What hifi mag review on the rossini epex dac said,
“ If you are going to rely on the dCS’s built-in streaming module as your main source, we don’t think you’ll hear the Rossini Apex DAC at its considerable best. This module is pretty slick and fully featured, delivering a nice, even and detailed sound. Yet, even without comparison to our reference Naim streamer feeding the Rossini’s BNC digital input, we’re aware that things lack a bit of dynamic expression and rhythmic enthusiasm. The streaming section can still be considered good, but the rest of the Rossini Apex design is fabulous.”
Not sure what they did, but are they saying that running the naim nd555 streaming into the rossini sounded better than the built in streamer board inthe rossini?
Given that it’s “What Hi-Fi” after all, I wouldn’t bother too much with those comments. Besides, it’s likely just the reviewer’s subjective preference for the synchronous BNC input.
(Ironically, the Naim ND555 uses the exact same supplier for the Streaming board, OS, and networking stack as dCS ).
Even though I have a vested interest in Naim with my 500 stack WhatHiFi have always been Naim fanboys. I have never seen anything less than a five star review
May be…but I remember some years ago, when I had a Naim dac, with a Moon streamer and I auditioned some potential replacement gear…including the Rossini…well, how to say that with diplomacy…I bought a Vivaldi Dac and Network Bridge.
So, if dCS read this review, try the same set up, and learn something from it…we might get the Upsampler Apex upgrade in a couple a months
I’ll mount a modest defence of What Hi-Fi? here: although they are obviously focused on the mid to lower end of the market, and therefore can’t really be expected to offer informed reviews of high end gear, they do quite often identify the sonic characteristics of equipment, including the negative aspects. This is in contrast to other publications - both physical and virtual - where a review is just an account of how (insert superlative here) the writer’s favourite music sounds through the equipment in question. The most polite reaction I can muster to such a review is “That’s great, man.” And then I move on.
Speaking of reviews that need some light shedding on them, I recently read the Rossini review by Martin Colloms in HiFi Critic. I was hoping that his audition of the various filter options would be enlightening, but it is not at all clearly written and the numerical scoring system doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me. I’ve questioned this on the HiFi Critic forum, and have followed up with an email. If there is a helpful response, I will probably post something here.
).
… They actually made one or two technical errors in the piece as well actually (didn’t think it was worth pointing out).