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dCS Varèse

dCS Varèse system (black)

dCS Varèse is a five-box Streaming DAC system and the brand’s new flagship. It follows dCS’ long-standing tradition of naming its products after composers; this time Edgard Varése (1883-1965). It doesn’t replace the four-box Vivaldi APEX system. Instead, it’s a new platform that adds a new, even higher-end layer to dCS’ already heady mix. There is a lot to unpack here. For the record, this isn’t based on any hands-on information or press event. We’re as in the dark as everyone else on this, except we got our hands on a press release. We haven’t heard it, and as far as I know, no one outside of dCS has heard it.

Update: I was wrong. One of our reviewers – Paul Soor – had a pre-release listen to the Varése in the dCS factory. You can read his first thoughts, here.

dCS Varèse system with product annotations

Varèse comprises a £95,000 Core (including Core itself, the User Interface, Remote Control, and an ACTUS cable), a £32,000 Master Clock with its own ACTUS cable, and two Mono DACs (£90,000 per pair, each with their own ACTUS cables). This is a very different architecture from conventional digital front ends and relies on its unique ACTUS (a backronym for “Audio-Control-Timing-Unified-System”) protocol to realise this. The Core unit is as described, a digital hub unit that takes a USB and Ethernet digital input. It’s not a power supply; each part of the dCS Varèse stack has its own IEC connection. Instead, Core handles input and upsampling conversion, noise shaping and filtering. It then feeds the signal through two ACTUS links to Mono DACs.

dCS Varèse: Lord of the Ring DACs

2022’s Ring DAC APEX laid the groundwork for a Differential Ring DAC. This is “Creating a new design with twice as many current sources and introducing a new differential mode of operation.” dCS claims the Differential Ring DAC is “the biggest change to our DAC architecture in a generation.”

The worry with running two mono DACs is their potential to go out of synchronisation with one another. To combat this, the dCS Varèse includes a Master Clock with a new and patented dCS Tomix clocking technology. This company claims it offers “unrivalled jitter performance”, improving on decades of dCS Master Clocks. In researching Varèse, dCS found that “no current technology enabled us to achieve perfect synchronicity when sending signals via IP link.” How dCS Tomix works is unclear from the press release (likely a result of that patent), but it uses a single two-way ACTUS connection from Master Clock to Core.

ACTUS also connects the User Interface to the dCS Varèse Core. This works with the new dCS Mosaic ACTUS app and the Varèse Remote control to act as the name suggests: both the visual representation of the system’s status and detailed indicator of album, track and playlist. The User Interface features a customisable full-colour touchscreen front panel.

Give them a hand!

The dCS Remote Control moves away from traditional ‘slab of buttons’ handsets. The round CNC-milled aluminium handset features capacitive glass hotkeys. These sit around a central dial that can control both track functions and volume control. This charges through USB-C and connects to the dCS Varèse through Bluetooth (the aerial is at the rear of the User Interface). Finally, dCS’ well-established Mosaic App gets a glow-up with the ACTUS version.

dCS Varèse system (rear)

dCS Varèse – as a static display – launches at the Hong Kong AV show beginning August 9. Active demonstrations will follow in the UK and US starting in September 2024. Varèse will ship by the end of the year.

And that’s all we know so far. The rest is speculation. For example, why does Core have eight ACTUS connectors? Currently, the Master Clock has its dedicated connection, and the User Interface and Mono DACs take up three more. That leaves four empty ACTUS connectors… why? The dCS forum hinting at a dedicated CD/SACD transport coming in 2025 goes some way to explain this.

Also, the rear panel of the dCS Varèse Core looks very ‘modular’ with three blanking panels next to the ACTUS block and the input and power supply block. Is this simply the construction of the Core, or are these left open for future options?

Edit: It turns out I was right on both counts. The modular nature of the dCS Varèse core allows for an input/output module, priced at £11,500. And there will be a Varése CD/SACD transport (with its own ACTUS cable) for £35,000. This means the system currently costs £217,500 as a streamer system, £252,500 for the disc playing and streaming system, and £264,000 for the full digital package.

dCS Varèse: target acquired

Speculation aside, there will be those in ‘judge, jury, and executioner’ mode. This is because a high-end digital company that makes an even higher-end digital product automatically paints a target on itself. However, dCS is not the first digital audio company to have pushed close to (or even beyond) the quarter-million-dollar mark. I suspect it won’t be the last. All aspects of high-end audio have yet to find their ultimate price ceiling.

That the pinnacle product from a high-technology British company is beyond the bank balance of most of us shouldn’t come as a surprise. When not engaged in drunken brawls, casual rioting or ‘sitting down’ sports like rowing and horsey dancing, the British are good at precision products. It’s why many F1 teams are British-based. This degree of precision doesn’t come cheap. The dCS Varése carries on that tradition.

 

Manufacturer:

dCS

https://dcsaudio.com

UK Distributor:

Absolute Sounds

www.absolutesounds.com

+44 (0)208 971 3909

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Tags: DCS VARèSE STREAMING DAC SYSTEM

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