In The NL’s € 109.000,00 
Today a the first listening event in The NL’s with the following system at AudioXperience.
MSB Cascade Reference DACMSB S-500, MSB Reference stereo amplifier, Crystal Cable Da Vinci and Van Gogh Cables plus Crystal Cable Infinty Limited Edition Powercords, Magico M2 Speakers, Shunyata Denali Power conditioner, Shunyata Altaira Grounding system, Cardas Tuning blocks
I have to say, the complete set sounds groundbreaking and excels in every direction with a very natural “analogue” sound 
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Wow, seriously Andre?
Not wanting to comment on the Mr. John Giolas part I will say I agree with the rest. The other major players in the “uber” field, MSB and Wadax, have announced new products at Munich 2024. The current Vivaldi and Rossini are long in the tooth. Yes - I realize APEX turns them into relatively new products, with a significant performance enhancement to boot, however I find the number and size of dCS boxes looking a bit long in the tooth.
Personal attacks don’t have any place on this forum and are not made valid by rehashing a feature request. I am most certain mr. Giolas and other dCS employees get enough vitriol in their mailboxes and/or phone calls as it is without our community joining in. I would expect some more self-restraint and dignified behaviour.
Edit: please read David Steven’s reply to all this on the forum in news, and stop adding insult to injury.
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Has anyone ever did a direct A-B comparison between the MSB Cascade and the dCS Vivaldi? Id be very interested to understand strengths and weaknesses of each one. Thanks.
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Not a direct comparison. But I had the full vivaldi system (2.0 and not the Apex) and now I have the cascade.
The Vivaldi is more on the analytical side. Everything was there, at the right time and at the right place. At the same time, kind of boring. I always felt somewhat detached from the music.
Then I went to the nagra hd x. The opposite. The music sounded like, you know, music. The voices were in the room. The instruments sounded life like. But it lacked some detail, specially regarding the sound stage images. But I greatly enjoyed it over the Vivaldi. More than one friend had the same feeling and traded the Vivaldi for the nagra
Then came the cascade. The best of both worlds. Detail and musicality.
This is how I can best describe my experience over these last years. Hope it helps.
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Useful information. I don’t find the Vivaldi boring or analytical though. I wonder how a Vivaldi Apex comparison would go.
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