Crescendo Fine Audio in Wheat Ridge, CO got a Varèse!

I’m not sure how long it will be there - at least through February - but I’m definitely headed down for a listen soon.

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Looking forward to your posting of your opinion next year.

Bill, do you know what speakers Matt plans to pair with the Varèse?

I was there this past weekend and it sounded very good, though it had an ever so slight amount of edge on transients as it had only been up and running for a few days and wasn’t quite settled in yet.

He had it wired with Transparent and connected to a Gryphon Essence preamp and Essence stereo amp (in high bias mode) driving a pair of the new Wilson Watt/Puppies. (Crescendo just became a Gryphon dealer in the last two months or so.)

I was quite impressed with it, though the UI left much to be desired, and the new remote is funky (think D’Agostino remotes - a big round block with a volume knob in the middle that pairs via Bluetooth.)

I also enjoy dealers that carry both Gryphon and dCS because of the “Apex” name collision. :smile:

We have noticed that Varèse has a definite need for burn in. I think we are advising dealers to try to get at least 100 hours on them before any launch events.

The UI still has some quirks and a number of missing features, depending on which firmware release a unit is on. The UI is still pre-release and of course these will be addressed before any customer units ship. The version we used for the demos in Taipei was almost completely stable however (one small glitch), so we think we are on track.

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