I purchased the Rossini DAC and Rossini Transport combo 2 years back.
Mostly use Rossini Transport, rarely use Roon through Mosaic.
I am very happy with the quality of music with Rossini Transport as a source. I do all upsampling at the Rossini Transport level, so Dac is not overloaded with upsampling.
Given this, wondering how much more benefit I would get by adding a Rossini Clock to this system.
Any thoughts?
Regards,
Sourav
Hi
Could you please further explain this statement:
I use Rossini Transport to upsample the data to DXD, DSD or DSD2 (mostly DSD2)
Hence, the data received by Dac need not be further upsampled.
Regards,
Sourav
Adding a dCS wordclock can be essential. However whether or not you find it so will, in part, depend upon your expectations.
It will not act as if it is some kind of sound processor providing e.g. thunderous bass. It is a subtle addition in sonic terms and , IMO, is mostly effective in a musical rather than hi-fi sense, giving a more realistic and communicative musical result. This aspect can be more apparent with some types of music compared to others.It can take tine to be appreciated and rapid switching from the external clock to Rossini’s internal one might even give the impression that there is no or little difference.
When I say “essential”, once you “get” what it is doing I doubt that you would want to be without it.
Thank you for clarifying Sourav. I actually did not know this was possible, and have just checked the dCS Rossini Transport manual to confirm what you have shared.
I have to admit, I am a bit shocked by this. I always thought that the dCS upsampling algorithms were a special part of the “magic.” If, as your approach suggests, the upsampling is so “easy” that dCS provides that capability in the transport, it makes me (a) question the value of the Vivaldi Upsampler entirely; and (b) think the true value of the Rossini is the DAC, not the upsampling functions.
This view is further supported by some other posts on this channel, which until now I found odd, where some Vivaldi owners have foregone the Upsampler, which I (wrongly?) viewed as central to the peak playback experience.
In your case, since you don’t value streaming, and the Transport handles the upsampling, you would probably be better off selling the Rossini, and buying just the Vivaldi DAC (including over buying any clock). I suggest some listening tests before a purchase. It should be relatively easy to borrow a Vivaldi APAX DAC.
R
Buy what dCS designed for it: a Rossini clock…not a Vivaldi clock.
Unless the plan is to buy a Vivaldi stack in the future.
Why not a Vivaldi clock ?
Why a Vivaldi clock ?
If @sourav isn’t using the upsampling functions in his Rossini DAC, then by definition he has overpaid for that piece of equipment and IMHO, he should forget the clocks altogether, sell his Rossini and just buy the Vivaldi DAC.
The Vivaldi DAC has the same clock as the Vivaldi clock (though, as discussed on other threads, benefits from isolation, a separate power supply, etc.,) but those gains should not be anywhere near as large as those from the DAC improvement.
You should get it to complete the system. After living with clock for some time, you will probably regret why you didn’t do it sooner. Music becomes more etched and focused.
I still use the DAC for Roon (and sometimes for USB music) at least 10-20% time. That time, Upsampling is used.
One of the reasons Rossini Transport’s price (if I understand correctly) is so high is because of the Upsampling capability.
Now using upsampling capability at Transport level I’m assuming that I’m freeing up processing capabilities in DAC to use it primarily for the Digital to Analog conversion purpose. Something that Vivaldi DAC is doing.
I’m not sure how much I’m missing, but I’m surely missing something. However, even if I plan to move, I shall wait until the Vivaldi refresh (a new equivalent model) is out. I’m pretty happy so far with Rossini DAC + Transport. Also, as I heard, Rossini is more fun, while Vivaldi is more about perfection.
Regards,
Sourav
That’s easy — the Vivaldi Clock sounds much better than the Rossini Clock!
I agree with Ben. Plus, you don’t want to be too matchy matchy…
Saurav, obviously it’s your choice where you want to upsample, but you should do so on the basis of which sounds better to you, rather than where you believe there’s “overload”.
In fact, you can’t really “overload” the Rossini DAC. It’s not a PC that has a central/shared CPU, it’s an embedded system with discrete processing components explicitly designed to perform digital signal processing for upsampling and digital filtering.
No actually. The D-to-A conversion is on a completely different board than the upsampling/digital signal processing. So, you’re not actually “freeing” up anything.
The Vivaldi Transport also supports upsampling, but it lacks any configurable digital filters associated with upsampling, so it does not actually replace what the Vivaldi Upsampler does (not to mention the Ethernet streaming capability of the VPP).
@Anupc Rossini Transport is not capable of filtering either. Filtering still happens at Rossini Dac.
I do agree that it is my choice where I do the upsampling based on the place where it sounds good ( and in my case it does sound better when I upsample in the Transport). But if one plays both cd and sacd pretty regularly it is difficult to change to non upsampling mode unless u want to use spdif output for cd (as Rossini Dac does not have 3 aes inputs).
However is it not obvious that it should sound better when one upsamples in transport ? Otherwise why this facility is provided in Transport (though there is no official claim or recommendation to do upsampling in transport) ?
Regards,
Sourav
I understand, and I do hope it is better, but there must be a reason why dCS designed the Rossini clock…May be it is enough for the Rossini dac, at a price which is appropriate…But yes, the Vivaldi is better.
Quite easy… I had a Puccini, than a Scarlatti and finally the Vivaldi clocks. Each time a great step forward, not a small one. But especially with a Rossini clock, you cannot connect a 10mhz clock, that is a giant step forward.
@JPSPOCK but will that matter if I am primarily using Rossini Transport with Rossini Dac ?
Regards,
Sourav
Hi Sourav,
When the audio is received from the transport - no matter whether PCM / DSD or DSDx2 it still needs to be upsampled in the DAC itself to be of an appropriate sample rate and bit depth for the RingDAC itself.
The upsampling to DXD / DSD / DSDx2 is an intermediate process where some people prefer the signature of one setting over the other but ultimately whichever you choose in the Rossini then the DAC itself still has to upsample to 2.822/3.07 or 5.64/6.14 MHz (depending on your Mapper setting) before hitting the RingDAC.
I hope that helps.
Phil
Hi Sourav,
The external clock is used to ensure that both the Transport and the DAC are synchronised to a common clock source which means that whichever transport method you use between the Transport and the DAC (whether AES or S/PDIF) the DAC doesn’t have to extract / create the audio data timings from the source audio data - both the Transport and DAC are already in sync to the same master clock.
For some people this is a “night and day” difference so I would suggest that you take a listen for yourself and see what you think …
I hope that helps.
Phil