Has anyone heard the SimAudio 650D?

The Debussy and 650D were very close performers, with a slight edge to the 650D, being it a tad more dynamic and more engaging.

Both were very detailed with no digital glare, at least to my ears. Bass performance was quite good on both. With hi-res material the 650D excelled with fantastic sound stage. The Debussy again was very close but with a presentation somehow more distant.

Need to consider the context though:
A full Simaudio system might have favored the 650D.
The 650D served as a transport to the Debussy during this audition. Speakers were the Raidhos 1.1.

That is why I would like to know other opinions about this comparison on systems other than full Siamaudio gear.

I am also considering the dCS reputation for firmware upgrades, including the already announced capability for DSD over USB (soon to be available on the Debussy).

Thanks Llcan. If the dealer was comparing cd playback on the 650D to the digital input of the Debussy then for sure that's not "apples to apples". I've found different digital coax cables to influence the sound so the cable between the 650D and Debussy would have been a factor in your evaluation of the Debussy. Too bad you couldn't have compared them both solely as DACs with some sort of computer audio serving as your source...

Simaudio will say that the greatest sonic potential of the 650D is as a stand alone dac for a quality computer hard drive source but it's taken me a lot of trial and error to get the sound from my Sooloos MC200/Simaudio 650D combination to equal and surpass the sound of just using the 650D as a traditional CD player!

I have heard the 650D and thought it was one sweet machine. Forget about Stereophile ratings- they are meaningless. Everything gets recommended and are distinguished between different classes based on price. Trust your ears! FWIW, I also think Sim's lower priced digital gear is also tops. In the old days if something wasn't so good, Stereophile just said so. Now you have to read between the lines.

Stereophile and the other mags. have always been that way. One has to hear the gear with their own ears. Just go to any trade show and compare notes to what they say and to what you hear. If you do, you probably will not read another mag. again.

FYI, in doing some experimenting I've found that there may be a bit of an issue when feeding the 650D with a Sooloos.

I've got a Sooloos MC200 and have been struggling since I bought it to try and recreate the (fantastic) sound I get out of the 650D's CD player from the Sooloos. No success. It sounds very good but it has always lacked some of the "body" I hear when playing CDs through the 650D. Finally went into a dealer to compare the 650D to Sooloos' Media Source 600 dac and we both realized that the Sooloos MC200/Simaudio 650D combo has a mid/upper bass frequency dip that robs the music of some warmth.

I tried feeding the 650D's S/PDIF coax input from an Arcam CD player to see if there may be a problem with my 650D's input. The sound was perfect - pretty much identical to the 650D's internal transport.

I know the Stereophile review says the 650D sounds pretty much identical across all of it's inputs, including the CD. This may be true for some sources, but NOT for the Sooloos. I'm kind of surprised that this issue wasn't reported on in the Stereophile review as I believe Sooloos was listed as a source used for the review.

If you have a Sooloos and are looking to purchase the 650D (or vice versa), I suggest you try them out together to see if the sound is what you're hoping for. Don't get me wrong, it's still very good sound but it is not as good as some other digital sources or the 650D's CD player.

CAVEAT - my 650D does not have the updated high resolution asynchronous USB board. Simaudio mentioned the new board leads to some minor improvements across the non-USB inputs, so maybe Sooloos will work better with the newer board? (the Stereophile review was a unit with the original board that is the same as in my unit, though...)