Any better DAC then dCS Scarlatti?

Perrew, can you describe system where you compared Scarlatti?
I'm very sceptical when much lower price device can perform better that higher price one. I think this means that it was not properly setup.
My Scarlatti start to work well after good power and cabling.

For what it's worth, I listened to the Scarlatti for a couple of hours under show conditions. It was set up in a larger room with the large VTL amp and Sceana speakers. At the time, I strongly preferred my APL NWO-3.0SE for its superior coherence, realism, dynamics, refinement and musicality. I came to the same conclusion after hearing a few other top-tier CD/SACD players in dealer showrooms. My recent upgrade to the NWO-4.0SE is a significant improvement over the 3.0SE.

Pure - curious, how could you isolate the Scarlatti form the rest of the system and room?

Rtn1 - Sound advice (no pun)...and have made contact with Avalon. Such also prompted me to get exact on the dimensions. Usefully, the listening room box is somewhat larger than I had thought : 17ft x 13 x 8 (LxWxH). The Indras currently sit 2ft into the room, 3ft off the side walls, with the primary listening position about 8 ft from the speaker face. At least to my ears, this works. Am quite curious as to what a room analyzer will indicate.

Thanks again.

Wflm,

how could you isolate the Scarlatti form the rest of the system and room?

The only way to isolate a CD player is to ideally compare it head-to-head with another one while keeping all other elements in the chain unchanged including the room. (Even then you have the synergy variable: player A may be preferable to player B in system X but not in system Y.) That is not always feasible, especially for the rare top-tier components. Before posting above, I've followed this thread for 10 days and it appears that the original poster has not had much luck yet in getting any ideal head-to-head comparisons (except for Stereophile's). So, I figured my non-ideal comparison may be of some use, since it also re-enforces Perrew's observation. I was careful to preface my remarks with the qualifier "For what it's worth", I explicitly stated that I heard the Scarlatti under show conditions (which are usually not ideal), and I expressed my conclusion as my "preference", not some absolute statement. I believe that my statement is reasonably qualified.

When I was shopping to upgrade my speakers and amp, I traveled around the country to audition top-tier components. On some of the trips I even took my NWO player, cables and power cord with me. As I said above, I strongly preferred my previous NWO-3.0SE to all other players I heard (in systems worth up to $500K). My recent upgraded NWO-4.0SE is a significant enhancement of the 3.0SE. I'll post a review of it soon.

If your current assessment of the 6 players you listed above entails head-to-head comparisons in the same listening room, then your observations may be valuable to the original poster, provided his sonic preferences are similar to yours.

Peace