WEISS ENGINEERING

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Introducing Weiss Engineering

The names of Daniel Weiss and his company Weiss Engineering may be somewhat unfamiliar to audiophiles in North America, but in the pro world, the company has provided state of the art digital processors to recording and mastering studios since 1985. Early users of Weiss converters included the Harmonia Mundi and Sony Classical labels, both renowned for their technical prowess and the excellence of their recordings.

Since 2000, Weiss has manufactured digital audio products for the high-end consumer market. Their first products were a DAC and a CD transport; since then, a full range of converters and interfaces have been marketed.

All Weiss products, both pro and consumer, are built to the highest standards of construction and performance. The current line of Weiss consumer products is led by the DAC501 and DAC502. The two DACs share the same architecture and performance, and differ primarily in form-factor: the DAC501 is in a compact enclosure, enabling flexible placement in both desktop and standard systems; the DAC502, shown below, is in a standard, full-sized enclosure, and adds a 4-pin balanced headphone jack on the rear of the unit.

Here are a few of our favorite WEISS ENGINEERING selections:

WEIS 501 STREAMER/DAC WITH DSP

The Weiss 501 is a tour de force of engineering combining as it does a State of the Art DAC, a upnp streamer and DSP which allows the user to tailor the sound to the acoustics of your listening room.Frequency adjustments and special modes, like Vinyl , make this Swiss Army Knife of a digital component impressive in its flexibility.

However, what is really impressive is the sound WHICH IS RELLY WITHOUT FAULT

As John Atkinson,Editor in Chief at Stereophile at the time, commented:

".Listening
The immediate impression was of extraordinary clarity. This wasn't as if the edges of the objects within the soundstage had been enhanced, as can be done to images with PhotoShop, but as if the pixel count of the image had been increased. It didn't manage this by emphasizing treble detail, but to resort to an audio reviewer cliché, the DAC502 cleaned the window into the recorded soundstage to an impressive extent...

(U)ltimately, musical enjoyment is what this product is all about. As I write this conclusion, I am listening to Stanford's hauntingly engaging song "The Blue Bird," performed by the Gabrieli Consort directed by Paul McCreesh (from Silence & Music, 16/44.1k FLAC, Signum Classics/Tidal). The interplay between the unaccompanied voices, the bell-like interjections of the high soprano, the setting of all the singers within a supportive chapel acoustic—the Weiss DAC502 made all these aspects clear, in service of the music. Which is what a great audio component should do."STEREOPHILE, Jul 24, 2020

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Weiss Helios

The Helios WEISS'S state of the art D/A converter with an unprecedented level of sophistication and versatility. With the Helios we are creating a new paradigm for what used to be a black box device."It's an 8-channel D/A converter with four DACs per channel," the younger Weiss explained. "The housing is fully anodized aluminum. The 502 that Stereophile reviewed also has four channels, but they're split between the speaker feed and the headphone feed. The Helios has four channels on the left and four on the right. What's most significant, however, is the unit's analog stage, whose new discrete operational amplifiers are of the utmost importance." A typical D/A Converter is a ”set and forget” device. Not so with the Helios. It adds a number of interesting signal processing features and sports a variety of digital inputs. Balanced, unbalanced and headphone outputs are provided. Weiss Engineering has a 30 year history in D/A Converter design. In that time span we have learned a thing or two about converter design. The Helios is the essence of our experiences