Puccini is a revelation – a high end system in one box -combining the aesthetics of the Paganini with all of our upsampling, DAC, clocking and CD/SACD player technology in a single, easy to set up unit which delivers unbeatable performance.

Built to the highest specifications, Puccini features a sleek solid aluminium fascia, high grade aluminium casing, all metal buttons and a smooth transport mechanism. CD or SACD, Puccini will extract every last bit of detail from your discs, bringing a reality to your music that you never heard before.

In common with our Scarlatti and Paganini ranges, Puccini uses our proprietary DSD signal processing and patented dCS Ring DAC, which oversamples all incoming data to 5 bits at 2.822 or 3.07 MS/s. Puccini uses an enhanced version of our dCS Ring DAC, improved through increased
processing power, faster FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), improved power supplies and a quieter electrical environment.

When playing a CD, Puccini can also upsample conventional PCM encoded CDs to DSD sample rates and offers the choice between PCM or DSD playback.

Puccini is the fastest, most precise sounding player you will hear and it also features a digital volume control (allowing you to connect directly to a power amplifier), as well as two digital inputs allowing other digital sources in your system to benefit from the onboard dCS Ring DAC. A precision VCXO clock generator is housed in Puccini, but it can also be synchronised to an external master clock to further reduce jitter and improve performance.

Puccini benefits from our ‘soft’ approach to programmable logic, which allows new software to be loaded from a dCS update disc to add new features and adapt to changes in digital formats.

    Type: Upsampling CD/SACD Player Mechanism: Dual laser CD/SACD mechanism. Converter Type: CD data may be upsampled to DSD before

oversampling. Patented dCS Ring DAC topology,

oversampling to 5 bits at 2.822 or 3.07 MS/s. Analogue Output Levels: 2V rms or 6V rms on all outputs for a full-scale input, set in the menu. Analogue Balanced Outputs: 1 stereo pair on 2x 3-pin male XLR connectors (pin 2 = hot, pin 3 = cold). These outputs are electronically balanced and floating, the signal balance ratio at 1kHz is better than 40dB. Output impedance is 3 , maximum load is 600 (a 10k load is recommended). Analogue Unbalanced Outputs: 1 stereo pair on 2x RCA Phono connectors. Output impedance is 52Ohm , maximum load

is 600 Ohm (a 10kOhm load is recommended). Digital Inputs: 2x SPDIF on 2x RCA Phono connectors. Each will

accept up to 24 bit PCM at 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2 &

96kS/s. Word Clock I/O: Word Clock Input on 1x 75 Ohm BNC connector. When playing a disc, accepts standard word clock at 44.1kHz. Sensitive to TTL levels.

Word Clock Output on 1x 75 Ohm BNC connector. When playing a disc and not locked to an external clock, a TTL-compatible 44.1kHz word clock derived from the internal crystal oscillator is available on this output. Clock Accuracy: Better than +/- 10 ppm when shipped (not temperature compensated) Spurious Responses: Better than –100dB0 @ 20Hz - 20kHz. CD Updates: Updates loaded by CD-R Local Control: Starter remote control provided or RS232. Power Supply: Factory set for 100, 115, 220 or 230 V AC, 49 –

62Hz. Power Consumption: 30 Watts typical/ 40 Watts maximum

Puccini is a revelation - a high end system in one box - combining the aesthetics of the Paganini with all of our upsampling, DAC and CD/SACD player technology in a single, easy to set up unit which delivers unbeatable performance.

The Puccini range now features a patent pending (GB0817141.5) Puccini U-Clock which is separate grade 1 system clock to further reduce jitter and improve performance. Puccini U-Clock also features a USB to SPDIF converter, which enables Puccini owners to present sound files from a PC or Mac to the legendary dCS Ring DAC inside the Puccini.

dCS equipment is designed to generate and accept industry standard Word Clock on 75 ohm co-axial cable. Our Clocks will drive other manufacturers' equipment designed to accept standard Word Clock. Non-standard clock formats must be assumed to be proprietary to that manufacturer.

Asynchronous USB Mode

In USB, there are numerous modes for synchronising the audio between the PC (the host), and an audio device. The most popular of these, "adaptive", involves the audio device synchronising itself to the USB "frame" provided by the PC. This tends to give poor jitter performance.

Puccini U-Clock operates in "asynchronous" mode (NOT to be confused with asynchronous rate conversion), where the audio device synchronises the audio by providing a feedback pipe to the PC. The PC then is effectively locked to the audio device, which can have a much more accurate clock and much lower jitter.

Using the Puccini U-Clock

USB is isochronous. This means that the host (PC) and client (Puccini U-Clock) both know how much bandwidth is available at the outset, so the host can guarantee that bandwidth will be available all the time.

Your music may be stored on a large Hard Disc Drive (HDD) in a different room, linked by WiFi to a small, silent device (such as a laptop) connected by USB cable to the Puccini U-Clock. When the user selects the audio for playback, the Mac/PC streams all of the selected data from the HDD or Network Assigned Storage (NAS) device, then outputs the data on USB.

Note: The audio flowing between the PC and Puccini U-Clock is packetised PCM at 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96kS/s. It is the job of the codecs installed on the PC to decode the data and present it to Puccini U-Clock in a standard PCM format.

Type: System Clock Clock Frequencies: 44.1kHz or 48kHz. Colour: Silver or Black. Digital I/O: USB 2.0 interface on type B connector accepts uncompressed audio data at 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96kS/s. Puccini U-Clock will present data received via the USB interface, unprocessed, in SPDIF format on 2 x RCA Phono connectors. Word Clock I/O: 4 independently buffered outputs on 75 BNC connectors, all carry the same clock frequency.

With the USB interface active at 32, 48 or 96kS/s, the word clock outputs are set to 48kHz.

With the USB interface active at 44.1 or 88.2kS/s, the word clock outputs are set to 44.1kHz. Clock Frequencies: 44.1kHz or 48kHz, calibrated within +/-1ppm, (typically +/-0.1ppm), temperature compensated. Power Supply: Factory set for 100 - 120 or 200 - 240 V AC,

49 - 62Hz Power Consumption: 3 Watts typical/6 Watts maximum