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dCS Puccini Clock

I had yesterday the oportunity to hear for first time the Puccini clock.

I must admit that I was a little sceptical. The system consisted of:

Howland preamp HP-200 SE
Howland amp RADIA SE
Avalon Indra
Transparent power cleaner / station ?
I can't tell which cables

Well the effect is quite amazing and you can easily recognize it in a blind hearing. If I have to describe it I would say, you become aware of the hall / the space in which the recording has been done. The difference is very noticeable when you switch the clock off, suddenly the music sounds dryer, shorter and the space all around the whole music desapears.

I heard:
Luiz Bonfa plays and sing Bossa Nova (Verve)
Bruckner 4th by Jaap van Zweden (bad SACD & interpretation)
Bruckner 4th by Günter Wand (the last recording)
Ports of Call by Eiji Oue (Ref. Rec. bravo Prof. Johnson you are a great sound engeneer!)

One of these days I will take it home and have a test on my system ... and will make some blind hearing with my wife ;-)

I will report then about the experience.
clavil
chadeffect
586 posts
 
This is the first I have heard about this. I am not sure, but I believe the DSD license may have a part to play in the price.

There have been many people trying to block the ability to send hi rez digital outputs to external boxes in domestic equipment due to pirating. I am not saying that DCS are correct to charge for the upgrade, but may have a part to play and could be down to Sony and copyright law.

DCS are a great little company and I have both old and new DCS stacks. The Scarlatti is one of the finest digital playback systems I have ever heard. The Elgar plus/verona/ la scarla is no slouch either.

It is expensive, and there is no getting away from that, but I think it is more to do with the way the Hi fi distribution works with huge mark ups and not so much down to the cost of their manufacturing overheads.

It maybe worth a call to them. I have only ever had 1st class service from them.
clavil OP
254 posts
 
for europeans the dCS Puccini plays more or less in the same price category than Nagra, M.Levinson or Audio Research.

is it better to go with an Audio Research like the Ref 7 which has already been replaced by the Ref 8 after only a few years or with the Puccini which should (we hope) have a longer cyclus of life thank to the possibility of being updated by a new software?

... and by the way, sounding better than the Ref7 ...
elberoth2's avatar
elberoth2
1,223 posts
 
The CD-7 was only replaced after 4 years - that is an awful lot of time for a CD player. The CD-8 is much better and so is the Puccini. No contest.

FYI - the software update for the Puccini has nothing to do with sound quality.
lula
211 posts
 
Elberoth,
Which do you prefer...the CD-8 or Puccini? My dealer has both and pre-
fers the CD-8. I haven't heard both side by side.
clavil OP
254 posts
 
Jonathan Valin from TAS wanted to compare both players. I don't know if he has already done it
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