Weiss INT203 Announced

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just found this on the Weiss Engineering site.

 

There is a new version of the Firewire to AES/EBU Interface INT202 available. The main difference between the old and the new version is that the INT203 works bidirectional, i.e. from Firewire to AES/EBU and from AES/EBU to Firewire. With this new Interface you can for example plug a A/D Converter on to your computer to digitize your Vinyl. There is no Dualwire mode anymore.

Get further information here: http://www.weiss-highend.ch/int202/index.html

 

 

Features of the INT203:

 

Two Firewire 400 sockets. Firewire 800 can be connected via an appropriate cable

 

Can be powered from the Firewire bus or from an optional power supply

 

One XLR output socket, one XLR input socket

 

One RCA output socket, one RCA input socket

 

Operates up to 192kHz sampling rate

 

Infrared remote control (optional) for volume and absolute phase

 

Volume control is dithered to avoid quantization distortion

 

Bit transparency check feature for testing the computer player software

 

Driver Software:

 

Supports Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7

 

Supports OSX 10.5 and higher

 

Applications:

 

Interfacing any D/A Converter or A/D Converter to a computer for high quality soundfile playback and recording.

 

Interfacing any digital audio equipment with a AES/EBU or S/PDIF input / output to a computer.

 

High quality volume control and absolute phase control of audio played back from a computer.

Size (approx.): depth: 11cm x width: 11cm x height: 5cm

 

[agentsmith]

Does no dual wire mode mean that I will not be able to output 192KHz to DACs that only support 192KHz via dual wire? (e.g. dCS Debussy, old Medea?)

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Agentsmith - Unfortunately you are correct. Weiss has removed the dual wire option from the INT203.

 

[Audio_ELF]

Chris, do you know: is this a replacement to the INT202 or an additional product?

 

Eloise

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Eloise - The 203 is an additional product to the Weiss line-up. Daniel still wants to support dual wire AES with the 202.

 

[joeling]

Is this shipping yet ? I called the Singapore agent for Weiss & they don't even know of the INT203's existence. Pure Music of Australia has it listed on their site so I wrote them as well but have not received any reply.

 

HiFi Technique of Hong Kong has an interesting writeup of this unit. The author mentioned that he connected the wordclock out form his Big Ben to the INT203 for improved performance. Unfortunately, how the Big Ben was connected was not mentioned. Anyone knowledgeable in this area care to elaborate ?

 

Regards,

Joe Ling

 

[ferenc]

before my friend who was the original customer, collected it. Sounds very good with Devialet and Weiss DAC2, Naim DAC and works very well in the other direction as well, as digitizing analog signal through an external A/D converter, then take the SPDIF signal to the computer through the firewire.

 

[joeling]

Thanks for the info. Been trying hard to get a unit but the regional dealer don't even know it is available.

 

Anyone knows where to get a unit ? Does Weiss sell direct ?

 

Regards,

Joe Ling

 

[Quest]

Hi Joe, actually I thought Reference knows about it, just that they are always behind times in terms of stocking it up. They do have the 202 though. I personally don't see much benefit in the 203 since they take away dual wire for an input.

 

203 maybe you can try Kent Poon in HK. If I'm not wrong, Reference also gets their stock from him. Price-wise may be abit higher, but not sure now due to favourable exchange rate.

 

As for word clock, I thought only the Weiss AFI1 could do that. So not sure.

 

[joeling]

Thanks for the comment. I think I will stick to the Minerva for now.

 

Regards,

Joe Ling