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OWNERS MANUAL FOR WEISS DAC202 D/A CONVERTER 

 

Page 

5

  Date: 03/10 

 

OUR MISSION AND PRODUCT PHILOSOPHY 

 

The wealth of experience we have gained in over 20 
years of designing products for top Mastering Engineers, 
we now apply to the design of outstanding High-End Hi-
Fi products.  
Our mission is to create equipment which becomes 
classic right from the outset; - outstanding in sonics and 
design.  

 
These are some of the milestones at Weiss 
Engineering: 

1985 Introduction of the "102 Series", a 24 bit modular 

digital audio processor for Mastering Studios  

1986 Introduction of one of the first sample rate 

converters for digital audio  

1987 Introduction of one of the first digital equalizers  

1989 Introduction of one of the first digital dynamics 

processors  

1991 Introduction of the "Ibis" digital mixing console, 

built for the mix-down of classical music  

1993 Introduction of the "Gambit" Series of digital audio 

processors, which employ 40 bit floating point 
processing and sport an extremely ergonomic 
user interface  

1995 First 96kHz sampling rate capable products 

delivered  

2001 Introduction of the MEDEA, our High-End Hi-Fi D/A 

converter and the first product in our High-End 
Series 

2004 Introduction of the JASON CD Transport 

2007 Introduction of the CASTOR, our High-End Hi-Fi 

Power Amplifier 

2008 Introduction of the MINERVA Firewire DAC and the 

VESTA Firewire – AES/EBU Interface 

2010 Introduction of the DAC202 Firewire DAC, the 

INT202 Firewire Interface and the ATT202 
Passive Attenuator 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Summary of Contents for DAC202

Page 1: ...Weiss Engineering Ltd Florastrasse 42 8610 Uster Switzerland www weiss highend com DAC202 OWNERS MANUAL...

Page 2: ...esearch and development process Research was conducted both in analog and digital circuit design as well as in signal processing algorithm specification On the following pages I will introduce you to...

Page 3: ...ed digital and analog audio concepts explained 6 Jitter Suppression Clocking 7 Upsampling Oversampling and Sampling Rate Conversion in General 9 Reconstruction Filters 10 Analog Output Stages 10 Dithe...

Page 4: ...es the Gambit Series was launched taking ergonomics and sonic quality to new heights The Gambit Series consists of stand alone units like Equalizer Denoiser Declicker Dynamics Processor A D converter...

Page 5: ...f one of the first digital equalizers 1989 Introduction of one of the first digital dynamics processors 1991 Introduction of the Ibis digital mixing console built for the mix down of classical music 1...

Page 6: ...ove then there is the D A Converter where the same mechanism as in the A D Converter applies and the third is the Asynchronous Sample Rate Converter ASRC The ASRC is not something usually found in Hi...

Page 7: ...4 1kHz in the case of a CD But the PLL should not follow the short term fluctuations jitter Think of the PLL as beeing like a very slow reacting flywheel In the DAC202 we employ a two stage PLL circui...

Page 8: ...with the help of a low pass filter which cuts off the frequencies above 22 05kHz In practice such a filter has a limited steepness i e if it suppresses frequencies above 22 05kHz it also suppresses f...

Page 9: ...n audio D A converter chips have such an upsampler or oversampler already built into the chip One particular chip for instance upsamples the signal by a factor of eight i e 44 1kHz ends up at 352 8kHz...

Page 10: ...c distortions at low levels but which nonethless cause the audio to sound harsh and unpleasant The harmonic distortion is generated because the eight bits which are cut off from the 24 bits are correl...

Page 11: ...if the upsampler generates a word length of more than 24 bits it should be dithered to 24 bits for maximum signal fidelity I hope these excursions into the theory and practice of audio engineering ha...

Page 12: ...A connectors for analog audio output One XLR and one RCA connector for AES EBU and S PDIF audio output One inch jack socket for headphones Backpanel elements from left to right Analog outputs on XLR a...

Page 13: ...lf the sampling rate i e 88 2 or 96 kHz Frontpanel elements Standby LED IR Receiver Headphone socket LCD display Rotary encoder with switch Insert mode If the insert mode is activated an external digi...

Page 14: ...trol Power Supply A powerful non switching power supply is used All sensitive voltages have their own regulators Remote Control The IR remote control allows to control the following parameters Power o...

Page 15: ...as a steeper frequency response than B Future DAC202 software will offer more filter choices All DAC202 units can be software updated via Firewire Operation Installation Unpacking and Setup of the DAC...

Page 16: ...the volume in dB deciBel is shown a value of 0 0 is maximum volume Below the dB figure there is a bar which also represents the volume In the upper right corner the polarity is shown with the Greek ch...

Page 17: ...alid signal at the AES EBU input thus it shows unlocked The Options Menu explained Upon entering the Options Menus the display as shown here appears The highlighted item is the one which can be change...

Page 18: ...ally via Firewire With the other inputs the source e g a CD transport has to by synchronized via e g the sync out BNC connector at the back of the DAC202 4 Sync Rate Depending on the Sync Source selec...

Page 19: ...If bypassed the volume knob and the remote control volume work only on the headphone output The main outputs are set to full volume 0 0 dB This mode is used if there is another volume control used in...

Page 20: ...rate as the file played has If the two rates do not match then there is a sampling rate conversion going on and bit transparency can not be achieved When this is all fine play the file and activate t...

Page 21: ...insert an external processing stage into the audio stream e g a digital equalizer The secondary input so called insert return is selected within the config menu Each basic mode can be operated in eith...

Page 22: ...DAC chip XLR out left channel RCA out right channel APB The Firewire output going to the computer for recording is fed from the source specified as the sync source XLR selected as sync source XLR is t...

Page 23: ...source can be specified as the XLR input the RCA input the Toslink input the WC BNC input the 1394 bus or the internal sync generator Mode AES XLR input dual wire no insert The XLR input left channel...

Page 24: ...k input the WC BNC input the 1394 bus or the internal sync generator Mode S PDIF RCA input dual wire insert active This mode is not supported Mode S PDIF TOS input single wire no insert The TOS input...

Page 25: ...are routed to DAC chip XLR out left channel RCA out right channel Firewire out APB The Firewire input and RCA inputs are not routed anywhere The sync source can be specified as the XLR input the RCA...

Page 26: ...t 1 From the mounted drive double click WeissFirewire 3 3 3 3586 pkg the version numbers can be different of course 2 Click Continue 3 Select the drive usually you leave it at the defaults 4 Click Con...

Page 27: ...should sync to Usually this is the DAC202 s internal clock generator Buffer Size Larger buffer sizes increase robustness against dropouts lower buffer sizes provide low latency Operation Mode determin...

Page 28: ...DAC202 s internal clock generator Sampling Rate The sampling rate of the device when internally clocked When clocked synching to one of the other interfaces XLR RCA TOS the sampling rate indicated re...

Page 29: ...Bu 4 15Vrms with a 0dBFS sinewave input 7 74 dBu 2 12Vrms with a 0dBFS sinewave input 2 72 dBu 1 06Vrms with a 0dBFS sinewave input RCA output 14 44 dBu 4 075Vrms with a 0dBFS sinewave input 8 57 dBu...

Page 30: ...Fs 44 1kHz Filter A 0Hz 20kHz within 0 1dB Fs 44 1kHz Filter B 0Hz 20kHz within 1 1dB Fs 88 2kHz Filter A 0Hz 20kHz within 0 1dB Fs 88 2kHz Filter A 0Hz 40kHz within 0 7dB Fs 88 2kHz Filter B 0Hz 20k...

Page 31: ...dBr 0 0000795 40 dBFS input level 122 dBr 0 0000795 70 dBFS input level Linearity at 0 to 120dBFS input level Less than 0 4dB deviation from ideal Spurious components including harmonics At 0dBFS inp...

Page 32: ...CONTACT For any questions suggestions etc feel free to contact us at Weiss Engineering Ltd Florastrasse 42 8610 Uster Switzerland Phone 41 44 940 20 06 Fax 41 44 940 22 14 Email weiss weiss ch Web htt...

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