Charles, you look great! How painful was it get those piercings? The septum one looks brutally painful but looks great. And those tooth gems are to die for!
dCS Varese short review
- Thread starter craigr
- Start date
Patrick,
In my view, this is a bit unfair. dCS spent five years doing the R&D on Varese and it’s their first effort with mono dacs. I think this is a new chapter for the dCS team and sound. There will likely be software updates and hardware modules as planned but it’s a significant step forward, not an incremental product update.
Hi Ron, I don't think of the difference in fractions. It's a coloration of the sound. Digital has come an extremely long way, and it sounds mighty good. When I went from my old gear which was a D1100, MCT500, and 1.25KW's with a 1.25KW driving my Thor, to my tube MCD12000, C-12000, and MC3500, with a 2.1KWdriving the Thor the difference was easy to hear on every recording. I describe it as a coloration of the sound.
What I heard at the dealer using the Alexx V and the Wood II recording with the Rose streamer and Qobuzz vs the MCD12000/C12000CD playback using the 2.1KW's driving the Alexx V was this same difference somewhat exaggerated.
To my ears digital is a different sound. I'm not on the same level as a full Dag relentless/Varese/XVX/Subsonic with the accompanying vinyl phono gear of the same quality. But if a Varese could replace the vinyl/analog tape sound what would be the point of the latter? When I was a kid and a young doctor the thought that threading tape or cleaning a stylus or a record was a pain never entered my mind. But when digital came along, I embraced it because I actually enjoyed the sound, and it was much more convenient. I enjoy listening to music. I recorded all my vinyl on my N. Dragon cassette recorder because I couldn't hear the difference and popping in a cassette was wonderful and saved my favorite records from the inevitable wear.
I think that for me from a practical standpoint, a Varese is too complex. Too much can go wrong. There are too many boxes. There is too much engineering. If something does go wrong, diagnosing it and fixing it would be a nightmare. Bob Dylan wrote a song, "Everything is Broken." There is a lot of wisdom in that song. My personal opinion and it is just mine is that DAC's and turntables and to some extent all the ultra-high-end gear is over engineered and too complex. I don't doubt the sound quality, but we live in a broken world.
That's why I suggested the cartoon of the man showing his wife his new 20 box DAC and his 1000-pound turntable. "Honey, the platter alone weighs 1,000 pounds. I had to have my floor specially supported, but it sounds great." The only thing I don't have a backup for is my XVX. I have 100 EL509S output tubes and 1.25KW's in reserve if my 2.1KW or 3500 goes to the shop.
I have a beautiful/lovely sound. It doesn't sound at all like a digital playback. It has a coloration very similar to what I experienced as a kid and young doctor playing my N. Dragon or my vinyl and I love it. It totally captures me. I appreciate folks like Lee and Stereophonic and of course you very much because we don't take ourselves too dogmatically or seriously.
I had a fantastic time skating on Sunday night. I'm 76 and skate with Antonio, age 34 who is one of the finest skaters and athletes in America. That says it all. He skated over and told my physician friend what a great skater I was. I blushed. I had a great meal across from my dear physician friend and his wonderful wife who is fighting pancreatic cancer. He looks great. Afterwards we went over to the rink where I put on a skating exhibition by myself for about 45 minutes and then with Antonio for about an hour. Corissa/Sunchild was there and also put on an exhibition. T-Stacks was also there. He's the best in America. These folks are off the scale in physical ability and overall health, as am I for my age. I be skating tonight and I put my life on the line every time I skate three times a week. You never know if you will be leaving in an ambulance. Falls are inevitable. I have fallen many times. I fell last Sunday doing the coffin, got a nasty abrasion on my right knee. Many skaters are pierced to the hilt, also there's a lot of ink. About 70% of my really bad falls where I really got hurt came from huge folks whacking into me or falling taking me out like an NFL linebacker. My fall on Sunday was the result of exhaustion. My left leg gave out attempting to get down to the coffin position. I got up skated around and did the coffin successfully at an even higher speed.
There are a lot of boxes due to the mono dac configuration. But that doesn’t mean there is “a lot that can go wrong”. You just add the Actus cables then you are done. The internet connection is largely the source of problems on the digital side but that’s the same with any dac.
Very impressive that you skate to maintain health and have fun!
really? how about when the shoe is on the other foot?
Charles; considering your claim about 'too many boxes' digital products, with zero evidence.....and which user experience reality does not in any way support........how do you respond to those who feel your speakers have 'too many boxes' and cables and are too complicated? over-engineered? too complex? that is a serious narrative with some experiential evidence actually supporting it. Wilson's sometimes are not entirely cohesive for whatever reasons. other times they are fully cohesive. listeners judge them how they hear them. no one hears what you only see....that..... 'too many box digital' as somehow flawed based on listening. we listen with our ears.
btw; personally i view your speaker design as solid and high level, but needing serious proper set-up to be optimized. many, many degrees more needy for set-up help than any digital. could you? did you? set up your speakers by yourself?
but 'too many box' digital OTOH is not in any way needing proper support to be effectively implemented. it is child's play to set up. literally plug and play and the manufacturer dials into your system to do any tweaking......if necessary. if you have an ethernet connection pretty much that is all that is required. they don't even need to be there. multi-box digital needs no more set-up than single box digital. there are always network and music management issues which are not really box count relevant.
your logic about digital boxes is just all the way wrong. you might not like the price/value, or the system real estate it takes up, or the color, or even the performance......but the user set up issue with multiple boxes is a non issue.
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I apologize. To be clear, I do think the Varese is an awesome dac.
I'm a fan of Wilson speakers, I've owned them since 1999. But you 100% correct, all that adjustability is very much a dual edged sword. It's great if you get it right and terrible if you don't. And I can tell you from experience, miss by an inch and it all goes to poop. And once it's gone to poop there are a lot of variables for you to futz with, so it can be very non-obvious what you do to fix it.
Perhaps you will like to know that I was present when the dCS Varese was taken out of the boxes at our distributor. The units were quickly stacked, the five power cables and four ACTUS cables were connect as well as a pair of XLR output audio cables. The units were switched on and while people were looking on how too download the dCS Actus Mosaic software someone in the shop just opened his Tidal app in the mobile phone, clicked on the dCS Varese and we started listening to music! It did not take more than 30 minutes from starting unboxing until I got permission to listen to my favorite Savall recordings!
As long as you can measure the listening chair distance and your ear height, it's very easy to get dialed on the driver settings.
Elliot G.
Industry Expert
That is incredible misleading and non factual. This is ONLY a part of setting up a pair of speakers and these settings must be changed every single time you move the speaker along with absolute leveling of the bottom cabinet, Just for starters. It is not easy , it may be easy to read the instruction manual however
That is incredible misleading and non factual. This is ONLY a part of setting up a pair of speakers and these settings must be changed every single time you move the speaker along with absolute leveling of the bottom cabinet, Just for starters. It is not easy , it may be easy to read the instruction manual however
I was assuming the speaker placement was already done and the poster was referring to the driver modules being knocked out alignment. Absolute leveling is easy now given the built-in bubble levels.
Note: Wilson dealers are required to set up all the speakers in the buyer's home and use WASP to dial them in including the adaptable driver location settings (nomograph). So as long as you write down the settings, the buyer shouldn't have to do anything.
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Elliot G.
Industry Expert
you know what happens when you lol
I am really disappointed to see you staying on this topic which you know through your own experience is not true. Just because someone shows someone once what they did does not mean they can do it and do it well. The book guidelines are fine IF you know what you are listening for and how to achieve it.
So let me see here so now that you've seen it done in your home you are confident you can go to say a show and set up any Wilson speaker by your self? Its easy just follow the directions right...
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Mike, it's really good to make your acquaintance. I'm not saying that a six box DAC is necessarily unreliable. I personally believe that it is and I base this on my 60 plus years of high-end experience. I'm not a novice. But let's just say that you are correct in your assertion that six boxes of electronics are as reliable as one box. It is inevitable that a malfunction will occur and when it does, suppose it is intermittent, and really weird. What do I do? I'm not talking about setup. I would expect my dealer to do this.
The six boxes would need be returned overseas for diagnosis. In the not too distant past my left 3500 went dead. It just turned off. I went through all kinds of diagnostics at home with the help of McIntosh. I returned the amp to McIntosh and the amp played perfectly. Stupidly, I removed all the tubes before my dealer picked the amp up. McIntosh played the amp for days. Ran all sorts of tests on it. They thought maybe I had jammed at tube. I know that I didn't.
This was before I became aware of Nashville Amplifier Service, and I have learned a great deal about tubes since then. Things break. They malfunction. They don't always operate as billed. I want simplicity, reliability/practicality, and superb sound. I believe these DAC's are over engineered and that diagnosing a weird problem could be quite difficult. Many problems only become apparent after months to years after the unit is in operation. I recently had a meter go out on one of my 1.25KW's. It was fixed by NAS in one day after the meter arrived from McIntosh and back in my system within about 10 days. Things inevitably malfunction. The more complex the more likely they are to fail.
If I had a high-end system other than McIntosh, I would use a reasonably priced DAC, say an Aurender A30 possibly with a master clock but there are many other DAC's in the 50K or less price range to choose from. I'm just offering friendly criticism and my opinion. I don't debate in the slightest the superiority of the Varese sonically.
I don't choose to respond to your excellent criticism/observation of my XVX placement, because it is off topic and would result in back and forth and digression inappropriate to the thread. I love WBF but if there is one thing I don't like about it is that the discussion morphs into totally off topic discussions. I'll be sure an inform you of DE's evaluation of my system when he arrives at my home for an extended listening session. He's a Wilson representative.
Very wonderful to make your acquaintance,
Charles
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You would think. But my system has been sounding off the past couple of months and I discovered a couple of weeks ago that one of the speakers wasn't level. It was definitely level when it was installed I; watched them level it. But it was pointing down towards the floor when I checked.
I did notice when I leveled it (levelling an Alexia 2 by yourself is NOT FUN) that the locking nut on one of the diodes was loose. And that was the diode that needed to be adjusted to bring it level. All I can think of is that they didn't tighten the lock nut when setup was done and over time vibrations walked the screw bringing the speaker out of level.
I thought dCS had a service center in the US; perhaps I am mis-remembering. Although I suspect that everything in any dCS box at this point is surface mounted which means there really isn't any diagnosis or repair in the classic sense. Problem = board swap.
likewise. i admire your zest for life. we can all learn from it.
hard to have a discussion when you ignore and dismiss the essential point......"pot, meet kettle".......that i made.
but no worries.
Mike what a gorgeous system. I got to go but I will spend a great deal of my time admiring it and I may have some questions. I would enjoy discussing systems with you, but you are frankly out of my league. But I'll bet I'm the better roller skater.
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