dCS to Demo New 16-Channel DAC at Vienna High End

Since its founding in the late 1980s, the English company dCS has remained at the forefront of high-end digital audio, producing some of the best (and most expensive) digital-to-analog converters available. After finding success designing radar systems for fighter jets, dCS built professional ADC and DAC products for studio use before turning its attention to home audio. Although the performance of dCS’s cost-no-object digital gear seems to know no bounds, the company’s products have always been limited to two channels — it’s all about pure stereo playback. Until now, that is. Making its debut at High End Vienna 2026 is the first multichannel product from dCS, the MCD 16 (pricing TBA). The MCD 16 will be part of a massive demonstration system created in partnership with Trinnov Audio and Perlisten Audio, all courtesy of the high-end German distributor Audio Reference GmbH.

The MCD 16 is a 16-channel digital-to-analog converter that carries dCS’s pursuit of “extreme accuracy and precision in the conversion of digital audio to real music” into a new dimension. The company strives toward the somewhat intangible goal of preserving musical emotion and detail through the application of serious science, all based on an innovative circuit called the Ring DAC. The Ring DAC is the foundation of every dCS product, and is designed to deliver exceptional distortion and noise performance. The dCS MCD 16 uses eight individual Ring DAC circuits, which feature a unique architecture. Here is a brief technical explanation of the Ring DAC from dCS:

On the surface, the Ring DAC may look like a Ladder DAC. There is a latch and a resistor for each current source, and these current sources are fed to a summing bus. The key difference between the Ring DAC and Ladder DACs, however, is that the Ring DAC uses current sources of equal value. This is what is known as a “unitary weighted” or “thermometer coded” DAC architecture. Additionally, the Ring DAC does not use the same current source(s) for the same bit every time. The Ring DAC is based around a set of latches, all of which are turned on and off at high speeds to produce an equal amount of current. The FPGA on the Ring DAC employs a sophisticated mapping algorithm to turn sources on and off in such a way that any component value errors are averaged out over time. …From power supplies to signal routing, component placement and current steering, each aspect of the Ring DAC's design and layout is carefully considered and meticulously crafted to provide the finest possible performance, and a musical experience that feels both lifelike and beautifully complete.

— dCS

The result of this DAC architecture, according to dCS, is reduced harmonic distortion across the dynamic range. This means that quiet passages of music or dialogue are “rendered with complete integrity,” while louder sounds have natural decay, according to the company. The dying resonance of a piano chord or the gradual fade of a room’s natural reverberation will resolve more cleanly, yielding “a greater sense of space and depth across the full dynamic range, not just at its quietest extremes,” according to dCS. In addition to its eight stereo Ring DACs, the new MCD 16 features a discrete Class A output stage for each channel, with switchable 2V or 6V outputs.

dCS MCD at High End Vienna 2026

The MCD 16 will make its public debut at the High End Vienna audio show, which takes place June 4th – 7th, 2026. The demonstration system, organized by the high-end German distributor Audio Reference, reportedly will be assembled in a fully controlled listening environment, and will feature a large-scale 13.8.8 immersive audio setup that is “engineered not simply to impress, but to reveal immersive music reproduction with exceptional stability, coherence, and realism,” according to dCS. The precisely-proportioned room will feature acoustic treatment from the Portuguese company Vicoustic.

The system is built around the new Trinnov AltitudeCI Audio-over-IP platform, featuring Trinnov’s advanced spatial optimization technologies. The AltitudeCI is a native digital processor engineered for high-channel-count systems where routing, calibration, and spatial rendering “must remain fully deterministic,” according to Trinnov. (We had a chance to check out the AltitudeCI at a recent listening event at Maximum AV, hosted by Trinnov Audio and RBH Sound.) In the High End Vienna system, every channel will be “measured, aligned, and controlled, eliminating variability that typically compromises immersive playback,” according to dCS. 

Speaker Layout including 5 Perlisten ST7 towers across front stage and 8 D215 Subs for Waveforming

My understanding is that the processed digital audio will then be sent via AES/EBU to the dCS MCD DAC, which is designed to “maintain timing integrity and resolution across all channels simultaneously — an essential requirement in immersive reproduction, where phase relationships define the soundfield as much as level,” according to dCS. The analog signals will then be amplified (presumably by Trinnov amps) before being delivered to a large-scale Perlisten loudspeaker configuration with distributed bass management.

The loudspeaker system in Vienna will be massive, utilizing no fewer than five Perlisten S7T towers across the front stage: one for each of the main LCR channels, plus another two serving as front wides. There will be eight total Perlisten S7i speakers reproducing surround channels, and eight Perlisten S4 speakers used for height channels. 

Bass will be handled by eight Perlisten D215 subwoofers, each of which uses two 15-inch drivers in a push-pull configuration. There will be four subwoofers located on the front wall and another four integrated into the back wall. According to dCS, this potent system will deliver “a fully coherent three-dimensional listening experience.”

Justin Gray: Immersed

Throughout the show, the demo room will host daily listening sessions led by the Grammy Award-winning producer Justin Gray. Gray will present selections from his Grammy-winning album Immersed, using the original high-resolution production files, pulled directly from the original mixing sessions. Gray will “present and deconstruct selected material in the format for which it was created, offering attendees rare insight into both the creative intent and the technical realities of immersive audio at its best,” according to dCS. Immersed is described as a “cinematic” album, composed, recorded, and produced from the ground up for immersive audio. It features 38 artists from around the world, placing the listener “at the center of a 360-degree orchestra, surrounded by performances from all directions.”

The dCS MCD 16 will ship in autumn 2026, according to the company. Pricing and full technical specifications will be confirmed closer to that time.

Reserve your seat for a scheduled demo at Vienna High End 2026 here: https://pretix.eu/audioreference/highend26/