The Varèse Music System is our most ambitious creation to date. It is the culmination of six years intensive development – a series of projects undertaken to explore how we could further improve audio performance, whilst at the same time creating an even more immersive playback experience.

The system launched with five components – Core, User Interface, dual Mono DACs, and Master Clock – plus the Varèse Remote and Mosaic ACTUS app. We have now added a dedicated CD/SACD Transport, available from September 2025. 

The Varèse Transport builds on our long heritage of developing dedicated components for CD and SACD playback. Its design reflects our overarching ambition with Varèse – to further advance the state-of-the-art, whilst also simplifying system setup and use – and it’s a product we are thrilled to share. 

Supporting CD Playback

dCS has been making CD & SACD transports since 2000. Our first, the Verdi, launched at a time when CDs were ubiquitous and the preferred mode of listening for a large portion of music lovers. New technologies have of course emerged, and there are now a multitude of ways to access digital music, but we know there are many listeners worldwide who still enjoy playing CDs and Super Audio CDs in their native format. We also know that many CD and SACD owners have amassed large collections of recordings that are not currently available in any other format. 

We believe these listeners should be able to experience the best possible sound from their silver discs, and so we have continued to invest in developing dedicated transports, and exploring how we can improve CD and SACD playback, at the same time as supporting music streaming and playback from a wealth of other digital sources. 

When developing products, our goal is always to deliver ‘Only the Music’ – reducing the factors that can affect audio performance such as noise, distortion and vibration to the lowest possible levels, whilst ensuring all aspects of the audio signal are preserved.  

The same is true of our transports. We’ve taken extensive measures to reduce noise and vibration and ensure that listeners are able to hear the full range of musical information contained on their CDs and SACDs. This involves paying close attention to all aspects of mechanical and electronic design, selecting the most robust and stable mechanisms, and ensuring that electronics and mechanisms within our Transports are fed with the cleanest possible voltages for optimal performance, among other factors. As our technologies have evolved, we’ve continued to push Transport design, making improvements to software, hardware and chassis constructions so that we can further enhance people’s listening experience. 

Varèse Transport: New Features & Innovations

The Varèse Transport continues this tradition. It is the quietest, lowest vibration dCS Transport to date, benefitting from an all-new chassis design, and the use of our bespoke ACTUS interface.  

The Transport plays Redbook CDs in their native 44.1kS/s format, and SACDs in their native DSD format. It connects to the Varèse Core via dCS ACTUS, with a single cable running from the Varèse Core to the Transport. This allows for bit perfect transmission of audio signals, with asynchronous audio, control and timing signals all sent via the ACTUS interface. 

This configuration has enabled simpler setup and enhanced control. The Varèse Transport automatically syncs to a master clock signal via ACTUS (provided by the Varèse Clock, if present, or the Varèse Core if no clock is connected), removing the need for listeners to manually configure sync mode settings. The Transport can be connected via the Varèse User Interface, Varèse Remote Control, or Mosaic ACTUS app – giving listeners more ways to control Transport playback.  

In its mechanical design and styling, the Varèse Transport matches the rest of the Varèse range, drawing on insights gained from extensive research to explore how we could further improve chassis design. The top, sides and front of the chassis are machined from a single piece of billet aluminium – an approach also seen in the Varèse Clock, Core and Mono DACS – with constrained layer damping between the chassis base and dress plates. Mechanism mounts are also milled from a single piece of aluminium, with no joins or fixings – all features devised to aid performance. 

The Transport utilises the same mechanism seen in the Vivaldi Transport II and Rossini Transport, but this has been mounted with a new method that further reduces noise and physical vibrations.   

We’ll provide an in-depth look at the Transport’s design in the next instalment of our Inside Varèse series. We'll also be sharing images showing the Transport’s internal construction.

For now, we’re excited to share this new component with listeners, and deliver the first units to Varèse partners and owners. 

Varèse Transport: Overview

Setup, Control & Use

Plays Redbook CDs in their native 44.1kS/s format and SACDs in their native DSD format  

Connects to Varèse Music System via a single ACTUS cable running from the Transport to the Varèse Core – making it the simplest Transport yet to setup and install 

Can be controlled via the Varèse User Interface, Mosaic ACTUS app and Varèse Remote Control  

Technical Innovations & Unique Features

Bespoke dCS ACTUS interface ensures bit perfect transmission of native format audio streams from the Transport to the Varèse Core 

New chassis design and mechanism mounting system further reduces vibration and noise – resulting in our quietest CD/SACD Transport to date, with the lowest vibration during playback