I visited @Dunc yesterday and on arrival was attacked by 6 dogs as I tried to scramble into his house. His house was easy to find with about 10 vehicles parked outside all with his name on them! 
Once my son and I managed to get in we went to the listening room. It’s a converted garage so about 8ft x 16ft, so a difficult room for speakers.
The system on test is a beast of a system. Integrated Vitus SIA 030 amp 30w pure class A and then as you turn up the volume it’s 200 watts per channel class AB.
Kudos Titan 808s.
dCS streaming Vivaldi with DAC, Network Player and Clock. Also Melco.
Turntable Thales with two arms, Allnic H7000 phonostage.
So what’s it like? It’s not just good. It’s superb. The streamer is clear, low noise floor, incredibly detailed. Flows beautifully and sounds incredible. This was my favourite of Dunc’s two sources.
The Thales is a fine turntable with a clever main tonearm with the headshell rotating on the tonearm as it plays ensuring perfect accuracy. The phonostage is Valve based. The turntable is more laidback than the streamer.
The Vitus has oodles of power and a very 3 dimensional soundstage and fantastic bass control.
The speakers are great with superb bass control and a clearly a quality product.
So how did it compare to my full 500 system? Well they are both brilliant. The dCS Vivaldi is better sounding than my ND555 in my opinion. It has more texture, more detail, lower noise floor and with Dunc’s amp a wider soundstage.
The 500 DR series amplification is different to the Vitus. For me I prefer the flow and groove of the 500DR. But Vitus has more power, more control of bass, wider soundstage and lower noise floor. The Vitus is technically better.
I am a big Naim man so prefer my 500DR amp probably because it’s what I have. But I cannot deny how good the Vitus is.
As for my LP12 Klimax, I prefer it to the Thales. I think it’s a bit more resolved and fluid.
It’s so hard to compare the two. I would say I am definitely justifying my purchases.
Dunc’s system is technically better but has a different presentation to Naim. Dunc changed out from Naim as he didn’t get on with the ND555 and found the dCS Rossini better. He just couldn’t make a Naim system work with the dCS. I think once you start changing out from Naim the rest follows.
For me I am delighted with the 500DR system and Linn LP12 Klimax and have no intention of changing it out for other stuff.
As for Dunc. What is he like? He is a great guy. A great host, very intelligent, articulate and knowledgeable. He is very direct, but so am I. My son Harrison enjoyed the visit and he also loved Dunc’s system. He preferred Dunc’s streamer to mine, but preferred the LP12 Klimax to the Thales. He really liked the bass control of the Vitus and the sound of the speakers.
I look forward to your visit to mine Dunc!
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