I was finally able to meet David Steven last Thursday. What a great guy! He encouraged me to post some photos here. Below is a link to a google photo album. You may need to give google a few seconds to load the photos since they were shot on my 47MP Leica Q2. Also, there are photos of other audio gear from Scott’s reference system based around Wilson XVXs.
I am writing a “listening impressions” review for Positive Feedback magazine so I will hold the details until that is published but I wanted to say a few early words on the Varese.
The dCS Varese is easily the best digital I have heard. It has a super low noise floor and the music just flows effortlessly. This is a new level of detail AND musical engagement even compared to the flagship models of other DAC brands. A noticeable step up.
The new display is rather badass. Huge, bright, informative.
The Core seems to have loads of space for upgrades. Anyone with the cash to buy this is likely going to have their last DAC.
Not many of us will be able to purchase the Varese but I strongly encourage you to have a listen at your local dealer.
Next up: " This Friday and Saturday, November 29-30, HiFi Lounge—one of only two top-tier audio dealers chosen to represent the Varèse in the U.K., alongside Guildford Audio—is holding exclusive demonstrations at its premises in Bedfordshire, in conjunction with dCS and their U.K. distributor Absolute Sounds."
It has always been made clear by dCS that Varèse will have limited production ( in terms of annual output).The £217K price naturally limits demand too. The UK is roughly 5 times smaller by population than the USA. So having only 2 dealers here may be about right at this stage of things.
As a dCS dealer said to me about Varese, a major issue is awaiting a customer to walk through the door wanting to spend over £200K on a single item.
I learned an important lesson during my midlife crisis. I started competing in endurance sports - marathons, triathlons etc. (you would laugh out loud if you saw me now). To run a marathon at anything like your potential takes quite a lot of training. For the multi-sport events you essentially have to multiply that by three since all the disciplines have their own techniques that have to be mastered and different functional fitnesses. So being a really fit cyclist, for instance, doesn’t mean you can automatically parlay that fitness to, for instance, running**. Anyhoo, I trained about as much as I could, about 8-9 hrs a week. But there were folks I met at the pool who were up around double that. I couldn’t begin to understand where they found the time, I thought they were mad. And I looked down on those I met who said they were only training 4-5 hours a week as lightweights.
I slowly realized that every field of endeavour is the same. Where one is oneself is “just right”. Those who do or have less are a bit lightweight and those who do or have more are nutters. So with audio.
dCS customers tend to be a bit better off than average because of the step in price. I would imagine very few are under, say 35. The vast majority I have met are approaching or past retirement age, which makes sense since this is the age when one generally has most money and the time to actually spend and enjoy it. Higher earning professions - lawyers, doctors, bankers, management consultants, corporate execs, overpaid IT salespeople (ahem) etc. - are well represented, although probably the biggest group in my limited and wholly unscientific sample is entrepreneurs. However there are also a fair number of “normal people” who have forgone more to pursue their passion. They (we) are not all “and people” (as @still-one so beautifully put it).
So there it is. ‘Where you sit is where you stand’ as they say in market research. One’s position on the ladder defines one’s perspective. Everyone thinks they are “normal” and those above and below them are the outliers. But we have all chosen this as (one of) the way(s) to reward ourselves.
** Spoiler alert for those of you lucky enough not to have gotten to this stage in life yet. Almost all endurance sports boil down to running. If you are a weak runner it doesn’t really matter how good a swimmer or cyclist you are - you can take my word for it.
I can second Lee’s impressions. I spend a couple of hours listen at Quintessence Audio in Morton Grove IL. The thing I noticed how continuous music seems to flow. I noticed how vocal phrasing sounds more natural like that of analog. My video analogy would be other DACS are 1080p where as the Varese is 8K.
