dCS Rossini 2.0

[miguelito]

Hi Chris,

 

2018 was the year when I did not stress about equipment and just had the most amazing time LISTENING to fabulous music out of my Rossini. I am extremely pleased and thankful to dCS for getting me there. dCS is certainly not cheap stuff, but the value for money is incredible.

 

I am away from home, back tonight. I will update tomorrow and listen over the weekend. Will give you my impressions after.

 

Again, THANK YOU dCS!

[miguelito]

Rossini 2.0 review...

 

I have had the Rossini in my system since about Nov 2017. My system is fairly high end and resolving, even by the high standards of systems in this forum. I have listened to Rossini for about 14 months in my system’s current configuration - no major changes. Around Feb 2018 the MQA update came about - other than MQA capability, there were no other changes in this update.

 

The 2.0 update is quite a massive change to the Rossini - just see the list of changes above. Most notably to me:

1- Completely rewritten Roon implementation

2- RingDAC now runs at twice the speed (2.6MHz to 5.2MHz and the like) - note this is not the same as DSD64 to DSD128, as it is a 5bit implementation rather than 1bit.

3- Filters and mappers from the Vivaldi DAC have been implemented in Rossini 2.0

 

Some more details here: https://www.dcsltd.co.uk/reviews/rossinis-return/

 

For those with a Rossini, my settings for the comparison are: PCM filter: F3, DSD filter: F5, PCM upsampling: DSDx2, Mapper: Map1. I only run Roon, no DSP there at all. Don’t ask me to try other setting, I will not.

 

As I said I have easily 600-800 hours of listening in the same system to many types of files and music under my belt. I know what Rossini v1.0 sounds like pretty darn well.

 

Rossini 2.0 sounds more open, more spacious, more relaxed, AND more detailed! There seems to be a contradiction to it being more relaxed and more detailed, but that’s what I hear. It is a whole new DAC, with all of the qualities of 1.0 improved.

 

The tonality and spatial focus and depth of the piano in Maria Joao Pires’s “Chopin Nocturnes” is staggering. Female voices are even more real. I am talking redbook here. Amazing.

 

DSD tracks such as Amber Rubarth’s DSD128 version of “Sessions from the 17th Ward” also sound better, though this is much closer to 1.0.

 

Rossini’s MQA implementation from Feb 2018 was a little glitchy. dCS did the right thing and implemented filters that switch on ONLY when MQA is playing (which makes the MQA implementations difficult to do correctly). In 2.0 all the glitches have been cleared and MQA not only behaves flawlessly, but given the other changes in the RingDAC, it sounds even better - just like ALL other file types.

 

All in all, it’s like dCS shipped a completely new DAC to me over the internerds. Amazing. 

 

Thank you dCS!!!

[miguelito]

18 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

dCS is a small company. Bringing complete overhaul updates to hardware consumes quite a bit of man hours to write and test. Give it time and I'm willing to bet you'll see improvements come to the Bartok. The Bartok has plenty of fpga horsepower for many years ahead. It will be updated in due time. 

People also need to understand that updates take time and implementation work. It is not a drag and drop. Implementation work in turn needs investment. Should a firm invest that money for cheaper products? And does it make sense to do so? Bartok is not the same as Rossini even if they share some of the hardware design. Improvements that might make sense to invest work on in one platform might be deemed a wash in another.

 

dCS is an incredible company, and when you buy one of their products you can be sure they will both support you and improve it over time.