Weiss Minerva Dac

i've heard the Minerva. as much as i wanted to like it, i found it to sound rather artificial (it had a "copy & paste" type of presentation / very little cohesion btw the performers). the Weiss Medea DAC i heard immediately after that was MUCH better.

hi Drubin, could you describe the associated equip in both systems?

this is all a bit confusing...

aren't AES/EBU, SPDIF Coax, & Toslink cables limited to 24bit 96kHz bandwidth, & USB 2.0 cables limited to 24bit 48kHz bandwidth?

how does one feed raw 24bit 176kHz (&/or 196kHz) data into these DACs with just a single cable?

also, isn't it redundant to talk abt 48kHz, 96kHz, or 192kHz sample rates when these are typically associated with digital audio tapes (as opposed to audio CDs which typically utilize 44kHz, 88kHz,or 176kHz sample rates)??

exactly. except for the Weiss Minerva, most of these so called "true 24/176 or 192 DACs" don't utilize digital connectors that are even capable of this high native sample rate (& none of these DACs mentioned hv dual AES/EBU, SPDIF, Toslink inputs), so how in the world are they "true 24/176 or 192 DACs"??

you might also wish to look into yr music s/ware's audio resolution. as far as i'm aware, not all s/ware will do 24 bit (e.g. iTunes, etc. will only do 16 bit max). this is not related to what bit rate you actually "lock" yr computer:DAC at... if yr music s/ware's unable to feed 24 bit data to yr computer, then yr computer will not be feeding 24 bit data to yr DAC.

anyway, with regards to the Weiss Minerva, i hv previously compared this DAC at 24/176 against Weiss Medea doing 24/88. downstream components consisted of Gryphon's top-of-the-line components & Gryphon Atlantis speakers. to me, Medea still sounded much better despite Minerva having a higher native sample rate. guess specs may not always tell the whole picture?!

hi Schwinnindia, i agree with yr 3 pts & would like to add another 2:

D - media software needs to be compatible with high def audio files;

& most important of all...

E - there needs to be more titles/albums properly remastered in high def audio formats (no point investing in all this gear to listen to the same 10 CDs over & over).

anyway, i've not managed to hear RR's HRx, but do hv quite a number of RR's discs - which are also very good but prob nowhere near HRx (in a proper setup).

btw, is anyone currently using the Lynx AES-16 24/192 digital I/O? what kind of cables/connectors does this btw the I/O & the DAC?

hi Luvwine, i'm equally confused abt this... maybe someone could shed some light on this?!