Which is exactly why I posted my first impression above.
One non-APEX Rossini vs. one APEX Rossini, same equipment, same room, not even a different input on the preamp or different set of cables.
Yes, understood. Have you had a chance to listen to it again after the hundreds of hours of break-in it probably now has?
No, not yet.
The most meaningful comparisons I have done have all taken considerable time for me to fully appreciate. It took me a few weeks to realize that the interconnect I was using with Rossini was not right. Then it took almost a month for a new Kondo silver interconnect to fully come into its own.
I don’t know how brutal the improvement Apex brings is, but I find that it will take me considerable time to assess and decide whether I want it or not.
As a side note, I and some friends who are very knowledgeable in matters of audio, have discovered that dCS products seem to be more sensitive to cables than other brands - unclear why. As an example, I was using Rossini with an Audioquest Water interconnect, and moving to a Kondo silver was a massive improvement. Similarly a friend tried the Audioquest Thunderbird with his Bartok and the improvement was quite substantial. This is not necessarily great - eg the Kondo I bought basically costs as much as the Apex upgrade.
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Similar story here. Chord Company MUSIC RCA/DIN interconnect between Rossini and Naim 552 pre - “almost” the cost of APEX but not quite. I guess the English are slightly more reasonable when compared to the Japanese 
I’ve made my deposit and gotten in line for the Rossini Apex upgrade. Will probably happen in July and take only a few days.
Same thing for my Rossini. The APEX update should be done at the end of May, beginning of June at dCS North America
Confirmed my Rossini APEX upgrade when it was announced. I am one of the first and my dealer is authorized to perform the upgrade instead of having to send it back to dCS North America.
I hope it proves to be a significant upgrade. I have been down this path before with my Linn Klimax DS upgrades. One was massive, /2 > /3, while the other was lateral, /1 > /2.
Keeping my fingers crossed dCS will not disappoint me.
Interesting that your dealer will be able to perform the upgrade. Initially my dealer thought his tech would also be able to perform my update in house but are now going to be sending the units back to dCS in NA. Something to do with the “grounding capabilities” ??
Shipping it to Fuller Sound
My dealer said they will be allowed to do them in-house and they should be getting update boards in May.
It’s my understanding they have to buy an appropriate ESD mat to be allowed to do the upgrade in-house.
My dealer has advised that my Vivaldi upgrade likely won’t happen until June. Because I will be traveling out of the country for most of May and June, I am going to go ahead and deliver mine to my dealer in early May. My system is set up so that it’s easy to switch over to the Wavelet as DAC. It’s not quite the same, but it’s not exactly slumming.
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Our hifi chap brought his Apex Rossini over on Thursday and left it with us to compare with our Rossini.
Incidentally he also left his new Linn Klimax DSM for appraisal. It was a fun shoot-out.
Initially we ran the Apex without the Rossini clock. Both of us felt that the Apex even without the clock was markedly better.
One thing which I noticed as an after thought - the Apex seemed much louder. We found that the shop model was set to 6V ours is set to 2V. It’s a hell of a difference which we had never tried before. Louder certainly, better not sure tbh.
We have been listening to the Apex continuously and today employed what I often consider the acid test - go backwards - revert to our Rossini.
I’ll not attempt to reiterate what @BillK set out in his earlier post which is pretty comprehensive and with which we both agree.
In our system the Apex opens up the soundstage considerably and as Linn used to say “it’s just better”. Better everything really - clarity and weight rendering everything we have played better, more enjoyable and I guess it’s easy to concede Apex delivers on all fronts. This is not a subtle change though perhaps depending on system and other components results may vary. For us however it’s a clear win for Apex and hand on heart given the £6K cost I was really hoping to be underwhelmed 
Maybe I should also record that the Linn Klimax DSM was comprehensively trounced. Our original Rossini and Clock pretty easily out-performed it. I was particularly keen to audition the Linn having read extremely positive reviews of it in the hifi press and online. Sound is such a subjective thing I know but very grateful to have had this opportunity.
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Archie, Thank you for posting. Like many other owners who haven’t yet opted for the upgrade I’m keen to read the impressions of those who have heard Apex.
I have one question: Once you’d discovered the difference in output voltage, did you set the shop unit to 2 V - or yours to 6 V - so that they were the same? It seems to be the common experience that owners whose pre-amps will accept 6 V prefer that over 2 V (even though the volume control on the pre-amp can be used to obtain the same listening level whichever is chosen, of course).
Hi @Simon_C We changed the Apex to 2V so it would better enable us to compare it with what we are used to on our own machine.
Beyond a very noticeable difference in volume I’m unsure of the sonic benefits/drawbacks, if any, of going from 2V to 6V.
Archie - when you refer to the “new” Linn KDSM I assume you are referring to the brand new Organik version and not the original slim height case?
My Rossini+Clock trounced my KDS/3 and relegated it to my headphone systems. My APEX upgrade is ordered and I am now on the fence about whether to upgrade the Linn to Organik.
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Hi @glevethan Yes it was the new Organik model.
A good number of years ago we had a Klimax DS and Klimax preamp. Loved the sound from that combo - well Glasgow boys have to be Linn-Fanboys at some point.
With the passage of time my memory is too hazy to compare it with the Organik machine. In fairness I don’t think our DS had the Katalyst dac. I recall it being released but I think we had moved on from Linn by that point.
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Here are some comments I posted on the TAS Facebook page with my impressions of the APEX version.
Friends, following the tremendous interest in our Facebook post on the new APEX DACs from dCS and a clock setup issue, I again travelled to hifibuys in Atlanta, Georgia for a longer, more focused listening session. Many thanks to owner Alan Jones and sales guy Ed Scruggs for setting up a system very similar to what I have at home. I listened to Wilson Audio Sasha DAWs driven by the Audio Research Ref 160S amplifier and Ref 6SE line stage. The system had JL Audio Gotham subwoofers, one each next to the left and right speakers. The DAC of course was the new Rossini APEX DAC linked to the Rossini Clock by what appeared to be a pair of Audioquest Diamond 75 ohm BNC clock cables. The analog cables were supplied by Audioquest and the power conditioner was a Niagara unit, also from Audioquest. In my home system, I have Wilson Alexia 2 speakers with the same amplification and the non-APEX version of the Rossini. This was an overall sound I was familiar with. The Audio Research amplifiers are very transparent and dynamic devices that have taken my Alexia 2s to a new level of sound quality. The DAW loudspeakers are arguably the sweet spot of the Wilson line and are simply sublime. This room was in part set up by Wilson Audio’s own Bill Peugh, a recognized setup expert, and the well-trained staff at hifibuys. For this session I felt we had a really good foundation for understanding the strengths and weakness of digital playback. In my prior comments on the TAS Facebook page, two eagle-eyed followers noticed that the clock was not engaged properly so I was not hearing the benefit of the Rossini clock. Nonetheless, I was very impressed by the sound I heard on that first visit.
My plan today was to gather a second round of sonic impressions to share, although this is not a full review of the Rossini APEX. I will leave that exercise in the capable hands of Robert Harley and his team of experienced writers.
Two quick notes before we get started. I am a huge fan of the Roon 1.8 software. I usually listen to Roon at all times as it will get me started down the rabbit hole of exploring the session players and their related albums. It is one of my favorite innovations in hifi. I did, however, notice some additional clarity in the overall sound when I used dCS Mosaic application on the hifibuys iPad. This is also the case with my non-APEX Rossini at home. I am not yet sure why this difference exists. So for this listening session I listened to both the Roon and Mosaic streamed versions of the songs. Frankly both sounded great but my listening notes were taken while using the Mosaic software app.
The other note refers to the inclusion of the dCS Rossini master clock. Now to be entirely honest, I am waiting on my own Rossini clock which is due very soon. I wanted to conduct a quick test of what the sonic differences would be from the clock delivery. I used a terrific test track from Jim Smith called Blue Bossa, a full bass spectacular from the great Bill Bromberg. The track has a lot of “body” and presence to it. It is a rich, full sound. With the clock off, it sounded very good. But with the clock on, it was just more of everything. The decay of notes was more lifelike. When I played Keith Don’t Go (yeah I know), the guitar strings were just so much more precise and natural. On the whole, the clock had a more musical feel and another level of resolution. I felt that it amplified the strengths of the DAC in most, maybe all, categories. It wasn’t subtle. Once you heard the clock, you did not want to turn it off. The “W” on the display that indicates synch with the external clock easily should have said “Win”.
With the clock engaged and Mosaic app in hand, I started to play some favorite test tracks.
Keith Don’t Go/Nils Lofrgren. Quite simply, the guitar on this track was lifelike. You had a full live concert atmosphere in this recording and the APEX seemed to recreate all of it. Vocals from Nils were crystal clear with just the right amount of chestiness. Claps in the audience were precisely placed. I use this worn-out track because I know what it sounds like on my system. But I have heard it so much I get bored. I wasn’t bored now because I was hearing more details in the recording. It really is an excellent performance and the APEX brought new life to it.
The Best is Yet to Come/Michael Buble. The intro finger snaps sound perfectly isolated on my Rossini at home but the presence of these snaps and clarity astounded me on the APEX. Michael’s vocals sounded more clear than what I was getting at home. The dynamics and sound from the large backing band were spectacular in both impact and timbre. Timbre seems to be a trait of dCS.
Someone Else’s Prayer/Mary Chapin Carpenter. Mary’s voice seems to float on a cloud on this track. It is a whisper and softness of a vocal. The APEX reproduced it as best I have heard it. It was magical.
Praise The Lord/Breland and Thomas Rhett. I caught the live version of this on the Academy of Country Music Awards and instantly fell in love with this upbeat song. For me this track shows off the pacing and timing of the dCS product well. It has a rollicking build-up and a wonderful hook. Things just swing in this song that reminds me a bit of a southern gospel church choir, Prince-like atmosphere, and down to earth country lyrics all rolled into one.
Limbo/Yello. This was a nice bass test and I played it at full volume. Apologies to hifibuys staff. The bass was firm and visceral even with the subs off. Turn on a pair of Gothams and listen again. Whoa. Again, vocals were stellar. Soundstage was deep and wide on this track. Indeed I found if the recording permitted, the width and depth of the stage was reproduced very well. It feels like we are hearing every last nuance, every note decay, every detail…but not in the “hi-fi” or hyper-accurate sense. Just natural sound reproduced very well.
Into The Mystic/Van Morrison. Again the audience is so well sketched here that you fade into this early 70’s Bay Area concert. The saxophone that comes in after “when that foghorn blows…” has tons of presence and detail. But perhaps the soaring vocals from Van shortly after are even more impressive in their dynamics and lack of distortion.
These Dreams of You/Van Morrison. All the happy feels of this jangly tune got me moving quite a bit. Vocals are again crystal clear and the midrange on the sax and piano are stunning.
Days Like This/Van Morrison. Have you figured out who my favorite musician is yet? 
. The backing vocals here are blending into stunning harmony and clarity. I could listen to this track all night.
Trouble’s What You’re In/Fink. This was just a sonic wonder. Reach out and touch it guitar. The sense of space and realistic vocals are glorious.
Based on my listening, the standout characteristics of the Rossini APEX with Rossini master clock are as follows:
• New levels of resolution
• A truly effortless midrange
• World-class bass and vocals
• Deep and wide soundstage
• Even better dynamics
dCS claim a 12db increase in linearity with the new boards in the APEX hardware. Has accuracy now converged to create strong musical involvement? Is accuracy no longer the enemy of involvement? I suspect the answer is a resounding Yes to both questions. Indeed, maybe the accuracy of the Ring DAC is the key aspect of musical involvement.
Even well-mastered 16/44 tracks sounded absolutely stunning and not too far, I am surprised to say, a 24/96 version. I believe that gap narrows quite a bit on state-of-the-art DACs.
Look, I love vinyl records even more than most audiophiles but damn…digital this good with the convenience of a Roon or Mosaic interface and a huge streaming library is forcing me to re-arrange my thinking on digital. I can only imagine what the Vivaldi APEX is capable of. As for the Rossini APEX, it really feels like it may have equaled or surpassed the non-APEX Vivaldi. That’s a very nice neighborhood to play in. I placed an order to upgrade my Rossini to APEX level. And that’s perhaps the best news of this whole exercise: dCS has a senior technician near Boston who will replace the boards and back plate stateside for the upgrade fee.
Again, many thanks to Alan Jones and hifibuys for setting the listening session up for me, and for John Giolas at dCS explaining the new technology and upgrade program over several calls and texts. The bottom line for me is that the Rossini APEX is at a whole new level of sound. It’s worth the trip to your dealer. It’s just that simple.
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Great write up - thanks Lee. I have Wilson Sasha DAWs with Constellation amps. I have booked my Rossini upgrade via my UK dealer following a pretty in-depth A-B audition. I found similar to you!
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I was wondering why there appears to be different costs quoted for the Rossini APEX upgrade? One member above stated his cost was 6K (UK dollars) which equates to about $7,500. today in US dollars. Granted the exchange rate varies a bit however I was quoted $9K US $ for the upgrade which equates to $1,500. difference?
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