I took my MPS-5 to a world-wide renowned dealer/sound engineer, been in the music/equipment biz 30+ years, someone who knows everyone on this planet in the biz. My friend was comparing the Meridian 808i with the Puccini and clock. The Meridian won convincingly, more natural, more real, more balanced, no edginess that the Puccini displayed along with overemphasis on HF detail. So my friend took the Meridian home. We compared both with the Playback Designs MPS-5, and to everyones surprise it beat both the Meridian and the Puccini clearly. The MPS-5 seemed to take the best of Meridian and DCS and then took it a big step further. One comment was, this makes my analog rig obsolete! Here, nobody had heard about the Playback, who makes it, how much does it cost, where can I get one etc etc.
Didn't get a chance to compare to Paganini or Scarlatti, but then your talking 3-5X the price. Thank you Andreas/Jonathan for bringing such a fantastic product on the market, clearly among the very best that exists today, but price wise extremely competitive!