I am curious if there has been any DIY project or kit that is on the level of the Weiss Engineering DAC202? The price of the unit is outrageous and I am sure it could be remade for a fraction of the cost. Doing that on my own however is way beyond my skills.
Well...
The Twisted Pear Buffalo II will get you the closest. The Weiss 202 uses the ESS 9018 DAC chip, with an IC opamp based output stage, and is engineered by one of the best teams in digital audio. The B-II also uses the ESS 9018, and the Twisted Pear developer has been working with the ESS chips (and closely with ESS) since their inception, so the 9018 implementation on the B-II is very well sorted out.
But, I do not know anyway to DIY the Firewire interface on the DAC 202, unless you are very accomplished in the realm of computer interfacing and code writing.
If a computer interface is what you are looking for, it is likely that the best one for using (or integrating into) the Buffalo II DAC would be the HiFace Evo, using its I2S output to feed the I2S input on the Buffalo (keep the I2S cable very short).
Twisted Pear is working on a new USB interface board that may well compete with the best out there (and reportedly will support sample rates up to 32/384!) but it seems like this USB board is a few months away at least.
note: your posted picture is not of the Weiss 202! That looks like the INT 202 which is just a Firewire to SPDIF interface.
The Twisted Pear Buffalo II will get you the closest. The Weiss 202 uses the ESS 9018 DAC chip, with an IC opamp based output stage, and is engineered by one of the best teams in digital audio. The B-II also uses the ESS 9018, and the Twisted Pear developer has been working with the ESS chips (and closely with ESS) since their inception, so the 9018 implementation on the B-II is very well sorted out.
But, I do not know anyway to DIY the Firewire interface on the DAC 202, unless you are very accomplished in the realm of computer interfacing and code writing.
If a computer interface is what you are looking for, it is likely that the best one for using (or integrating into) the Buffalo II DAC would be the HiFace Evo, using its I2S output to feed the I2S input on the Buffalo (keep the I2S cable very short).
Twisted Pear is working on a new USB interface board that may well compete with the best out there (and reportedly will support sample rates up to 32/384!) but it seems like this USB board is a few months away at least.
note: your posted picture is not of the Weiss 202! That looks like the INT 202 which is just a Firewire to SPDIF interface.
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