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dCS vintage equipment - Delius DAC & Purcell upsampler

Dowser

Dowser

Learning to bodge again..
About a year ago I picked up a dCS Delius cheaply - see here. I was impressed at its performance, much more polite (bad word, don’t know how to better explain) than the TDA1541 DAC stages I’ve grown to love (ie; my beloved and heavily modified Naim CDi).

After that experience I also bought a Mark Levinson No. 36 DAC - overall preferred the Delius. Tried the Delius straight into my power amps for 5 or 6 months, happy with result…but put my vintage Croft Mega Micro back in recently…and just laughed at how much better it was 😊

So, had the ability to play my CD players via their analogue out again - so, time to compare Delius to my CDi properly. Did so a week are so ago, one drunken late night listening session (so results not conclusive 😂) - but result was shocking, only compared 2 CDs, but found the CDi brash against the Delius! Decided I need a proper listening session without alcohol to really confirm, suspect it maybe bias as initially I always found the dCS too polite.

however, with all that in my mind, a dCS Purcell upsampler popped up on on eBay for a decent price this weekend. Plugged it in and set it up an or so ago.

Wow! Running Radio Paradise through my RPi/Digione hat upsampled to 24/176.4 via the Purcell is stunning! So far, for CDs, a bit disappointed initially with Cure’s “Staring at the Sea - the Singles”, but a newer CD such as Lamb - 5 is stunning.

much more listening to do 😊

Sorry, obligatory photo;
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All you need now is a clock from the same range :)
In my experience, the dCS clock makes a significant difference.
I wouldn't know about the upsampling since the dCS I've had at home (Bartok, Rossini and now Rossini Apex) have the upsampling integrated.
 
So, have been really happy with this setup so far, biggest surprise is how good Radio Paradise FLAC can sound streaming via a browser in RaspBerry Pi OS via an Allo DigiOne into the Purcell and upsampled into the Delius, simply stunning! TV via Toslink is also much better. I confess to having been too scared to properly compare CD transport playback into this pair with my Naim CDI, but have to at some point :p

When I got the Purcell I had to make up some AES/EBU cables - I just used what I had to hand, Neutrik NK2 studio cable, 1.5m in length as this seemed to be accepted wisdom to stop reflections. But normal studio cable is 75 ohm, not the 110 ohm standard of AES/EBU (lets pretend XLR connectors meet this standard ;)) - so, would proper 110 cable make a difference?

I ordered some Mogami 3080 to try - result, it is certainly no worse, and that's with minimal 30cm length as my devices are stacked. Need to leave it in for a few weeks and then swap back to be definitive, at this level I find small changes hard to detect.

I'm really, really happy with this kit - I have invested a large sum - CHF 1'275 for both bits - but I suspect I am at the edge of what is possible (it cost around CHF 20k for the pair at retail!) and I cannot imagine how much better the later dCS stuff is...even with Apex upgrades. Maybe one day I'll get to hear it.

Photos of cable;
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New vs old
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Cheers, Richard
 
Yes upsampling makes a big difference, especially the DCS units. The sound (in my system) got more analogue sounding as you went up the upsampling rates too.
I’ve tried other upsamplers that don’t work half as well.
I have a Scarlatti for sale at the moment - selling as I bought an Antipodes that outputs AES directly to my Dac which doesn’t have a USB input. With the Antipodes the sound was marginally better taking USB out of the chain completely….
 
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