dCS Puccini Clock

Arthur I should probably leave this question to people who have actually fully auditioned Puccini at their home. I'm not THAT familiar with it. My intuition from hearing it is that it is not quite as good Delius + stack and certainly not as good as Paganini. A pretty reliable source hinted he does not like Puccini as much without the clock compared to the old separates. I can't confirm that. Don't hold me to that you'd have to test it yourself.

I normally wouldn't taint your audition with my opinion but this won't be the type of change you have to strain to hear, especially if you are upsampling to dSD. As far as the overall dCS sound, the imaging is pretty uncanny. The upsampling to DSD makes CD sound like a different format to my ears. The imaging and separation is something you have to hear for yourself, and the overall presentation is smoother than you might expect from digital. It is extremely neutral, however, and you might find it a little cold and analytical sounding if your amps and speakers aren't on the warmer side.

90% of the time, dCS DACS sound better with no preamp straight into the amp. There are exceptions but probably not many.

Delius by itself is very good but without Purcell in front of it I thought it sounded a little brittle. With Purcell it is out of this world. You just have to try it yourself. You need extremely refined amplification, cabling (including digital), and speakers to get the FULL benefit though. I find with my Squeezebox, even using a secure ripper like EAC is a dramatic improvement over the standard iTunes ripper.

I agree with JB0194 that it is hard to image vinyl being much better and I am not even using Scarlatti or clocking--just the Purcell+Delius.

A friend of mine, who owns the old stack (Verdi LaScala, Verona Clock, Elgar Plus) has auditioned Puccini in his system (Nagra PL-P + VPA; Avis Acutus/SME V/ZYX) for the period of 2 weeks.

He came to the conclusion that his old stack betters Puccini (sans U-clock) in the following areas:

- resolution,
- HF air,
- bass definition,
- dynamics,
- soundstaging.

Acording to his words, dCS Puccini was better at portrayig midrange, had more texture and was more fluid sounding.

Overall he prefered his old stack, but it all depends on personal preferences.

I should have the Puccini with the U-Clock on loan in the next two weeks.

I would suggest using a good quality clock cable for the Puccini. The dCS technical staff recommended such to me. My experience validates this:

I use the Esoteric P-70 transport which has two different word sync terminals. "Mode 2" has a PLL filter cutoff frequency about ten times that of the other terminal and, per the users manual, "almost completely eliminates jitter". The manual, however, notes lock status takes much longer to achieve with "Mode 2" and essentially says to use the other more "forgiving" terminal. I tried both the generic dCS-supplied and a Stealth BNC digital cable - only the Stealth Varidig Sextet allows a reliable lock with "Mode 2", and the lock occurs with a second or two every time.

Just my 2 cents

Thanks Elberoth2, I'd be interested in your impressions in relation to the MBL 1531 which I know you had for some time and that I would be moving from. I am interested in whatever I get having digital in, not so much SACD. I expect the Puccini with or without U-clock to be an overall improvement over the MBL, I'm specifically curious as to how it is different/better. I plan to audition Puccini and a couple others at CES and then determine how to get my favorites to Dallas for a demo in my system. I had the Playback Designs here already and it is on my short list. Any added thoughts are always helpful.

Elberoth2, I am very curious about your opinions concerning the Puccini versus the ARC CD7. I have tried several CD players, but always returned to the CD7. Although it is not as detailed as some of the competition, it is airier and handles large orchestras in a way no other player did in my system. Also its fast transients complement very well the Sound Lab A1PX.