to be clear, you find some similarities between DCA and T+A house sound? How would you generalize?
@ufguy73 I do not find similarities (between dCS and T+A)...IF I define "similarities" by sound signature.
dCS clearly makes wonderful and high performing components. I know many audiophiles love what dCS does and how it goes about doing it and are ecstatic with dCS in their systems.
To my ears, let me repeat: to my ears and preferences... they come across as too clean, too pristine and lack that elusive emotional connection and involvement. Something major is missing for me.
Whether this was due to the other parts of the systems I listened to, I can’t say with certainty. However, how I experience their ’sound’ hasn’t changed across multiple systems. The only way I can tease this out is to have one or more of their units in my own system and to optimize it’s performance per my needs and preferences.
The T+A SDV 3100 HV simply checks all of the boxes I need it to check for my personal sound quality and sound performance metrics and needs.
You need to find out which house sound does the same for you. Is it dCS or MSB or CH Precision or T+A or another manufacturer. How these components ’play’ within your system (specifically your other current components) will also be a major factor.
P.S. I second @audiotroy ’s point about the SDV’s pre-amplification stage. It is excellent!!!