DCS Verdi Elgar Purcell VS. Audio Aero Capitole

To put things into perspective, I purchased the Lindemann in early November 2002, and made a conscious decision to avoid any tweaking until the unit had broken in completely. About the time the unit should have broken in, Christmas and CES intervened. Immediately prior to CES I borrowed a brand new set of JC-1's for break-in and audition. Things have been in a state of flux in my system. My only point is that it would be extremely unfair to conclude at this point that the Lindemann is deficient in any areas. Maybe if I had begun tweaking it in 1994, I would have gotten it right by now.

I wanted to wait to post again until I received my upgraded dCS gear. First of all, regarding dCS and any service issues, dCS kept me informed of the progress of my components by email, and were a week ahead of schedule in the updating process. I also paid to have my Elgar updated to the black Elgar plus, so they sent me a brand new unit. Cool! It only took two days to ship the units to my door from the UK.

Now for the sound. Myoussif is right. The 1394 upgrade is much better in terms of smoothness and liquidity, and is even more detailed and soundstages better than the original version. I'm not using a Verdi yet, but they installed a word clock in the Purcell that links to the Elgar via BNC SPDIF. The air and ambience retrieval is stunning. Using a Verdi, the word clock would go from the transport into the Elgar Plus. Amazing stuff! Can't wait until I can afford the Verdi. Build quality is top notch. Together, these components weigh in and are about the size of a 100 watt amp. I would encourage anyone with older dCS components to update to the current version.

I have owned both AA Capitole and the older dCS Elgar/ Purcell non IEEE 1394 equipped gear. The dCS upsampling to 24/192 was better than the AA at more money. Both are excellent. IMHO AA is a good choice in brighter system as it is more polite. dCS is for a system with fewer deficiencies. The new IEEE 1394 dCS gear that I now own is significantly better than the older dCS gear and hence the AA Capitole as well.

one more thing to let you know about my experince with dCS. How many companies out there send you update for your software without you even asking for it? this is a great customer service. I recently received the latest update for all three units ( Verdi, Purcell, Delius) and now the are better than ever. One of the great things that the new software will do, is that all three units will now detect what disk you have inserted in the transport and adjusts everthing accordingly. this is great, now I don't have to select CD or SACD layer, the transport selects it autmatically and tells the other units what to do. I love and enjoy the dCS gear. Any one who thinks otherwise should try the latest hard/software.