Varese Launch event in New York City

On Thursday evening, thanks to @AndrewS, I had the pleasure of attending the Varese launch event in New York City. The event was hosted by Innovative Audio, a dealer who has at least three high quality listening rooms in its basement showroom in Midtown Manhattan. (While this sounds unusual, trust me, if you want real quiet in NYC, you want to be in the basement, away from the street noise, and away from a subway line).

The event was pleasantly curated and I had the chance to meet and speak with David Steven and Emron Mangelson, director of sales for North America. (I met Andrew the day before, when he was kind enough to stop by my apartment to listen to a few tracks on my modest system).

The signal path in the listening room of the event (after Vivaldi and Varese) was: Transparent Magnus Opus Speaker Cables to D’Agostino Relentless monoblocks to Wilson Chronosonic XVXs. As others have described, the event proceeds with introductions by David and Emron, a history of the product’s development, and then a comparison of tracks, each starting with Vivaldi and then playing the same track on Varese.

My first comment is that it was a pleasure to meet David, Emron, Andrew and others in person, after so many years of being a fan and supporter of the brand, and having no prior personal connection with the company. Each are exceptional in their own way and that alone would have made the event worth it.

With respect to the music, as a starting point, before Thursday, I had never heard the Vivaldi system, having bought the Rossini also with no prior listening tests (I am a former Puccini owner and therefore had a solid baseline of dCS’s capabilities). To those who own the Vivaldi, I can say that you have purchased a truly amazing product. I was blown away its quality, speed, dynamics, musicality, etc. Everyone who owns Vivaldi has a world class front-end in their system.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your outlook in life ; ) I concur with others on this forum who have reported that the Varese is better. If I were to use one word, I would say the Varese is more “organic.” First, the noise floor is significantly lower, giving the impressing that the volume is lower, and simultaneously revealing more detail of the recordings. Second, the detail that is revealed, rather than presenting itself analytically, is presented more naturally: the piano, the bass, the vocals, the horns, etc. Everything just sounded more real, more cohesive, better, in every regard. And this is a remarkable achievement, especially when one realizes that the comparison is against what was certainly the best playback system on the market a few months ago (Vivaldi).

Of course, with a setup like this—an optimized room, optimized placement, $80+k speaker cables, isolated power, $400,000 speakers, etc.—there was a lot going right, and many lesser DACs would have also sounded great. Perhaps in a less optimized room, or with less optimized equipment, the difference between the two would have been less. But the point was to compare the company’s 13+ year flagship to its new, current flagship under “optimal” conditions, and without a doubt the latter was better. For me, this was the best sounding system I have ever heard, and I am thankful to have had the opportunity to congratulate David and the dCS team for their remarkable achievement in person.

Of course, perverse thoughts have now started entering my head: “But what if this, and what if that, and who knows maybe…. Of course it’s ‘okay’ to own a million dollar audio system, as long as no one else knows, right?" (?!)

; )
R

*Original text corrected from Transparent Opus to Magnum Opus, cost $40k to $80k; amp corrected from Momentum to Relentless (thank you, Andrew)

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So jealous, @keiserrg. And @AndrewS. And you other lurkers who were there.

Looks a fantastic event, and that’s just the characters in attendance, let alone the tunes :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Video from Michael Fremer

https://trackingangle.com/features/dcs-debuts-varese-dac-at-innovative-audio-press-event

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Firstly Richard, it is I who should be doing the thanking. Good music and good sound are my two big passions, and meeting and discussing with others who share them is absolutely my favourite pastime. I really appreciate your generous hospitality, it was a pleasure to meet you!

Secondly, no false modesty, your system was sounding superb. The string tone in particular (such as the Janos Starker you played for me) was absolutely ravishing.

And thirdly thanks for sharing your impressions of the event. Many of your observations mirror my own. In particular I agree that Vivaldi is indeed an absolutely outstanding system and the launch of Varèse should leave no Vivaldi owner feeling they have sloppy seconds.

The only point on which I think we differ is your comment that a system as exquisite as the one Innovative had assembled would make even lesser DACs sound great. In my experience that’s just not how it works. I would expect it to lay a lesser DAC bare and leave it nowhere to hide. Really excellent systems reveal and allow you to fully appreciate beauty, but they reveal weaknesses and imperfections equally starkly.

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Thank you for your kind words Andrew. It was a pleasure to have your company and listening notes.

Re below:

What I meant was: I would hope that the Rossini paired with such great electronics, power, room and speakers would also sound great! Likely far superior to the sound in my odd living room.

However, I fully appreciate that if the Rossini were compared in a listening test to Vivaldi and Varese, it would be clearly bested by both. In fact, that is both dCS’s intent, and the obvious outcome : )

Ah, I see. Guess I don’t think of Rossini as a ”lesser” DAC… :wink:

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