Any better DAC then dCS Scarlatti?

Murataltuev,

I posted the link to the Scarlatti system I heard previously. With Focal speakers and ASR. Ive heard the Focals on several occasions all the models, I attach a link where you can see some of thesystems Ive heard including some of the sources mentioned. Since Ive heard all the Focals and the ASR on several occasions I think I have a pretty good grasp of their "sound" and can dissect the Scarlatti sound pretty well. So I second Puremusics finds, the NWO-3.0-SE was better than all the other sources Ive heard and the NWO-4.0-SE is significantly better.
As for cheap price tag Im not sure what youre referring to but if you mean the APL has a lower price than the DCS stack and therefore should not be better. I would take into account what the DCS costs factory direct, I figure a lot less then what the dealers charge. Anyway the thing with the APL is that people that havent heard it cant imagine how good it will sound and I havent seen any APL NWO-4.0-SE owners looking for another DAC like some other owners of the so called top dacs do. The only ones that dont seem to like it are the ones that havent heard it. Many owners of the NWO dont post and read this site and own or has owned pretty much all of the mentioned machines and thinks one of them is far superior. Im really looking forward to Puremusics review!

Perrew - Tak for det. Min dansk er bestemt rustne, saa vil skift to engelsk...

My ambition is to control the variables such that I can isolate the DAC in question. We shall see whether such is feasible - as already noted, securing each DAC for home audition is proving non trivial.

Am intrigued by the APL but wonder if it is "Retail" ready, that is: debugged, robust, serviceable. These are characteristics ancillary to the sonic virtues but essential if a piece of kit is to prove (relatively) carefree.

To be fair such is a concern I've about several pieces on my list: MPS-5, EMM XDS1, Stahl Tek, and for the Boulder its ethernet capability.

I will touch base with APL and see whether they can oblige with a demo unit.

Wflm,

IT IS RETAIL READY!

For the 4.0-SE they went through 18 versions of the software before they were totally happy. It is debugged, robust and serviceable.
I owned the 3.0-SE before and had no problems with it and now have the 4.0-SE and never had any problem with it.

Wflm, sorry should have added the APL comes with 3 year warranty no matter what the problem is.

Perrew, Scarlatti can't be harsh/edged.
It is totally different from harsh/edged.
May be ASR or Focals are harsh/edged, but not dCS.
In some cases dCS can be too warm and too soft, which is opposite to harsh/edged.
That is why I can't trust to your comparision.
I never heard anything about APL before, so can't comment it.
Do you mean that they sell directly?
So, no way to get it for audition in another country?