You will be golden if you stream high resolution music with Cary Audio newest top-of-the-range network player DMS-800PV! French magazine Diapason gave it the highest award Diapason d’Or (Gold).
Diapason is an authoritative French language magazine of classical music recordings, which started circulation way back in 1956. It has a hi-fi section written and edited by prominent reviewers. The Diapason d’Or (Gold Diapason) annual award goes for best classical music releases of the year and its sibling, the Diapason d’Or Hi-Fi, for best hi-fi. So now you know which streamer/network player is considered best in 2022…
Here’s a few quotes from Diapason magazine, issue 716, November 2022:
Description
‘Cary Audio is back in France, good news for all those who want to explore music in its non-physical digital medium. This American brand from Raleigh (North Carolina) has a lot of good sound and top engineering up its sleeve. The DMS-800 Professional Version is a state-of-the-art streamer and
audiophile DAC. It offers access to internet music providers such as Spotify connect, Tidal, Qobuz, vTuner, does Airplay, is Roon ready, and provides full MQA decoding. Input PCM data can be upsampled up to
to 768 kHz or converted to 64, 128 or 256 DSD. DMS-800PV is hefty and weights as your regular integrated amp (17.7 kg). Its solid case is internally divided into three compartments: LAN, Wi-Fi and BT aptX HD cards as well as digital input/output boards take the back of the center compartment. In the middle we see Crystek precision oscillator clock, two DSPs, fourteen independent power supplies
and a massive, well shielded R-Core mains transformer in the front. Right and left compartment are symmetrical ‘dual mono’ lay-outs of left and right channel audio circuits: individual power supplies, quad DAC AK4499EQ chip and discrete symmetrical buffers (2×2) mounted as close as possible to the output terminals (XLR or RCA).
Listening impressions
Royal choice, princely consequences. Witness the Passacaglia streamed from Qobuz in high res
24 Bits/176,4 kHz FLAC (fragment A). This contemporary work playing on the
contrasts takes on a new dimension here: it is a fest of aerial, terrestrial, earthy, sensory and vibrating sensations. Quite interesting results were obtained with the use of proprietary TruBit upsampling. We did a comparison of the same live track — Les Sirènes de Lili Boulanger (fragment B) — taken from Qobuz (FLAC) or from a CD (WAV). At passthrough the tone balance is superb, the choir articulates with great finesse and beautiful airy atmosphere, but the pianoforte lacks a little bite. With upsampling to 88.2 or 176.4 kHz this impression changes. There’s definite increase in vigour, in presence, in luminosity and the listener is elevated to a perfect position to immerse into the music.
Pluses: musically accomplished; rich princely sound.
Minuses: lacks a headphone jack
