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Pro Audio Review

Weiss Engineering Gambit Series SFC2 and dCS 972 Converters

by Dr. Frederick J. Bashour

My experience with these two units over the past few months changed my opinion

of sample rate conversion by 180 degrees. I had thought the process of changing

digital data's sample rate from one frequency to another as a necessary evil - one to

be avoided at all costs.

I had not, however, heard the results of conversion through state-of-the-art

hardware. Having done so, I now view sample frequency conversion (SFC) as

another important and useful tool in the audio engineers toolbox.

The first hint that I needed to change my opinion came even before I received the

first of these two boxes. Bascom King, PAR's bench test writer, warned me in

advance that he believed the simple act of playing a 44.1 kHz CD through the 972,

up-sampling it to 192 kHz and listening back through the dCS 954 DAC at the same

high sampling rate actually made a significant improvement in the sound quality - as

compared with leaving everything in the 44.1 kHz domain.

To make a long story short, King was correct. I have never heard better sound from

my CDs as when played back using this scenario. My audiophile Wadia DAC has

finally met its match! But this is just the tip of the iceberg - I've found the sonic

characteristics of up-sampling SFC, as implemented by both the boxes under

scrutiny here, to be an improvement, never a reduction, in sound quality.

Features: Weiss Engineering Gambit Series SFC2

The SFC2 is a one-rack-space unit containing two separate synchronous sampling

frequency converter circuits and, thus, can simultaneously up-sample a digital audio

signal, output it to a high sample rate piece of effects equipment, receive the effected

signal and then down-sample it to the sample frequency it originally had. A possible

reason for doing this is not difficult to understand.

Most of us appreciate the limitations upon frequency response and linearity of

phase behavior imposed upon digital signals by the exigencies of the Nyquist

frequency - half the sampling frequency. A digital equalizer, for instance, is often

modeled upon its analog counterpart with the aid of bilinear transformation. This

transformation has the property of mapping the analog frequency range to a

foreshortened digital frequency range from 0 Hz to the Nyquist frequency - 22.05 kHz

in a standard 44.1 kHz system.

Designing a digital equalizer, or compressor with extended linear performance for

that matter, is much less problematic when done at higher sampling rates such as

88.2, 96, or even 176.4 or 192 kHz. The Weiss SFC2 can prepare digital signals for

use in such processing equipment.

Its front panel is very clearly laid out. One of four LEDs lights up when the unit locks

to the input sampling frequency. The user simply pushes one of four large

pushbuttons (which illuminate when activated) to select the output frequency: 44.1,

48, 88.2 and 96 kHz.

Another section with three LEDs and two pushbuttons selects between output

wordlengths of 16 or 20 bits (the SFC features 24 bit throughput when this option is

not chosen), and whether appropriate noise shaped dither is applied to the

wordlength-reduced outputs. A final switch selects auto-blacking to eliminate dither

noise during periods of "digital black."

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Pro Audio ReviewWeiss Engineering Gambit Series SFC2 and dCS 972 Convertersby Dr. Frederick J. Bashour My experience with these two units over the pa

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The power toggle switch is on the front panel. The rear panel contains two pairs ofmale and female XLR connectors for outputs A and B and a universa

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taken back to other inputs in the Z-Systems router; those outputs were patchedsimultaneously to the dCS 954 DAC, two channels of one of my MergingTech

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The Weiss SFC2, at about half the cost of the dCS unit, sounds absolutely killer at96 kHz. The company is working a mod that combines its two sectio

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DCS 954 Bedienungsanleitung

Stöbern Sie online oder laden Sie Bedienungsanleitung nach Zusätzliche Musikausrüstung DCS 954 herunter. Weiss Engineering Gambit Series SFC2 and dCS 972 Converters Benutzerhandbuch

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