Not as off topic as you'd think. After researching the Bacch I also reached the conclusion it's not what I'm after in headphones (no audition though), and decided to go with dCS for the Expanse, which is a real improvement over "normal listening" in a lot of cases. Very effective at building a...

No worries, I've owned Dave until earlier this month, and was very skeptical about dCS until I got to hear Lina. Great stuff, worth the price, but definitely priced to be aspirational, a la Rolex. There's a reason they can get away with it though. As usual, used is great value.

That looks like a naming mistake. If you check the description of the Rossini Apex, it mentions the Apex upgrade, the Bartok's doesn't.

Well it's apples and oranges but my Hm1 should be here in a month or so and I'd bet it measures considerably better than those amps. Same with other Hp amps. So I really don't think we're losing anything objectively.

That may be true but after a lot of research, it felt like buying a Tesla from Ikea. I'd be more likely to get it for gaming rather than music. If I only had the time anymore.

With the limited availability, you might actually make a profit selling it. Not on Head-fi though because of their policy.

Pretty sure you could specify that

The only thing that might make more sense to me than the HM1 would be the Z10E (Now THAT seems like good value) + X9000, but people aren't that crazy about its performance from what i've read. The only problem? Good luck buying it in Europe with customs and all that. There's easily a market...

Well that was disappointing, even for Zeos. What I find most depressing is his subscriber count versus say a channel like this : And I'm not even a Susvara fan.

:popcorn:

Curious if you've owned/heard a Dave. While I was looking for an upgrade I compared it to the Lina stack (5 day home demo) and the Klimax Organik (3-4 hours in store with my headphones + Headphone amp and Dave) and honestly came out preferring Dave. Even faster transients and deeper bass...

I remember i read it as part of the Rossini Apex review in Stereophile: “The challenge dCS faced as it developed the Ring DAC Apex, Hales said, was the inability of conventional test equipment to measure the Apex's performance values with sufficient accuracy. In an email, dCS VP of Sales and...

dCS actually claim they created their own tools for testing because what's out there isn't accurate enough. Or magical enough, however you want to put it :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

No, it's perfectly visible. Was the same story with my Dave for a few months.

Well I placed my order on the 15th of September, and there were 12 left for 2023. So that would make me #39.

Do you run 6v into the Oor for the Elites as well? I feel like 2v sounds better since you don't have to attenuate the signal as much.

For the last few months of my Dave ownership I used Roon's DSP crossfeed and I have to say, I found it MUCH more transparent than Dave's Cf, and felt a bit silly believing all the Dave thread BS about internal headphone amp transparency and the CF for so long. What you're missing from...

Well I did like the old Utopia, will audition the new one, but not sure It can beat the Elites for me. I take it you're not a fan of the Elites? It's a mix I just might place an order for a Stealth after the Hm1 gets here. Yeah I'm sure it is since Michael chose it to demo to HM1 with. I get...

I'll do a shootout with the Sus, LCD-5 and Utopia 2022 vs the Elites when my HM1 finally gets here (early march is the current estimation). Said it before, If the HM1+ Rossini (which has amazing dynamics and bass) can't make it slam...nothing will for me. In contrast, the Elites even on the Oor...

Tell me about it :) Lmao. Can it breathe any life into your stillborn Stealth though? I find it weird that you love the Utopia so much, and yet you like the Stealth which is the complete opposite from a dynamics perspective.

Indeed, that amp is a huge bottleneck for the Lina stack, not to mention the Rossini :)

I know where you're coming from, I thought the same before I had the Lina stack for a home demo. It was unimpressive without the clock, to the point where I would've taken my Dave over it. Same with the Linn Organik. Unless they are actively hobbling performance when not using the clock...

https://dcs.community/t/dcs-ring-dac-a-technical-explanation/2724/51 More info here. Pretty sure there's a similar thread on Head-fi as well, but less active.

There are a lot of explanations for this on the dCS forum, but the idea is that implementation matters more than clock accuracy, and their implementation doesn't replace the internal clock, just provides a stable reference. Further proof of this is the dither function on the Rossini clock...

Well if the rumors are true that price is increasing to 10k Euros for the Rossini and Vivaldi and the Bartok gets the same upgrade for 4k euros (6k cad) I'll just send mine to Canada disguised as a baby Bartok :p . FWIW clock made the biggest difference for me with both the Rossini and the...