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
Jonathan Valin from TAS wanted to compare both players. I don't know if he has already done it
It is possible there is some licensing related explanation for this upsampling firmware thing, but I'm not sure what that is exactly. I suppose it is possible there are intellectual property issues at work here beyond dCS desire to simply charge more for the functionality. If that is the case it would have to be evaluated in that light.
Lula,

CD-8 and dCS offer very different perspective. Puccini is more transparent of the two, is more forward and has loads of details.

CD-8 is much warmer sounding, with lots of texture and much better rendering of soundstage depth.

When I first heard the Puccini, I was ready to proclaim that it is much better than CD-8. But after some 4+ weeks, I'm not sure anymore, I find myself listening to the CD-8 more and more, 'cos it seems to be more musical.

The rest of my system is Dartzeel pre / Dartzeel pwr / Wilson Sophia 2 speakers.
Thanks, Elberoth. My dealer also felt the CD-8 is simply more musical and
natural sounding. I have a CD-7 and am wondering whether to make the move
to a CD-8.