[Operakid]

I don't know why you seem so offended by me, I have no ulterior motives here, no agenda, other than to help folks with my experience.  
 
Again, you take me out of context and skew the meaning of what I wrote with your own interpretation.  Read my line again, that you quoted:  "...........I know what I'm getting into before I buy, and any mistake would sell for more than my cost in the case I were to make a mistake......"  I never said I don't buy, as you claim above.  I said, after the above quoted line, "play without paying" because I can sell equipment for what I pay, so I can test without losing money.  
 
And I push no used equip on anyone just to sell it.  When I sell, it is all perfect at great prices, honestly presented as exactly what it is.  At the price I sell my things at after I have tested they sell themselves, without me being a "salesman" as you say, and which is not true.  My job is not in sales. 
 
If I offended you because you own DCS and I wrote that I do not like it, please drop it.  We all have our opinions.  
 
Again, I am here honestly giving my impressions and experiences, and have absolutely no alliances or vested interests with any manufacturer.  I do have my own brand, not connected to headphones or headphone amps or any headphone accessory, and I have never mentioned my brand here or pushed any personal agenda.  So I am not shilling for my own brand, or for anyone else's.  
 
Please stop writing these degrading and insulting things about me.  I have written with no agenda, no motives, no self-interest on this forum.  Thank you in advance for that.  

 

[Smeckles]

Honestly dude, I'm not even reading this wall o' text you insist on spewing.
 
If you can't understand the word "own" or use it correctly from one post to the next, then I don't know what you think we could possibly have to discuss. To wit: "audition" does not mean "own" like you seem to think it does. Start with that.  Then maybe we can get to the ills of "your industry".
 
I'm just repeating your own words to you, that's all.  The fact that you're twisting yourself in knots says much more about you than me.  Your slippery use of language is disingenuous at best; it's the manner a scam artist uses to wriggle out of corners he's painted himself into.  Then you follow that by decrying the industry you say you've been in for decades, which reeks of the false humility of the recently converted. Whatever.  I'm not buying anything you're selling.

 

[johnwmclean]

Smeckles your one badass troll. Why don’t you get a life?

 

[ingul]

I was surprised to hear about the lack of improvement of the Vivaldi DAC against the Weiss DAC202.
I too have recently listened to these. I went to dCS and listened to both back to back through their set up. Dacs directly into Dagostino stereo power amp feeding Wilson Alexias using Transparent opus cable throughout.
 
I first "calibrated" my ears and listened to my own DAC202.  This was being fed by my own MacBook Pro using Pure Music and iTunes playing 16/44.1 AIFF rips of my own CDs.  I listened to the 202 for about 30 minutes and then we switched to the Vivaldi DAC then dialled in the clock and then finally the upsampler. I also listened to the transport.
 
The DAC 2002 was a warm presentation, almost tube like, with very gradual leading edges, full bass but flabby.  I was astonished as I was not picking this up in my home system which has krell 400 mono block power amps and Wilson Sachas. 
 
The Vivaldi DAC immediately demonstrated a more neural presentation vastly more detailed and in my view allowed the images to become more 3 dimensional. I wasn't expecting the clock to make any difference. I was amazed at how noticeable the change was. The whole sounded became much more focussed and easier to follow, in my view a preferable sound and well worth the addition. The upsampler I had mixed views on.  It filled out the sound and returned it to a more tube like and analogue presentation. This was preferable on hard and bright recordings (You Won't See Me - Rubber Soul, Polythene Pam, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window) but was too much for recordings that need a more etched presentation to follow the words e.g. Morning Glory by Leonard Cohen.
However don't get me wrong, the detail, clarity and imaging was to my partner's and my ears was still miles ahead of the Weiss. I subsequently re read all the dCS reviews and other than their views on the upsampler everything else seemed to tally.  Is it worth the money, against its competitors yes, is it 20 times better than a 202 no, would I buy one yes, why because inspite of diminishing returns it seems to be a big step at this level against its competition. PS I have heard the top of the range Esoteric, Accuphase, Metronome, Audio Research but not MBS.