Hi all, i am currently looking for a DAC for my Hegel H590/Magico S3mkii system.
I managed to get the Bartok for home trial and pretty much sold to it and decided to place an order upon returning it.
During the return of the Bartok to the dealer place, I decided to have a listen to the Rossini as I saw some comments online that Bartok was a V1.xx version of Rossini and the gain in performance was negligible.
After the dealer hook it up and a couple of tracks, I am very clear that the performance gain is huge and the amount over Bartok is justifiable. I am certainly very impressed with the sound quality and enjoy it more than Bartok. It is day and night different to me as compared to Bartok
I am more or less firm to get the Rossini but am concern if the Rossini will be replaced with a new model since it was release in late 2017 and this model about 4 years now. It is a huge investment to me thus i be disappointed to buy something if it is going to be end of life soon.
Can anyone advise me what the typical lifecycle for DCS dac?
dCS products usually enjoy a long production life. To date models have been refreshed in hierarchical order starting from the flagship as products further down the range draw from the technology used in the (new) flagship. dCS is a small company and units are effectively built to order individually ( there is no production line in the conventional sense). This means that to refresh the entire catalogue of products takes several years to accomplish. In the meantime updates may be made available from time to time which can be user installed due to the technology employed in dCS products ( no "off-the-shelf " DAC chips). For example Rossini was only updated to v.2 last year in March.
Currently the flagship ( Vivaldi ) is in its 9th year of actual production ( 10th since it was announced). A replacement is anticipated but so far there has been no news. Once that takes place it will probably be a further number of years before Rossini’s replacement is announced.
Who knows exactly what will happen in the future or when it will happen? However on past form I would expect Rossini to remain in production for a few more years yet.
I wonder how much room for improvement there are in DACs. Will the new versions ever reach a point of diminishing returns? Then again, I have been in this hobby for decades, and everything gets better every year.
I bought a used Rossini for the same price as a new Bartok with HP amp. And the guy I bought the Rossini from sold it to buy a used Vivaldi for the same price as a new Rossini.
Got a decent offer for Rossini Transport + Rossini DAC and pulled the trigger (trading in my Bartok and Accuphase cdp). Figured that this combo will give me the option to upgrade the dac if things change in the future whilst having a TOTL transport which can also play sacd. Will couple them with the Rossini Clock, which I already own.