Needs vs. Wants; You may not need it, but if they made it, and it kicked A&K butt, would you not want it? 
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Gotcha! 
I would want it. Would I follow through and buy it?
I encountered an interesting question not very long ago, when it comes to buying and owning ‘things’: “How much is enough?” Pondering it for a couple of months, I can happily say I own more than enough ‘things’. Feels much better.
I would definitely be up for that. Chip design and implementation has come a long way in the last decade, so perhaps a “ring dac on a chip” is now a possibility.
The market for high end portable audiophile dac/amps has exploded so there is definitely a market now.
It already exists ! A 40 000€ portable gear, it is called a Patek Philippe
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+1 I’d love a portable unit that sounds like my Bartok to take on the road! I travel with a chord mojo and HD600 but it just isn’t the same
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I just downloaded Roon ARC and listened to a number of songs from my playlist for the Utopia with the LINA. I used the XELENTO remote in-ear monitors with the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt on the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the EQ settings below. I compared the SQ to Apple Music and the Tidal app with the same setup, obviously. Nothing comes even close to Roon ARC. All the tracks sound absolutely amazing. I’m completely blown away. I highly recommend this setup as a substitute for a dCS portable kit. Roon does an amazing job with the SQ in ARC. The source files are from Tidal in my case but they sound nothing like the files when I use the Tidal app directly. The XELENTO are quite affordable, I think, and they pair really well with the DragonFly Cobalt.
I compared Roon ARC with Apple Music and the Tidal app with CarPlay in my car today. Too bad the manufacturer doesn’t offer a wired CarPlay option. The WiFi connection is not lossless. But still, the SQ prize goes to ARC by a mile, I’d say. It’s as if I have a new audio system in my car. Below is one example of a song that sounds much better with ARC in my car and it’s not because of the 192 kHz source file. I also listened to 44.1 kHz files.
With both, Apple Music and the Tidal app, Norah Jones‘ vocals have a sharp edge to them, the bass is boomy, the sound is tighter and very forward for lack of a better term. There is no volume level where I can enjoy the song. It’s either too quite or the effects mentioned become very apparent when the volume is turned up. It’s utterly unenjoyable with either app in my car but Apple Music does have a slightly wider soundstage than the Tidal app.
With ARC, Norah Jones voice is very smooth no matter how much I crank up the volume which I need to do a couple of notches to match the loudness of Music or Tidal. The sound is very detailed and very relaxed. It’s almost like a different song. I’m totally enamored of ARC.
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A dCS product with smaller dimensions like the Mojo or even the Hugo would be well received by the headphone community and existing dCS customers.
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Brilliant! but you need to make it smaller - it should be a flex board 
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I count 48 current sources, clearly thats an Apex derivative not from the Varèse lineage 
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Varèse is from the APEX lineage. The DAC and output stage in Varèse mono DAC is essentially the same as that in a Vivaldi APEX DAC, just with 48 current sources for phase and 48 for anti-phase instead of 48 each for L and R.
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it was meant as a joke Andrew, looks like you’re still in Munich mode
Haha, too true!
I don’t think that it’s possible to put that glorious dCS Tech into a DAP.
However as a headphone user, I surely would be interested in a DAP from dCS. As long as it supports local file playback, streaming services and Room Arc.
Since it’s for headphones, Expanse needs to be included and I’d love PEQ too
The first forum suggestion for this dates back to 2021. No sign of one since.
Maybe this market segment is already sufficiently well served by the likes of Astell & Kern? Remember that for dCS it not only has to be technically possible but also commercially attractive.
Very true. Nowadays I think that the technical feasibility is a bigger issue than the economical part.
IEMs broke even 5 digit prices in recent years and seem to sell well. There probably is a market for this by now
However I would prefer a ton of other things from dCS first. Just wanted to share my opinion on this, since the thread was here.
I travel a lot and a dCS DAP would be great, but perhaps a pipedream.
My desire too, but perhaps it is gilding the lily. Because, I find dCS best enjoyed at scale where I can receive its splendor with my booty chakra.
Owning a Fugaku, I’d certainly welcome a portable dCS, I guess it would do justice to such an IEM.
I recently switched from an A&K SP4000 to an iBasso DX340 Max. It can drive my Immanis to surprising levels. Even the Abyss AB1266 Phi TC is plenty satisfactory there. One can just dream about what dCS could achieve, assuming they would put a similarly good amp section into it (the A&K sounds fine, but has no guts to drive such stuff).
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