Wadia 27/270 vs. dCS Delius+Purcell


Hallo, I want to spend some kilobuck in a new cd-combo and think to buy either a Wadia 27/270 or a dCS DAC Delius with upsampler Purcell. Does somebody has experiences? I have the following questions:
1. Is the Wadia or the dCS the 'better' one?
2. For the dCS I need a transport too. Some people told me, that the transport for the dCS do not neeed to be super expensive because the Purcell will 'upsamle' some weeknesses of the transport as well. A transport of about $ 2.000 would do. Is this right or do I need to buy an superexpensive transport as well? Which transports go well with the dCS?
3. The Wadia and the dCS do not need a preamp, theoreticlly. Here at audiogon one can read that the experiences with Wadia with or without pre are very incoherent. Half people strictly recommend a (good) pre, the other half strictly recommend no pre. How about the dCS? Does this combo need a (good) pre or does it run as good without?
Best regards from Germany and thanks for good advice in advance! Sebastian Hatzfeldt
tim777
The dCS DACs are also ovesamplers, running at 2.822MS/s for 44.1kS/s based inputs (i.e. 44.1, 88.2 & 176.4kS/s and also DSD) and 3.072MS/s for 48kS/s based inputs(48, 96 & 192kS/s). The vast majority of DACs now made are oversamplers.

Robert Kelly
dCs Ltd, Cambridge, UK
I have compared the Wadia 27/270 to the dCS 972/Elgar combo (which I own). I drive my customized Melos Monoblocks directly with the Elgar. I use a Sigtech room DSP and Dunlavy SC-V's. I have a shunt to ground volume control in each monblock so for serious listening the volume on the Elgar is betwwen 0 and -10 db. The dCS combo is better than the Wadia. On complex orchestral music the ability to hear and place each instrument wth its correct overtones is superb. On string quartetts the ability to hear the nuances of the bowing is, in my opinion unbeatable. In order to decide if this is important to you, you'll have to listen.
I've heard both...and own the Delius/Purcell. I've been VERY impressed with dCS gear. I listen to primarily classical and 60's jazz, and have been happy with the ability of Delius/Purcell to unravel complex passages of music with minimal coloration. I prefer upsampling to 176k over 192k.
Hbrandt: That's an interesting comment about liking 176K over 192K on dCS gear. Could you give more detail about what you hear on your system between these two sampling rates? Especially in the context of classical music. Thanks.
although i am no mathemtician it seems clear that the DCS gear has a better time multiplying the cd sampling rate by an even 4 times (172khz) as opposed to the additional computations involved in 192khz. probably cleaner data. maybe a sharper knife than me can shed more light on this issue. i haven't compared the sound of these 2 sampling rates but the why looked obvious.