I’m in Canada as well and was told the same thing as you. (I placed my order back in Feb. Since I purchased my Bartok less than a year ago the upgrade pricing was reasonable). Units are being sent to the UK for the upgrade because the US team has a backlog (7 units in our lot being upgraded). I was told two weak turnaround for the upgrade (including round trip shipping to the UK). It has been a few weeks now! I’m due to check in with my dealer.
Hi Pete, it’s 2 weeks once it’s been shipped to the UK. I’m waiting for the call and I’m 15 minutes away from the dealer. Right now I’ve been waiting since March in the que for the call. My situation is a little different as I’m trading black for silver. So I may just drop mine off and pick up the silver unit if the dealer has done the conversion.
Thanks , I hope it goes well for you ,@Urbanluthier and @John_Gallup . Remembering that the Apex upgrade is the same; Vivaldi, Rossini or Bartok , I can at least say that you will find the result remarkable ( as I have with Vivaldi). Just remember to give it some time to burn in - maybe a little longer than you initially expect.
Worth the wait.
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So you are trading in a black Bartok for a silver Bartok that also needs the upgrade or you are trading in a black non-APEX Bartok for a new silver APEX Bartok (that is a native, non-upgraded DAC)?
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Good question! A used non-APEX (Black) Bartok for a used APEX-ed Bartok (Silver), or a used non-APEX Bartok (Black) for a brand new APEX Bartok (Silver).
I’m the original owner of the black unit. Mine is about six months old. They’re giving me the dealership Silver demo that’s getting the upgrade. I don’t know if they’ve sent it in or if it’s going at the same time.
I asked because another approach would be to trade in a non-APEX Bartok for a new APEX Bartok, rather than upgrade an existing DAC. That might get one an APEX Bartok faster, and avoids the risks in shipping a device back and forth. But financially it would not make sense.
Shipped my Bartok in for the Apex upgrade yesterday. Can’t wait to hear it for myself…
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Looking forward to hearing your views 
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I had an interesting experience last night (and confirmed today).
On a whim, I decided to listen to the headphone output of the Bartok, which I have not done in months, and compare it to my Ferrum stack (new Wandla DAC, Oor amp and Hypsos power supplies). I was comparing Roon to Roon (ethernet on the Bartok, USB on the Wandla). Sounded fine, but reinforced why I prefer the Ferrum Oor for headphone listening. The Bartok DAC may be better, but the HPA was holding it back. And the Ferrum system sounded really, really good together.
Then I switched over to the Aurender AES/EBU input on the Bartok playing through the Aurender app and OMG! 
There was an immediate and dramatic improvement in the Bartok headphone capabilities. It jumped ahead of the Ferrum stack by a margin. It sounded wonderful on the Meze Elite and really kicked the DCA Stealth into gear! Gave me that thrill of rediscovering music I love.
This was the first time I had listened to the Bartok HPA with the Aurender (N20). I knew there was an improvement playing through my two channel speaker system, but the improvement was even more clear and significant through the HPA (probably more direct).
This is making the Bartok a whole new DAC experience and now I’m considering the APEX upgrade, after hearing the potential, and keeping in mind the simplicity of a more streamlined system. I still have to think about it, given the hefty cost as a % of the original cost of the Bartok, but I’m closer to a decision, as an ongoing investment in the Bartok. Throw in a clock too, why don’t you.
Oh my, source matters! I’ve been Roon based for so long, never really giving thought to anything different. I had purchased the Aurender for GAS reasons and to serve as an AES/EBU source for the Wandla DAC. But I started by trying it in the two channel system – the improvement was clear, so there it has remained. I was using the Roon Nucleus+ with the Wandla.
Clearly, a lot of credit goes to the Aurender, but it also demonstrates that the Bartok can scale with the source to further improve SQ. And it implies the Bartok HPA has more potential that some people think, depending on the source.
I was not expecting this, but there it is. Dang! What other potential lies undiscovered?!?
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BIG kudos to Jim at dCS America and Michael at Stereo Stereo. I sent my Bartok back for the Apex upgrade and had it back in one week!!! Unfortunately, I was on vacation last week and didn’t get to hook it up until today. Listening impressions will come later.
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Greetings. I have been reading many of the comments and it is very refreshing to see the very helpful community of owners of dCS products. I have been a very happy Bartok HDAC owner since late 2019, and recently decided to go for the Apex upgrade. I dropped my unit at my local dealer back on May 16. On June 22 I requested an update from the dealer and I was told that “they (dCS) are still working on the batch”. As of today it has been almost 7 weeks since I dropped off my unit at the dealer for the upgrade, so naturally I’m starting to get a little concerned. I have seen that some customers in this community have received their upgraded units in a week’s time. Has anyone experienced such a long cycle time as what I’m experiencing in getting the upgrade completed?
Hi Carlos,
I realize this isn’t much help now, but the best approach is to keep the unit until the dealer confirms receipt of the Apex module.
My upgrade was scheduled for May, but the Apex unit still hasn’t arrived, and so the Rossini stays in the living room until further notice…
Why not drive back to the dealer and pick it up?
Carlos it is difficult to give a precise answer to your question as the arrangements for the Apex upgrade differ from country to country. Unfortunately we do not know where you are.
Speaking generally all of the Apex upgrade programmes created significant demand resulting in queues. For example when my Vivaldi was upgraded it was six months from the date of the order before the unit was requested for the work to take place. Note that here in England the unit does not leave the user’s home until the slot to do the work ( at the factory) is clearly available. In other territories local distributors are the key to the job and it may help if you would kindly tell us where you are and perhaps readers in that locality might provide some guidance.
To reassure you those very short turn rounds are in the minority and I have only heard of them taking place in the USA at the very beginning of the Bartok upgrade programme ( e.g. February) before the queues had built up.
Hey folks. Thank yo so much for the very prompt responses! I just realized I kept some info out of my original post that would have been helpful. I was added to the Apex upgrade wait list on February 8th, was informed on May 12th that it was time to send the unit in for upgrade, and on May 16th I dropped off the unit at the dealer. I’m located in the US.
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Hi Carlos,
I am also in the US. Are you going through Goodwins High End Audio in Massachusetts?
They are a good shop, and have always taken great care of my dCS equipment… but they told me not to send my unit in yet, as they don’t have an available Apex board…
Hi keiserrg,
I’m going thru Hanson AV in Cincinnati. They have been fantastic to work with, based on my experience purchasing from them my dCS equipment (Bartok HDAC and Rossini Clock), as well as my Bowers and Wilkins 803D4 speakers.
Got it.
My personal advice, if you live close, is to just drive back and pick the unit back up, and ask them to put you first in line when the Apex board arrives.
You’ve been without your DAC for nearly 2 months, for no good reason, and that is a long time…
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Hi All,
I’m really sorry if you have been waiting for seven weeks - our US guys have been made aware of your posting over the weekend and are looking into it.
The process is that units should only be requested back from a customer when the APEX upgrade for that unit is in the hands of the person doing the upgrade so turnaround should normally be pretty quick so they’ll be chasing to see what’s happened here.
BR
Phil
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While we’re giving kudos to dealers, I want to give big kudos to Joshua Cohn of Ears Nova in Manhattan. Just purchased a used high-end dCS DAC from him and it was a great transaction. Very knowledgeable & honest guy. Just a pleasure all around.
Forum maintainers, if this is OT (as I think it is) and there’s a better place in the forum for it, feel free to repost it or ask me to. Thx all around.
Jeff Gross
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