dCS Apex series is here

dCS Products
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It is impossible to see from these pictures if things have changed in the DAC section, or not. For example: the switches (a high speed D-type FlipFlop) have a different label on them; this might be different or just exactly the same die in a different packaging. And the Xilinx FPGA is not visible in the Apex version. For all we know dCS could have moved over to the Spartan-6 or 7 family and have a version with more than 10 times the processing capacity of the previous one. Who knows what further optimisations they might have achieved in their processing algorithms?

I’m keen to hear the results, not so much the way they achieved them. To date I’m still impressed with what my current Rossini achieves in terms of musical performance. And this was a massive upgrade from my Puccini player.
I’m curious to know how far dCS have been able to push the boundaries yet again.

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I agree that looking at these pics does not tell much of the story. I am pretty sure the FPGA label was removed with photoshop in the Apex pic as it is just too dark to be a faithful pic of the chip.

I have it from a trusted source that most of the changes are in the analog section and improved trace layout, all things that would be impossible to discern from the tight cropped pic I showed above.

His listening impressions were that the analog section acquired higher resolution and channel separation.

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No it wasn’t removed, just aesthetically darkened. Photoshop will bring it right back - use the image posted on; https://dcsaudio.com/edit/introducing-apex

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Oh wow. You’re right. It is the same exact FPGA as in the previous version.

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Nice, Sherlock!

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I am still hoping beyond hope the Apex will fix the first 0.84 second of a DSD file gets dropped bug dCS promised a fix for in the “next Rossini release,” but as the Apex Rossini is still labeled as “2.0” I suspect we’ll never actually see one, even 20 months later.

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Well my local dealer (paul at hifi lounge, uk) has the apex rossini in and is demonstrating it against a non apex, he has posted that the difference is easily heard.
His vivaldi has gone back to dCS to have the upgrade

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Thanks Dunc! I’m not a native english tongue- but does his post sound like a rave improvement? :thinking:
I try to listen to Apex asap it’s available - but I have the strong felling to invest more in NAS now vs jumping on the apex train

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Someone here posted that their dealer claimed the new APEX Rossini exceeds the performance of the current non APEX Vivaldi. I would be curious to hear what HiFi Lounge has to say about that one.

Best
Gregg

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Tried to copy and paste it from his Facebook page but it won’t let me

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Screenshot? Facebook is so grubby.

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From the HiFi Lounge website I was able to copy this. In particular, in the 5th paragraph he details his listening impressions:

So, this is big news, dCS have just announced that after extensive research and development they have made major changes to the hardware portion of their Ring DAC and have developed an all-new analogue output stage taking both the Rossini DAC + Player and Vivaldi DAC to a whole new level.

The great news also is that if you are an existing Rossini or Vivaldi owner you can send your unit back to dCS for it to be upgraded to full Apex Specification, please feel free to get in touch for more details on this.

Also for a short time, we will have a standard Rossini Player + a new Apex Rossini Player side by side so you can come in to listen to the improvement, for this we decided to hook them up side by side on our Reference system comprising of the Wilson Audio Alexx V speakers, D’Agostino Momentum Pre/Power all with Transparent Reference cables with both Rossini players connected to a Melso S100 ethernet switch so all you have to do is switch inputs on the Pre to compare both units.

We have decided to run them without clocks for now as we only have one clock but I have a feeling this would help show the improvements even more but with a bit of cable swapping this can be tried if required, I had a listen on Saturday and even though the new Apex Rossini Player was brand new and not run in compared to our standard Rossini the improvements are clear to hear, again I feel once the Apex unit has more hours on it the differences will be greater again.

So what did I hear? firstly it is obvious that the noise floor is lower, this is something dCS actually measured but it is clear when you hear it so this gives the music a better foundation to play from resulting in a more open and sweeter presentation with definitely better bass definition and texture, this is what I noticed the most, you really can follow the bass notes better, especially in the upper bass, this in turn really helped to open up the mid-range with cleaner and better separated vocals, overall I would say it is an excellent step forward adding refinement, control and an openness that is a true step up over the previous generation of Ring Dac, and let’s be honest, that was brilliant before dCS introduced Apex, I guess to sum up I found Apex to be more engaging and insightful which is what I guess we are all after.

Would I upgrade if I was a Rossini or Vivaldi customer? well first I would come and have a listen to our Rossini’s side by side to make your mind up but once you hear the difference then there is no ignoring the step forward and I personally would want to go Apex, but first please do and come and listen.

Finally, I should also mention that our Vivaldi DAC went back to dCS the other day to be upgraded to Apex Specification, really can’t wait to get that back I have to say.

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Personally, I wouldn’t be bothered that it’s the same Spartan-3E FPGAs as the existing boards, for two reasons;

  1. (If I’m not mistaken) the only function of that pair of FPGAs on the DAC board is to manage the latches (i.e. the “Ring” in the Ring DAC) and the mapping algorithms. Everything else, such as the upsampling and all of the main digital signal processing algorithms etc., happens on the Control boards, which is where an FPGA capacity increase would make sense (if necessary. We have no way of knowing how much resource headroom is available on those FPGAs currently)…

  2. Xilinx channels have plenty of supply of these Spartan-3E chips, so lead-time is not an issue (even though Xilinx themselves are quoting a 52-week lead-time). Plus, these Spartan-3Es are built on a 90nm fabrication technology, for which there’s considerably less fab constraints (current SOTA is 5nm).

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Understood. I am not bothered by it at all, just curious about what’s changed and what hasn’t.

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Cheers for doing that, as i just couldn’t lol

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Has anyone heard if there will be a time limit for the update to be scheduled?

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dCS will launch Apex on 4th March, with all details. So we have to be a bit patient.

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Bill,

Since neither you nor I can get any response from dCS on this issue, I suspect not. I was told that the next software/hardware upgrade “might” fix our problem, then radio silence.

If I were dealing with a glitch in a Pioneer component, and Pioneer ignored a problem I was having, I’d just go buy a Technics. We are in an entirely different stratosphere however; you would think shelling out huge amounts of money for “the best digital system you can get” would bring with it some attention and solutions to problems users were encountering.

Not the case with dCS apparently.

Cheers,

Mitch

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dCS didn’t hint, they stated:

Posted Aug 3, '20 4:54 AM

James Cook dCS: Head of Customer Service

We have confirmed this issue and identified the source; the fix will be implemented as part of the next Rossini software release.

https://dcs.community/t/playing-dsd-dsf-files-from-the-beginning-on-the-rossini-skips-the-first-0-84-second-of-audio/1590/25?u=billk

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According to whathifi.com the upgrade program will no commence until May.