Weiss Dac2/Minerva?

Yes, Ofcourse Uncompressed ! Infact for the A/B the Same CDs that were played on the Electrocompaniet were ripped to AIFF.

Yes, Firewire. That is wht I used the iMac.

The Firewire cable was nothing esoteric...

The Same Argento Master Ref Balance Cables were moved from the CD plater to the Minerva, in the comparision.

I was keen to buy the Minerva since it (pre-owned) was offered to me 50% off. After the listen, I did not... :-(

About a month ago, I got a home demo of the Minerva, fed from my IMac running the Apple OS & iTunes.

Frankly, I was disappointed.

The sound did not match that of my CD player, which is nothing esoteric... an Electrocompaniet EC-1 Upsampling... :-(

1. Yes, was certainly running uncompressed .... !

And playing the SAME disc ( ...pressing DO sound different.)

2. Yes, Minerva fed via firewire from the iMac. No esoteric Firewire cable used, though.

The Interconnects were Argento Master Ref, Balanced. The same interconnects were swapped between the CD player and the Minerva.

.... incidentally, I had problems with getting the Minerva recognised using Windows & running Foobar, on the same iMac using Boot camp ( allows Mac & Win OS and a selective startup into either OS. Bootcamp is by Apple ) I would have been a bit wary with Foobar, with the need to ensure ASIO but no such concerns in iTunes running on Mac, so I was genuinely surprised and disappointed at the sound. The (pre-owned) Minerva was on offer at 50% off list, and I was seriously considering a purchase....

Incidentally, I was using the EC-1 Upsampling CD player not the Stand alone DAC by Electrocompaniet...

I am told that the DAC is the same as used in the CD player ( and attractively priced, though without a USB input.)

I have not heard the EC DAC.

A friend who also has the EC-1 Upsampling CD player and has heard the DAC with an Oppo used as a transport, tells me that the EC-1 Upsampling CD player sounded significantly superior....

Just my 2 cents