dCS threatens with a 7-figure lawsuit over a review

[NHL99]

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[taotone]

The man is sure talented and funny! As were the producers with this schtick.

I like both Clarkson and Tesla, the problem with his first review and why he was sued was because they had a script before the car even arrived that showed it as broken down. Which it never did during the test. They just flat out lied about the car.

Tesla then was a very small company and Clarkson/Top Gear nearly killed it just for a joke.

 

[Galliardist]

I wouldn't believe a word Cameron has said about the sound of said dCS DAC. No way would that DAC sound soft or anything like it.

Well, not until there's solid proof. Remarkable claims and all that.

 

[Nuni]

"



"It'd be super good if Amir could measure this dCS DAC."
What would this prove as it has already been tested?

 

[amirm]

"It'd be super good if Amir could measure this dCS DAC."
What would this prove as it has already been tested?

I guess I could listen to it and opine whether it sounds soft or not.

 

[markstein]

Intersample clipping/overs are a mastering/software problem, not the responsibility of a D/A converter to remedy.

I disagree with this statement.

Intersample clipping frequently occurs, e.g. when upsampling for whatever reasons, with a lot of CDs as well as with some recent Tidal songs. It is a real issue. I appreciate if my DAC can handle this without generating a ton of distortion.

I agree however that the root cause lies in bad/ wrong mastering. It's the same issue as with excessive loudness compression.

 

[amirm]

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Thanks. That is a SINAD of 106 dB for the 0dBV measurements. So competent but not state of the art.

I don't understand the a-weighted SNR or 96 dB. If true, that is not good. We have headphone amps producing that SNR for just 50mv, not 0dBV (1 volt).

 

[Tell]

I disagree with this statement.

Intersample clipping frequently occurs, e.g. when upsampling for whatever reasons, with a lot of CDs as well as with some recent Tidal songs. It is a real issue. I appreciate if my DAC can handle this without generating a ton of distortion.

I agree however that the root cause lies in bad/ wrong mastering. It's the same issue as with excessive loudness compression.

It wouldn't be a problem if they didn't put those samples so close to 0, there really ain't no reason to do so when you have over 90dB of dynamic range to work with.

 

[Rja4000]

I was going to suggest that the Managing Director likely wasn't told the whole truth but thought the chances of that would be low. I guess it wasn't.

Seems like all is well.

Now, I need to write a review that makes them upset so that they send me one of their expensive DACs too!!!

I think this last letter should be added on top of this thread, by the way

 

[Haskil]

So you would want to buy 75 dacs and replace the Bartok with one of your 75 Toppings every month? Also I disagree that th $200 dacs are superior in any way or form.

If you registered specifically on ASR to defend such an opinion, you will have to support it in a relevant way...

 

[muslhead]

GoldenSound, headphones.com & dCS: an update

On July 15th I published a statement responding to videos posted by GoldenSound (Cameron Oatley) and headphones.com, which detailed recent communications between dCS and GoldenSound regarding a review of the dCS Bartók Headphone DAC. After reading headphones.com’s official response to this...

dcs.community

dCS backs down. CEO said it should never have happened and he was lied to.

Too late at least for me. Damage is done

 

[Galliardist]

Well one thing is the quartz watch may be fast or slow, but likely is fast or slow in a smaller amount of variation. You can count on it being 15 seconds, or 12 second or whatever fast month after month. If you get lucky you can count on it being very close month after month. Some of the models have videos where you can open them and adjust the circuit for speeding it up or slowing it down as needed.

Of course I sometimes wear a smart/fitness watch which is always correct. I less often wear a nice enough looking Eco-drive. The Eco-drive is good for months with the same amount of small inaccuracy being fast. Accurate time is not a big deal anymore. I had some super cheap watches when a kid. Lose 2 or 3 or 4 seconds a day. I'd reset them once or twice a week with the beep at the beginning of radio news at the top of the hour. Even when that is all I had my watches were close to the right time.

I had a run of quartz watches that died with the first battery, some cheap and some not so. And always out of warranty. So I bought a reasonably priced mechanical watch on the grounds of less waste. Of course, the time taken for an in warranty repair was annoying, then the cost of an out of warranty repair and servicing has now cost more than all of the watches put together. Even the potential of being environmentally friendly counted for not much as it's been across the country a couple of times, and to Switzerland and back, in the few years I've had it.

Now I just carry my phone everywhere, even if it is a bit more awkward.

 

[markstein]

It wouldn't be a problem if they didn't put those samples so close to 0, there really ain't no reason to do so when you have over 90dB of dynamic range to work with.

Yes, crazy. Something is severely broken in music industry. It may as well be just missing technical knowledge on mastering side.

 

[mocenigo]

Interesting that its probably the "older generation" (i fit this category lol) sticking up for dCS. Still aspiring to these uber-expensive boutique products, that dont have much of a role now, and the opulance seems ridiculous. However, i guess there will always be a market for luxury items with ultra wealth growth, and those trying to reach it.

It is absolutely human to stick with what one knows. And knows to work. dCS's stuff works. The only thing about the old Bartók that irks me is that the two line outputs have significantly different noise levels. Clearly more care was put in the headphone out. Whether this is because the line outs are an afterthought / they did not think about their placement / isolation from noise sources/routing of the signals themselves, this is simply not acceptable in a product in that price range.

I would be very curious to learn whether this is the case also in the Bartók APEX and in the models higher up in the chain (Rossini, Vivaldi).

 

[SIY]

GoldenSound, headphones.com & dCS: an update

On July 15th I published a statement responding to videos posted by GoldenSound (Cameron Oatley) and headphones.com, which detailed recent communications between dCS and GoldenSound regarding a review of the dCS Bartók Headphone DAC. After reading headphones.com’s official response to this...

dcs.community

dCS backs down. CEO said it should never have happened and he was lied to.

So all of this was nothing (other than free PR for the "reviewer"). Huh. Who could have called that?

 

[Galliardist]

For what it's worth, I spoke to an individual who knows both David Steven and the other person who seems to be involved yesterday. The person I spoke to is a reasonably well known reviewer/editor who owns a hifi publication, and has visited DCS's UK location on several occasions. His opinion is that David Steven is a straight-up guy, and that the other person whom I won't name isn't. The editor's experience with that person was when he worked for another well-known manufacturer.

After that conversation, and after reading David's first post, where he claimed certain conciliatory events had occurred, and then re-reading the HP thread, I came to the conclusion that the US person was probably not copping to his bad behavior, and may have misled his superior(s). Taken at face value, this seems to be likely based on Mr. Steven's follow-up post. Ouch.

I work for a corporation. I've seen this type of thing occur in varying forms. It always comes out eventually, and the person who is responsible gets canned, and could be held liable. In this case, I suspect that person will never work in the hifi industry again at the very minimum.

The less nice person has already been named here and elsewhere, and I guarantee that if you check in six months' time they will have another well paid job in the hifi industry. It's not a nice business, and a fair few here can confirm that.

 

[Drengur]

I've put my pitch-fork in the closet. This statement clears things up. I am sure the people in charge of dCS will learn from this, and hopefully others in the industry as well.

 

[Scytales]

I guess I could listen to it and opine whether it sounds soft or not.

Or verify that a different sample of this particular model produces measurement results consistent with those measured by Goldensound, which would provide an indication of quality control at the production level.

 

[Robbo99999]

I am always reminded of this when you hear of some restaurant selling $500 steaks where much of the price is due to the fact its wrapped in edible (real) gold.

I am not sure that ingesting metal improves the culinary experience but it does come with bragging rights (vis a vi the cost).

While not a big steak eater any more, the best steak I ever had was when I was working on an IT job in De Moine, Iowa and the client took me out to a local, relatively upmarket (for De Moine) restaurant.

I commented on this to the client and he alluded to the fact that the steak had been sitting on the rump of a live beast only several hours earlier. That was this restaurant's secret sauce... to literally use the freshest meat available.

Peter

(Surely steak has to aged, but OK this is an audio thread, hence my brackets!)

 

[Robbo99999]

Another update from dCS

GoldenSound, headphones.com & dCS: an update

On July 15th I published a statement responding to videos posted by GoldenSound (Cameron Oatley) and headphones.com, which detailed recent communications between dCS and GoldenSound regarding a review of the dCS Bartók Headphone DAC. After reading headphones.com’s official response to this...

dcs.community

I think that's a good resolution. End of story now, the drama is over.