I am stopping by my dealer tomorrow to give a quick listen to their Vivaldi APEX. Since I can’t A/B it in my system right now I won’t be able to get a good handle on the upgrade.
Heh, that’s a good one. But my “slope of enlightenment” started two years ago when I made the decision to invest in Vivaldi. It was not a trivial investment then, and it still is not. But dCS engineers have earned my confidence.
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Is it just me or does the new Apex Ring DAC look square?
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That’s good to hear. If I were invested as you are I would do the same
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Greg, when do you expect to ship your Vivaldi? Thanks
Looking forward to hearing the feedback from our early adopters 
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The new dCS price list has reappeared here on several sites now. They confirm the price list in my OP.
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small text adjustments in the price list.
In Spain better prices, today Bartók no headphones, 14.900€ .( 5.000€ cheaper)
With headphones 18.500€.
Something I’d like to know is whether or not an original Rossini (or Vivaldi) upgraded to APEX spec is identical to a newly manufactured Rossini (or Vivaldi) APEX. I’m not sure I’d want to be paying the difference in price for the upgrade and then end up with a device that is somehow considered to be inferior to a new issue one. I assume we’ll find out over the coming days.
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Based on the youtube video they posted it looks like it’s a simple swap of the DAC board and replacement the rear text sheet. Assuming that’s all it is there should be no difference at all between a recently produced unit and the new Apex version.
Of course this also makes the quoted upgrade price of $9000 pretty hard to swallow for nothing more than a swap of the DAC board. Hopefully it will come along with some enhanced capabilities beyond just “sounds better”. Looking forward to finding out!
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For me, a “new DAC” for $9k seems not out of bounds in this environment. New capabilities would be great—DSD256 anyone?— but sounding better than what I already have sounds very enticing.
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My dealer expects May with a few possibly in April. Because I live a fair bit distant from my dealer, they suggested direct shipment rather than dropping off at the shop. I don’t mind either way. Will just have to see.
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Yup, DSD256 is definitely high on my wish list!
Are there pics of the old and new boards?
I think $9000 is not unreasonable for a redeveloped DAC board. Consider there’s development effort and such.
I would like to see pics of the old and new boards if anything to justify the expense in my head.
In terms of capability, I don’t think anything in the FPGA software design has changed, or else they would have said something about it. Specifically, the Vivaldi and Rossini DACs run at DSDx2 speed (original Rossini, now Bartok at DSDx1 speed), which I gather means that DSD256 (which is DSDx4) will not be supported in Apex versions.
I would like, however, to see dCS fix some control board bugs that I have found in Rossini that I presume affects the Vivaldi as well - it was fixed about a year ago in Bartok.
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There are many, many examples of brands that brought out their great new model with upgraded sound that… turned out not to be.
One of the more famous examples in recent years: