ok so last night we did the 2nd shootout between DCS Vivaldi and Esoteric Grandioso K1 using the W20 Aurender music server.
Here is what i gathered:
- Vivaldi has more resolution
- Vivaldi seems to have a tad more bass while remaining tight and controlled
- when cranking up the system to loud levels, the vivaldi makes me cringe a little during certain songs which does not seem to affect me when using the Esoteric
- The esoteric sounds more "rounded" on the highs yielding less fatigue at just about any volume level
- Soundstage size and depth is about the same on both
- i found the esoteric a tad more musical with less of the DCS "in your face " presentation
if i were to describe the DCS, i’d say " high resolution" and for the Esoteric K1 " very musical"
Of course, and as expected, we had several people here that had different opinions. Some said that the esoteric and dcs were not really far apart while others said the DCS was far better than the Esoteric based on what they heard here.
Anyhow, we did an "in between" shootout of the DCS vs Boulder 2010 as a preamp, but we used a very expensive powercord on the DCS (i forget the brand, but this cable retails for $20,000 and it weights about 45 lbs) and here are the comments from people:
- DCS has more immediacy, coherence, and organic feeling than using the boulder 2010 (please remember we were using a $20,000 power cord on the DCS for this exercise)
- Boulder 2010 has a much bigger soundstage with more depth, height, perhaps even more control on the low frequencies
- Boulder 2010 is "inflating" the soundstage which makes it less coherent than the DCS which taints the presentation
- One person responded to the comment above about the boulder 2010 "inflating the sound" by saying to the person above:
" no disrespect to your opinion with the "inflating comment" but you really need to get out more often and go to live events. Live events, especially those that are in actual arenas, auditoriums or venues HAVE a big sound so the boulder is trying to recreate this effect by expanding the soundstage rather than keeping everything more confined which is what the DCS is doing plus the boulder has more dynamics which the DCS could not match. The boulder is trying to remove the walls here and trying to "take you there".
So after everything was said and done, i stayed listening some more on my own and noticed that the DCS for some reason "bites" my ears a little when playing at relatively loud volumes so i decided to dig in my cable bin and found a Wireworld Starlight 7 USB which is way cheaper than the FTA USB cable we used and as soon as i did that the slight edginess i was getting was totally gone. Of course, some other good qualities of the presentation were diminished as well, but this gave me food for thought which is that i might want to revisit the Wireworld USB Platinum 7 (or the the new Platinum 8 USB that will release next month) and see if this actually is what i have been needing to do on the DCS?
This machine (or perhaps my entire rig) is quite transparent. i was actually surprised at the massive change the system had by just swapping from the FTA USB and going to the Wireworld Starlight 7 USB.
AS I HAD STATED BEFORE, i am going to keep playing with the DCS and probably begin to try all sorts of USB cables. Yes, i will also use these with the Esoteric and do my own personal shootouts. After living with both for a few days or weeks and actually having enough "seat time" with both and taking some other financial things into consideration, i will make a determination as to which unit will be the one i want to keep and which one i will sell. i can't keep both here so one will need to go at some point. Until that day comes, i will keep playing and having fun and on to the next !
Here is what i gathered:
- Vivaldi has more resolution
- Vivaldi seems to have a tad more bass while remaining tight and controlled
- when cranking up the system to loud levels, the vivaldi makes me cringe a little during certain songs which does not seem to affect me when using the Esoteric
- The esoteric sounds more "rounded" on the highs yielding less fatigue at just about any volume level
- Soundstage size and depth is about the same on both
- i found the esoteric a tad more musical with less of the DCS "in your face " presentation
if i were to describe the DCS, i’d say " high resolution" and for the Esoteric K1 " very musical"
Of course, and as expected, we had several people here that had different opinions. Some said that the esoteric and dcs were not really far apart while others said the DCS was far better than the Esoteric based on what they heard here.
Anyhow, we did an "in between" shootout of the DCS vs Boulder 2010 as a preamp, but we used a very expensive powercord on the DCS (i forget the brand, but this cable retails for $20,000 and it weights about 45 lbs) and here are the comments from people:
- DCS has more immediacy, coherence, and organic feeling than using the boulder 2010 (please remember we were using a $20,000 power cord on the DCS for this exercise)
- Boulder 2010 has a much bigger soundstage with more depth, height, perhaps even more control on the low frequencies
- Boulder 2010 is "inflating" the soundstage which makes it less coherent than the DCS which taints the presentation
- One person responded to the comment above about the boulder 2010 "inflating the sound" by saying to the person above:
" no disrespect to your opinion with the "inflating comment" but you really need to get out more often and go to live events. Live events, especially those that are in actual arenas, auditoriums or venues HAVE a big sound so the boulder is trying to recreate this effect by expanding the soundstage rather than keeping everything more confined which is what the DCS is doing plus the boulder has more dynamics which the DCS could not match. The boulder is trying to remove the walls here and trying to "take you there".
So after everything was said and done, i stayed listening some more on my own and noticed that the DCS for some reason "bites" my ears a little when playing at relatively loud volumes so i decided to dig in my cable bin and found a Wireworld Starlight 7 USB which is way cheaper than the FTA USB cable we used and as soon as i did that the slight edginess i was getting was totally gone. Of course, some other good qualities of the presentation were diminished as well, but this gave me food for thought which is that i might want to revisit the Wireworld USB Platinum 7 (or the the new Platinum 8 USB that will release next month) and see if this actually is what i have been needing to do on the DCS?
This machine (or perhaps my entire rig) is quite transparent. i was actually surprised at the massive change the system had by just swapping from the FTA USB and going to the Wireworld Starlight 7 USB.
AS I HAD STATED BEFORE, i am going to keep playing with the DCS and probably begin to try all sorts of USB cables. Yes, i will also use these with the Esoteric and do my own personal shootouts. After living with both for a few days or weeks and actually having enough "seat time" with both and taking some other financial things into consideration, i will make a determination as to which unit will be the one i want to keep and which one i will sell. i can't keep both here so one will need to go at some point. Until that day comes, i will keep playing and having fun and on to the next !
