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.
