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Bidat vs Perfect Wave vs Weiss and others

This is thread I started a while ago and promised in February i would start doing some real world comparative testing using the Bidat (Plus Mod) as the ref. The units under test are to include in no specific order the MSB Platinum Dac, the Weiss Minervera and the Playback Design player. I posted this under the follow-up of the original thread and it is there is you do a search under Digital for "ps audio perfect". I can't understand why it did not 'promote' to the top of the digital section as it did in the past whenever there was a new contribution, so I have started a new related thread with the first entry of my fun (and I hope edifying comparative experiences).
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Ok, I just got a broken in Weiss Minerva (several hundred hours at least). It has been in my system burning in for about 18 hours (18 hours since arriving in my home, time to come to thermal equilibrium). I have done some comparative listening to the Museatex Dcc-1 (a rarely known digital preamp 19 bit dual differential type) using glass Tos on both and then glass on the DCC1 vs a very expensive (can't name it yet as the manufacturer has not released it...sorry :( ) Firewire on the Weiss. I have a Mac Mini (2007 model) 2.0 ghz Core2Duo with 4Gig of ram running Leopard (although this model can only see 3.01 gig of that (I used 4gig as the memory transfer is optimized when the mem modules are the same). I also have a 1TB NAS (all over wifi). I am of course going to reserve final judement until a bit later.

I will be comparing the Museatex Bidat with the Plus Mod later this weekend. As a teaser, I will go on record and say that honestly at this point I don't agree with the stellar reviews concerning the Weiss Minerva.

It is resolute, almost technicolor but just to give you a short glimpse of what I am hearing, I could imagine a well healed vinyl person listening to Holly Cole on vinyl and then listening to the Weiss (playing the same in CD format) and saying "this is why I will never leave vinyl". Now that may sound harsh, but this is a hobby and I don't have a dog in the race, I am just reporting my ears findings.

I listened to a few high resolution files 176.4/24 and 96/24 but what I heard was a really clear highly resolved soul-less rendition of the music. It never ever made me smile or relax into the music the way the DCC-1/Bidat or even my former (when I actually spun cd's...wow time flies) stellar Dynavox Dynastation 2 (the finest CD player I have ever heard).

In a nutshell (at this point) it just sounds like digital and that aint good in my camp because I am not forgetting about the gear and just listening to the music. I don't like syrupy or dark, I have heard plenty of players try to use that trick to sound musical. No, I look for something that is more elusive and few their be that find that magical combination when forging through the nether regions of the digital domain. I will continue listening to see if the Weiss surprises me :)

More to come...
audiofun
vhiner
544 posts
 
Peter Breuninger of The Absolute Sound just give his 2011 Golden Ear Award to PS audio's Transport/DAC/ Bridge combines Golden Ear Award.

Here's the text:

Here's the text:

"This combination may not equal a handful of
 units that cost far, far more (like the Meinter
 XDS1 or the Meridian 808 Signature), but it
 comes so close that differences are as much
 matters of taste as of the finest nuances of
 sonic detail. The sound is extraordinarily live
 and detailed, and capable of getting the best
 bass response out of digital. The PS gear is
 detailed without any without hardness or edge
 that is not on the recording. A “must-hear”
 unit if you are trying to scale the heights of
 digital—particularly if you are not operating
 on an unlimited budget. It is in the process
 of becoming a full music server with its own
 music-management system, and it can handle
 even the highest sampling and frequency rates
 with ease—making it one of the few buys with
 full growth potential for the future. (Review
 pending)"
tabl10s's avatar
tabl10s
1,090 posts
 
I wonder why it wasn't included in the Dagogo piece? A DAC I found interesting was the DaVinci($15k)USB DAC that's made locally(Sacramento). It's optimized for USB, but is supposed be quite good with standard connections.
vhiner
544 posts
 
I apologize for the garbled post. I swear my iPad keyboard as a mind of it's own. ;-0
vhiner
544 posts
 
The Absolute Sound Golden Ear was awarded by Anthony Cordesman and not Peter Breuninger as previously posted. There was some confusion because of pre-publication posting of the information.
audiofun OP
799 posts
 
I receive the Diverter HR today. I am using it with my Mac mini, pure music 1.8a ( soon to be 1.82 soon as i download it:) my Graaf Modena and MFA Ref passive attenuator. The Dac is the MSB Power Dac. I am using a Grover huffman RCA spdif cable and a standard USB cable. The sound out of the box was quite good, if a bit thin. The thinness almost immediately went the way of the dinosaurs (about 20minutes of play/power-up time) and it is now sounding very full and full of information retrieval. I find that it is better than my "real" glass Toslink from the Mac mini to the MSB. The glass Tos is very very very good and rivaled my former very expensive FIM RCA spdif cable which I still think may be the finest spdif cable i have ever heard.

The Locus Design Cynosure cable will be in my possession sometime next week and will replace the generic USB cable now employed.

The unit is beautiful and has a dot matrix display which indicates the sampling rate.

I have it burning in for the next 5 hours and will do a little more listening tonight. I was told by Josh at Sonicweld that it will need to run in at least a week to really open up.

I sold my EVO some time ago and may get another in order to do a head to head comparison. At this point a comparison would be from memory only but I would say it appears to be (at this point) at the very least every bit as resolute as my former EVO. That is big for two reasons. My EVO was more run-in and I was using my former FIM gold spdif from the EVO to my MSB.

This may not seem like very much info but please standby; as the unit breaks in I will report my findings but it certainly appears tobethe real deal! I feel I made a very good decision.... Oh and HRx recordings?!? Sound spooky good!
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