dCS Rossini APEX Review at HiFi Clube

dCS Products
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I only have a Rossini player (non Apex) and I find it hard to disagree with you. It does a bloody awesome job playing cds.

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23

I don’t think that was the point of BillK’s comment. I had the Rossini for 2 years and it is amazing. I assumed the rest of my system (speakers and integrated amp) was the weak link and I wouldn’t really benefit from a better DAC. Well, I upgraded to Rossini Apex and was pretty amazed. I don’t even want to hear the Vivaldi Apex because I’m sure I would upgrade.

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Glowing review of the Rossini Apex Player over on Monoandstereo.com https://www.monoandstereo.com/2022/07/dcs-rossini-apex-player-and-rossini.html

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Yep, that’s what I meant.

The Rossini Player APEX is incredible, but I’m sure a Vivaldi One APEX would be even better, but at 2.5x the price or so.

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Stereonet review of dCS Rossini APEX Player, posted today:

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Ummm… how do we get them to correct their article?

This Rossini Player variant sports a silver disc spinner which plays CD and SACD, the latter in its native format. This is an increasingly rare feature, and makes it – coincidentally – one of the world’s most expensive SACD machines.

Yeah, no.

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28

Good catch Bill.

Maybe dCS will tell him, or, grrr, maybe other parts of the review were also made up, since it’s obvious he didn’t try to play an SACD… : /

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29

@James - Any contacts over at Stereonet Australia who might be able to get a correction printed?

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Allow me a question here: what is the oldest dCS SACD transporter that works with Rossini? Is it Puccini?

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If you are meaning can you send output from reading an SACD to Rossini from Puccini he answer is no. Only CD data output is available digitally from silver disc.

Originally released in the same second domestic generation were the Scarlatti and Paganini transports which have encrypted ( with data fom SACD) AES/EBU outputs and will feed e.g. Rossini.The earliest dCS CD/SACD transport was La Scala from the first generation. However it has IEEE1394 DSD outputs. Suitably encrypted but the connectivity will not mate with Rossini

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32

Hmmpf. So interesting. Puccini will read and play SACD but doesn’t make the datastream available as digital output? I didn’t know this…

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Puccini is a player and the the restrictions from the SACD patent owners would not allow DSD data from SACD to be transmitted outside of the box. However dCS being makers of multi box playing systems had arrangements with the patent holders to cater for the necessity of such processing with a two box transport/DAC arrangement . This is why they had to develop a proprietary encryption method ( this all predates e.g. the HDMI interface and allows for SACD with appropriate legacy dCS equipment).

So the requisite encryption and therefore digital output is only available with transports, not players.

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34

So Pete, if I want to spin SACDs Scarlatti or Paganini transporter is the way to go then, right?

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Yes but I have to add a caveat. I am doing this as I do not want you to think that I am necessarily recommending that that you look for one of them especially if you do not already have a reasonably sized collection of SACDs.

Elderly optical disc players ( these will be 10-15 years old) will go wrong. There are two reasons both connected with the OPU. The laser diodes have a limited lifespan and lose power over time. This is typically a few thousand hours. Further bona fide CD/SACD mechanisms switch between lasers of differing wavelengths. This normally involves a small gear wheel that can strip.

So unless one has full provenance details or the sum paid is simply disposable to you there is a tangible risk. Either may involve a return to dCS or distributor for repair ( spares are basically otherwise unobtainium) and are expensive especially for Scarlatti.

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36

Thanks Pete,
that helps! Tricky situation :wink: Rossini transport is a dream but for that I have not enough SACDs/CDs. Older models may fail and spare parts are no longer available. Last option is SACD ripping then which needs computer voodoo and specific blu-ray hw…

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Went to Edinburgh yesterday to pick up my Rossini Apex back from the upgrade. Gosh, the improvements are not subtle. More, just more of everything and much more than I expected. Happy bunny.

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Miss Edinburgh so much! :relaxed:

Agreed re: Apex. Not a minor upgrade for me either.

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39

Slight side note… My integrated amp does not have a remote (Audio Note Kondo Ongaku). So what I do is set the volume to about noon and trim down the volume with Rossini to the level I want. It usually means -10dB to -20dB. For this in my setup I use the 2V output level.

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40

I guess it was a 35.000$ option, I understand why you seek for alternative solutions :laughing::face_with_peeking_eye:

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41

Good spot, thanks for flagging it Bill - will get this corrected.

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