Antipodes K41/Vivaldi

[T38.45]

Andrew, the SQ of Vivaldi + external streamer vs Vivaldi + Upsampler is a real hot topic imho.
It opens up the upgrade path if one gets great performance from Vivaldi native vs Rossini with its internal streamer. For example, I can not effort a full Vivaldi stack (here DAC + Upsampler), but if you get a better SQ from that setup (Vivaldi + streamer) vs Rossini I’m pretty sure many will claim the Vivaldi hill then (I will!) I called two dealer here and nobody ever tested that…
Of course, as Pete already mentioned here, the quality of the external streamer is important (and AES vs USB connection, yes…).
So if you ever have a chance to test that please let us know

[PAR (Pete)]

Yes, as I said :

@PAR

I do not think that these matters are significant outside of classical music

There are reasons why this may be so due to the different technical approach in modern years to recording classical or other genres.

[Bauer (Jonathan)]

@Frankie67

Antipodes K41 because I loved the SQ improvement in my system and cost is reasonable.

That was also the case for me.

When I ordered my K41, I was lucky enough to be sent the first unit of the Gen. 4 version, for no extra cost!

It was very good of Antipodes to do that

[AndrewS (Andrew)]

I would point out that my preference for Clone Mode only applies to that one track. And as I said, on that recording it felt like a question where you prefer to sit, so no ”right” or ”wrong”. However I could imagine that the difference might manifest itself differently with different recordings (maybe Pete can comment?) so I will have to reserve judgement as to whether or not this is a general preference.

[Anupc (Anup)]

@Frankie67

I’ve tried and it’s a winner! So my current architecture is as follows:

Glad to hear it.

Mind you, you always have the option of moving the Muon further downstream, right before the Upsampler.

@AndrewS

You could compare the sound of the DAC fed from the Transport with and without the Upsampler.

I have, and over the years, for sound quality reasons, have settled on pretty much exactly what dCS’ feature set is deigned to simplify with EasyPlay;

• Direct Vivaldi Transport to Vivaldi DAC for SACD playback (AES1+2)
• Via Upsampler (upsampled to DXD) to DAC for all PCM (AES 3+4)
• Via Upsampler (passthrough) to DAC for DSD64/128 (AES3+4)

No other set-up combination produces better sonic results on the Vivaldi stack in my opinion

[PAR (Pete)]

@AndrewS

However I could imagine that the difference might manifest itself differently with different recordings (maybe Pete can comment?)

The main issue with upsampling only arises with classical recordings. Or, rather, is only easily discernable. However with classical recordings the issue is consistent.