dCS Elgar plus vs. Delius - confused

Hi audiobb,

Delius DAC was a no-frills version of the dCS DAC. My understanding is that it has a less costly power supply and less costly casework than Elgar Plus but is otherwise the same.

In relation to the Firewire/1394/DSD input, this is a matter of chronology not model. Late model Delius and Elgar Plus both have it. Early models don't. Don't buy either if it doesn't have the 1394 input (that's assuming you have a transport with 1394 output).

The other output voltage is 2V.

Both have volume control in digital domain. My Delius remote appears to have volume control although I've never used it (I have integrated amp so the digital volume is set permanently to highest value - 0db). If you run the DAC straight into a power amp, the switchable output voltage is used in conjunction with the digital volume to put the fine control into the right loudness area for the listening room.

I own Delius but haven't heard Elgar Plus in an A-B situation.

Delius will always be cheaper for same age and features. My advice is to get the latest model in the best condition that you can. Then if you can afford what sellers are asking for Elgar Plus, go for that. If not, Delius is still stunning.

The dCS stack is wonderful with either DAC. It is uncompromising and won't tart up the sound if it's not on the disc, so if that's your desire, look elsewhere.

Note that you can download the dCS manuals in PDF from the site. Thay are as detailed as you could want.

Finally, if you do buy dCS stack, upgrade the Firewire cable from the one supplied. There are big gains from using the Esoteric 8N-6p-6pi cable.

Hi audiobb,

You are right - if you have a Purcell and a 1394-equipped Delius or Elgar Plus, you can feed in native CD sample rate and choose which upsampled rate you want to listen to, all the way up to the DSD rate. So if you want to make the effort, you can decide "I like CD A best upsampled at 96kHZ, but prefer CD B at 192 and CD C, D, E and F at DSD".

The Purcell can also take a range of different rates as input (see the website for the exact values).

There's a good review in the on-line Stereophile archives (about 2003 I think) that goes through the possibilities.

You haven't said what you are considering as transport, so I should mention that dCS Verdi is a transport only and requires a Purcell for upsampling, whereas Verdi LaScala and its replacement Verdi Encore have DSD upsampling built-in.

That means you don't need a Purcell, but then your choices are limited to CD upsampled to DSD through the Firewire or CD at its native rate through another digital input.

You can still use a Purcell with the LaScala and Encore, to get the wider range of upsampling choices.

It gets a bit complicated...

Hi audiobb,

Were I you I would check that information - that Elgar Plus can upsample on its own - very carefully. I believe it to be wrong.

However, I don't own one, so perhaps an Elgar Plus owner can give a definitive answer.