@Beolab
The Dcs vivaldi is an interesting dac.
I heard it with his Viva 845 and my EC studio.
To my ears the Dcs is tuned to be a bit thicker in the mids, rich and lush sounding with an expansive stage. Very enjoyable but not really my preference.
usb implementation was outstanding, however I preferred the CD-T with dual AES.
There is definitely some digital processing that goes on in the up-sampling which adds in information from what I can understand.
I would need a few months to really develop a total understanding of my thoughts. However my brief thoughts from a few hours audition, were this is a very pleasant sounding DAC that does not suffer from any of the usual digital issues, incredibly smooth with an inviting and slightly boosted timbre. Mid bass was maybe slightly boosted as I noticed my studio sounded thicker from mids to bottom. I felt that the Dcs is not ultra resolving, However I don't think this is a bad thing. I just mean that some Dacs are able to dig up more information but with some genres this tends to make them harder brighter or even fatiguing. The MSB select II with full upgrades is still therefore in my opinion the King of the Dacs as it has the same inviting quality of the Dcs but does not compromise on microdetail.
Honestly the Dcs was an outstanding pairing with my studio which could do with some more mid bass and weight in the mids. However, I am definitely someone who prefers things to be closer to neutral with slightly more detail.
With the Viva 845 the first thing you notice is the stage is blown wide open, it was really weird, instruments seemed to surround you despite still imaging correctly. The viva is tilted warmer but not hugely so, it is not that incisive or fast in it's transient response and I didn't think it was digging that deep on detail. I think this is largely due to the shughang tube, my friend will try roll in some better quality NOS tubes however I think this might be a slight improvement but will ultimately be the weak point of this 845 amp. The 845 amp is leaps and bounds better than the viva 2a3, and with most genres the viva is a gorgeous sounding amp. However with complex and fast music i feel it was lagging behind the studio.
Interestingly my friend found my studio to be rather boring sounding, he also disliked that it didn't have that massive enveloping sound that the 845 had. He also said the bass on the studio was his favourite aspect of the studio and he agreed that transients for rock and faster music were indeed better on the studio. He definitely preferred the 845 though.
We are not immune to buyers justification and bias, however i think we both prioritise different things in our systems and I think what he has built is remarkable, beautiful sounding and totally end game.
It really is a matter of tonal preference in these situations. I could happily live with any of this stuff.
I really enjoyed the Dcs stack and think it is a wonderful Dac. Will I buy one? Maybe. I'd like to spend more time with it in NOS mode and also to play around with the filters to see if that last bit of detail is there. I don't like the idea of up sampling everything to DSD, it makes no sense to me.