I agree with you David, 100%. Andrew and Pete, I sense some impatience with those of us making this request. I certainly don’t mean to cause distress, and I am decidedly not trying to be impertinent or disagreeable, but I am curious. Isn’t one of the benefits of the Ring technology that it is upgradeable/improvable? Aren’t we in the correct forum to be discussing this capability? So, if this feature is a “bridge too far,” maybe you can clue us in where development pounds are being spent.
Part of the reason I made the decision to upgrade my Phase One IQ3.100 digital back to the IQ4.150 was the roadmap that Phase published. Roadmaps, even sanitized ones for public consumption, can be very useful for calming the peasants. If not 256, where is dCS headed for the next firmware upgrade? If it’s SQ, and the company cannot be more transparent than that for trade secret purposes, we all understand that. But if 256 will not happen because it is “just not worth it,” it might be time to say so. That’s different from what was said in January, and more like the tenor of the above (which sounds very much like it is “sort of on the road map but not really.” Then we irritants can try to be more constructive. If 256+ is reserved for Vivaldi’s successor, or slated for Rossini alone because Vivaldi’s hardware just can’t cut it, there’s probably a way to communicate that without beating us about the head with a broom. (That’s meant to be light-hearted.)
Other TOTL DACs have this and greater capability. I am not asking dCS to compete on a feature-set basis with DACs built around the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink DAC-chip-of-the-month. But it doesn’t seem unreasonable to want one’s TOTL DAC to be as capable as possible. Yes, the number of recordings is relatively small, but growing every day. Yes, the number of us current owners who want it might be small, but we are likely to grow, and what about the possible customers who have not yet committed to dCS? Like it or not, all consumers have checklists in their heads. It might not always be the savviest way to shop, but it is one of the ways we all shop at one time or another.
I almost bought Meitner for this very reason. I am ultimately glad I did not, but part of the reason I did not was that upgradeability quality. I have a whopping three albums recorded in DSD256. Yes, it’s a tiny number. but they are something else, and it’s unlikely there won’t be more. But I have dozens in 256 and a growing number in 512DSD. The Upsampler itself is testament to the attractiveness of certain methods of upsampling. In a sense, dCS is itself one of the factors that makes some of your customers desire the expansion of this capability. Are we cutting edge? Maybe. Shouldn’t dCS want such customers?
I’m going back to beautiful music. I thoroughly enjoy my Vivaldi stack, and I love the music it makes in my system. I hope everyone here is safe and healthy, and I truly appreciate the participation by dCS team members and each of our forum members.