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

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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

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After a week of intense tweaking and listening, here are my comparisons between my Dangerous Music Convert-2 DAC, my Benchmark DAC2-DX (used for several months), and a borrowed Grace m920 (used this prior month).

TEST RIG: All three DACs were sourced via the USB Audio2 Windows drivers downloaded from their respective makers. The rig is a six-band active crossover (18 dB/octave) implemented with Hear Me Deadly analog op-amps, Bryston 4B and 2B woofer amps beneath PUI Audio class-D amps, all into JBL drivers.

TEST CRITERIA: My context is leisure audiophile as opposed to audio-pro (i.e. no mixing or mastering), with high priority for lowest distortion to fill a room. Flat frequency response is low-priority, given that I often tweak the band-volume controls as EQ. Soundstage imaging isn't crucial, as I rarely sit still while listening.

RESULTS: Given that the Convert-2 is younger, more expensive, and consumes nearly 4x the rack space compared to the other units, it should certainly sound better, and it does! This is a KEEPER. But...

CONFIGURATION TIPS: There are 2 issues with the unit's analog performance which you may need to work around. Firstly, it has higher quiescent noise than the others. But this should not be audible so long as you use some sort of downstream volume control. If, however, you plan to run the Convert-2 directly into a power amp or powered loudspeaker, this could be distracting.

Secondly, I am hearing analog distortion from the DAC, proportional to its output amplitude. In order to get lowest distortion at a given speaker loudness, I lower the DAC's gain control along with its dBFS calibration, and then increase the gain on my own rig. Note that this approach runs a bit contrary to working around the noise problem (above), i.e. upping my rig's gain control starts to resemble a copper connection between the DAC and the power amps. Nonetheless, I was able to optimize the gains for excellent sound.

It is worth your time to experiment with this. For example, if your own downstream rig has higher analog distortion than the Convert-2, then a contrary approach would give best results. Frankly, the Convert-2 still sounds better than the other units even without this optimization.

You should also audition the option to re-clock the audio data via the DAC's JetPLL clock, rather than the clock embedded in your source signal. This noticeably improved the sound coming through the USB connection to my Windows laptop, though I'm not so sure it improved the sound coming through the coax connection from my Sony UX-800 BluRay player.

BOTTOM LINE: Though you may need to sidestep some analog limits, this is the best DAC of the trio I tested. It could even be the best I've ever heard. You won't be disappointed.

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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.

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.

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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!

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All that you can read online about this box is true. All those comments like "Holy Wow" and "That's a night & day difference " and "I can't believe how good this sounds" and "it sounds like I had a wool blanket over my speakers with my previous converter" are true. I feed my final mix to this box via AES from my RME UFX. There is a depth and "fullness" to the sound that isn't there when using the RME converters.. Years ago, the Dbox changed my life.. By the time I saved up enough cash to check out the Dangerous 2Bus, the 2Bus+ came out.. Saved a little more and got one. Life (and workflow changer) again. When I'd saved up for my next hose studio upgrade, Dangerous Music and the Convert 2 won again.. Great company. Support over the years has been excellent when I needed them. When you read their manuals you get it. And they'll make ya smile too.. These folks are musicians and they build gear for musicians. They make their products super easy to use and they realize how important that is.. I am a Dangerous Con-vert and this converter is worth every penny!

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