We're off to hear the dCS Varese
Waking up to another typical British summer’s day in Cambridge (which is to say, appropriately gloomy), the day ahead was going to be enjoyable. Some months prior, dCS had invited us o visit their factory post Munich High End show - perfect timing, given the team was travelling to Europe anyway. Of course, Janson, David and I (Nigel) gladly accepted.
It’s a factory visit that we had been on our list for a little while now - we’ve been representing dCS in Australia for more than 15 years at this point. So when we had the opportunity to see where it was made and an opportunity to talk to the brilliant minds behind the brand, it didn’t take much convincing.
After a short drive from the rather quaint hotel in Cambridge Central, we arrived at Buckingway Business Park. Nestled within stood the dCS Factory. We were greeted by the ever welcoming and knowledgeable Alasdair McDonald, Export Sales Manager, and promptly whisked to the most important station within the dCS Factory - the coffee machine.
ACTUS
It was there that we bumped into Ben Ashcroft, the lead engineer behind dCS’s new proprietary connection interface, ACTUS - Audio Command Time and Unified System. Previously in a support role, Ben was pulled off the support team to develop a new way of transmitting high speed data with zero latency and errors. Despite never having worked on a cable, the clean slate meant he approached it from a fresh perspective, spending years researching and developing the concept with no preconceived notions of what was, or more importantly, wasn’t possible.
It resulted in a 6-twisted pair cable, with plugs specifically designed by dCS and manufactured by Lemo, along with a whole set of design and manufacturing standards, that any future cables developed by third-party cable manufacturers have to adhere to. Together with TOMIX, dCS’s new software infrastructure, you end up with a system that can transmit bit-perfect high-speed data, with zero latency, over super-long length cables. All units connected via ACTUS and TOMIX create effectively a local-area network, where all units are communicating and error checking with each other.
The feeling we got while hearing Ben talk about this development, which is something that doesn’t come across a marketing slide or website, is just how much pride and passion he has over what to most would consider tedium. The years of his life that he has dedicated over just one part of the final result is admirable, and through his casual discussion with Ben, we started to understand just how much time and resources have gone into developing this new product.
David Stevens, Managing Director (left) and Alasdair McDonald, Export Sales Manager (right)
After this discussion with Ben, we were whisked upstairs to the dCS Boardroom, and promptly greeted by David Stevens, Managing Director of dCS. The ever-charming and affable gentleman, he warmly welcomed us before diving into how the Varese came to life.
It started with a simple question: how do we bring our customers even closer to the music? After all, the dCS slogan is, “Only the Music”. This simple, yet provocative question galvanised the dCS engineers to start from the ground up, in search of developing a product that would outperform their then-flagship, the dCS Vivaldi - which, to many “golden ears” around the world, was already recognised as the best digital streaming platform in the world.
And so began the process. A rigorous, six-year development cycle began, questioning everything that dCS knew to be true, and finding ways for every part of a digital streamer to be better than what was available. No stone was left unturned, and at every micro-step of potential technological innovation that produced measurable improvements, subjective listening ensued. “Ultimately, we focus on digital performance but hand in hand with that goes subjective listening. So every time we think we’ve made a technical advance, we’re listening, we’re voicing and feeding the results back to the team,” said Stevens. This resulted in several reminders that just because something measures better, it doesn’t mean it sounds better. Stevens recounted one of the first prototypes of the Apex DAC, that technically measured better with a significantly quieter noise floor, when listened to, brought out too much sibilance, made voices sound unnatural and just “weird”.
From a mechanical design perspective, it was truly fascinating to understand that the seemingly simple chassis was designed with intent. The thickness of the metalwork, the positioning of the screw holes, even the size of the screws themselves, all impact the electromechanical noise levels, which ultimately affect the end performance of the system, so countless tests and fabrications had to occur. The metalwork is produced by one of dCS’s multi-decade manufacturing partners to an extremely high standard.
According to Stevens, ‘The UK doesn’t do high volume manufacturing anymore, but what they do make is extremely high precision, low volume, specialist application products extremely well. Our manufacturing partner produces for medical, aerospace, Formula 1, and so to be able to work with a partner like that, for the decades we have been, is a real treat.”
Something I never thought of was how much thought goes into futureproofing. Being in the media, our day to day involves capturing as much information and reporting on it as soon as possible. But for a manufacturer like dCS, Stevens and the team implement a 15 year roadmap, theorising on topics like how people will interact with their music, what sample rates will be available, what sort of processing power will be required - worthy considerations, especially considering the commanding price of dCS’ products. It’s important that if someone spends a gazillion of their hard earned dollars on a piece of hifi, that the hifi should last. So to that point, the FPGA that runs the DACs in the Varese are only running at about sub-10% of their capacity, giving them ample headroom for the future. As Alasdair pointed out, one of their competitors recently released a flagship DAC, and in their literature they state that their FPGA is running at 98% capacity, meaning that as soon as the market demands even 3% more processing capabilities, the owner is forced to upgrade, or miss out.
Through the development of the Varese came a number of other developments, most notably the Apex DAC, which has since been made available for existing dCS owners, and also their new entry level product, the dCS LINA.
There’s no getting around the elephant in the room regarding the Varese - the price point. When asked if there was ever any doubt about the market being willing to accept such a price point, Stevens admitted there was a fair bit of nervousness. He said, “There’s always been a case of scope creep with the engineers. When they start pulling on one string, another one unravels, which ends up in arguments over areas that they can’t compromise on. The Varese is the ultimate realisation of scope creep.”
And so began the factory tour. David whisked us through to meet the engineers and assemblers in the factory, describing the degrees that they go to ensure the strictest quality controls are adhered to.
He used the opportunity to present another innovation that came out of the development of the Varese - utilising a single PCB board for processing. He stated that when a component has multiple internal PCB boards, you’re forced to use ribbon cables, standoffs, screws and connectors, which results in more points of failure, more crosstalk, and more potential errors during assembly. It also drags out the testing and quality assurance process, as you have to test each board individually, connect them up, then test again. Using a single PCB board instead avoids all of those issues.
The Moment of Truth - dCS Varese Session
To finish the tour, we were treated to an A/B demonstration of the dCS Varese in their demonstration room. Sat in the rear right corner of the room was an imposing stack of electronics on HRS stands - the Vivaldi 4-stack on the right, and Varese system on the left.
In front of us stood a suitably modest system, comprising of a pair of Wilson Alexx V, a pair of Dan D’agostino Relentless 800 monoblocks, connected with Transparent Audio cables.
Alasdair took us through a song-by-song A/B demonstration comparing the Vivaldi to the Varese, and the differences were not subtle. Don’t get me wrong, if a dCS Vivaldi landed on my front door by a hifi genie, I would gladly accept it and never think twice. But having now heard the Varese, I’d be rubbing my lamp and asking for a fourth wish. The most notable aspects were that the Varese was so much quieter when the track demanded it. The soundstage was so much more 3D and immersive. Instruments and their placement was far better defined. But the true test? After Alasdair finished his A/B demonstrations, he handed me the iPad, and after a few songs, I forgot that I was there to evaluate hifi. I was just…listening to music. Which, ultimately, is what dCS sought to achieve with the Varese: Only The Music.
