Jon, with the preamble there is no such thing as "best" as there is so much great sounding gear out there, in general Vitus gear sounds natural/organic, resolving and non-fatiguing. The first thing which strikes you is the timeless Danish industrial design and build quality which are second to none.
The SCD-025 spinner is essentially a full Signature Series dac built around a heavily modified Philips Pro 2 LF transport. There was a major update to this player in Q1, 2015 incl: a new, upgradeable master clock, new I/V converter, new analogue modules etc and is basically a whole new beast. The upgrades were so successful Hans upgraded the Masterpiece Series transport and dac with the same filter UP components!
Sound wise, my player only has about 35hrs on it so far, but is already sound very resolving and musical. I am amazed how much information this player can pull off an RBCD. No kidding, it makes RBCD's sound like SACD's! Dynamics and bass are excellent, no doubt helped by the 4 UI-core power supplies. The sound is very smooth and liquid. It has a real finesse with strings and percussion.
I have owned a couple of good dacs before; a Vimak DS-1800 Mk2 and heavily modded/re-tubed Ayon CD-5s. The Vimak for its day was remarkably resolving and very composed (and thus similar in that way to the Vitus), though its quirkiness in operation was annoying. In comparison, the SCD-025 is simply better across the board & handles files up to Quad rate DSD via its DSD USB board.
The Ayon was a very nice tube dac with matched NOS 6h30DR's & discreet HD op amps. Bass was excellent and about on par with my Vitus. There were also tube virtues of holography, sweetness and a touch of warmth. The Ayon uses excellent Mundorf Supreme Silver/Gold/Oil caps which improve sound stage depth as well as chokes & big polypropylene filtering caps (similar to Conrad Johnson). The Ayon in this modified form was also a very nice linestage which paired very well with my Boulder 1060. But you pays, you gets as they say. And the Vitus is simply in a different league. It is like comparing a Volkswagen Passat to a BMW 5 series.
I know you asked how the Vitus sounds compared to dacs in the same league, though i'm reluctant to compare dacs which I haven't owned and used in my system. With that said, i've heard the Soulution 540 sacd player which sounds very smooth and resolving. That is a nice sacd player, though it did not sound as good as the (then previous spec) SCD-025 on RBCD. (The current spec player is about 50% better). I'd love to hear the 2-chassis Soulution 746 or 760 dac. Though we're getting into Rolls Royce territory.
The Vitus so far is the best single box dac i've heard, though the new Soulution 541 player could be a compelling alternative if you listen to a lot of sacd's. Btw you have a nice system which is well sorted with excellent attention to detail. Good show!
The SCD-025 spinner is essentially a full Signature Series dac built around a heavily modified Philips Pro 2 LF transport. There was a major update to this player in Q1, 2015 incl: a new, upgradeable master clock, new I/V converter, new analogue modules etc and is basically a whole new beast. The upgrades were so successful Hans upgraded the Masterpiece Series transport and dac with the same filter UP components!
Sound wise, my player only has about 35hrs on it so far, but is already sound very resolving and musical. I am amazed how much information this player can pull off an RBCD. No kidding, it makes RBCD's sound like SACD's! Dynamics and bass are excellent, no doubt helped by the 4 UI-core power supplies. The sound is very smooth and liquid. It has a real finesse with strings and percussion.
I have owned a couple of good dacs before; a Vimak DS-1800 Mk2 and heavily modded/re-tubed Ayon CD-5s. The Vimak for its day was remarkably resolving and very composed (and thus similar in that way to the Vitus), though its quirkiness in operation was annoying. In comparison, the SCD-025 is simply better across the board & handles files up to Quad rate DSD via its DSD USB board.
The Ayon was a very nice tube dac with matched NOS 6h30DR's & discreet HD op amps. Bass was excellent and about on par with my Vitus. There were also tube virtues of holography, sweetness and a touch of warmth. The Ayon uses excellent Mundorf Supreme Silver/Gold/Oil caps which improve sound stage depth as well as chokes & big polypropylene filtering caps (similar to Conrad Johnson). The Ayon in this modified form was also a very nice linestage which paired very well with my Boulder 1060. But you pays, you gets as they say. And the Vitus is simply in a different league. It is like comparing a Volkswagen Passat to a BMW 5 series.
I know you asked how the Vitus sounds compared to dacs in the same league, though i'm reluctant to compare dacs which I haven't owned and used in my system. With that said, i've heard the Soulution 540 sacd player which sounds very smooth and resolving. That is a nice sacd player, though it did not sound as good as the (then previous spec) SCD-025 on RBCD. (The current spec player is about 50% better). I'd love to hear the 2-chassis Soulution 746 or 760 dac. Though we're getting into Rolls Royce territory.
The Vitus so far is the best single box dac i've heard, though the new Soulution 541 player could be a compelling alternative if you listen to a lot of sacd's. Btw you have a nice system which is well sorted with excellent attention to detail. Good show!