Shop Keyboard Deals, Financing, and More

Dangerous Music CONVERT-2 2-channel D/A Converter

Stereo D/A Converter and Monitor Controller with USB, AES, S/PDIF, ADAT, and Optical S/PDIF Support
7 Write review Item ID: CONVERT-2
$2,999.00

Earn $150 back in Bonus Bucks† OR pay $125/month with 24 month financing*

2 demos available starting at $2,699.10 !

Free
Shipping
Tech Support

Free Sweetwater
Support

Free 2-year
Warranty
In Stock!

Add to Cart
Notify me about deals

Ask An Expert

Our expertly trained Sales Engineers are ready to help!

(800) 222-4700
What is a Sales Engineer?
Sweetwater Gear Exchange

Have one to sell?
Check out Sweetwater's Gear Exchange!
Learn More

Most Popular Accessories & Related Items

Dangerous Music CONVERT-2 2-channel D/A Converter
In Stock!
$2,999.00
Add to Cart
Add to list
Back to navigation

Written By

Our Product Research Team

Get to know them!

High-end Stereo Conversion/Monitoring

The Dangerous Music CONVERT-2 gives you high-definition stereo reference monitoring, audiophile-grade mastering front-end playback conversion, and a USB input that connects directly to your DAW. Its no-compromise design leverages Dangerous Music's many years of experience and their dedication to the creation of truly "transparent, yet musical" high-end professional studio gear. The sound is stunningly detailed, with a lavishly defined bottom and breathtaking clarity across the entire audio spectrum. CONVERT-2 is smartly designed, extremely useful, and incredible-sounding.

Related Videos: CONVERT-2 2-channel D/A Converter

Audiophile-grade mastering front-end playback conversion

Dangerous Music set the standard for audiophile-grade D/A conversion in 2002, when they unleashed the MONITOR, which provided a new reference for mastering engineers. The DAC-ST, D-BOX, and SOURCE followed. Now the company's CONVERT series raises the bar further with a new generation of D/A conversion that provides the sought-after qualities that have made Dangerous the choice for tracking, mixing, and mastering engineers worldwide, along with the latest technology in audio electronics.

USB port for direct DAW connectivity

Dangerous Music designed the CONVERT-2 to integrate into your modern studio, no matter how you have it configured. One feature you'll especially appreciate is bidirectional USB, which sends and receives digital audio. Any signal you've jacked to the CONVERT-2's AES-2 input, for example, can be concurrently routed to the USB path. This gives you the option of sending digital audio to your DAW from any digital source.

Smartly designed, extremely useful, and incredible-sounding

The CONVERT-2 also rocks a custom volume pot you can use in two ways. Use it as a volume knob, connecting the L-R analog outputs directly to a pair of studio monitors. Turn it fully clockwise, and a switch engages a relay, removing the pot completely from the signal path. This lets you use the CONVERT-2 with an external monitor controller. Whether you have a home-based project studio, a mobile production rig, or a world-class commercial facility, the Dangerous Music CONVERT-2 will significantly enhance your sonics and your workflow. At Sweetwater, we'd expect nothing less from Dangerous Music.

What the pros are saying about CONVERT-2:

  • "With a great master clock, the CONVERT-2 is a 'must audition' if you're looking to upgrade your conversion. The buttons are solid, are well laid out, and have a positive feel. There are no fiddly menus to scroll through! The real clincher here is the sound — brilliant, rock solid, and detailed. Better than many converters that are much more expensive. I don't need a new converter, but I'm damn sure gonna buy this one. Economy, utility, innovation, and excellence. Designed and built by professional engineers for professional engineers. Built like a tank, innovative in design, and incredible in sound." — Chris Athens (mastering engineer)
  • "As far as I can tell (and I've really looked and listened), there are very few stereo units that will sound as good as the CONVERT-2, and (I will go on record here) no multichannel converters that can top the CONVERT-8." — Allen Farmelo (producer/engineer)
  • "The CONVERT-2 has a 3D image that holds clear no matter how narrow the dynamic range becomes, which is especially useful in today's 'make-it-loud' mastering environment. The CONVERT-2 provides an unprecedented soundstage for you to create in." — Greg Lukens (producer)
  • "The CONVERT-2 really excels on material that makes use of a wide stereo image; it translates spatial depth and breadth with aplomb." — Sarah Register (mastering engineer)
  • "Through the CONVERT-2, instruments, sounds, and textures became more palpable in the mix." — Andy Hong (TapeOp Magazine)

Dangerous Music CONVERT-2 Stereo D/A Converter and Monitor Controller Features:

  • High-definition stereo reference monitoring
  • Audiophile-grade mastering front-end playback conversion
  • USB port for direct DAW connectivity
  • 5 digital input formats: USB, AES, S/PDIF, ADAT, and TOSlink (optical S/PDIF)
  • Compatible with MONITOR ST/SR for remote switching
  • USB digital pass-through

Additional Media

Signal Processing Buying Guide

Warranty Info

Sweetwater's FREE 2-Year Total Confidence Coverage Warranty

Extra peace of mind at no extra cost.

  • Save money with FREE parts and labor
  • Get back to making music with the industry's fastest turnaround time
  • Fix it the first time with our award-winning, factory-certified Service Department
Learn More about Total Confidence Coverage
2 Year Total Confidence Coverage
$299.00
FREE!

Free 2-year Warranty

Sweetwater's 2-year Total Confidence Coverage™ Warranty gives you extra peace of mind at no extra cost.

Learn More about Total Confidence Coverage
Tools Icon

Save money with free parts & labor!

Fast Icon

Get back to making music with the industry's fastest turnaround time.

Award Icon

Fix it the first time with our award-winning, factory-certified Service Department.

Back to navigation

Tech Specs

  • Channels: 2
  • D to A: Yes
  • Analog Outputs: 2 x XLR
  • Digital Inputs: 2 x XLR (AES/EBU), 2 x Optical
  • Digital Outputs: 2 x XLR Thru (AES/EBU)
  • Clock Inputs: 1 x Word Clock
  • Clock Outputs: 1 x Word Clock
  • Other I/O: 1 x USB, 2 x Remote
  • Manufacturer Part Number: CONVERT-2

What Makes Our Sales Engineers Great?

Sweetwater Sales Engineers are a world-class team of experts dedicated to you. Hand selected from across the globe, each brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the world of music gear to provide you with unparalleled service completely free of charge. Friendly relationships, real trust, and the right gear are only a call or a click away!

(800) 222-4700
Contact Your Sales Engineer
Back to navigation

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5

Customer Added Media

This product doesn't have any review media yet!

Write your review

OMG!!!

I've never written a review on Sweetwater before, but this unit is just so good, I had to tell the world about it.

First things first. I own an Antelope Audio Orion rev. 2017, which by itself sounds great and the FPGA effects are worth the price of admission alone. Wanting a little Out of the box experience, I took a dive with the DA 2BUS LT, but after some trial and error decided to get a converter. Deciding to stay in the DA family and after reading the raving reviews, I took the plunge on the Convert-2.

Everything arrived as expected and it was a piece of cake to set-up. Took the output out of the 2BUS-LT into the converter and monitored thru ADAT on AA. Right away you could notice the clean, transparent, and wide image (2BUS-LT played a part too). The transformer added some really nice warmth and saturation and glued the mix together. What a great product. Had a smile on my face :)

HOLD ON!! I figured might as well test out the word clock on it, since its there. Just an FYI, I never really believed in clocks. Always thought it was some mumbo jumbo crap that people always talk about. First I listened to a couple of tracks on the AA internal clock to calibrate the ears. Sounded good. Didn't think it could get better. Hooked up my RG-59 to the CONVERT-2, set it as the master clock and let my AA clock from it. Lights blinking and things looked good. Opened up TIDAL and played the first track....... HOLY COW... Am I Trippin? Switched to the internal AA and CONVERT-2 clock about 100 times to make sure it just wasn't my head playing games. Different Genres and about 2 days later... I was convinced this is no ordinary joke.

There was a clear winner here (pun intended). The Convert-2 sounded so clear, it almost felt like the AA clock had some sort of distortion attached to it. The dynamics were surreal, in which you could feel the transients pop out of the speakers. Everything felt squeaky clean and you could easily place the boundaries on the individual instruments (which my ears were unable to pick up on the AA). Hearing compression on this is a treat. Even the slightest compression can be heard and gives you a more accurate representation that is mind-bogglingly clean.

Now being a firm believer in the clock, I took it to one of my gigs with a Yamaha LS9 board (Even though an old board, the LS9 can be externally clocked). Another "WOW" moment for myself and the average listener who was sitting next to me. I found myself EQ'ing again and playing with my compression levels all over again. What a moment this was! I felt like a kid who got a new console.

I have no clue what is inside this box, but it's definitely some great engineering and a mix of black magic. If you are thinking about getting a great converter. I would recommend this to you, but if you need a great converter and can get clocked externally to your audio interface. You would be doing yourself a disgrace by not getting this or at least giving it a try.

I want to thank the guys at Dangerous and Sweetwater for helping me love music all over again. Keeping doing what you guys do <3
by Jonathan Robinson from Massachusetts on

yup its what you want..

I've had this converter only a few days, but I can already tell its one of the best investments I've made in my studio. Once you hear this thing..theres no going back. I was always chasing that sound. I tired different gear, different outboard, you name it. but when I plugged this sucker in and pulled up a session I was floored. Even in the box, I can eq it to sound unbelievable smooth and analog feeling. My previous D/A I always seemed to be fighting to get my highs prominent without harshness. With the convert 2 It's no problem whatsoever. I can find all the right frequencies now to get clean clear highs with no harshness..I'm all in the box now and with the convert 2 as a monitor, I'm good to go..I can compete with the pro's now in terms of sonic clarity. It's sick. Also the internal clock is the way to go. gorgeous. When I open a dangerous gear box, I just know I'm getting quality
by Sweetwater Customer on

Serious Clarity

I have heard many high end mastering level DACS and this one really delivers in a way I haven't heard before. I can hear ambience and transient details substantially clearer with the Convert-2 than with my Apogee Symphony Mk1 or Grace m905 DAC, both of which are very high end already.

Also, I notice that there is a lot less distortion in the high end, vocals that used to be edgy and a bit crunchy are now much smoother and natural. As a result I am leaving the presence region, alone more and processing less, this means the vocal stays more natural and real sounding rather than being de-essed to death to heavily to compensate for imaginary harshness.

Overall I feel much more confident in what I am hearing and I am enjoying mixing even more.
by Alex from New York on
Music background: Pro Engineer/Mixer

Wow, Just WOW! The Covert-2 is the BOMB!

I have been chasing good sound my entire life. I need to have a spot on accurate monitoring environment for mixing and mastering. I have spent many years and mega $$ on equipment over the years, which includes Focal Twins. My studio/monitoring room is a fair distance from my audio equipment that is in a server room. I have to extend using Owens Corning thunderbolt cables then covert from digital back to Analog in the studio. Everything I have tried has had incremental improvement, but there has always been something missing. The clarity, imaging, etc. simply was not there. I finally decided to to bite the bullet and purchase the Convert-2. It gets good reviews. Figured I would try it for myself. Don't like it, I could return it. Love Sweetwater!

I dropped the convert 2 in and instantly heard a difference. Of course, I must want it. Is it really better? I Setup a series of AB tests to see if it really is better. I can easily toggle between different sound sources in my studio. Keeping the Focal Twin's as the main monitors and the reference audio the exact same, I setup a toggle that could switch my output to route through different DAC's and into my speakers.

My tests included audio out via an Avid HD I/O, Universal Audio 8p Monitor Out, and a Behringer Ultramatch Pro SRC2496 (SPDIF out Avid to SRC2486). I also tested USB out of a MAC PRO directly to the Convert 2 and SPDIF out of the mac to the above equipment.

Wow, what a HUGE difference when using the Convert-2. Seriously, it is unbelievable. The first thing that jumps out is all of the additional detail the other converters don't get. I was actually very disappointed in the performance of the UAD 8p. It isn't anywhere near what I expected. The imaging between the speakers is dead on with the Convert 2. Another thing that is very obvious is that there is zero noise that comes from the Convert-2. It is super clean. Like other say, it is transparent. I don't like those subjective comments, but it is a good descriptor. What you hear via the Convert 2 is what's there. Nothing more and nothing less.

If you need a Modern and powerful DAC, spend the money and give the Convert-2 a try.
by Jim Kerr from Chicago IL on

The Missing Link in My Monitoring Chain

I had to take a minute to write a few words on this great piece, having noticed that there was only one other review. In a word, it is fabulous when integrated with a Dangerous Monitor ST. Perfect, seamless integration, works perfectly with the ST remote, and effectively adds four additional inputs to your Monitor ST. But don't think for a minute that this box is only for you if you already own a Monitor ST! Maybe you are a smaller studio and only have three or four things to run to your monitors; if you have a digital output on each of them, this is all you need! (Think DAW output (AES or SPDIF), computer audio (USB), CD player (AES or SPDIF-AES cable), and you still have an optical input left over!)

But how does it sound? In a word, transparent. It's not what you do hear, but what you don't hear. You DON'T hear the converter. What you DO hear is exactly what is there in the source material: the actual width of the stereo field, the depth of the bass track, the punch of the drums, and whether the top end is static hiss or perfectly-crafted high-frequency sizzle. This unit gives you the ability to hear all your digital sources through the same converter (that you don't hear) so you can make true comparisons. You wouldn't believe the number of big-name commercial releases that I thought sounded great until I passed them through this box and (of course) a great set of monitors (Focal Twin6Be's). Just little things I never noticed in my car, or on any other listening system. Now I can make sure those little annoyances are not in MY tracks because I can hear them before publishing and can correct them!

Lastly, I just have to devote a paragraph to the customer service at Dangerous Music, which is a huge reason I now proudly own four separate pieces of Dangerous gear. Simply put, outside of the service I receive at Sweetwater, I have never received anywhere near the incredible customer support I have received from Dangerous Music. Whether it is simply a question about the gear I send them via e-mail, or a problem I am encountering they always treat me like I am the only customer they have. Bob and his team have quite frankly earned my business for life because of the way they have treated me, and they know that if I am ever debating between a competing piece of gear and theirs, I will just default to theirs because the customer service always puts them over the top. They realize you have a lot of choices when spending this kind of money, and don't take a single penny of it for granted. That is why they get 5 stars, and will continue to have my support as long as I am making music. If you have the means and are debating this purchase, just buy it. The workflow improvement alone was worth it for me, but the way the company treats us as customers makes me feel good about giving them my business!
by D.J. from Spirit Lake, IA on
Music background: Recording Engineer, Live Sound Engineer, Vocalist
See also: Digital Converters, Dangerous Music, Dangerous Music Misc Digital Converters
Close Close $2,000 Pick Your PRS Giveaway -- input your email address below to enter or click here to learn more.

See giveaway details & rules or check out our past winners!

Enter Now

Success!

Your email, has been entered to win this giveaway. Good Luck!