Daniel Weiss showed up at CES this year with two goodies for CA readers. First, the DAC202 now has an asynchronous USB option. The USB implementation uses the XMOS chip and supports up to 24/192 on OS X without additional software. Support for rates over 24/96 on Windows requires installation of the now commonplace Thesycon drivers. Second, Weiss demonstrated the new MAN301 music server. This version of the Weiss server is 100% better than last year's prototype. The iPad user interface has improved greatly with a very usable and unique method of track selection and playback. The server will come in two versions, one with ($11,730) and one without ($8,670) the DAC202 built-in. Volume control on this server is the usual Weiss coarse analog / fine digital. The server also features word clock in/out, disc ripping, playback from NAS or USB drive, SSD for OS and database only, and user profiles for separate playlists per user. In an effort to eliminate UPnP network issues the MAn301 can be connected directly to the NAS drive's Ethernet port. Control and Internet access is then available via the MAN301's wireless interface. Weiss Engineering hopes to ship the MAN301 in the next couple months.

The HDP-4 has the following features:

Digital outputs as standard instead of as an optional plug in board
New digital pass through outputs the input signal without DSP filtering
All non AES digital inputs and outputs now on 75ohm BNC connectors rather than RCAs
New toslink digital input
Balanced XLR outputs as standard instead of as an optional plug in board
New 24bit 192kHz input (but note DSP processing still occurs at 96kHz)
Optional USB input via new plug in board
All new 32bit 192kHz DACs