New dCS 6 box presentation!

https://www.avcat.jp/next/avnews/2024/08/02/dcs-new-flagship-hongkong-av-show-debut-6box/

Can anyone translate the poster?

Actually I just did:

dCS

ONLY THE MUSIC

We sincerely invite Mr. Lin Junsheng to attend

August 9, 2024 10:00-10:30a.m.

Held in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre S428 Shenghe Video Exhibition Hall

dCS flagship new product, the world’s first media launch conference breaks through the ceiling, flagship giant

• It took more than five years from research and development to finished products.

• Break through the latest top digital technology in the industry

• Ingenuity production, striving for perfection, limited monthly production

• Precious, six-fold products

• More detailed information was shared by Mr. David Steven, the current doorman.

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“The current doorman” :joy:

Is David now a fuse?!

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so this is a “Uber” Vivaldi?

I don’t see any pictures from that link yet, anyone has seen these new 6 boxes?

I would imagine nothing until the day of the presentation

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The AV show guide still shows the Vivaldi stack (page 13) https://www.audiotechnique.com/showguide

4 to 6 stacks, what do you think is added? Separate power supply/supplies? Music server? Still a separate upstreamer? … We’ll find out soon.

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The easiest thing to do, I believe, would be to separate the power supply(ies)

It’s odd that there would be a new product release coincidental with an existing product price increase (Rossini/Vivaldi), since this would decrease demand for the latter, but given the way things have been going lately I am happy to be surprised ; )

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I doubt dCS is attracted by what’s “easiest”, but I also doubt that’s what you really meant, maybe “most obvious”? I agree that breaking out the power supply/supplies usually makes good sense. Most circuits have an input, an output and two reference points: a power rail and a ground rail. Improving the integrity of these reference points will, ceteris paribus, improve the performance of the circuit. So the question is will moving the power supplies to a separate box/boxes improve the integrity of the power rails? I would argue that the accepted wisdom is that the answer is “yes” (I base this on my own DIY experience and the design decisions of countless other manufacturers).

So my guess is we will see a separate power supply (possibly multiple), in addition to a DAC, Upsampler and Clock. It would seem that there is still demand out there for a transport, although supply of appropriate disc mechanisms appears to have dried up. However in this rarefied segment of the market it probably still makes economic sense, even if it means buying up inventory for the entire lifetime production (which as we know for dCS can mean >10 years’ worth) in advance.

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I should think the 4 box will be the main system and the 6 box when you add the cd transport.
So maybe dac, streamer, and clock, then power supply for them all.
Then cd transport with separate power supply.
Just my guess

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Quite honestly I think one has nothing to do with the other.

Imho the simple fact this new addition may be SIX boxes implies a completely different pricing structure to the current 3 box Vivaldi (excluding the Transport).

Just think about the additional cost of DOUBLE the box count. The cost of three additional chassis will put this in a completely different price category to Vivaldi.

I wish the best for dCS. Last I looked at the recent earnings of the luxury players in China - LVMH, Bulgari, Versace/Kors group etc. - their sales and profit margins are significantly down. There has even been talk of a structural transformation going on with the Chinese consumer akin to what happened to the Japanese consumer in the 80’s/90’s. This of course is assuming the main target market for this price category is China.

Another strange thing I struggle to grasp is how this plays with dCS company revenue. I realize they are a private company however during the Golden Sound/Bartok review controversy several people posted about going online and finding D&B and British government listings indicating total company revenue at 7 million dollars. If true dCS are a very small company (in fact I still have a difficult time believing that small number). Linn’s last company statement indicated 22m gbp of revenue ($28m dollars)

The blurb indicates limited monthly production for this new product. Taking a random retail price of $250k (?) and assuming a dealer cost of $125-150k (?) that would imply about $100k (?) revenue per unit (distributor and other costs taken into consideration). Two units per month production yields $2.4m - a nice 33% jump in revenue (assuming the rumoured $7m is true).

That implies 24 people a year for this new product?

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There is a reason it’s being launched in Asia. Lots of demand for uber high end there. I dont imagine there will be any issue selling anything dCS care to make.

Hopefully someone will take the plunge and sell me his Vivaldi Upsampler Plus in black for a reasonable price. :laughing:

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Lotus hifi have a 3 piece vivaldi stack in right now, guy went for the new wadex studio.
So maybe give him a call and ask about the upsampler.
Cheers dunc

my guess is that the DAC section at least will be separated into mono chassis.

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Adding another obvious point:

6 boxes is a lot of metal, and metal doesn’t make music.

I wonder what metal and machining cost is as a percent of BOM. I imagine quite high…

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A phono stage input ADC?

Since we’re guessing – maybe with an expected January 2025 factory availability with 6 boxes include dual power supplies and to alleviate end user contortions like the number of cablings which the Vivaldi requires, proprietary dCS cabling is included to support a Transport, Clock, music server/streamer (??) & DAC. Or maybe a left/right DAC and scratch the server (dunno).

Of course, 6 figures :scream_cat:

Best to all,

Bob

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I agree, and note that both MSB and Boulder include proprietary cables in the purchase.