to the OP: can you provide an example of a track where e.g. the dCS Bartok fails? I have always been intrigued by the “timing” attribute - I confess I still don’t get the point… My confusion is further accentuated by considering a “clock” as a potential improvement for ‘timing’ (yes, it sounds logical but a “clock” is supposed to reduce jitter and thus noise, not timing of instruments)… This is not a critique, just genuine wish to understand.
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Hi Poulisgr,
It is not something that we find to be track specific, as we hear it in the first 5-10 seconds of any song. If you wish to test for yourself, the first song was Heart of Mine from The Peter Malick Group featuring Norah Jones album called New York City. The second track was the title track from this album. By the way, this is our all time favourite Norah Jones album and it took us 15 years to find it!
Then there was Fields of Gold from the beautiful, beautiful Eva Cassidy album Nightbird. Then any track from the Oscar Peterson Trio’s Night Train album. Big Log by Robert Plant was another. Finally, any track from Rita Ora’s current album Phoenix.
Best regards, BF
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Many thanks BF, I will have the opportunity to compare the Bartok vs NDX2 +XPSDR in the upcoming weeks and will try to use your suggested tracks in the tests
Pleased to help. By all means use any of these tracks if you wish. You might also like to consider using a few of your own favourite tracks that you know well and enjoy. You may also find it worth while auditioning one of Chord’s offerings as well so that you have covered the bases.
Good luck! BF
Chord not an option, admittedly on esthetic grounds.
My usual go to test pieces are completely different. I care more about clarity, sense of depth and timbre but would like to understand how to tell if timing is right or not (independently of whether timing would be the most important decision criterion for me)
Well I found an interesting blind test on timing differences of 50ms on the audiocheck site. It is about a concurrent bass + high hat sound. Maybe I will use this as test tracks as well!
i would personally consider time as prat, in a general point of view. Sense of rythm, involvment, foot tapping…
For rock, jazz, soul funk…music, it’s an important and primordial part .
You have just to feel it.
Hi Frenchrooster, you capture the essence of it perfectly. It’s not about metronomes and stop watches. It’s about the rhythm of the music, whether it makes your feet tap and is emotionally involving. You feel it, rather than analyse it.
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One thing i seem to have understood, or perhaps not: i understood that you appreciated the nd555, but you haven’t noticed a big improvement vs your cds3 / 555dr. Is it that Bluesfan ?
Was there an attention to the network quality ? Because for me it changed a lot for sound quality. The first month i quite preferred my past cdx2/ xps2. Not now…
Well… I have for home demo a dCS Bartok which I am testing against my resident NDX + CP5PS. Funny how we all get different conclusions in this hobby 
Can you explain? Bluesfan compared the Bartok with the nd555/ 555dr. The ndx/ unknown ps (?) is in another league. So conclusions are logically different.
Delighted that the Bartok works well for you Poulisgr. It might be work comparing the Bartok with a Naim NDX2/XPSDR or NDX2/555PSDR for a more direct comparison. It may well be that I am more sensitive to the timing aspect of music, as the NDX2 would be my preference over the Bartok.
Whichever you chose in the end, enjoy the music.
Best regards, BF
I refer to the timing issue. I tried BF’s Norah Jones track and I did not “hear” the lack of solid timing. There is no dispute re. NDX’s timing…
Thanks BF, indeed I am planning to try the NDX2+XPSDR as well. Unfortunately no possibility to try the 555PS here…
Sorry for the typo, XP5PS… should be rather obvious though…
as Bluesfan clarified, did you found that the bartok had the same prat , time, or involvement as your ndx?
As BF says, we probably have different sensitivity to different aspects of what we hear. For me there was nothing missing in terms of timing, certainly the presentation was more involving for my taste, more open, more 3D… but I do agree with BF about being more “civil”, less “raw”. Horses for courses as they see across the Channel
interesting to have your feedback. As you say, we seem to not hear in the same way.
When considering systems in the price class of the Naim ND555, the Chord DAVE or the dCS Rossini, it could perhaps be worth to also have a look at the Ayre Digital Hubs QX-8 and QX-5 twenty.
There is by the way a rather comprehensive series of articles on Audiophile Style, in which the author attemps at assessing the impact of different power supplies, external clocks and scalers on five reference DACs or streamers, just google “My Quest for a New DAC, Part 5”.
I read this article. Well made. I understood that the reviewer had a little preference for the chord tt/ mscaler combo. But you are right, the ayre dacs can be considered. But not heard one personnaly.