King of firewire now offers USB

Surprise, surprise. Weiss, which has championed the usage of firewire for its DACs for as long as any audiophile can remember, is now offering a USB option for its popular and excellent DAC 202.


To be called DAC 202U, the DAC is essentially the same as the 202 except for the async USB input - which has become more popular than the firewire - that accepts up to 24/192.


It appears as if Weiss has given in to market demand as all laptops - Windows or Mac-based - have USB ports and I am not sure if any Windows-based laptops still offer firewire connections. The newer laptops also offer USB3 connections.


And in the Apple range, the MacBook Pro, iMac, MacMini and Mac Pro (meant as a server) have firewire ports but the company seems to be more keen on its Thunderbolt port.


Information on the Weiss DAC202U is scant and I only managed to find out that the USB will be asynchronous, uses the XMOS chip and supports up to 24/192 on OS X without additional software. As for Windows users, they have to install Thesycon drivers (which are also used by Ayre).


The USB option for the Weiss DAC 202 was announced during the recent CES in Las Vegas but  there is no news on when it will start shipping out or the extra cost of the USB port.

Belting out good sound

Late last year, Malaysian turntable tweaker Michael Lim telephoned me and asked whether I wanted to try out his Rega turntable belt. I quickly said yes and he turned up in my house with a small plastic bag containing his belt.


I have been using Rega's white belt for a while and have been very satisfied with the results.


Michael Lim's belt, which is sourced from Italy, is made of silicon and is reddish in colour.

Rega's white belt and Michael Lim's red belt.

I quickly slipped his belt onto the motor and plastic sub-platter (I'm still using the original Rega sub-platter) and played an audiophile pressing of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms.


Immediately I noted that the music sounded laidback and relaxed and the images were pushed backwards.


It crossed my mind that I had never heard Dire Straits sounding that way before.


I removed the red belt and slipped on Rega's white belt. Immediately I noted that the music sounded dynamic and punchy - the way I am used to hearing Dire Straits' songs - and the images were moved forward.


I was quite mystified as to how a simple belt could affect sound quality and after much thinking, I came to the conclusion that it had to be linked to the torque of the motor.


Again, I used the red belt and noted that it took about two and a half revolutions before the platter spun at a steady speed. With Rega's white belt, it took only one and a half revolutions.


Thus the white belt, which felt stickier, had more grip on the motor and sub-platter and delivered enough drive to make the platter spin at the right speed faster and ensured speed stability.


The red belt, however, was not as sticky and had less grip and could not provide sufficient drive.


In the end, it boils down to what kind of presentation you prefer - the relaxed, laidback way or the dynamic and punchy way.

Tune in to Aune

Looks like there will be more media players in the market this year. The Chinese-made Aune S1 digital music player is now in town.


The 32-bit player can be used as a DAC or a digital transport or a headphone amp.

It runs on Linux and comes with the AKM 4390 DAC chip. The Aune supports APE, FLAC, TTA, WAV, MP3 and CUE formats.

It has an attractive aluminium casing with an external power supply.

Inputs include e-SATA, USB 2.0, SD card and ethernet.

The price? Around RM1,800. For more info, contact Vince at 012-3321812.

Wyred for good sound

From the outset, I must say that the latest 24/192 capable async USB DACs sound very good. And the Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2 is among the best of this new generation of DACs.

They are both affordable and good and the W4S DAC-2 has been said to be able to match the performance of the previous- generation's top-end DACs.

The W4S DAC-2 comes with a digital volume control that operates in the 32-bit domain and a discrete output stage. Thus it can be connected directly to a power amp and it was in this configuration that I compared it with the resident Benchmark DAC1 Pre.

The W4S DAC-2 is asynchronous, but the technology is its own and it uses the ESS Sabre 9018 DAC chip which can process data up to 32-bit 200kHz. The eight-channel Sabre 9018 chip is used in quad-differential mode to achieve excellent Signal to Noise ratio and output drive capability.

Compared with the Benchmark, the W4S DAC-2 is mellower, richer and fuller. The Benchmark sounds very detailed, a bit lean and clinical with lots of slam while the W4S sounds not as rich and full as the Ayre QB-9 (see http://hi-fi-avenue.blogspot.com/2011/06/go-for-ayre-y-sound.html) but has more bass slam than the Ayre and just a shade less than the Benchmark. In terms of detail, the W4S is just as detailed as the Benchmark, but is less edgy. However, the W4S conjures more depth than the Benchmark. - the soundstage is definitely deeper. In a way, the W4S has the best attributes of the Benchmark and the Ayre - at an affordable price (around RM6,500 rrp).

It has more inputs and features than the Ayre - which has only a USB input - but lacks the headphone jacks and 'analogue in' of the Benchmark DAC1 Pre.

Another advantage that the W4S DAC-2 has is that it has upgradeable digital, output and USB boards. Given the speed at which DAC technology is evolving, future-proofing is quite welcome.

Operating the W4S DAC-2 takes some getting used to. There are three buttons on the front facade - 'power' and 'up' and 'down' - and to enter the Set-up Menu, you have to press all three buttons simultaneously. It took me a while to get it right and reminded me of a Motorola handphone that I had some years ago - if I recall correctly, I had to press two buttons simultaneously to unlock the keypad.

The Set-up Menu has a wide range of functions such as adjusting IIR Bandwidth (I set it to '60kHz') and Roll-off Slope (I set it to 'fast'). These two settings are important as I felt they affected treble extension and transparency.

Through the Set-up Menu, the volume of the various inputs can be set to fixed or variable. 'Fixed' is when you use a preamp and 'variable' is when you connect the DAC-2 directly to the power amp.

I found the volume control a bit confusing as there was no sound till the level was around 20-23. In the Set-up Menu, you can set the minimum and maximum volume level in steps from 0-70. Essentially what happens is that when you set the minimum to, say, 20, it just means that the first 20 steps are skipped when you use the volume control. The maximum can be reduced if there is the danger of overdriving an amp.

Press the three buttons at the same time to enter the Set-up Menu.

Press the 'power' button on and you will enter the selection mode. With the 'cursor' on the top row, pressing the 'up' and 'down' buttons will change the input selection. Press the 'power' button again and the 'cursor' moves to the bottom row and pressing the 'up' and 'down' buttons will change the volume.

The rear panel is crowded as the W4S DAC-2 has lots of inputs - HT Bypass inputs (selectable via DC trigger), two coax, two Toslink, one AES/EBU, one USB and one balanced I2S input via non-standard HDMI. The last input is interesting as it is wired the same way as the the PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport and matching DAC. In fact, the PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport is the only component that can be used with the W4S DAC-2 via HDMI currently. Wyred 4 Sound has just launched its media server which has various outputs including a HDMI. The link between the two companies is that the folks behind W4S used to contractually make PS Audio components.

The rear panel is a bit crowded.

Before you can stream music files to the W4S DAC-2, you need to download the proprietary driver either from the W4S website or the CD-R that came with the unit. The driver is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7 and Mac OS 10.4-10.6 in both 32-bit and 64-bit formats.

In my system comprising an old Toshiba laptop with Windows 7 64-bit running J River V16, I had to set output to 'WASAPI - event style' before the songs could be played.

But once the songs started playing, I was in no hurry to click 'stop' - the music sounded really good. Now I am waiting with bated breath for the W4S music server.

For more information, contact Vince at 012-3321812.

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all Chinese audiophiles.

MIT cable loom: From the outside in

When I was at Tong Lee in Plaza Low Yat, Kuala Lumpur, I managed to obtain various MIT cables and a power distributor for an experiment in setting up an MIT cable loom.


The results were quite interesting as just by plugging all the power cords to the MIT Z Strip, I could already hear the benefits of the MIT sonic signature.


So instead of changing interconnects and speaker cables, using just one MIT power distributor would be enough to improve the sound. It is a case of upgrading the sound system from the outside in.

With the MIT Z Strip in the power supply chain, the immediate effect will be an improvement in the bass and you will be able to follow the bass better, especially the bass guitar which will be heard as a separate entity instead of being fused with the bass drum. The sound will also be cleaner and more detailed.


Plugging a Shotgun Z Trap to the power cord connected to the power amp makes things smoother and removes some sharpness and hardness in the treble.


After that, using the Shotgun MA interconnects and the Shotgun MA biwire speaker cables will result in incremental steps to sonic bliss.


Strangely, if I use the interconnects and speaker cables without the Z Strip power distributor in the sound system, the improvements are more pronounced.

Since the Shotgun Z Trap is a unique universal IEC in and IEC out design, I tried plugging it to a normal power distributor so that every component connected to it would benefit from its power supply cleaning capability. It worked - the sound improved somewhat. But the Z Strip was in another class and outperformed the Z Trap/normal distributor combination.



MIT Shotgun Z Trap.

The MIT Z Strip. The orange sockets are for digital components.



The sound system - with the complete MIT cable loom - performed at a much higher level, but it's a question of whether the MIT sonic signature is what you desire.

The best way to describe the MIT sonic signature would be greater wide-band clarity from the bottom octaves to the highest notes, a more detailed presentation of the music, more stable but etched out imaging, greater transparency and a deeper soundstage. Compared with some other branded cables, the images rendered by MIT cables are somewhat leaner and more etched-out with more defined edges. For want of a better word, the MIT cable loom sounds 'audiophile'.

MIT's power products use parallel filters to filter out mains noise so that dynamics are not restricted. The Shotgun Z Trap uses the American company's parallel filter technology with three 'Filterpoles' while the Z Strip has multiple parallel tuned filters operating over a wide frequency range. The Z Strip will not limit current although there is a 10-Amp fuse.

Of interest is that the MIT Z Strip is one of the few power distributors that has Power Factor correction to reduce transmission losses and improve voltage regulation. It also features surge and spike protection.

It has six hospital-grade US outlets and two digital isolated outlets for the CD/DVD player and DAC.

MIT's interconnects and speaker cables are based on what the company calls 'poles of articulation'. The theory is that one wire can function well only for a limited range of frequencies or what MIT calls 'a single pole of articulation'. Thus the wires are tuned to function in as many 'poles of articulation' as possible, which explains why there are boxes connected to MIT cables.


Indeed, some curious folks have prised open the boxes to find capacitors and inductors inside them.

The MIT Shotgun MA biwire speaker cable. Note the network box.

These 'pigtails' are to connect the network box to the speaker.

The MIT Shotgun MA interconnect.

MIT's impedance matching system is featured in the Shotgun interconnects.

The Shotgun MA interconnects have 22 poles of articulation plus selectable impedance matching networks - technology filtered down from the ultra-expensive Oracle Series. You can select Low, Mid or High input on the selector switch which will make the sound either too bright, too bassy or just right.

The Shotgun MA biwire speaker cables have 32 poles of articulation and use other technologies like the CVT Coupler which is supposed to reduce signal reflections.

The cable loom that I set up costs about RM20,000 which is about the price of a very good DAC or turntable. So it's a question of what your needs are. In a very high-end and expensive sound system, an MIT cable loom may just be the thing to take its performance to a higher level.

Mini Maggies sound like maxi system

A Maggie computer speaker system? Well, the Mini Maggie System functions both as computer speakers and as hi-fi speakers for a small room.


Two small panels and a larger woofer panel make up the Mini Maggie system which essentially is a 3.7 in miniature.


According to the Maggie website, it is the world's first full-range dipole speaker system that will sit on (and under) your desk. 


"The Mini Maggie is essentially a miniaturized version of the 3.7 midrange and tweeter. The Maggie Woofer (DWM) is a small section out of the 20.1 bass driver that sits under your desk in the foot well. Together, it is very much like a 3.7 - up close and personal.


"The Mini Maggie System was originally designed to be a miniature 3.7 on your desk. But, we were pleasantly surprised how well it works in a small room (especially when used with two Maggie Woofers)," the website states.

Manager Ong Liang Heng seems very pleased with
the Mini Maggie System. The small panel on top
of the floorstander (right) is the satellite Maggie
speaker while the bass panel is on the floor to Ong's right.

The satellite Maggie speaker.

The rear of the dipole speaker.

Look closely and you will see the midrange and
tweeter panels of the Mini Maggie.

At Absolute AV Gallery in Amcorp Mall, a Mini Maggie System is on demo and manager Ong Liang Heng said it should cost below RM6,000.


I spent some time listening to it before we adjourned for a cup of tea.


The three-way true ribbon planar-magnetic speaker system sounded surprisingly good in the showroom though the lowest bass octave was not that apparent, but it was enjoyable nevertheless. It is rated to go down to 40Hz and the treble soars to 40kHz.


The sound is very transparent - like all Maggies - and detailed with images that sort of hover in mid-air.


I feel it would be wasted if used as a computer speaker system - it certainly is suitable for a small room. A second system for the bedroom perhaps? Or a main system for a small condo?

Revival of Acoustique Systems

While things involving hi-fi had been evolving around his outlet in Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya, for quite a while, C.N. Lim of Acoustisque Systems had been left out in the cold.


Not any more - his 'revival' began when he was appointed the master dealer of Rythmik sub-woofers for Klang Valley late last year.

Rythmik sub-woofers are available at Acoustique systems.

The Rythmik range had been brought in by Maxx Audio Visual in Seremban and the owner Max Loh roped in Lim to expand his dealership.


Next to knock on Lim's door was Monitor Audio. The popular British speakers are now on demo at Acoustique Systems.

C.N. Lim is now the Klang Valley dealer for Monitor Audio speakers.

Lim was also appointed a dealer for Audiolab products and this popular brand has also been attracting many audiophiles to his outlet.


Recently, Lim became the dealer for DH Labs Silver Sonic cables. Previously, DH Labs cables were sold in The Hi-Fi Shop in 1Utama shopping mall and eversince it closed in late 2010, many Malaysian audiophiles were asking where they could buy the affordable and good DH Labs cables.

DH Labs interconnects, HDMI and co-ax cables on sale at Acoustique Systems.

Power cords from DH Labs with Sine plugs.

Now Lim's outlet is very jampacked as there are lots of boxes of Monitor Audio speakers, Audiolab CD players, Rythmik sub-woofers and DH Labs cables.