ThanatosVI
Headphoneus Supremus
Guess it will take some time until we get reviews and opinions on that.
It's still in pre order Phase.
dCS Bartok
- Thread starter tmarshl
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- dcs dcs bartok
It's still in pre order Phase.
Dealer just contacted me that the Apex upgrade kit will arrive around Mid June. Really look forward for the upgrade and moving my Rossini to the next level. Btw, those who own the Bartok will have the 2.0 Firmware upgrade today. Remember to get on dCS Mossic and update your Bartok.
SuperBurrito
100+ Head-Fier
awesome.
For those of you updating the Bartok's firmware, it's best to turn off the power, then back on again before starting the update.
Then after the firmware is downloaded, you may need to cycle the power off and on again.
10:00 BST can’t get here fast enough. Except I won’t get a chance to do anything about it until probably 8 hours later anyway. I may have a Rossini here by this weekend to do a side-by-side comparison too.
You will be getting a Rossini Original or Apex version of the Rossini? Look forward for your impression. The Rossini will not let you down. For your information, I also upgrade from Bartok to Rossini as the Bartok impressed me so much.
canfabulous
100+ Head-Fier
Upgrade done - smooth as always. Just need a proper listen later when the family are all tucked up and out of my way.
Original. I may try for the Apex upgrade next year. It would be nice to hear Apex first, though. Tracking says it’ll be here Thursday.
I applied the Bartók 2.0 update today. It wasn’t perfectly smooth, but I don’t know that it was dCS’s fault. On my lunch break I tried doing the update and kept getting errors. Finally, after 45 minutes or so, it finally was able to phone home and get a response that said there was an update and 45 minutes after that before it was actually done. I suspect the issues were on my end, because I noticed my thermostat was offline too. I have dual ISPs with fail-over for redundancy, so it’s a bit surprising to see something like that, but it’s not impossible.
This evening I finally got to spend an hour listening to it. Very positive start, but too early to have made up my mind. I’ve only tried Mapper 2 and 3 so far (I realize Mapper 2 is the classic one). At first I was concerned that the soundstage had collapsed, but discovered it returned by moving my seat forward about 9 inches. I’ve been moving things around in my room, so it sounds different anyway. I’m basically starting from scratch as my room doesn’t sound like it did, but that’s all the more fun.
My update was smooth. Just 10 mins or less. Sounds is excellent and now we have three maps to choose from 
Been a few days wtih the new 2.0 firmware for the RingDAC, with extra filters, DSD x2 upsampling and a choice of 3 Mappers, the sound of the Bartok has moved up a significant notch.
Richer sound, more detail and better soundstage from my initial impressions. All really good.
Big thumbs up to the team at dCS
Richer sound, more detail and better soundstage from my initial impressions. All really good.
Big thumbs up to the team at dCS
SuperBurrito
100+ Head-Fier
This is exactly why I bought dCS.Big thumbs up to the team at dCS
+1 to that. Staging is improved for me, and a little more detail here and there, but that might just be because I'm actually listening for changeBeen a few days wtih the new 2.0 firmware for the RingDAC, with extra filters, DSD x2 upsampling and a choice of 3 Mappers, the sound of the Bartok has moved up a significant notch.
Richer sound, more detail and better soundstage from my initial impressions. All really good.
Big thumbs up to the team at dCS
Thumbs up to DCS for the update, but very inconsiderate of them to release this in the week when I have cans on loan for demo..... 
Regarding the 2.0 upgrade, so far I've been pleasantly surprised by Mapper 1 with DSDx2 (only using Filter 1 so far). It sounds a little lusher with more space and air compared to DXD with Filter 3 using the legacy mapper, which has been my "normal" up to this point. I'm also finding that I prefer Mapper 1 to Mapper 3.
This is while using 1fs (44/48khz) or 2fs (88/96khz) tracks, usually with well-recorded, contemporary jazz and the like.
However, this is complicated by the fact that my normal practice is to use "pre-upsampled" PGGB tracks with a 352/384k bitrate. IMO, these PGGB'd tracks still sound better while using Mapper 1/DXD/Filter 3 over their 1fs counterparts while using any other combination of the Bartok 2.0 mappers, modes, and filters.
Using PGGB is a high-effort endeavor though, and really compounds the permutations to reason through and test out when dealing with the "digital to analog upsampling problem". I found PGGB to be even more essential when using the DAVE, but even with the Bartok, my most recent listening tests with the latest firmware upgrade has re-affirmed my preference for it.
This is while using 1fs (44/48khz) or 2fs (88/96khz) tracks, usually with well-recorded, contemporary jazz and the like.
However, this is complicated by the fact that my normal practice is to use "pre-upsampled" PGGB tracks with a 352/384k bitrate. IMO, these PGGB'd tracks still sound better while using Mapper 1/DXD/Filter 3 over their 1fs counterparts while using any other combination of the Bartok 2.0 mappers, modes, and filters.
Using PGGB is a high-effort endeavor though, and really compounds the permutations to reason through and test out when dealing with the "digital to analog upsampling problem". I found PGGB to be even more essential when using the DAVE, but even with the Bartok, my most recent listening tests with the latest firmware upgrade has re-affirmed my preference for it.
I'm thinking of following in your footsteps and trying a Lina instead of Dave to simplify the setup. I've been using Hqplayer instead of the M-scaler for the last couple of months, so PGGB seems like the next natural step, however having to buy music and store it locally is a bit of a hassle and does seem to defeat the purpose of moving on from Dave. Where do you get your music?
Well, it’s with some sadness that I boxed up my Bartók to ship out tomorrow. It’s been a fantastic component for the ~9 months I’ve had it, but the dCS bug has bitten hard and I’ve upgraded to Rossini.
The dealer I’m working with graciously let me keep the Bartók through the weekend (it’s being traded in) so I could compare it more closely with the Rossini, which arrived on Thursday. I knew going into this that the Bartók 2.0 release was coming out, so I was bracing for how close they might be (vs the considerable cost difference). I must say, the Bartók 2.0 upgrade certainly brings the Bartók close to the (non-Apex) Rossini. There still is a difference, but it isn’t worlds apart in my system. Of course I could very well be approaching other limiting factors in my system/room hiding more potential differences. I’m still happy to be doing the Rossini upgrade, but the Bartók 2.0 release is really something. The diminishing returns hit a little harder because of it.
The dealer I’m working with graciously let me keep the Bartók through the weekend (it’s being traded in) so I could compare it more closely with the Rossini, which arrived on Thursday. I knew going into this that the Bartók 2.0 release was coming out, so I was bracing for how close they might be (vs the considerable cost difference). I must say, the Bartók 2.0 upgrade certainly brings the Bartók close to the (non-Apex) Rossini. There still is a difference, but it isn’t worlds apart in my system. Of course I could very well be approaching other limiting factors in my system/room hiding more potential differences. I’m still happy to be doing the Rossini upgrade, but the Bartók 2.0 release is really something. The diminishing returns hit a little harder because of it.
I don’t remember if you mentioned it. Were you able to compare the Bartok with the V2 upgrade to the Apex Rossini?
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