Hi all, this is my first post and first time on this site.
I have been a naim user for over 25 years and until recently i had never even heard about DCS, let alone heard one. Well that all changed a few months back as been looking at upgrading my naim NDS and being a naimie i went straight to the ND555. After a demo and home demo, i wasn’t convinced that it was worth the extra over what i had already and it was at that point i was showed the DCS range.
Well what an eye opener it has been, the Bartok is great and i love the extra detail, wide and lively sound it brings over my naim NDS, also the headphone amp is a nice addition and would mean i could removed my naim headline and power supply out the system.
But the problem i encountered with the Bartok was the rossini, i shouldn’t have listened to it, it was even better and with the clock attached it made me sit on the end of the chair and just laugh, it was so good.
The only problem is cost, isn’t it all ways, now i could get the Bartok with trading in my gear and making up the rest, plus i get the headphone amp, or i put it all on hold and wait till i have the funds.
But my questions are :-
Does the rossini need the clock and if so does it improve the sound that much? As i didnt get to try it without.
Will the Bartok get a software update that will bring it closer to the rossini, or even get the rossini software at some point? As i believe they are similar inside?
Anyone using a Bartok or rossini direct into a naim 500dr amp ? As i believe the built in pre amp is very good and just maybe i could removed my naim 552 from the system and then all of a sudden i could go rossini.
Sorry for the long first post and any help would be great, i know i would need to try for myself the direct approach into my amp, but not having any cables to do so, i can’t right now.
Cheers duncan
Hi and welcome to dCS world. We home audition the Rossini and loved it. We bought one. We were curious about adding the clock and the dealer supplied one on loan. It makes a considerable difference to the stand alone Rossini sound - but you know that
I hope you find Andrew’s quote helpful in your decision. If you can overcome your cost issues go for the Ros. The Bartók FPGA is capable of getting 2.0 upgrade, but dCS want withhold such development to maintain the gap in performance ie You’re more likely to see Ros significant firmware upgrade before the Bartók. So I figure a 1.5 upgrade in 2 years and possibly a 2.0 in 4-6 years.
If you value the headphone out option, the Bartók is such a great unique proposition, and you’ll need to spend a lot more to get an improvement.
I guess the rossini is the better one for me as i mainly listen with speakers, but i do have some sennheiser hd800s which i use later on in the evening if its getting to late for speakers, plus i have the headline already so not a problem.
Would be interesting to see how a rossini/clock pair’s up with the naim 500 direct, as quite interested to see if i could do away with my 552 pre
Direct is best, and the dCS has bested the best pre amps around. Some would prefer adding the pre-amp to mask faults elsewhere in the chain, but it’s better to solve those issues.
So lets say i did go direct from say a rossini to my naim 500dr amp and remove the naim 552, i also have a rega P10 and rega aura, how would i go about connecting that back in?
You wouldn’t be able to. The direct path is a digitally optimised system with minimal loss in the signal path. dCS doesn’t cater to additional analogue inputs, so the pre-amp will need to stay in for the turntable. Try the direct and see if it justifies getting rid of your analogue gear
I’d echo Kevin’s advice. Let your ears decide. To muddy the waters a bit for you, we tried taking the preamp out and running the Rossini direct - didn’t like the sound as much as when the preamp was in-line. YMMV.
I removed the 552 pre amp tonight and tried it, first impression was O dear. The music just went a bit lacking in all areas, not sure if thats to do with the 552 adding something to the music ? But its ment to be a very good pre that you cant hear, but anyway it wasn’t as good.
So i didnt give up i tried the output at different settings so i could get the rossini volume control near 0.0, but it was either too low or too loud really and hard to get it anywhere near right.
So the pre went back in and straight away it was lovely omce again, now dont know if i could get it better, or if i have gone about this the wrong way maybe?
But for now the pre stays.
But next Saturday i might have a music first v2 pre and 2 mono amps to compare with my set up, so will be interesting to hear that out come, as will be running fully balanced from rossini through pre amp to mono amps
