October 2024

High-Performance Audio's Impressive Modernization
Pushing the price envelope within a highly devaluating currency climate.
Editorial By Alan Sircom

  The hi-fi world is occasionally rocked. Sometimes by performance, by a revolutionary change in technology, and sometimes by the demise of a designer, a founder or a manufacturer.

This time, however, what seems to have sent out the shock-waves is a price.

Cambridge-based digital expert dCS is no stranger to 'upper-echelon' pricing; the company's existing four-box Vivaldi APEX comes in at an already 'spendy' £124,250 without cables. However, the company's latest project, Varèse, confidently eclipses even the Vivaldi APEX. The five-box design (Core unit, Master Clock, Mono DACs, and User Interface) cost a cool £217,500, with a CD/SACD transport to follow next year. Granted its unique ACTUS connection system lowers the cost of inter-device cabling (wiring up a full four-box Vivaldi APEX with something like Nordost Odin Gold adds substantially to the price of admission). But the fact remains we are in uncharted price territory for digital audio.

Perhaps this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Brands like CH Precision, MSB, and Wadax have been pushing the price envelope for some time. And we are in a time where systems costing more than a million Dollars / Pounds / Euros / Quatloos have shifted from being show-stopping statement pieces to a regular and almost commonplace fixture at audio events. A surprising number of countries also have dealers who hold a system that approaches or passes this price point, and with Varèse in the mix, the number of dealers with access to systems costing or exceeding the million-mark will only increase.

This invites a few questions. Do they deserve the coverage they get? Such products draw audio journalists like moths to a flame, in part because both exclusivity and the gnashing of teeth bring likes and clicks in the online world. Yes, they get disproportionate coverage compared to how many of these products and systems sell in reality, but they do sell, and sell in steady enough numbers to justify their design and manufacture.

Next, can such prices be justified? This is always a difficult question to answer, especially as depreciation in audio products makes them have little potential as financial investments. Investments in personal enjoyment, on the other hand, might not be directly bankable, but gaining musical satisfaction from owning the best has its own merit.

Then... Is there a limit? This one's simple; if there is, we haven't reached it yet! I think when we get to paying a million for a cartridge or a record brush, then I think we've tipped over the edge!

Finally, can they really offer better performance than more affordable products? For that... we shall see!

Alan Sircom, Editor hi-fi+

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