I would like to hear from current Debussy owner on how Debussy competes with new age DACs such as Chord Dave, TotalDAC, Yggdrasil, MSB and Bricasti M1.
Essentially, what I like to find out if it is still worth spending on a used Debussy today?
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In general the Debussy / Puccini / Paganini range stands pretty good against the new age DAC’s, when it comes to scale and dynamics in my perspective, but when it comes to other aspects like inner detail / fine micro detail / separation / air , then the Chord DAVE , Shiit , Bricasti is superior.
Total DAC i find very good, and is the most exact of the listed DAC’s above with great solid mids.
MSB lower end range i find good all around but do miss out in the bottom end and is not as refined in the top as Bricasti and DAVE or the Total DAC
So if you find a used Debussy for a decent price, then it can be an idea.
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Try to find a used dCS network bridge and it will be as close to being up to date. I traded in my Debussy for a Bartók to purposely reduce the component count, otherwise the dCS NB would be the perfect solution.
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It depends upon what you want to spend. Your list of comparisons ranges from DACs costing from $1,500 to potentially over $32,000. Not a realistic list of comparators IMO.
It seems clear from your post that you are not in the market for a $32,000 DAC and are looking at a used Debussy. Is a used Debussy a good buy? Yes, subject to price.
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Bricasti M1 is old dac also. Not better than Debussy, but different. I preferred Debussy + Bridge.
Now I changed my Debussy/NB combo by Bartok and also prefer dCS to Bricasti M12.
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I have the same question. Thinking of a used Debussy or the following:
-Aqua La Voce S3
-Aqua La Scala
-Merason DAC-1 (can’t find a lot of opinions on this one)
-others?
Upgrading from a PS Audio DS Jr
I know I’m new here and I’ve bumped this thread from many months ago but I would like to hear opinions on picking up a second hand Debussy.
I did try to reach out to DCS (as the company suggests on their web site) on parts and supportability but I never heard back.
Any thoughts from the forum would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
As far as support is concerned AFAIK dCS offer this on all of their products . However regarding some parts such as main boards they may only be " if available" and thus become a long shot as any remaining stock ( if there is any) exhausts after the product line has been discontinued. This is the case for just about anything electronic made this century - it is no longer a case of being able to just solder a replacement resistor in place.
Picking up electronics that are out of warranty is always a gamble but probability of failure is low being a solid state device and knowing the company it is coming from solidified my confidence so, I picked up used Debussy almost a year ago. No regrets at all.
Understand about out of warranty service and potentially limited parts availability. Reading up on the company online and around here I have no doubt that DCS would stand by a product as long as they had the parts. Thanks
Do you notice real differences with the switch?
yes, it matters. but that’s probably not the most important thing.
Sorry, I meant with the change from NB+Debussy to Bartok. I am just there. I own a Debussy and I wonder if buying a NB or save for a Bartok. Did you find benefits with the dual AES or bnc in SQ? Thanks
Bartok sounds more interesting than Debussy + NB, dual AES sounds a little better at frequencies above 24/96 than single AES.
But in the end I sold my Bartok (I didn’t wait for firmware 2.0) and bought Bricasti M12, I control my active ATC50 monitors directly with it. A little less nervous sound, but not as clear as Bartok. Anyway, I was able to save a lot of money on this exchange.
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