T+A DAC 200 or WEISS 501

Steve Huffs reference DAC is the T+A DAC 200 with his Aavik U-150 Integrated amp. He has had MANY DACs to review and he's more into the Musicality of gear than what the specs are. I'd go with the T+A.

@mbmi Don't blink when referencing Huff, he seems to have move on from the T+A and settled in with the Weiss 204. He has moved on from the Aavik as well.

Here is his review of the Weiss 204 dac.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4BXvyLOpY

@dougthebiker 

thanks for that info, I’ve got about 100 hours signal time on both so far. Did you find the DS 2 lost detail as it burned in? My experience with DACs and most electronics is they open up and get smoother, but apparent detail improves. 

I demoed the T+A 200 against my Denafrips Terminator Plus 12th addition. The T+A was much more natural and pleasing to my ears. I put an order in for the T+A, sold the Terminator, and then things took a strange turn. Long story short, I sold all my gear and purchased a pair of Dutch & Dutch 8C's. I'm done upgrading and tweaking.

I have both the T+A 200 and Mola Mola Tambaqui.

I'm still early in my evaluation of the T+A 200, but I can say without question it's bass presentation is quite substantial. I had to dial down my sub's by about 10% to quell the overwhelming boomy sound. I'll be honest I feel the MMT handles low frequency better then the 200, but I might possibly give the 200 the edge as far as far lateral left to right sound field width. When I say this I do mean very isolated far left to far right sounds appear to be coming from Beyond the speaker more so with the 200 then my MMT. However it's not even a question as far as holographics and center image generation the MMT is much more enjoyable in that regard than the 200.

The MMT is 3-5k more expensive then the 200 and to that I say the 200 is a great DAC, and it can handle DSD which is a draw especially with my SACD's.

I was interested in the 501, because of the DSP capability, but I was also very interested in the Meitner DAC MA3.

Now the MA3 and 501 being the roughly the same price I would definitely want to see these DAC's side by side to A/B them, but as interested as I am in these two DAC's, I am not interested in spending another $2,500 above what the 200 has to offer.