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

@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. 

The dCS Varese is reviewed in the current issue of Stereophile by Jason Victor Serinus. His Varese combo comes in at over $300k. I have not read the review yet, but will be looking forward to the ongoing hyperbole.

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. 
 

Does the quarter million include free instillation?  That is my deciding factor. 

dCS certainly makes very nice gear, but in my experience it always sounds a little bit "artificial" compared to some of the other top brands. I can respect it, even appreciate it for what it is, but in the end I don't quite love to listen to it. So even if I could afford this new Varese stuff, I would not use it in my own system. The same applies to the dCS models I can afford such as the Bartok, Lina, and Rossini. 

@tubeguy80,

+1. I used to own dcs gear. Gave them all up for the same reason and never looked back. I would not advise putting them in any system even if you can afford them. 

@tubeguy80 

+1

I was listening to a great system with a dCS Vivaldi a few days ago. No one could possibly say it sounded bad, or was not very high end and incredibly detailed... really impressive. But... not natural or compellingly musical. 

OP   dCS Varese DAC,   all others are now relegated to history?

No joke please. I still hear many layers of veils from every dCSs. My SACD player (1/130 price) in my humble system sounds cleaner and more musical. Alex/Wavetouch audio

Original music https://youtu.be/kYICwkCnUIk?si=p47Uq2pKrJDtPY4y

My WT BDP95  https://youtu.be/rOJItHbn8DY?si=DHtI1VarmiLsValM

dCS   https://youtu.be/dvYZ5Mu32xs?si=R-5xG_79pK9UCtzs&t=1397

=======

Original music https://youtu.be/xG5HsHC4eeA?si=HECtz1Z2jBCLcSCV

My WT BDP95 https://youtu.be/4d_AnQXtxKY?si=gP3b5FV9LVH4l-Ei&t=211

dCS https://youtu.be/y5QvNSUXzGY?si=jnw9r4JlBM0bgIlm&t=1040

Do they still buy parts from Esoteric?

Given Jacob’s extremely good hearing, I am sure that the DCS is all its cracked up to be. But, as with any company reaching for the stars, they will make some new discovery and implement it.

Why all the snark? I can’t afford this  particular stack, either, but I don’t begrudge those who can. Isn’t the goal (for some of us) to reproduce a credible illusion of the live experience (if there even was one)? I’m not certain I’d buy a 254k stack even if I could (again) afford it, just because I’d rather use that on a first class trip to Thailand and five or six other countries!

But I’d buy a DCS Bartok Apex for the low, low price of only...7k !! DCS is one of the really great digital products on the market. There are others.

Entertaining discussion. I would love to hear this latest dCS front end especially in my system at home. But that’s unlikely to happen.

dCS is one of the polarizing brands that attract a lot of haters similar to the crowd hating on Wilson Audio, Boulder, etc. mostly those who never owned or even heard this gear and can’t afford it…typical in any hobby…but have an opinion on how bad it sounds and how it’s not worth it. 
 

This is a gorgeous stack and I am sure it’s top notch engineering and build quality. 

Yes, I’m sure people who know NOTHING about DCS aside from this ONE story are people who  react off the top of their head and come up with conclusions before knowing all the facts. And the fact that DCS has been in business for 40 years and never had a kerfluffle before now means nothing to them. They’re inclined to mob mentality. By that point, facts mean nothing. 

DCS products are excellent, and always have been. I am no fan of their pricing, but I do see them as a luxury brand. Goldmund is a luxury brand, too, only they actually say that they are.

What’s interesting is that even the luxury audio brands were not this expensive 30 years ago. After 2000, the pricing  of speakers and electronics seemed to get crazy. Ah, well... And I’m sure the more expensive a component, the more rabid some posters become. It’s not logical. Not in the least.

One thing that occurs to me with regards to the dCS pricing is that one can acquire the new Metaxas And Sins Papillion tape deck, along with a good number of tapes for a price that might be less than the dCS stack. According to JV in the current issue of The Absolute Sound, this tape deck is the best source component he has heard. I would suspect that the tape player would see off the new dCS  Varese in all areas.

@daveyf love your satire

I have heard their new Varese stack with a direct comparison to their previous model.  Yes it sounded better via the Wilson speakers as well it should.  That being said, who knows how it sounds to other top tier kits, I will never know.       

I would suspect that the tape player would see off the new dCS  Varese in all areas.

I'm sure it would!

$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.  

It would seem they have a life. Just not the one you approve of.