Congratulations, dCS Marketing Team!
I am running a LINA, love the sound, and welcome this form factor and volume knob. I don’t know why anyone would complain about bringing this forward when it just fleshes out the product line and provides more options for audiophiles to get into dCS at the bottom.
I think it’s very well considered and fills an obvious niche. Good job.
Remember that last year we ran the Lina DAC and Clock into a “big” system at Munich and this year we did the same but with Lina DAC X and Clock (using VTL amps rather than D’Agostino) - both systems (IMO) sounded really good (which is quite a feat for a show environment) but I would very very happily live with the sound that we had in that room…
The only change I would make for my own preferences would be to use the D’Ags rather than the VTLs as they suit my choice of music better but those VTL monoblocks were really quite stunningly good.
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I really like this passage. It emphasises that matching audio equipment to your tastes and needs is essential. There is no best for everyone.
I know d’Agostino and VTL amps and expect my tastes mean the opposite to yours. Given a choice between the two, it’s VTL for me. However neither of us us wrong in any way.
BTW, being what this forum is, just about every item featured here is worthy.
There needs to be a match between the amplifiers and the speakers too - it seems that the match of VTL and Wilson was particularly good. For me (and the three friends I was with) the dCS room exhibited the show’s best sound of those that we got to experience - though the full Kii Atmos setup also sounded excellent.
Then again, there was plenty of dreadful music being played many places…
I remember when I last went to Munich a few years ago one exhibitor had a blackboard at the door of his room: “We will not play” followed by a list of guilty parties ( as it were).
I know the feeling. When summing up after the show we were discussing tracks we will have to remove from our repertoire as we heard them in too many other rooms.
I tried to keep it varied while I was MC, rotating between classical, jazz and rock with a ratio of roughly 20/20/60 (except for Sunday afternoon when went a bit “off road” and started playing The Jackson 5 and seventies disco like The Tavares). I only managed to clear the room once when I played Ray of Light by Madonna. Got a lot of flak from my colleagues for that one but I stand tall. I love Madonna! I redeemed myself with some thumbs ups for oddball picks like Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga.
I’m not a Madonna fan but found myself playing the ray of light track the other day and it sounds really really good on my Rossini / ch precision / stenheim rig !
The D’Ags simply drive current like there’s no tomorrow (which is ideal for my taste in electronic music) whereas the VTLs are somewhat more polite in their presentation but they still did very well when I got to play some of my own music (Yookie, Deadmaus, Infected Mushroom, Daft Punk etc.) before the show opened - just to get the morning frost off the amps of course.
I’m also really liking the new Watt/Puppys too … this is the second time I’ve done a show with them and they have been pretty awesome both times (but of course do require careful setup) - the subs worked well with them and were a valuable addition but I could quite happily “live” with just the Watt/Puppys if I were in the position to have a set at home.
My only regret is that I didn’t get to play Rammstein’s “Adieu” as our last track…
Hello everyone, I found a video of @James explaining the dCS Lina DAC X internals and differences to the dCS Lina:
(at 2:04 the main differences between the two DAC’s)
Source: Part-Time Audiophile
Published today:
dCS: Two New Reasons to Listen (dCS Lina DAC X at HEM 2025)
https://www.stereophile.com/content/dcs-two-new-reasons-listen
