ARE DCS Dacs worth the high cost?

Went to a guys house with my friend He had the so called DCS stack. Like 5 boxes. Brought my friends Audio-GD Master 7. We listened to music for about 4 hours. Everybody liked the Master 7 better. The guy eventually sold the DCS stuff and bought a Master 7. Don't get me wrong, the DCS sounded very very good, we just prefered the Master 7
Alan

A  +£23,000 DCS stack was beaten by a £2,300 Audio-GD Master 7?

Almost seems too good to be true.

I guess that question could address hi fi in general and if you are thinking to buy it new, even more.
But, if we put that aside, and continue to discuss it from relatively 'twisted' audiophile point of view, than its true that DCS gear will provide you 'more' of listening experience than most.
There is a 'catch' too. Your listening room and the rest of your system should be at equally high level, otherwise you could find other gear that cost less but gives you more of  the value, meaning that you have certain 'top' (yours listening conditions) that sometimes is reached before you need some hi end gear, or better, no matter how much money you spend, the 'improvment' may not be significant or even heard.
I saw many expensive sytems, that were placed in less than perfect suroundings and have given nothing but permanent disatisfaction to their owners.
Speaking from my experience with DCS Puccini and clock that replaced Burmester 001 player.
Note, I am not fan of the Dac and pc audio, imho high end dacs are always compromised with use of pc's,at least the ones I had a chance to hear

No.

Well I might as well essay a serious response ...

Answer is --- it depends, and all comes down to your system preferences. DCS DACs can perform superbly but they are hella sensitive to ancillaries -- this is more true of the multi part stacks and the one box Rossini is to many the ideal solution (if you don't need SACD) -- certainly my dealer felt it outperformed a full Paganini stack (which I used to own)

Some feel the DCS kit tends a little towards the etched/over detailed side -- it can, especially if you choose some of the conversion settings (for example I find the PCM to tend a bit this way in comparison with DSD). The good thing is that their are all sorts of adjustments for you to tailor the sound to your preferences.

On the plus side if purchased from an official dealer you get great after sales service and regular upgrades, and a nice path to trading up the line if desired

Nevertheless there are many other great DACs and systems -- MSB, Esoteric, Playback etc -- ideally if you have not already bought into a line get a few in your home system to compare -- at the end of the day you are the only one who can judge