Hi @Urbanluthier,
Both you and @PAR make some good points.
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The principal differences between the Lina DAC and Lina DAC X are the wider form factor and the physical volume knob. The circuit boards are the same.
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Separating the transformer from the circuit board and introducing additional shielding has resulted in a minute lowering of the noise floor compared to Lina DAC.
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The Lina board was designed before the APEX board and therefore predates most of those enhancements.
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Bartók APEX is superior to Lina in sound quality, largely due to APEX, although interestingly the advantages of Lina’s fourth generation technologies (such as single circuit rather than modular boards and its more refined mechanical construction) give it a sonic advantage over pre-APEX Bartók.
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Lina has other advantages over Bartók such as the larger display and the remote control.
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Both Lina and Bartók mate well sonically and visually with the Lina Master Clock and the Lina Headphone Amplifier.
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Bartók APEX is currently priced at a roughly 40% premium to Lina DAC X (£19,000 vs £13,500 UK RRP).
At the end of the day it’s horses for courses. But both DACs make an excellent source for a compact high quality streaming system and are capable of excellent sound quality. That was what we were hoping to demonstrate in Munich.