Article: dCS Takes My Audio System To Another Level

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[Ski Bum]

I'm a dCS Vivaldi owner, and have been the beneficiary of John Quick's patient telephonic advice on numerous occasions.  John and dCS provide a much higher level of continuing customer support than any other audiophile manufacturer that I've ever dealt with.

[The Computer Audiophile]

27 minutes ago, Ski Bum said:

I'm a dCS Vivaldi owner, and have been the beneficiary of John Quick's patient telephonic advice on numerous occasions.  John and dCS provide a much higher level of continuing customer support than any other audiophile manufacturer that I've ever dealt with.

Good to read. That has been my experience as well. 

[miguelito]

Couple of things...

1- John visited me in NYC, I was having some issue with (the first release of) MQA in the Rossini. John is a technician, a gentleman, and represents everything dCS stands for - amazing. I'll be a customer forever.

2- Rossini v2.0 is truly amazing. I experienced the same as you and I would add my soundstage acquired more depth.

 

Finally... Can you publish your AXPONA 2019 playlist please?

[The Computer Audiophile]

10 minutes ago, miguelito said:

Finally... Can you publish your AXPONA 2019 playlist please?

 

 

http://open.qobuz.com/playlist/2217450

[monteverdi]

I wonder if RPG room sizer can simulate the shape of your room's ceiling (likely the most  acoustically problematic part).

I used several softwares to predict room acoustics recently mostly Room EQ Wizard (no Windows required) but all allow only for parallel surfaces.

[miguelito]

Curious about this RPG Room Sizer thingie... A google search took me to RPG EU, but can't figure out a way to the software.

[The Computer Audiophile]

8 minutes ago, miguelito said:

Curious about this RPG Room Sizer thingie... A google search took me to RPG EU, but can't figure out a way to the software.

It’s going to take some luck to find it. 

[bbosler]

so are you going to share what he did to optimize with the mono recording or just tease us?

[Ralf11]

I can't tell if the improvement was form the DAC or from modifying the room's acoustics...

 

And what DAC did the dcs replace?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Most of the improvements were from the work of John Quick from dCS. This enabled me to hear how much better Rossini v2 is than v1. 

 

 

[Account Closed]

Chris,

 

You will need to do it all over again when the room treatments are in place. It is unlikely to be the same positions after treatment. 

 

This just goes to show that the old adage that the room is the most critical component is still true even in this age of big dollar components. They cannot overcome poor acoustics but they can let a good room shine. I look forward to your next installment after the treatments are in.

 

It is no surprise why high end headphone listening is so popular. For many there is just no practical way to overcome a bad room. The other option is to sit in the near-field like you did but then in effect you just have a giant pair of headphones. There are several reviewers out there who do just that. I have seen pictures of their systems and they have these massive speakers in a tiny room. It does take the room out of the review equation.

 

I hope the treatments combined with good setup and some judicious DSP (or not) will get you to a place where you really enjoy listening again. And, if that doesn't work, there are some nice suburbs around Minneapolis where you can start from scratch (for a lot of scratch).

 

Good Luck and thanks for keeping us informed.

[blue2]

Does this mean the TAD's are staying? Or is the speaker change on hold and re-evaluate once the room treatments are in place? At least you know you're moving forward now :-)

[asdf1000]

Great article @The Computer Audiophile

 

I've been a dCS fan from afar for a while.

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, blue2 said:

Does this mean the TAD's are staying? Or is the speaker change on hold and re-evaluate once the room treatments are in place? At least you know you're moving forward now 🙂

Not sure about anything right now. 

[Munchoba]

22 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Good to read. That has been my experience as well. 

  Shout out to Jesse Lunas also for impeccable customer service. He's dCS' Sales Manager for the Americas.

[Summit]

4 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Not sure about anything right now. 

 

It seems like you can be sure about one thing though: the importance of properly place the speaker in the room 😉

 

 

 

[shp]

@The Computer Audiophile can you share a little more info about the goal of the "out of phase" setup step?

 

Is the idea to find the position where the two speakers cancel each other out as completely as possible? I suppose there might be some trade offs, based on the room, of bass cancellation vs. other frequencies. Is there more to it than that?

 

Thank you

[Johnny Moondog]

On 5/7/2019 at 9:36 AM, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

 

http://open.qobuz.com/playlist/2217450

 

And can someone instruct me how to get this link into Qobuz inside Roon?

[Johnny Moondog]

6 minutes ago, Johnny Moondog said:

 

And can someone instruct me how to get this link into Qobuz inside Roon?

 

Never mind. After clicking on the blue button "Listen on Qobuz" approximately 37 times... it finally opened up inside my Qobuz account on a web browser. Sheesh! I was then able to subscribe and it's now available within Roon.

[MarkS]

Ditto from me on all the comments regarding John Quick. He’s helped me innumerable times over the years. 

 

Regarding the Rossini DAC (while I will catch a lot of crap for what I’m about to say at its price), I think the Rossini is one of the best values in high end audio and for sure in dacs. I’m a very fortunate Vivaldi owner (partial stack - no transport), the Rossini v2 is darn close. If you can do the Rossini, you will not be disappointed. Ive heard it many times, and it is a world class dac. 

[miguelito]

23 hours ago, MarkS said:

Ditto from me on all the comments regarding John Quick. He’s helped me innumerable times over the years. 

 

Regarding the Rossini DAC (while I will catch a lot of crap for what I’m about to say at its price), I think the Rossini is one of the best values in high end audio and for sure in dacs. I’m a very fortunate Vivaldi owner (partial stack - no transport), the Rossini v2 is darn close. If you can do the Rossini, you will not be disappointed. Ive heard it many times, and it is a world class dac. 

I have not listened to Vivaldi on my system so I cannot say, but I have Rossini and master clock, and it sounds amazing. The addition of the Vivaldi filters and mapper in v2.0 was just amazing.

 

More importantly, I have had an amazing experience with dCS in terms of evolution of the platform (via firmware updates, for free!!!). This is in extremely sharp contrast with my horrible customer service experience with my previous DAC (which was not much cheaper at all).

 

Kudos to dCS for an amazing product, support, and the pleasure I get when I listen to music every day. Flawless.

[miguelito]

On 5/7/2019 at 7:52 PM, bobflood said:

It is no surprise why high end headphone listening is so popular. For many there is just no practical way to overcome a bad room. The other option is to sit in the near-field like you did but then in effect you just have a giant pair of headphones. There are several reviewers out there who do just that. I have seen pictures of their systems and they have these massive speakers in a tiny room. It does take the room out of the review equation.

Funny enough, I enjoy listening to my system from afar also. My speakers (Avantgarde Duo Messo) are definitely not usable for near-field. They are positioned firing along the long side of the room and the presentation you get when listening from ~ 27ft away (vs the sweet spot listening position of ~16ft away) is quite different. It is basically like sitting in the back of a club vs first row, quite like that actually, and it’s fun for how much more relaxed it is. Some pics of my room in my signature’s url.

[crenca]

 

[ednaz]

On 5/12/2019 at 5:40 PM, miguelito said:

Funny enough, I enjoy listening to my system from afar also. My speakers (Avantgarde Duo Messo) are definitely not usable for near-field. They are positioned firing along the long side of the room and the presentation you get when listening from ~ 27ft away (vs the sweet spot listening position of ~16ft away) is quite different. It is basically like sitting in the back of a club vs first row, quite like that actually, and it’s fun for how much more relaxed it is.

 

Ditto ditto on listening outside the sweet spot. That's been one of my main decision criteria when buying speakers - how will the system sound to a few people around the room, not just one person sitting in exactly the right place.  While the speakers in my two better systems do have a sweet spot, in both cases what sealed the deal was not how they sounded in that three foot cube of space, but how they sounded if I stood over there. Sat back here. Paced back and forth over yonder. How will they sound in the dining room, which is next to the family room where the speakers live? (Yes, I got a lot of weird looks when I was speaker shopping.)

 

Only my near field systems have a huge difference between sweet spot and elsewhere in the room.

 

I've heard some really great speakers (if you're in the sweet spot) that sound like they were moved into the next room if you stood up and to one side. Everything kind of dulls down. Most of the instruments we listen to through our speakers don't have tiny little sweet spots. Why should our speakers?