Dear readers, we are witnessing the launch of one of the boldest products ever produced by the High-End audio industry. Or should I better say “set-of-products”, instead of a singular product? Well, this is very debatable, as dCS’ engineers designed The Varèse as a singular product, but as you can see from the picture below, it is definitely not a singular unit.
Before explaining what The Varèse is, we should go back to the initial wish of the British company dCS, who wanted to develop a new never-seen-before end-game digital playback system. They wanted to develop the crème-de-la-crème solution and to achieve this, they realized that a complete digital system needs to be developed and the way to go is to have its main functions separated: core processing, DAC, master clock and user interface. You can see below the modules of The Varèse system explained:
When laying the blueprints of The Varèse system, dCS engineers started with a simple idea: they wanted to improve their existing DACs, but they realized they could do that only by developing a unified digital system for audio transport, all functions and modules having their influence on how a digital stack sounds. In this process, dCS made important steps in clarifying what the future of digital music will look like. The Varèse is like a window into the future of High-End audio. Neat, isn’t it?
The Varèse is comprised of five components: a Core, a User Interface, a Master Clock and two Mono DAC’s (one for each channel). The system includes a special Varèse Remote Control and an app, dCS Mosaic ACTUS. Also, a dedicated CD/SACD transport will be added later in 2025.
The system features a new clocking technology called dCS Tomix, a new streaming interface called “ACTUS” and a new DAC architecture, called Differential Ring DAC, an evolution of their previous dCS Ring DAC. Everything in this system is carefully designed and integrated, from its mechanical and electronic components to its enhanced power supplies.
The backside of the system lets us take a sneak peek into the proprietary works of The Varèse. We can see simplicity, order and proprietary connections. Hmm. Yummy! Here is the sexy backside of the system:
Being this complete stellar playback system, The Varèse comes with a significant cost: around $200,000 for the whole system. Oh, boy! Maybe a good offer will be available on Black Friday this year? I am smiling, hope you are too. For us regular folks, The Varèse will remain only a wet dream, but, nevertheless, I am keen to listen to it and maybe even write a review here on soundnews.net. Never stop dreaming, this is what my grandma always told me.
