Any new FW for Network Bridge

@dCS_kb

Are we going to see any enhanced FW for the NWB in future or is the performance maxed out already, SQ wise ?

Hi,

The NWB is not supported anymore, then no evolution I guess.

It is still an excellent value on the second hand market. It is not because the support stopped that the NB stopped playing the music very wellā€¦My son has a NB connected to a Naim DAC, it is great :slight_smile:

So just compatibility updates for the Streaming providers adjustments i assume?

This decision [ceasing production of our Network Bridge] will not affect the performance of existing units and we will continue to support the Network Bridge in current and future versions of our Mosaic control app. We will also continue to provide technical assistance for all Network Bridge owners.

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does the NB into a rossini offer better sound qualty than streaming directly from the wall ethernet connection into a rossini or attaching a usb thumndrive to the rossini?

Euh ? Never tried that, but the Rossini has an internal streamer, so why would you do that ?
I donā€™t think the NB streamer is better than the Rossini streamer, no added value here.

For usb connectivity I havenā€™t got any idea of the SQ, I never tried it myself.

I preferred the internal bartok streamer v Aurender n20 connected by usb to bartok and so removed the Aurender from my system.
I am asking whether the NB is a better streamer than whatā€™s in the Rossini - after all the NB is a separate box / power supply , dedicated streaming parts etc if you donā€™t know thatā€™s fine.
Re my usb query , I recall dCS stating that the usb input on a Bartok / Rossini isnā€™t suitable for attaching a portable hard drive full of music but i wondered if the same applied to the NB ?

My guess would be that if a bug is found it would be fixed, and if changes/enhancements to the network board firmware in the current lineup is a drop-in for the NB then you will likely see it, but other than that no further development.

I have purchased the Rossini APEX almost 6 months for replacing Chord TT2+MS+NB.

I was thinking to sell my NB, however why not to have a comparison with the Rossini internal streamer ?

In short, I can hear the difference and with NB is better but not significant, however, both are way better than Rossini USB in.

At last, I decided to keep my NB

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The Aurender N20 is designed to perform at its best with AES and using dedicated a similar OCXO 22mhz clock like the dCS Master U-Clock PUC got on the AES output. So try to connect the N20 with AES to your Bartok and you will see a great SQ difference vs USB before you sell itšŸ‘

Just set the N20 to downsample higher DXD Res audio files to 24/192, then you are good to gošŸ‘

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Thanks / very interesting to read your first hand experiences .

I had the Aurender on home loan for 3 months but decided not to keep it. The way it sent mqa to the Bartok was also very messy but thatā€™s another story . Alas I never got to try the connection that you have suggested . In any case I have sold my Bartok and meridian 808v6 CD player and await the Rossini player apex . I have the chance to pick up the NB too hence asked the question

Okey, was it you who had it on loan from
Perfect Sense i assume? If so, i loaned the N20 after youšŸ˜Š

The NWB got a separate PSU and a newer more sophisticated network stream unlimited board 1.3 vs the Rossini 1.0 board, so it is about 15% better from my experience.

The Aurender N20 got a nice quietness between the notes, but in my dCS rig i did not hear any difference bs the NWB.

Actually, once you examine the full pipeline of bit-stream format conversions involved, thereā€™s just no way that the NBR can be ā€œbetterā€ than the integrated streaming interface on the Rossini (external PSU/chassis notwithstanding). Albeit, some people may subjectively prefer the AES interface.

Equal, Yes. Better? No.

NBR + Rossini
[Packet] ā†’ [IĀ²S] ā†’ [Downsampling] ā†’ [AES (encode)] ---- [AES (decode)] ā†’ [IĀ²S] ā†’ [Upsampling] ā†’ [D-to-A]

Rossini (integrated)
[Packet] ā†’ [IĀ²S] ā†’ [Upsampling] ā†’ [D-to-A]

The streaming board is a purely digital general-purpose compute , ā€œ15% betterā€ doesnā€™t mean anything when all versions are capable of non-blocking full bit-rate decoding :grin:

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Aurender N20 + DAC Dongle + Rossini + Rossini Clock is a great combination. AES is preferred IMO.

I see your logic write-up, but everything is still in the digital domain, digital conversations should not affect the performance so much, maybe the AES connecting plugs in each end regarding mirroring effect, but the receiving input of the Rossini, but beeing take care of in the error correction.
Then what about the 3 unit ( ex transport ) Vivaldi stack, it should have the same degradation in sound then, and most likely it has, but is still the vivaldi streamer in the upsampler is slightly superior in SQ vs the NWB.

Rossini , Lina and Bartok should have the best SQ on streaming, but in the reality they do not.

I have listen and compared with a pair of Abyss TC and Susvaras + TAD CE-1 speakers to compare the Rossini with it internal streamer vs the NWB attached many times and for many hours :+1::raised_hand:

Precisely why it can be Equal, not better.

Thatā€™s not apples-to-apples comparison as the Vivaldi Upsampler has both streaming and Upsampling off-board from the DAC.

I trust the dCS folks know exactly what theyā€™re doing (more then your subjective preference, if you donā€™t mind me saying :wink:)

That is great, but dCS has stated them self that the NWB is a better and slight newer streaming board vs Rossini when other have asked them if a NWB could make a Rossini sounds better, so you can elaborate with that fact in theory on what sounds bestā€‹:+1::blush:

I can also see if i can find the e-mail from Martin Reynolds where he confirm thisšŸ‘

As you yourself said, itā€™s in the digital domain, so itā€™s of no consequence even if it is true that the NWB has a newer streaming board than the ones in the Rossini.

As long as whatever version of the Streaming board has the ability to fully process incoming packets at line-rate and push out full-rate DXD/DSD128, i.e. non-blocking, then there will be no sound difference between different Streaming boards.

In fact, I opened up my NWB just to take a look, it has a Feb-2015 date stamp, whereas my Vivaldi Upsampler Streaming board has a 2012 date stamp, but I believe my Bartok has an even newer one than my NWB. But as I stated above, this is of no consequence to performance.

I find it hard to believe that dCS said the NWB+Rossini sounds better than Rossini by itself; subjective maybe, objectively, no way. More likely someone misunderstood what dCS might have actually said.

There was a hardware update (streaming board and usb) required for version 2 Vivaldi Upsampler:

" Vivaldi Upsampler Plus ā€“ Major Upgrade v2.00
17th July 2016
This version requires hardware type VPP, it will not run on VUP hardware"