I’m curious to know if anyone here has heard a Lejonklou Källa digital streamer? If so, how does it sound compared to the dCS Bartók?
I am afraid that I cannot answer your question directly but I don’t think that Källa and Bartok are easily comparable as classes of device to start with.
Bartok is a full streamer/DAC offering various streaming sources such as Qobuz, Deezer, Tidal, Spotify , replay of local files from NAS, Internet radio and Apple Airplay. It is also a Roon end point. It provides both PCM and DSD conversion at various resolutions including hi-res. Both balanced and single ended output connection is offered as well as a range of input options.
Källa appears to be simply an AirPlay receiver with a DAC based around an AKM chip with single ended output only. As it relies on AirPlay a maximum resolution of only 16/48 PCM is available. No sources are offered by Källa itself as it needs to be paired with an Apple device with e.g. the iOS version players from the streaming services installed on it . Replay from NAS is possible via a Mac computer but, from the Lejonklou forum, the Källa designer seems not to fully approve of this as he appears to believe that Spotify is more musical and is a preferable source.
So before comparing Källa and Bartok for sound quality I would first have to be persuaded that the ( IMO) limited and idiosyncratic Källa is the kind of thing that I want in the first place.
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