I have owned both AA Capitole and the older dCS Elgar/ Purcell non IEEE 1394 equipped gear. The dCS upsampling to 24/192 was better than the AA at more money. Both are excellent. IMHO AA is a good choice in brighter system as it is more polite. dCS is for a system with fewer deficiencies. The new IEEE 1394 dCS gear that I now own is significantly better than the older dCS gear and hence the AA Capitole as well.