Last night I had the opportunity to spend some time with my friend who recently upgraded from Vivaldi Apex stack to Varese. I posted about my prior experiences before and the room/ equipment were unchanged. The Varese feeds a Gryphon Commander which then supplies mono Gryphon Apex amps and then the XVX. The dual subsonics are powered by mono Gryphon Mephistos. Cabling is Transparent Magnum Opus. Isolation is all top HRS.
The room is 22x33 and treated with RPG Modex plate and bad panels. Ceiling uses diffusive Vicoustic panels. The grills are a full 9 feet off the front wall. Set up was originally done by Peter but was subsequently greatly improved over several months by Todd and Gale from the Sound Environment.
David the CEO of DCS and Emron DCS sales accompied us on our listening session. They gave good insight into the project but largely stayed out of the way so that we could draw our own conclusions. DCS spent 8 years and over 10 million pounds on this project. The engineers were given free rein to build the best they could without financial restraint. This created a lot of anxiety for leadership as they didn’t know what they would get or when they would get it. It did end up yielding Lina and Apex to help offset the investments. It is absolutely their intention to trickle this technology down. I directly asked him about that and he said we can and we will. My pure guess reading the tea leaves is less than a year but who knows.
Listening: We listened for nearly 5 hours. Everyone was amazed including the DCS crew. This room is dialed in like no other. Even the rake angle of the subs were adjusted to 84 degrees to match the mains baffles. The first thing anyone said was that these (XVX) dont sound like a speaker brand at all. There was no “Wilson sound” hindering the experience. We listened to all kinds of music. Classical, acoustic jazz, female and male vocalists, rock pop, live, studio. I have a partial list if someone is interested. It’s not a small improvement over Vivaldi. It’s big. Like this is better (knives out) than his Airforce one. There is no Halo there is no ring. It’s dead quiet. 5+ db quieter than Vivaldi. The sound is absolutely natural. I pressed him and he says they don’t apply any software based soundshaping technologies to make it sound more pleasant and less digital. The differences are now mono differential DACs improved power supplies and now Rockport like case work. Billet aluminum with a constrained layer dampening between then. It’s heavy and it doesn’t resonate like before.
Conclusion: this isn’t a review and this is just my opinion. The differential ring DAC and new case work will be the foundation of future DCS products. They are ok with open architecture (using someone else’s streamer) but will likely also make their own to pair with future projects. I have no way to judge if the steep price is worth it to any given individual but if you have the money and listen to a lot of digital it will transform your experience. No unbiased listener could call this unmusical.It is pure music. This is a rare case where it actually is meaningfully better.
Note: this is no slight to Wadax or others. It’s not a comparison. I’m relaying my impressions of a great evening. I don’t usually care for Wilson speakers but this was the best reproduction I have heard in my 65 years. The first picture shows right to left David, Emron and Todd
The room is 22x33 and treated with RPG Modex plate and bad panels. Ceiling uses diffusive Vicoustic panels. The grills are a full 9 feet off the front wall. Set up was originally done by Peter but was subsequently greatly improved over several months by Todd and Gale from the Sound Environment.
David the CEO of DCS and Emron DCS sales accompied us on our listening session. They gave good insight into the project but largely stayed out of the way so that we could draw our own conclusions. DCS spent 8 years and over 10 million pounds on this project. The engineers were given free rein to build the best they could without financial restraint. This created a lot of anxiety for leadership as they didn’t know what they would get or when they would get it. It did end up yielding Lina and Apex to help offset the investments. It is absolutely their intention to trickle this technology down. I directly asked him about that and he said we can and we will. My pure guess reading the tea leaves is less than a year but who knows.
Listening: We listened for nearly 5 hours. Everyone was amazed including the DCS crew. This room is dialed in like no other. Even the rake angle of the subs were adjusted to 84 degrees to match the mains baffles. The first thing anyone said was that these (XVX) dont sound like a speaker brand at all. There was no “Wilson sound” hindering the experience. We listened to all kinds of music. Classical, acoustic jazz, female and male vocalists, rock pop, live, studio. I have a partial list if someone is interested. It’s not a small improvement over Vivaldi. It’s big. Like this is better (knives out) than his Airforce one. There is no Halo there is no ring. It’s dead quiet. 5+ db quieter than Vivaldi. The sound is absolutely natural. I pressed him and he says they don’t apply any software based soundshaping technologies to make it sound more pleasant and less digital. The differences are now mono differential DACs improved power supplies and now Rockport like case work. Billet aluminum with a constrained layer dampening between then. It’s heavy and it doesn’t resonate like before.
Conclusion: this isn’t a review and this is just my opinion. The differential ring DAC and new case work will be the foundation of future DCS products. They are ok with open architecture (using someone else’s streamer) but will likely also make their own to pair with future projects. I have no way to judge if the steep price is worth it to any given individual but if you have the money and listen to a lot of digital it will transform your experience. No unbiased listener could call this unmusical.It is pure music. This is a rare case where it actually is meaningfully better.
Note: this is no slight to Wadax or others. It’s not a comparison. I’m relaying my impressions of a great evening. I don’t usually care for Wilson speakers but this was the best reproduction I have heard in my 65 years. The first picture shows right to left David, Emron and Todd
