The new dCS Varese DAC...it is so good that all others are now relegated to history??

@daveyf

I’ve had the Vivaldi stack (upgraded to Apex) for over 10 years now, and the Apex upgrade was like getting a brand-new DAC. I’m extremely happy with the sound quality.

When I sold my previous dCS Scarlatti after five years, I got about 80% of what I originally paid for it. dCS services every product they’ve released in the last 30+ years, and their legacy products hold their value remarkably well.
 

Given that the Varese took over five years to develop, I highly doubt dCS will be replacing it anytime soon. The Apex upgrade was a direct result of this development, trickling down to their legacy products.

From my experience with dCS over the years, their products continue to improve significantly through both software and hardware upgrades, ensuring long-term value and performance.

@brite61 I’m pleased that you still like the SQ of your dCS Vivaldi. However, the new dCS Varese is priced at multiples of your Vivaldi, and with the speed that digital advances, it strikes me as a platform that will need upgrading in the not very distant future. I’m sure dCS will offer upgrades for the Varese ( to a point), but at what price?

My main point is this: is it wise to be buying the SOTA digital anything at very high cost, when it might make a lot more sense to buy yesterday’s model...and at a considerable discount, since this can usually be accomplished in very short time?

You may have received 80% of your investment into your Scarlati ( sounds like you were lucky), but I know plenty of folk who bought into the better digital offerings, only to receive 30-40% of their investment after a very short amount of time.

OTOH, if you are one of the folk who has to have the best, and don’t care about the cost ( there are a few folk like this in this hobby, more than most of us realize, perhaps) --- then you are one of the consumers that dCS is interested in.

$250,000. That's a quarter of a million! Should we only decide what to purchase with excess money in the audio world? Wait. Who am I talking to? Who is DCS talking to? If somebody wanted to show me their system and it had a $250,000 digital front end, I think I'd want to walk out the front door. It's a disgusting amount of money to spend on a digital front end. I don't care how good it sounds or how rich you are, if you don't have people in your life who could use some of that money, well, talking about stereos is beside the point. You need a life.  

@audio-b-dog 

That sounds a little judgy.