dCS Bartok as a one box solution

Its been all in bits tonight while i move the rack about and also tried my headline out

What is the difference in price between the CD and non CD version?

£2500
The cd player is very good as tried it.
Probably dont need my lovely melco now lol

That is quite reasonable. Actually a no brainier then
The headphone amplifier on the Bartok is amazing. Extremely impressive for their first try out of the box

The clock, at £5,500 in the UK, is slightly less reasonable but seems to be necessary to make the Rossini really sing.

Best regards, BF

What is the total price Rossini + Clock and how does it compare to the KDS in the UK. I am in the States

About Naim and torroid PSU, the Linn boxes all use SMPS :wink:

So nothing wrong Chord usage of SMPS supplies.

with so much interference in mains from mobile and laptop chargers, SMPS PSU may be able to cope better? well in Power and preamps, maybe torroids are needed. But in a source, maybe not always.

About engagement, well that is a matter of taste, I’ve listened extensively too all the sources from DCS (least favourite due to the massive asking price of 100K GBP ), Naim, Linn and Chord.

I am not saying Chord is the best , because as Rob Watts himself says, there’s not yet a perfect digital source. As the A/D convertors used to make the recordings are still not perfect !

But out of all of the, the Chord approach seems to recover to most music from the digital bits., and is the most engaging to my ears. That is because Chord use long tap filters which reconstuct more of the signal. Chord products are neutral and do not add
“extra” PRAT to the music. I prefer it that way as it is more fluid, and less forced, more natrual and preserving the attack and leading edge of the notes.

Like Live musical instruments. I’ve heard a few live performances, and the acoustic instruments sound unforced, natural yet with attack on the leading edges of the notes.

At the end though, it is a matter of taste… I do like Naim digital sources. but if I had to choose it is a Chord digital source for me, but if not possible, then next is a Naim one.

About £22,000 for Rossini streamer + clock. Add the £2,500 for the optional cd transport.
For that budget, I would wish to compare it with the MSB Premier + Powerbase. The MSB may be much cheaper too in the USA.

Both sound absolutely lovely to us. No other streamer that we have heard comes close to these two, whether Linn, Naim or Chord, at least to our cloth ears. We went with Chord in the end but for budget reasons not for absolute musical joy.

Best regards, BF

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But did you try a good Spdif source in to the Mscaler?

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DCS Network Bridge.

fair enough, and same quality as the optical rendu?

From the stereophile review of the Chord Qutest.

“there is a dichotomy between D/A processors that sound superb because they’re faithful to the digital data they decode, and those that sound superb because they tell lies. Chord’s Qutest is firmly in the former camp, especially with its Incisive Neutral filter, and for that, designer Rob Watts is to be commended”.

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I have got to say it again, this rossini is something else, its just outrageous. It must like its new home as tonight its even better than it was the other day, well it was on the floor lol, but i think its warmed up and settled in now as the noise coming out off it, it just un real.

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The Chord SMPS is absolutely superb and one of the best around. It is a very low noise supply. There is a paper on Benchmark Media’s site explaining why it avoids LPSs on its top of the range kit (as well as why balanced connections are better than unbalanced ones). These papers apply equally to Chord’s designs and I find them more informative than hifi magazines.

Of course, there are good LPS designs, but I got fed up with transformer buzz and it was hit and miss whether I’d get a buzzer. So I’m grateful for excellent SMPS designs. (There are some awful SMPS designs, of course).

I prefer my Chord Blu2/DAVE to the Linn KDSM, but both are superb and I need a DSM to use Urika II, which is by far and away the best phono stage I’ve ever had.

Linn works well for me in the living room because of space optimisation for vinyl and AV duties. Upstairs, where I have a small music room, the Chord combo is wonderful. I use JRiver DSP Studio for minimal room correction (I initially used Space Optimisation V1 to suggest PEQ settings, but am now using REW generated convolution file - the difference is very small).

I agree with you that I could never say it is the best because a) I haven’t & never will have heard them all and b) it would only be my opinion in any case.

In a different room, with different music on different day, I may even prefer Dynaudio or Kudos speakers to Spendor or Magnepan; stranger things have been known. My favourite headphones are Audeze LCD4s with Chord (though I only have LCD3s) - sort of Maggies for ears and easier to accommodate.

One thing we may disagree on is pre-amp. I found the Chord combo preferable without a pre-amp (ones tried were NAC552., Linn KK and Chord Ultima).

I’m not convinced a dCS bridge is an ideal front end for M-Scaler as, if understand correctly, it upsamples by default, in which case it would mask the benefits of M-Scaler. Of course, dCS upsampling may be great too, but it’s different from Chord. I use the USB input on Blu2 and am delighted with it, Blu2 does the USB to Dual BNC conversion, so I am feeding DAVE S/PDIF.

There are lots of different combinations we can choose and they can all give musical enjoyment. One of the best systems I ever heard was all Naim fronted by a Phonosophie turntable. I’ve long given up on trying to find the best and even if I found a better system for me than Chord, I doubt I’d enjoy music any more.

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About to finalise selling my NDS/252 set up and drop the money onto the dCS Bartók.

It impressed me that much. My only real concern was direct to my ATC actives. I didn’t give it a long demo. that way, however I guess I can go another preamp. route if it doesn’t work out long term that way. I’ll have to play with the set up options, 2V or 6V output, DXD or DSD and also the filter selection for each option etc. when going direct to my active set up.

As a DAC/Streamer alone, it really did drop my jaw against the NDS.

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The Bartok did the same for me against my twin powered Nds
As for not using a pre, that has mixed results i believe and i myself found that once you started turning that volume down on the Bartok it did effect the sound quite a bit and in a negative way

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Although I have loved Naim for close to 15 years now, once I went with active ATC speakers, it was always in the back of my mind that it was perhaps going to come to this eventually.

The DIN to XLR from my 252/Supercap2 and the special leads I had to get to make it work, I always had doubts in my mind on that marriage.

A true balanced XLR to XLR signal path just seems more logical to me.

If it works out I need that to be via a true balanced XLR preamp rather than direct from the Bartok, then that’s fine too.

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Thomas I thought had been trained by his dad. He was 4 at the time. The first few times I was there in case. Apparently he had never done this before.

Sorry for the diversion.

Phil

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Yup - just like that but going up to heights that are not as forgiving if you fall off.

And on (slight to extremely steep) overhangs, and routes with tiny holds, etc.

My Dad was a climber, and he started me climbing in the 60s.

Ropes and harness are important!

Phil

I think this is a good approach, to get used to the sound of the Bartok direct to actives over an extended period of time, then compare preamp(s) based on familiarity with the sound

I use .2V to minimise attenuation, which allows enough loudness for normal listening in my room; then switch to .6V or higher via the app if you need to wig out

My preferred upsampling/filters are DSD/1 and DXD/6

I like having balanced connection to my ATC actives, which I couldn’t have with my 272

YMMV

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