It’s crazy amounts, even the speaker cable is about £100k. But you can get close for a lot less, but it’s still big money these days. It’s all gone crazy and about time we had a reset and the prices come back down.
I captured them here.
What I have tracked down is the DSD based recordings of Amy Winehouse ‘Other Voices’ performance from Dingle, Ireland. It was featured in the BBC documentary “The Day She Came to Dingle”, which is superb. Initially I had to find the Bonus DVD shipped with the BBC recordings, and rip that. But the DSD recordings are much better.
There was also some other DSD recordings from the 2xHD label, Prince’s ‘The Undertaker’, ‘Thriller’ some the studio tapes.
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I am sure it sounded fantastic with DSD. I was at a Vertere TT demo by Vertere owner, he played vinyl that was cut from the original master, sounded amazing. But most recordings are not available at that quality, and digital its still mainly cd 16 bit, and some high res……which is the caveat that @Bluesfan was referring to.
Thank you @Gazza @Dunc , @CrazyRiver and all.
To clarify and thereby to avoid making a mountain out of a molehill, the Varese is the finest streamer that I have ever heard. If there were no real world constraints on either space or budget, then this is probably the streamer that I would choose.
To the seemingly controversial part of what I posted, all the tracks played in the demonstration were well recorded and mastered to these cloth ears. The best of them was markedly more lifelike, engaging and literally hair raising than the others. Some listeners will enjoy all tracks for the music that is in them, rather than for the recording & mastering quality. Others will prefer to down select to those that are the very best and do literally raise the hairs on the back of one’s neck. Therein lies my only note of caution.
Fortunately back in the real world, we have neither the space nor the budget for such a streamer, so our thoughts turn to a more modest upgrade later this year.
Enjoy the music everyone, BF
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It’s a if only moment when you hear things like this.
If only I had the money, the room, and the ears.
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I disagree. In some respects, some of Naim equipment is as good as it gets.
I have yet to hear a system that sounds more like the band is in my living room than mine and that’s what I want from it. Others don’t want that type of sound and there are different systems to do there things.
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What, there is a vinyl pressing of that concert!
Please, don’t tell me that, I will now have to search high & low to find it 
Are we living in a world that has gone crazy? Add in some fancy wire and you are getting closer to a €900,000 for a HiFi system. I am sure it is the Bees Knees. Given that the “software” is often pretty dire on the recording and mastering front. I am at a loss to understand this sort of expenditure, or a system so revealing that a lot of albums sound horrible.
One last thought. if the maker of that €300,000 streamer goes bust, you have a very expensive brick, when the software becomes outdated.
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I concur - it was evident during the demonstration, that the equipment being demonstrated was a “state of the art” statement of what is possible from the Antipodes server for local content storage, to the ‘Core’, the Master Clock, 2 mono-DACs and the display unit. They have now added a SACD transport as an option - which I read is meant to be ‘state of the art’ reproduction.
However the content/music used was curated and presented, but Ricardo from Absolute Sounds, has a very varied and wide music spectrum, it was entertaining and enjoyable just to sit and listen to what was being played.
I had some, particularly the Roger Waters - Lockdown Sessions, the Beatles, Peter Gabriel and as a SACD rip in DSD.
What was interesting was Ricardo was favouring the DSD over 24-bit PCM, the files were either redbook CD at 16/44.1 or DSD.
I sat later on an talked with dCS MD David Steven about the effect and influence of network technology configuration, clock sources, internet-based services vs local, DSD vs PCM processing differences, the flexible PCBs used, etc.
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I think you are paying to ensure they don’t!
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Always amused at this type of statement. My son’s band played in my house many times and real drums are the last thing you want in your living room.
Plus, on the vast majority of albums, it’s all just an illusion. The band actually never played the track live together in the studio.
I do understand what you’re implying, however.
.sjb
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Any hint on where it might be found?
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I understand Nigel, it doesn’t apply to most but if you are a multimillionaire or upwards who wants ‘the best’, who cares?
I used to live in the centre of Bristol, next to the harbour, which if anyone doesn’t know it is up a tidal river and through narrow lock gates. While enjoying a coffee on my balcony one morning, in came a super yacht. How it got through the lock I don’t know but it did, and whilst there for a few weeks many turned out just to see it. The inevitable question was why was it there? Turns out it was having a HiFi system installed by a local dealer, presumably in one of the decks below the glass surrounded gym on the top deck.
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The problem is that quite a few of these very High End brands are not in good financial shape and several have closed recently. (Source TNT Audio). It seems discounting is rife in this sector too.
I think you money is about as safe as it can be with any hifi company in dCS. Having the means, the design team, and the vision to even start on a project like this is a huge task for what is a small British company. As like I said it cost them over 10 million to design.
Also you can add any streamer you like if things went tits up, as it wouldn’t stop working as only part of it is a streamer, the rest is separate dacs, clock, etc, just like my vivaldi, it’s not all in one box.
What Bluesfan told about the Varese applies to all high end systems vs entry level. Some very bad recordings can be only enjoyed in a car. On a good system they may appear unlistenable. The difference between bad and very good recordings tend to be bigger when you go up the ladder.
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Does it bring something pregnant to the topic ? Don’t think so.
The van or site radio sounds great on everything lol. Err no it just sounds poor by any real standards and it all sounds the same as it can’t do much in the way of music transfer.
Some dacs if you play complicated sections of music, it all becomes a bit of a mess, the better dac will certainly separate it all much better and transfer that over to you. It might still not sound great as no dac can turn a badly recorded track into a well recorded one, but it will certainly do a better job and it will be more enjoyable on the better system than a lesser one.
I belief at that level of performance (assumed performance, as I haven’t heard)…, other things also need to be in place to make sure you can enjoy an optimal result….
- assumed to be in place electronics and speakers to match the performance
- Electrical setup - perhaps using the Stromtank solutions - not always fully utilized
- As far as possible optimized room - not always fully utilized
- Corrections to ensure that all musical impulse arrive at your ear at the same time (high tones till lowest tones) - mostly not utilized….
The sad thing is that such a musical solution in it’s total concept only can be bought by people who actually are mostly not so deep in music as most of us, and just have it there to show of their ability to buy exclusive stuff….
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You’re right: aesthetics aren’t the topic strictly speaking. Still, at that price point you’d expect at least some effort on integration—room, layout, cable management. I’m sure the sound was world-class.
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