The new dCS Varese DAC...it is so good that all others are now relegated to history??
In the current issue of 'The Absolute Sound' magazine, Jacob Heilbrun applies about as much hyperbole on the new dCS Varese DAC stack as I have ever read!!
There are references to the sound of a 'live' piano and other points about the 'quantum leap in SQ' of this product.
Yet, i ask this, how is it possible that the digital recording chain can in fact pick up the many incredible subtleties that Jacob references in his review??
Nonetheless, at the price asked for the new Varese, it had better do your washing, cooking and take out the dog for a walk!
Next year, we will hear how the new dCS Varese is being upgraded, and that the new revisions are more accurate, more resolving, more this...more that, for a large price increase. Pathetic on a number of plains. Thoughts?
@audition__audio I don't think anyone here is setting limits on purchasing gear for others, certainly not based on price. However, as @audio-b-dog mentioned, as the price rises, the number of consumers that are likely to consider the product diminishes. |
rikkipuu struck a nerve with me and perhaps put his finger on what bothered me about the Varese review. It was given many more pages than any other review I can remember. So many pages for perhaps a handful of readers who could consider purchasing the Varese. Not a mention that the price was more than any reviews I've read in their pages except for huge speakers. It had a kind of cringy feeling to me. There didn't seem to be any normal human responses. Not even the oft-ending line that the reviewer would buy the equipment if he could afford it. I think it did strike me as an add and that was partly why I was offended. Basically, I have some passing interest in very expensive equipment, but I'd rather read a review of something I could possibly buy some day. I also believe that reviewers I read twenty or thirty years ago talked about equipment a good portion of the audiophile community might be able to purchase. Now, these same reviewers go to their garage and pull out a pair of $100,000 amps, etc. Where have they gotten all this money? Certainly not writing for Stereophile or Absolute Sound. Although the question of $ is subjective, and everybody is in a different bracket, for me $250,000 for a digital front end seems egregious. Especially when I read in forums how the difference between expensive and inexpensive DACs had diminished. Just my humble reaction. |
Well I would completely ignore any discussion of anything audio related on ASR, just as an example. I never put much stock in reviewers or reviews. Perhaps a bit less these days than back in... Like you, b-dog, I can get any digital rig regardless of price equal my analog front end. I currently use a $ 1K Simaudio for digital with no plans in the near future to upgrade. |
I’m sure it advances the art of sound, as the review concludes. It’s the same as with newer, more advanced car models; they don’t negate the cars already out there. But they are an advance in driving. And products simply co-exist. DCS has always had very expensive digital, even back in 1996. So this is not a surprise to me. But apparently it is to others. it’s not something I would buy, but if it sounds magnificent, I can understand somebody showing out for it. No skin off my my nose - or my wallet. |
