WEISS DAC501 DSP D/A Converter And Network Renderer

DAC501 DSP D/A Converter And Network Renderer

The DAC501 / DAC502 are the new state-of-the-art D/A converters with an unprecedented level of sophistication and versatility.

With the DAC50x, a new paradigm has been created for what was once a black box device. The typical D/A converter is a “turn it on and forget it” device. Not so with the DAC50x: a series of interesting signal processing features have been added, as well as a wide variety of digital inputs. Balanced, unbalanced and headphone outputs are available.

Weiss Engineering has a 30-year history of designing D/A converters. In that time they have learned a lot about converter design, and the DAC50x is the culmination of their experiences.

Main features

Mechanics
The DAC50x uses a stainless steel chassis with a solid 10mm aluminum front plate.

Diet
A powerful non-switching power supply is used. All sensitive voltages have their own regulators which are separated between the left and right channels. The result is an analog output free of "digital noise" and channel crosstalk. The power switch activates a semiconductor relay which is only switched on or off at zero crossings of the mains voltage. This ensures trouble-free power switching. The two mains transformers are toroidal type. The selection of the mains voltage is done automatically by measuring the mains voltage before power is applied to the rest of the electronics.

Synchronization
An internal high precision/low jitter clock generator is responsible for clocking the D/A converter section. The sampling rate of that generator is fixed at approximately 195kHz. Input signals are converted at the 195kHz sampling rate for optimum signal quality. This scheme also helps to significantly reduce jitter effects. All standard sampling rates up to 384kHz plus DSD x64 and x128 are supported.

Digital inputs
There are a total of five entrances:

• AES/EBU or S/PDIF via XLR, Toslink and RCA sockets
• UPnP / DLNA via Ethernet
• USB

Accepted formats: PCM 44.1kHz up to 384kHz, DSD 64x / 128x.

Future formats can be adapted to software updates.

Roon Compatibility
Yes, Roon Ready & Roon Tested.

Signal Processing
The DAC50x features a digital signal processing (DSP) chip.

The following DSP algorithms are currently implemented or will be implemented soon:

• Room Equalizer - to suppress Room modes for proper bass reproduction.
• Creative Equalizer - A tone control with low, mid and high frequency boost/cut. Very useful for correcting recordings that don't sound right.
• De-Essing - the automatic removal of excessively bright sibilance from human voices. The sibilance effect can be more or less pronounced depending on the speakers or room acoustics.
• Constant Volume - Adjusts the audio volume (loudness) to a constant value on all tracks being played. Useful for "party mode" when the volume control should remain unchanged.
• Vinyl emulation - to achieve the special sound character of a turntable-based playback chain. There is also an emulation of the DMM-CD procedure offered by the Stockfisch label.
• Crosstalk Cancelling (XTC) - for playback of head-based recordings or live recordings via loudspeakers for an incredible live listening experience. Binaural head-based recordings are usually listened to with headphones because they only work properly if the left channel goes to the left ear only and the right channel only to the right ear. With loudspeakers this is difficult to achieve as the left channel goes to the left ear but also to the right ear, and the same thing happens with the right channel, which goes to both ears. But with some clever signal processing of the loudspeaker channels it is possible to suppress crosstalk, i.e. audio going from the left speaker to the right ear and vice versa. If this works properly, the recording sounds as if you were standing in the space where the recording took place. All the reverberation and 3D representation of the sound sources is present (only for loudspeaker-based playback).
• Loudness Control - an audio equalization based on the listening volume
• Headphone Equalizer - to adapt any headphone to the listener's ear in terms of frequency response.

Converters
Two of the latest 32-bit D/A Converter chips are used. Two channels of D/A conversion are used per audio channel, resulting in outstanding performance.

Analog outputs

• Unbalanced line output on RCA connector.
• Balanced line output on XLR connector.
• Headphone output on 1/4" analog jack.

Discrete output stages are used for both the line and headphone outputs.

Output levels can be roughly set in 4 steps to match the connected amplifier or headphone. Levels can be set independently for line and headphone outputs.

No power-assisted mechanisms are used that degrade the sound.

Front Panel Controls

• Rotary encoder knob for changing parameters and turning the unit on and off.
• A touch screen color LCD display.
• A 1/4 inch headphone jack.
• An IR receiver.

Rear panel elements

• Analog outputs on XLR and RCA connectors.
• Digital inputs on XLR, RCA, TOSLINK, USB, Ethernet connectors.
• USB Type-A connector for various applications.
• Network connector with fuses.

Infrared remote control
It allows you to control various functions of the DAC50x, in particular:

• The input selected for conversion.
• The output type, the level, the muting, the absolute polarity.
• On/Off.
• DSP presets.

Web Interface
The DAC50x features a web interface for configuration via a web browser. The following functions are accessible via the web interface:

• Volume and balance controls.
• Input selection.
• Output type.
• Configuring DSP algorithms.
• Configuring DSP snapshots.