Just back from the Cloney Audio Burlington hotel with Absolute Sounds.
This system was just wow.
At a completely different league to anything I have ever heard anywhere. I am including the statement too. So it should be given the price!
Hi Paul,
Nobody has replied yet so I’ll have a go with a question for you….
I have experienced dCS Rossini and dCS Vivaldi products (on home loan) in 2020 - so I have some familiarity with the products and setting options.
With the new Varese product I understand that dCS has introduced an additional filter setting - F5 - which is a soft roll-off low pass filter that starts its roll off just around 10kHz and has very good stop band rejection. This gives it an interesting natural ringing decay impulse response. FYI, Stereophile magazine review of dCS Varese has some information regarding this.
Do you happen to know if the filter setting being used in the dCS Varese for the demo you heard in Ireland was F5?
We were not told about any rolloff settings however that could match with what I heard. I was not familiar with the room, cables or amplifiers to I can not be sure.
The overall sound was way ahead of any other dCS system.
The dCS Lina was in another room and was nothing special for me.
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It was a fantastic experience to experience a true “state of the art” no holes barred system.
From the dCS stack, the Mono block amps & pre-amp, Wilson speakers and streaming server. Nothing spared, circa €1M system
The kick from a snare drum literally sliced the air with precision, the bass so full & yet so controlled, the sound was good at the front, the back, on & off axis, and all fully presented by the wonderfully charismatic Ricardo from The Absolute Sounds. I love his playlists, and currently listening to tracks saved in Roon ARC as ‘Listen Later’.
Excellent event
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And yes, the smaller room, was good but not standout. But the Wilson TuneTots presented well.
Could you share the playlist. I have roon too!
Hi Simon,
Thanks for sharing the pictures. The loudspeakers look like Wilson Audio Alexx-V.
Looking at the room and reading the attendees descriptions - to me it seems like the volume and the room dimension ratios are good. However, I have a feeling there is also some ‘room treatment’ hiding in plain sight. I could be wrong - but I am intrigued as to what that additional thickness is round the perimeter of the ceiling - perhaps it could be bass traps? In any case I believe suspended ceilings are nearly always good for accommodating bass pressure pulses.
PS: For anyone who is interested, the Wilson Audio Alexx-V was reviewed by Stereophile magazine in November 2021. Good technical analysis there if anyone cares to take a look.
I believe they are Wilson Audio Alexx’s - not familiar with the model variants.
The amps were monster Relentless Epic 1600 Monoblock Amplifier, capable of 1600W into 8Ω, but 3200W into 4Ω and a whooping 6400W into 2Ω - not many amplifiers have this level of power output capability.
Not only was the latest multi-box dCS Varese stack (Network core, mono-DACs, Clock and head unit), they were also using the flagship Antipodes Oladra music server with USB output. I presume the local content being selected through Roon, was locally stored on the server.
There was no room treatment applied - just careful speaker placement. It was the same room used last event in October 2023, with the Valvadi dCS stack, but also the dohmann Helix 2 turntable.
That used the Momentum MxV Integrated Amplifier to drive the Wilson Sasha.
They took two tries to get the speaker place of the Sasha’s between the Saturday & Sunday, bringing the speakers further forward.
The suspended ceiling in this room can be a problem. Back in the event in October 2019, a pair of B&W 802D2 driving by Rotel Michi amplifiers was rattling the ceiling panels, particularly during some James Blake. So not sure, if they had fixed them in place.
Certainly, the system this weekend was a clear step up on the one demonstrated in ‘23.
Very much, the ‘state of art’ no holes barred setup - whether it would be replicated in someone’s home, is another matter - but if it was, it would be one of those properties with big walls and gates around it.
And back to my NDS-based system - which doesn’t disgrace itself, even in the face of that €1M system.
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So there was
Webster Lewis - The Club 7 Live tapes (from performances in Norway)
Haevn - Throw me a Line
Billy Raffoul - Ascoutic
Donna Summer - I Feel Love
Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side
Roger Waters - Comfortably Numb from The Lockdown Sessions
George Michael - Symphonia
Amy Winehouse - on DSD
Martha Argerich - Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1
Angela Brown - Live
Sting/Police - Every Breathe
Patricia Barber - Too Rich for My Blood, from Cafe Blue
Supertramp - Dreamer
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer, from So in DSD
The Beatles - Norweign Wood - but some out-take, not sure where from
John Lennon - Oh my Love, I think, but again some out-take, or was it ‘Now & Then’
Roxy Music - Avalon, in DSD
I kept forgetting to look up and save the tracks, as I was enjoying the music and presentation too much!
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Thanks Simon.
I only had about 45 Minutes but just so impressive!
I was at the Melbourne show a couple of months ago & Antipodes team flew in from NZ and they had a room demonstrating the Oladra. Made me spend money for a streamer (or file as source) of all things.
Sigh, at the current pricing, the Varese is out of reach for me.
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If you get the mix right, the dCS kit really does excel. Plus like most manufacturers each product in the range has the edge over the ones below it. The new Varese certainly is the new benchmark in digital replay, but you also need the rest of the system to be able to show what it can do, even more so at this level, but it was very interesting when I heard the Varese and the Vivaldi, in the same room, on the same gear at dCS head office system.
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I was just blown away by this system. It was so much better than anything else ever.
How much was the Dac and how much was the rest of the system I don’t know.
it had me wondering about a lower leve dCS solution and getting rid of the pre amp?
As always go have a listen. My system certainly went down well at the maverick show last weekend. With lots saying things like you are now.
Had the pleasure of having a tour of Wilson Audio factory in early September courtesy of Audio Connection Australia and my local Dan D’Agostino / Wilson Audio retailer. That in itself was an amazing revelation. This was followed by a listening session at the late Dave Wilson’S house . Hosted by Daryl Wilson. Included Wilson Audio WAMM Chronosonic speakers., Dan D’Agostino Relentless 1600 Monoblocs VTL Preamplifier, Tecdas Airforce One Premium Turntable plus dcs Verase.Absolutely sensational.A privilege to hear such amazing gear.
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I was there too and to be honest it did nothing for me, impressive in the HiFi sense perhaps but that was about it, much preferred the smaller room. Horses for Courses.
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I suspect switching to dCS would mean dumping all Naim kit. In the past I was unable to get Naim power amps to excel without a NAC?
I have megnaaner speakers and they like a bit of power.
It would be a big change!
Wow. It is a crazy hobby this. We all hear in different ways.
Your reaction was the same as mine in previous years. I arrived early and the room was not so full. Maybe that had something to do with it?
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It was quite empty when I was there too on the Sunday, it was a fabulous system technically but I never seen to engage with big systems, Statement included, in those settings. Possibly just me but I found it too clinical and a bit OTT. Hats off though to Cloney’s for hosting it.
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Hi
Not at all, naim amp’s work well with the dCS, as i did just that before I got the vitus.