dCS Varèse

[EdW]

Varèse - Our Boldest Ideas Realised | dCS

Experience exhilarating realism and undiluted immersion with our most advanced music system to date. Novel design and bespoke technologies bring a level of performance beyond anything we had previously dared dream possible.

dcsaudio.com

But, has anyone in this community ever heard a DAC costing hundreds of thousand of dollars?

Also, I have to wonder how it could sound any better than a piece of equipment such as the Hapi, which is used by many studio's mastering process:

Merging Hapi MkII multichannel digital processor | Stereophile.com

I've been running a 5.1 system for years. Recently, I expanded it to 5.3 with the addition of two more subwoofers. This system is manageable with one of my eight-channel DACs. Even more recently, I dipped my toe into Dolby Atmos, which made it necessary to lash up at least four more channels...

www.stereophile.com

I just don't get it, but then again it's not my money and if it gives someone enjoyment .....

There is already some discussion of this DAC

dCS Varèse

Apparently dCS is expanding to streamers along with separate chassis mono DACs, clock and upsampler. But will they continue threatening to sue reviewers? That is the question! lol

www.audiosciencereview.com

Clearly superb value for money. There must be hundreds of eager customers placing orders

 

[WillBrink]

It’s not ‘better’ than a few hundred pound Topping, SMSL etc.
Keith

If ultra high end has taught us anything, it could actually be worse.

 

[DVDdoug]

But, has anyone in this community ever heard a DAC costing hundreds of thousand of dollars?

I've never "heard" a DAC. The only time I've heard a difference or defect with a "DAC" it was a soundcard that made noise when the hard drive was accessed. I never heard anything wrong with my 1st CD player that I bought in 1985. (And I'm pretty sure my hearing was better when I was younger.)

Most of the time, people claiming to hear a difference are fooling themselves. How many times to you read about someone doing a proper level-matched blind ABX test? Then they describe the sound with flowery meaningless language. They never say they are hearing anything real, like noise, distortion, or frequency response variations. If there is a real audible difference (with ANY modern electronics) it's usually noise (hum, hiss, or whine, in the background). Or, you can over-drive an amplifier into distortion. If they were hearing any of those things, they would say so.

In the "audiophile community" a higher price makes the product more exotic and desirable.

 

[oleg87]

Much like a super expensive watch, it’s a ultra luxury product. It’s meant to sit in and decorate some rich guy’s mansion or superyacht; outlandish price is the feature, how it sounds is incidental.

 

[Dialectic]

I wonder how DCS picks composers' names for its products.

Elgar
Delius
Scarlatti
Verdi
Paganini
Puccini
Debussy
Vivaldi
Rossini
Bartok
Varese

 

[Soniclife]

I wonder how DCS picks composers' names for its products.

Elgar
Delius
Scarlatti
Verdi
Paganini
Puccini
Debussy
Vivaldi
Rossini
Bartok
Varese

After a very long lunch on expenses hopefully. A much better waste of money than some marketing consultant.

 

[Dialectic]

After a very long lunch on expenses hopefully. A much better waste of money than some marketing consultant.

I predict their next product will be the Xenakis.

 

[JeffS7444]

If I were sufficiently wealthy that the difference between $100 and $250,000 made no real difference to me, perhaps I'd buy it simply because it seemed nice: I imagine that the ultra-wealthy get bored too.

 

[Mnyb]

Wonder how they will top this ? Make an even more silly expensive product.

I suppose the lower tier lineup will be “upgraded” with trickle down tech from the SOTA product . A classic marketing move .

The typical audiophile mindset so that everything matters and things like DAC’s can continuously be upgraded forever , their are always more veils to remove , next years model is even better

 

[FrantzM]

I predict their next product will be the Xenakis.

And cost $500,000…

Peace

 

[MaxBuck]

But, has anyone in this community ever heard a DAC costing hundreds of thousand of dollars?

I have heard a system comprising components this costly, and even more. Playing crap source material and superb source material. It sounded no worse than my home setup on similar material.

 

[Soniclife]

If ultra high end has taught us anything, it could actually be worse.

If this was ever tested my money would be on it bring nearly as good as the best 1K dac, which is probably a weird engineering achievement considering some parts of the design are making things harder to do.

 

[Somafunk]

I imagine they’d be a market for machined out aluminium cases that look like mega buck kit to sit your topping dac inside, they’ll need a blue led on the facia though

 

[Somafunk]

Got sent this link to an utterly obsequious review of the DCS Varese, , Christ knows how DCS are going to remove the reviewer from their back entrance, i guess nature will take its course

dCS Varése: First Listen, the email response!

One one of our reviewers – Paul Soor – was invited to hear the new dCS Varèse digital flagship. This is his ‘thanks’ email to the company describing that early listening session.

hifiplus.com

 

[KSTR]

Some guy with dCS Verdi CD transport asked over at DIYaudio.com how to change mains voltage. Turns out that dCS charge $600 for changing a jumper (on a unit that costs only ~$5k) https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/dcs-verdi-transport-how-to-change-the-voltage.416275/

 

[Sokel]

The whole stuck is a nice way to write off 300k of taxes if you're rich enough (after it's been baptized "entertainment broadcasting system" or something similar at the invoice) .
At 0 (zero) price you have something to compare with whatever price.

I just hope it measures decently.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

I just hope it measures decently.

Probably is. Their stuff is not broken as many audiophile crap is.
Price is just astronomical even for their "cheapest" lina

 

[Punter]

I'm not sure that the only customers for this type of equipment are rich individuals who would consider the price chump change. I think there's a component of people who will actually put themselves into borderline financial stress to own something like this. I know a person who fits this profile. He has multiple sets of stupidly expensive speakers which he has purchased with the proceeds from a pre-sale of his property where he currently lives. He no longer earns an income so he has paid for these speakers with the finite pool of money he has from this fairly odd arrangement with his residential property.

As he has filled the house with speakers, discarded equipment and hoarders spoils, he lives in the detatched garage on the property with his multi-thousand dollar speakers. To continue this sort of indulgence, he eats meagre food and by choice has no hot water. Fortunately, he has no dependents or other responsibilities and so is free to indulge himself in this way. This is the outcome of his long quest to find the "perfect" pair of speakers even though he is now in his mid-seventies and would have very limited hearing with respect to high frequencies.

 

[Sokel]

I'm not sure that the only customers for this type of equipment are rich individuals who would consider the price chump change. I think there's a component of people who will actually put themselves into borderline financial stress to own something like this. I know a person who fits this profile. He has multiple sets of stupidly expensive speakers which he has purchased with the proceeds from a pre-sale of his property where he currently lives. He no longer earns an income so he has paid for these speakers with the finite pool of money he has from this fairly odd arrangement with his residential property.

As he has filled the house with speakers, discarded equipment and hoarders spoils, he lives in the detatched garage on the property with his multi-thousand dollar speakers. To continue this sort of indulgence, he eats meagre food and by choice has no hot water. Fortunately, he has no dependents or other responsibilities and so is free to indulge himself in this way. This is the outcome of his long quest to find the "perfect" pair of speakers even though he is now in his mid-seventies and would have very limited hearing with respect to high frequencies.

I knew of a similar individual except instead of speakers and stuff,liked cash.
I mean money,the physical thing.

It's kids found millions hidden in various places in a small house he had and not a cent in the bank.
He lived as strained as your example,only the bare minimum of what's needed to survive.
There's all shorts of obsessions about collecting things I guess.

 

[sleepy.sock]

Maybe I'm being slow here, but how does one even connect an optical, coax, or AES/EBU digital source to this? I only see 1 USB input and 1 ethernet input. Does one need to buy another box or multiple boxes?

Seems the height of madness!