this week I have mostly been listening to..

one of these http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/products_audiophile/P8i-CD-600.jpg - the brand new DCS p8i; DCS's first integrated one box upsampling CD/SACD player. And pretty stunning it is too . Have had this and an ARC on loan to compare to my Krell SACD. The ARC has an amazing soundstage but sounds a bit glary in my system. The DCS is pig ugly and has clunky disc handling but the sound is truly superb; very detailed, very controlled (eg reproducing very high treble and deep bass simultaneously with no strain) and musical. As I was warned it has taken a few days to come fully on song, but last night I started the usual skip thru the favourites routine to see how they sounded and ended up listening to whole CDs. Switched the lights off and bathed in a Bach cello sonata that had phenomenal presence and texture. Also got sucked into listening to good old Tubular Bells all the way through - and it really sounded fresh and interesting. Compared to the ARC there is not the same cavernous soundstage, but then the sound is more focused and cohesive. I've not heard DCS gear befoer so maybe this is par for the course - but I'm impressed!

 

certainly not IMO, they've always seemed rather dull when i've heard them. is the price par for the course for dcs?

 

yep, somewhere between 6500 and 6900.....

 

I'd read in one of the articles about the player that even for cd it will convert the signal to DSD in the same way one their seperate units does.

Any idea if this is so ?

 

yes it does that. you will also be able to buy a software upgrade that does the same to any other digital signal received (so I suppose you could DSD-ise a DAB input.. )

 

What effect does upsampling to DSD have on normal CDs? Is it worthwhile?

 

Or you could convert the dsd to pcm, for the first time I've heard an sacd accutally sound better than a cd in this way. Wm

 

it didn't seem to be something you could turn on or off, so all I heard was what the player produced off CD rather than upsampled/non upsampled. the CD performance was excellent - to my ears it beat my Krell and the ARC cd3 mk2 hands down. can't say that 'native' SACDs sounded markedly different to CDs on this player, whereas on the Krell they do (despite I think DSD ending up as PCM) .

 

sorry but that just seems such a huge amount of cash for a front end

 

same price as the Linn Unidisk 1.1 - which has video replay and DVD-A (for what it's worth).

For a statement integrated player I don't think this is excessive compared to the likes of Naim, Linn, Wadia, Mark Levinson, etc..

But from what has been said build quality and and looks aren't at the level expected at this price maybe ??

also if you add up the cost of DCS's seperates it comes to a hell of a lot more than this - making it a very expensive front end and the one box player a cheaper option for those with the cash.

 

Sadly I think you are quite correct with this - once started it just never seems to stop.

When you do buy a top end source there is always something in the back of your head telling you that you are not getting the best out of it, so upgrade this, then that.

Next the £7k new source ends up costing a hell of a lot more and you have a whole new system.