dCS Scarlatti vs Wadia 931+921

Asuming both are equal; while you're thinking or searching put also another question to yourself; which one has more reliable transport and is upgreadable through the years.

Such investment IMHO must be future-proof, reliable, with long warranty and of course a breath away if not already in from "computer-audio" & HDaudio 24/88.2 24/96 24/176.4 24/192 which will be the standard

Even comparisons with the Wadia 922 would be interesting. This would be the ultimate shootout! Please, anybody has compared either..even with other high end DACs such as Meridian... I would also like to know.

The Meridian isn't even in the same league; quite overhyped imo.

I owned the DCS Elgar Plus Full stack with Rubidium clock, Esoteric P03D03 with same clock, and Wadia 921/931 simultaneously (and also the MPS5). I now own the MPS5, Zanden Signature and Boulder 2020. I would put the Wadia in its own sonic signature category. Incredibly clear transient/attack, an ethereal blackness that seems to make the edges of music more sharply defined and, when connected directly to an amp, earth-shaking, fundamentally deep/wide bass.

I am still impressed with DCS gear; I understand that the Scarlatti is an improvement on the Elgar but at least according to the DCS website, similar to the Paganini DAC. To quote: "The Paganini range has a similar feature set to Scarlatti with the main differences being in the chassis, CD/SACD transport mechanism and the remote handset. These differences mean little is lost in the resulting musical performance and we think Paganini has a very special kind of magic." I am not sure the Scarlatti DAC on its own is different from the Paganini. The Esoteric based transport should make a difference but again, you could use an Esoteric transport with a Scarlatti DAC.