Sorry, going to force your minds back over 20 years
I bought an early Delius last year (no firewire, v1.01 boot rom), loved it! Added a Purcell earlier this year and am running it dual-AES 48/,174 (174k preferred to 192k, not sure why) into the Delius.
It’s my digital solution of choice now, replacing a heavily modified Naim CDI and is simply stunning. All done on a hugely restricted budget (just over £1k for both).
The Purcell is the last version with v2.25 firmware, so my next low cost upgrade option would be a Delius with firewire connectivity. Long shot, but anyone have one gathering dust they’d be willing to sell?
Even a non Firewire one, but with v1.03 firmware, I’d be interested in - it would enable me to sync the Delius to the Purcell word clock I think, which is not available with my Delius‘ v1.01 boot rom.
To assist your search,the connection standard is IEEE 1394. However DSD equipped models from this era are more commonly known as Plus versions. If you can stretch your budget, the more common Elgar Plus can be found for under £1K.
A difficulty may be finding cables that will work with this combination. Many have comparatively short electrically conductive areas before the insulation is met. Using these will appear to make a physical connection but there will be no electrical one as the depth of the Elgar/Delius/Purcell casing fouls it. Back in the day some cable manufacturers ( e.g. AQ) made custom ones.
Thanks Pete - DOH, yes, 1394 Not had any problems with cables so far, but good to know, thanks. And Elgar is also on my shopping list, although more expensive in general.
Just my two cents… I’m not sure I would stick with dCS as a brand in this price range. To stay in this budget, you are dealing with 20+ year equipment and there have been huge leaps in DSP since then.
I suggest looking at some of the more recent DACs (below).
Thanks, I completely disagree I’ve only tried one of those in my system, very dynamic but zero texture or depth. I’d rate vintage Micromega, PS Audio, Mark Levinson & Wadia DAC technology far superior, and none of them come close the the vintage dCS kit…IMVHO of course.
Not had any problems with cables so far, but good to know, thanks. And Elgar is also on my shopping list, although more expensive in general.