dcs sound

Some people seem to think that dCS gear gives you the absolute technical performance in digital reproduction in the form of accurately converted data. But dCS gear is in its best form an artistic tool, and admits the "analogue" element as much as the technical precision. I once heard a demonstrator take a Joni Mitchell recording with embellished chords (Joni's alternate guitar tunings!), a flowing melody, an organic groove, and warm room acoustics, and show how too little a wordlength and too short a sample rate can spoil the playback of a recording like this. "Yes dCS gear has purely technical strengths," it was implied, "but remember that music is one of the fine arts--the noblest, the most important, and the most difficult to reproduce--and that its fluent harmonies may be spoiled by the intrusion of a single harsh note, its vital pulse ruined by a single mechanical beat" and the dCS Delius/Purcell DAC/upsampler really seemed to capture most of the PRAT (pace, rhythm and timing) of Joni Mitchell's music that day, and impressed me as never before. But what I am saying here is more suggestive than argumentative: I wonder if it would be possible to combine the Audiomeca Mephisto II transport with the dCS DAC/upsampling gear to see if they can make the most of each other's strengths, since there are so many similar "analogue" merits in each of these products.

This thread has brought to the forefront some very subtle compartive differences. It would be very interesting to compare the DCS stuff with the Mepheisto II (new version, if it is forthcoming in September), and for good measure, the new 24/192 version of the EMC-1.

I'm currious as to just how close the new 24/192 one box players can come to the transport/upsampler/DAC combos that easily exceed $12K. And when you add Pls1's Sigtec and SACD into the equation, the equation becomes even more complex.

Audioguy, you're right. I use a Sigtech. Thanks for the reminder but I do have it set on 24 bits. A few comments. At the level of performance we are talking about, I believe that without VERY accurate DSP room correction and very impulse coherent speakers that the differences in the upsamplers/DACs cannot be accurately assessed because how the DAC converts the time based info is where many of the differences lie. Room and speaker interaction can not only obscure the difference but actually cause the DAC’s to act like mini DSP units analogous to using cables as tone controls.

I’ve played around with the 972 upsampler in front of some other DACs in addition to the Elgar. These experiments have convinced me that much of the difference in high end DAC’s subjective performance are due to the audible artifacts created by the D to A algorithms and the filters implemented in the DAC’s. I highly recommend the technical paper on this on the dCS site. This paper is not a self serving marketing paper but is some rather sophisticated musings on how the common choice of algorithms for the conversion back to analog and the filter implementation may have some rather fundamental flaws in the underlying mathematical assumptions. It is interesting that in the various threads that the DAC’s that vie for the top position, for the most part, use “nonstandard” algorithms or conversion circuit topologies.

Changing the upsampling in front of any DAC will change the audible analog artifacts. Changing the frequency, impulse characteristics of the music (Joni Mitchell vs. Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra) will change the analog artifacts created by the DACs. This makes getting a bead on “the best” very hard in my opinion.

Lornecherry is right that these points are subtle but they are real and do matter for the listening experience. Many of the performances I want to listen to are only available as digital recordings on Redbook CDs so I am quite interested in optimizing my digital chain. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

I have listened to the Elgar for a long time through some very nice associated equipment at my local dealer. The staff and I compared the orginal EMC1 to it and felt that the Electrocompaniet EMC1 CD player had about 95-98% of the abilities of the Elgar grouping.
I recently had my EMC1 CD Player upgraded to the 24/192kHz DAC and the new player surpasses the Elgar in quality of sound. The staff and owner were in awe of the players abilities. I have never seen them so excited about a piece of gear, keep in mind that they sell the Elgar grouping!
Hearing is subjective and that is what makes it tough to have an opinion that others will share. I however, feel that this piece of kit is something special. I never thought a compact disc could sound so good. If you are in an area where you can audition it, make the trip and bring along some of your favorites. I hope this is a glimpse of the future. If it is, audio is headed in a very exciting direction.

I had a Sim Audio Eclipse CDP with DCS Purcell upsampler. DCS is excellent, however I was able to get rid of 3 pieces (Eclipse CDP; Purcell; ARC preamp) by moving to the excellent Audio Aero Capitole 24/192 one-box CDP. It even has a volume control so that I can drive my 4 tube amps direct in a bi-amp setup. Very analog-sounding as well, with a sub-miniature tube output stage. That being said, the DCS gear is very, very good- it comes down to a matter of taste really.