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High Resolution playback: X03SE (SACD) vs. Minerva (24/192 FLAC)
We are now getting to the heart of the discussion where our audiophile hobby is headed. Prior to listening to the Minerva, I was of the opinion that SACD would remain an audiophile niche, offering the benefits of high resolution while preserving the tactile pleasure and safety of a solid medium. Today, I am not so sure that SACD needs to survive.
Now don’t flood me with hate mail for that statement. I am not suggesting that SACD should die the sudden and brutal death of DVD-A. All I am saying is that there are now options that won’t leave an audiophile wanting when it comes to high-resolution digital playback if SACD were to fade.
A couple of things changed my perspective on this matter. One, our local network was recently upgraded to fiber optics and download speeds of 12Mbps are now commonplace, allowing the download of a 1-hour 24/192kHz album (roughly 2GB of data as FLAC) in under 15 minutes. That’s a substantial leap frog from the previous two hours. If this type of speed can be seen in the middle of AmishLand where plows are still drawn by horses, it should be readily available everywhere.
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The second element is once again the Weiss Minerva. For all intent and purposes, I can’t call one format better than the other. I can call preferences and differences and we’ll talk about what they are but when considering either option holistically it will come down to preferences, certainly not raw performance.
Thanks to 2L’s generosity, I had plenty of material to compare between SACD and 24/192 PCM. The Mozart/Grieg piano works Vol I and Vol II reviewed by David, Missa da Tromba, Islandsmoen’s Requiem, Stone Rose reviewed by Joël, Grieg’s Piano Concerto recreation on pianola that will be the topic of a triple review soon, Vivaldi’s Belleza Crudel, Divertimenti and Mozart’s Violin Concertos by Marianne Thorsen - those and Händel’s Messiah by the Dunedin Consort served as the base for the following comments.
In a hair-splitting contest, I’d ultimately say that SACD still had a small edge on resolution which could have been due the more open and extended treble of the X03SE rather than a true difference between formats yet I seemed to hear it in the bass as well. But the true indicator that both technologies are equals was found in about a third of the recordings sounding slightly better in SACD, a third slightly better in 24/192 PCM whereas on the remaining third I really could not call a preference.
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Typically vocal music sounded better through the Minerva with a rich and truly engaging midrange that just drew me in. When it came to reproducing recorded hall ambiance though, the X03SE seemed to have a small edge with a deeper soundstage and a slightly more engulfing sound. This could be the Minerva’s only point of relative weakness. It never quite matched the soundstaging depth of the X03SE which is not to say that it was flat but that the various planes of an orchestra separated better through the X03SE - perhaps thanks to its more extended treble again, I am not sure.
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On any disc that suffered from a slight edge or a remnant of digital etch, the Minerva simply jumped ahead in satisfaction and musicality in a fashion highly reminiscent of the Esoteric D05 I reviewed a year ago. That said, the Minerva never suffered from the slight lack of dynamics I felt with the D05, the difference residing probably in the very high quality low-impedance balanced outputs of the Minerva inherited from the professional background of the brand.
I very much enjoyed the deep, powerful and detailed bass presentation of the Minerva but triangles and cymbals had more harmonic complexity and longer decays through the X03-SE. If you are more earth than air, the Minerva will be your anchor.
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If you live for the last instants of treble decays, the Minerva might not give you ultimate satisfaction but based on a couple of informal listening sessions I recently attended, I can say that this would be one of the areas where paying the long green for a Weiss Medea converter would likely yield major improvements over the Minerva together with soundstaging depth. The Medea does not have a Firewire input but the Weiss Vesta will handle Firewire to AES/EBU conversion in a transparent fashion if you wanted to exploit a Medea DAC in a computer-based system.
For the past three months, I shuttled back and forth between one format and the other and still can’t identify a winner. An Esoteric X03-SE vs a Weiss Minerva with dedicated computer, software and backup device cost roughly the same. In the end, I conclude for myself that a system finally exists that could replace SACD without ever having to look back. That’s a far cry from where I started this review.
Where you end up will depend on your comfort level with the idea of giving up physical media from this point forward. It’s the final straw that still makes me uneasy but I will give it a shot with redundant backup solutions for the foreseeable future, especially considering my recent epidemics of hard drive crashes.
Higher-resolution playback: Minerva 24/96 FLAC vs. Minerva 24/192 FLAC
Using 2L’s Divertimenti I had as 24/96kHz and 24/192kHz FLAC files, I was able to assess the benefit of higher sampling rates. Note however that this was with a sample of one to where my conclusions should not be taken as the final word on this issue. Conversely, the fact that both files originated from the same DXD master and had been downsampled by 2L using the same equipment made the comparison quite legitimate.
The conclusion I came to from this one test is that if you have the hard-disk space available, don’t shy away from the higher sampling frequency. There is a small yet audible difference in treble openness and sense of space between both formats, the higher the better. It could be more critical over the Minerva than perhaps other DACs since treble extension and openness are not its strongest suits and anything gained in that area is valuable.
The flip side of this argument is that while the difference is audible, it is certainly not critical. If saving 1GB per hour of music is a concern, feel reassured that musicality will not fall off the face of your earth if you stick to 24/96kHz or 24/88kHz as offered by Linn Records instead of 24/192. In some systems, it might actually sound better.
Communication Protocols: Minerva ASIO vs. Minerva WASAPI
Towards the very end of this review, Daniel Weiss indicated that the Minerva supports Wasapi just as well as Asio communication protocols to provide for another comparison opportunity using Grieg’s Piano Concerto recreation on pianola, a disc with plenty of information, dynamics, treble information and instrumental textures to detect any small difference that might exist between both protocols. To my surprise a difference does indeed exist and Wasapi proved superior on top when it came to resolution, transparency and treble extension. I won’t call it earth-shattering but more one of those small incremental gains which the double-blind testing crowd laughs at but we audiophiles love to pursue.
Again, if you operate under Windows XP, the difference is not big enough to justify an immediate upgrade to Vista or Windows 7 but if you run one of those newer operating systems, skip ASIO and go Wasapi. There will be a small gain in overall resolution. I can’t say that I am anywhere done with my exploration of the Minerva’s capabilities. I have used it in variable output mode to drive Esoteric’s A03 amplifier and my Genesis GR360 directly with good results, hearing more dynamics and control than I recall from the Esoteric D05 in a similar setup yet still preferring using an active preamplifier like Esoteric’s C03 or the far cheaper yet similarly enticing Wyred4Sound STP SE.
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| One thing I have not yet tested is the impact of the various output levels on the sonic signature of the Minerva. I shall report on that in the future in case I discover major gestalt differences as was the case with the C03 preamplifier and its various gain settings. Preliminary tests with power cords and interconnects would seem to indicate that the Minerva is fairly insensitive to power cords once you move up a few notches from freebies. Interconnects on the other hand seem to matter quite a bit, the more transparent the more rewarding (which is very different from tilted up as some silver cables can be) but more testing will be required to confirm those first impressions. |
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To sum it up, the Minerva is a superb-sounding DAC that is rich and organic with plenty of life, energy and dynamics when called for yet possesses that uncanny ability only displayed by the best digital sources to make poor mastering jobs and edgy discs sound good without sacrificing transients and timing precision. And so I’ll leave you with the exact same words I used to open this review. Hopefully now they make sense.
Once in a blue moon, that’s what our award means. It points at a specific piece of gear which conjugates a number of attributes and qualities in a fashion that stands out from the crowd. The Weiss Minerva Firewire DAC certainly stands out in its musical qualities but more importantly in how it redefines high-end digital playback for the future, offering the first fully credible alternative to SACD that I have heard for audiophiles in search of ultimate fidelity.
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Quality of packing: Good.
Reusability of packing: A few times.
Ease of unpacking/repacking: Easy.
Condition of component received: Flawless.
Completeness of delivery: No issue but excessively delayed past the original promise date.
Website comments: Complete and very informative.
Human interactions: Responsive and helpful.
Pricing: Very competitive, even more so in Europe.
Final comments & suggestions: The Minerva has no competition to speak of, is very reasonably priced and opens the door wide into the future – time will tell if it becomes a classic but it has all the attributes of one and there is no doubt in my mind that the Minerva is the archetype of tomorrow’s digital high-end. Picking the right software is critical to fully enjoying the Minerva and J. River Media Center proved to be the ticket for me. |
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