dCS Bartók APEX review in Stereophile

[Ermos (Erno)]

Herb Reichert wrote a review of the dCS Bartók APEX in Stereophile just the other day. He is referring to his friend Gaucho, who is on this community too

Gramophone Dreams #75: dCS Bartók APEX; HiFiMan Audivina, HE-R10P, HE1000 V2...

[meltemi (Martin)]

Thanks Erno.
However I spotted one gross error in this article:
‘‘According to Technical Editor John Atkinson, dCS’s Ring DAC is a 5-bit R-2R topology’’.
No, dCS’s Ring DAC is definitely not a R-2R topology; it is a 5-bit unitary weighted (thermometer coded) DAC.

[Ermos (Erno)]

Indeed Martin

For explanation, see here:

dCS Ring DAC - A Technical Explanation

Part 4 – The Ring DAC How can the issues described previously with Ladder DACs be resolved? What would a DAC designed from the ground up to effectively de-correlate errors in the DAC itself and remove the resulting distortion look like? That is where the dCS Ring DAC comes into play. The Ring DAC is the proprietary DAC technology found inside all dCS DACs. On the surface, the Ring DAC may look like a Ladder DAC. There is a latch and a resistor for each current source, and these current sources …