Jonathan Scull

While walking home from the office the other day I passed a gleaming, perfectly detailed Harley-Davidson, lightly customized, as many are these days. I didn't stop and drool, but I couldn't unsnap my eyes from it. As I drew parallel to that hawg, a Ricky Martin look-alike threw his leg over the saddle and thumbed the starter. No, you don't have to be a tattooed, beer-gutted redneck anymore to rear up and <I>slam</I> down on a kick-starter of one of those beasts. These days, it's all done with the push of a button. Dude.

What's it take to compete on the bleeding edge of digital? Foresight, commitment of resources, and lots of money. Of course, it's <I>all</I> fundamentally about money, so we shouldn't be surprised that the audiophile's emotional needs aren't paid much respect by the large international manufacturing and marketing concerns stalking the earth today. Megaglom <I>vs</I> Cockroachacus. [<I>Sigh</I>] Where <I>are</I> those pesky miniature princess twins when you need 'em?

The dCS Purcell is named after Henry Purcell, the English composer, organist, bass, countertenor who was born in 1659 and died in, alas, 1695. It's a digital/digital converter intended for consumer use, as opposed to the less elegantly packaged pro-audio version, the dCS 972, that I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/260/">reviewed</A&gt; in February 1999. Both devices increase the sample rate and/or word length of the output from linear PCM digital audio sources like CD or DVD up to a maximum sample rate of 192kHz and a word length of 24 bits. According to the extensive documentation, this is achieved by "using extremely powerful and accurate digital interpolation filters, which yield an output signal having negligible levels of distortion."