. But there’s another $600-1000 depending on configuration.
It’s inching closer to the WaveDream but it’s not quite there yet.

At $2,000 it would be a much easier buy and maybe $2,500 with a PSU upgrade.

It’s an excellent DAC, just too expensive and with useless features for the non-pro market.

 

Just boxed this up and sent along to the next Friend, so first off, thanks so much for the opportunity to put ears on the Weiss 204.

I won't blabber on too much because I think a lot has already been said that mirrors my experience and direct comparisons with this DAC. Short bullet list:

• it's among the best, if not the best ESS Sabre implementation in terms on tonal correctness/least digtitus that I've heard (full disclosure, I'm not hip to all the Topping ESS 9069-DSL stuff with princess-queef SINAD measurements)
• Although the IMD measurements say otherwise, I could detect no Sabre Glare
• The form factor is pleasant and useful
• It makes zero sense at $3k
• I didn't fart around with any of the knobs buttons or switches; 44.1k/16bit and -10dB
• the build quality is commensurate with the price, now that I've seen/touched the thing in person; it appears a bit DIY from pics, but now that I've seen it close up, it's all custom/short run casework and all of the connectors and switchgear are really nice/expensive. Non-Chinese BOM shit adds up, yo!

Overall, it sits somewhere between Yggdrasil A2 and LIM in terms of spaciousness. Tone/timbre it's pretty even with A2, LIM is more convincing than both.

This is a killer $799 ESS-whispered DAC.

 

As usual, thanks to everyone for making these tours happen on SBAF. I really enjoy getting home demos of interesting audio gear.


AUDIO CHAIN & GEAR

Roon --> HQPlayer (192k, poly-sinc-gauss-hires-lp, NS9) --> Yggdrasil+ OG/A2 | Weiss DAC204 (w/ Noise Nuke) --> ECP DSHA-3F --> Utopia | Verite Closed | JAR6XXB | RAD-0

I didn't try any features except as a simple DAC. I only fed it PCM material. I didn't try it without the Noise Nuke, so I can't comment on the stock power supply.


BUILD

I love how small this DAC is. It is so much smaller and easier to manage than my Yggdrasil, especially for my small desktop. The build seemed solid, and the switches, inputs, and outputs were intuitive enough that I didn't have any issues.


SOUND

To preface this review, I must say that I haven't heard many high-end DACs. In fact, I haven't heard that many DACs period, and most of them have been Schiit DACs, so this will basically be a comparison to my Yggdrasil+ OG/A2.

I thought the Weiss DAC204 had a nice, warm tonality. It sounded like it had a downward-sloping frequency response, which I found quite pleasant. In contrast, my Yggdrasil+ OG/A2 sounds more U-shaped, with more emphasis on the deep bass and upper treble. The Weiss has a slightly euphonic sound that is somewhat reminiscent of a tube amp, but it's not quite as wet sounding. I enjoyed this quality quite a bit.

The macrodynamics of the Weiss were good, but definitely not as prominent as the Yggdrasil+ OG/A2, unsurprisingly. When I was listening to my Utopia, I noticed that it was a bit more tame sounding with the Weiss, which was nice when I wanted to listen to music as a background when working. I didn't get distracted as often. However, when I used my RAD-0s, I found the diminished macrodynamics to be quite detrimental to my enjoyment. So it seems like it's a matter of synergy (as always) and personal taste (as always).

I think the biggest weakness of the Weiss was in microdynamics and plankton. Frankly, I thought the Yggdrasil+ OG/A2 easily outperformed it. The Yggdrasil revealed much more nuance in the music, and sounded more realistic and engaging to me as a result. I highly value microdynamics and plankton, so this was a problem for my enjoyment of the DAC. This isn't to say that the Weiss was a poor performer in this area. I just think it should be better at the price point.


CONCLUSION

I thought the Weiss DAC204 was a nice, warm D/S DAC with a slightly euphonic sound and a relatively relaxed presentation relative to my Yggdrasil+ OG/A2. I loved the form factor and enjoyed listening to it. However, it doesn't do as well with microdynamics and plankton compared to my Yggdrasil, which was a problem for my preferences. Ultimately, I think it is overpriced as an audiophile DAC unless synergy and/or personal preference aligns with its characteristics.

 

Try the following HQP settings (Shared by Miska):
Dither- TPDF or Gauss1
1x & nx - poly sinc short mp
bit rate-192k
dac bits - 24
Are you using any NAA machine as an endpoint ?
Have you tried the stock filter (without HQP)? If No, then select none in 1x, nx, dither menu & keep vol as -3db . It is better to route the stream via HQP instead of roon RAAT.