Our Inside Varèse series continues with a look at the features that drive the Varèse Mono DACs, from a new version of the dCS Ring DAC to mechanical innovations designed to further reduce noise and distortion…
The Varèse Music System stemmed from a desire to set new standards in audio performance and user experience. We set out to bring listeners an even more immersive, natural sound, reproducing music with even greater fidelity whilst also simplifying system setup and control.
To achieve this, we had to undertake extensive research and development to explore where and how we could improve on our existing products and platforms. This investigation led us to embark on a series of multi-year projects that culminated in the launch of Varèse: our most ambitious system to date.
The Varèse system benefits from several new technologies, plus a new DAC architecture that represents the biggest change to dCS DAC design in a generation.
First, thank you for these beautifully written and helpful deep-dives on the Varese.
Question:
If
Varese has a completely new Ring DAC;
And
The Ring DAC in each Varese Mono DAC is identical, i.e., not L/R channel-specific;
Then:
One viable upgrade path for V/R/B must therefore be a hardware swap of the current Ring DAC for the new Varese Ring DAC, i.e., V/R/B hardware returned to dealer, like with Apex
True. However that does not mean that the Apex DAC and Varese DAC are the same.For example, being differential, Varese DAC has double the current sources of Apex ( Apex 48, Varese 96 - 48 with positive polarity and 48 negative).
I’ve seen your question and I’m afraid that I can’t answer it.
IF I knew what was going to happen in the future regarding products then I wouldn’t be able to say anything about anything until such time as an official announcement / release was made anyway…
I deliberately framed my question in the theoretical, not asking if this were the planned upgrade path, but simply one viable upgrade path, but I also appreciate your constraints.
Either way a great post on the inner workings of Varése!
“The Ring DAC system found inside other current dCS products, such as our Vivaldi, Rossini and Bartók APEX DACs and Players, features 96 current sources: 48 for the left channel and 48 for the right.”
Versus
“Each Varèse Mono DAC features 96 current sources, meaning there are twice as many current sources for each audio channel.”
I therefore agree with @Urbanluthier’s (now deleted) prior post, speculating that the next dCS product, under Varése, will have the new dual Mono Ring DACs inside one box. There will be a slight degradation in SQ versus Varése because of a shared power supply, but this is afterall the point, as the Varése is the new flagship, and this new product will need to have a lower price point.
The posting was made by @James - he’s able to put together technical prose whereas I’m more a “could hurt myself with a blunt spoon” person when it comes to that kind of thing…
Getting into theoretical / hypothetical / speculative conversations is something that I could even less get involved with - this isn’t my first rodeo and I’ve seen what can end up happening if we make comment on such things…
I deleted my original post (too speculative and off topic). But since we are slightly off topic, I will speculate that the newer flex circuit boards may enable the dCS engineers to design a differential DAC that could fit in a full width enclosure. It is simply amazing what was done with Lina.
IMHO, reading about the details of Varése naturally leads to thoughts and speculation about what is to come for the hardware we already own, and new models not yet announced, and therefore I didn’t view your post off-topic, but that, again, is just MHO
All i will say is if you can afford to go Apex, then do it.
Enjoy the much better sound you will get.
You many even need the apex upgrade for future upgrades that are coming?
I think it’s crazy waiting for what you might think is next, as it may never happen, it might not be what you want or afford, etc.
But one thing is for sure the Apex is now, and it’s wonderful
As Phil has said, we don’t discuss future products or announcements before they’re ready.
The APEX vs Differential thing is something I can address though. The Differential Ring DAC is, in essence, a 2-channel DAC inside a Mono DAC chassis. It just so happens that both channels of the Ring have the same signal going through each channel by virtue of the fact that they’re in a Mono DAC, albeit one phase inverted.
But, if we were to take just that section of circuitry (let’s say everything from the chunk of the FPGA that does to Mappers right through to the analogue output stage), cut it out of one of the Mono DACs and put it in a Vivaldi DAC, you’d have - in essence - a Vivaldi APEX.
To try and fit two Ring DAC boards inside a current product which has been designed to only have one isn’t viable, as the chassis, processing, power supplies, basically everything about the product, has been designed to support one Ring DAC board with 2 audio channels.
If we were to say “okay, Vivaldi doesn’t need 4 channels of audio and processing like Varese does”, what we’d end up with if we copied the Varèse Ring DAC hardware and put it in a Vivaldi is a Vivaldi APEX.
