Showing (off) your dCS setup - description and photos

Yes it is. Mac mini 2012, i7, 16GB RAM, 250GB SSD (system, software, and Roon db), and 3TB FW800 hard drive with music. Power is via an Uptone JS-2 linear power supply. The mini is running macOS Mojave and Roon core, and I stream to the Rossini over RAAT.

2 Likes

Kelvin,

I’m really happy with the DeBussy’s performance, and I think it integrates well with the Puccini set…a Bartok would be nice, but I’ll stand pat for now. Unless a smokin hot deal falls in my lap…

Cheers,

Mitch

My office setup: Roon Nucleus > dCS Bartok > SPL s800 amplifier > Raal Interface Box > Raal Requisite SR1a “earfield monitors”. Bliss!

15 Likes

The SR1a is a superb transducer. I love mine. The S800 is an interesting amp choice. Do you like it?

Yes, I like the s800 but it is a bit overpowered for the SR1a interface box and transducers (185 watts per channel), so I have to be careful not to add too much gain.

Raal has come out with a purpose-designed amplifier for the SR1a’s, the HSA-1b, which I hope to audition In the near future. It doesn’t require an interface box.

https://raalrequisite.com/amplifiers/hsa-1b/

I know this thread reveals a not unwarranted bias against the “altar-in-the-middle” approach, let alone—heaven forbid!–a giant hard surface screen. But when you have the kind of room correction capability that Legacy does, you worry less about such things. With the Valors, I am hearing things in ordinary 16/44 recordings I had not heard before.


Roon Nucleus+
Vivaldi Upsampler
Vivaldi DAC
Vivaldi Clock
Cybershaft OP21A
Townshend Allegri Reference Pre
Legacy/Bohmer Wavelet
Merrill Audio Element 116 Monoblocks
Legacy Audio Valor Speakers
Torus AVR2-20 Power Conditioner

21 Likes

Yeah, I have the amp. I much prefer it to using the buffer box.

21 Likes

My apartment in London

Rossini / pass xa30.8 / sabrinas

11 Likes

My modest system

2 dedicated radial mains feeds, one 6mm to a single plug, the other 10mm to a 6 way multi, mounted flush in the wall.
Rossini and clock, using Wyde Eyde cables, and my own mains cables.
Melco n1zs/2, again with my own mains cable.
Rega P10 and apheta 3 cartridge.
Rega aura phono stage, using standard cables that come with it.
Naim 552dr
Naim 500dr
Naim powerline mains cables, 500 plugged into single socket on 6mm.
Violectic V281 headphone amp, running direct from balanced outputs from rossini, once again using my own mains cable.
Interconnects are witchhat morgana, and between 500 and power supply.
PMC fact 12’s speakers on giai 111 isolation feet.
Witchhat phantom speaker cable.
Naim fraim.
Audioquest diamond ethernet cable from melco to rossini.
Catsnake 6 ethernet cable for the rest
Cisco switch, but want to swap to EtherRegen (next upgrade)
Isoacoustic feet under, rossini, clock, melco and rega power supply.
Think thats it

13 Likes

Very nice @Dunc , and not so modest :smile:

1 Like

Cheers, i am very happy with it, its certainly the best sounding gear i have ever had.
Next gor me is going yo be some room treatment, but thats not going to be easy with the wife, so looking at some panels that i can place and then remove when not being used would be great, probably looking at something to go behind speakers and first reflection point

Thanks to JS Audio, I’ve hit the sweet spot - they came down (3 hr drive) with a pair of Wilson Sasha DAWs, a Vivaldi DAC and a Vivaldi upsampler. After they muscled out of the way my Revel Salon1s (they were no slouches by the way and gave me 12 years of enjoyment) and got the Vivaldi gear in the rack, they meticulously placed the DAWs. If you have not seen it before checkout YouTube for the Wilson Speaker Placement method. Narrated by David A. Wilson, in whose honor the DAWs are named. It was such a cool afternoon/evening with Steve and Dave (the owners and a couple of chill dudes to boot). Their placement of the speakers took about 2 hours after they were hooked up and it was awesome to witness/participate.

The D’Agostino gear just blows me away, and the twin JL Audio F113 subs can handle everything with power and clarity.

Cabling is almost exclusively Stealth. Bunch of Dream V10/12/18 power cables, Sakra/Indra/SwiftXLRs, Octava/Varidig BNC, and Dream V14 speaker cables.

I moved from a Mac-mini based system to streaming a month ago, and it was the best thing I ever did. Much better SQ than pulling data from the Macmini hard drive, and the world is at my fingertips now. I’ve read every post here about Ethernet cables (spend big $ or not). I had the budget available, and got great prices so I’m using AQ Diamond and Vodka cables. I did have Blue Jeans Cable in the system for a short while, but switch to the AQ stuff came at the same time as the whole system upgrade so I can’t claim any improvement from this alone. The quality of the connectors on these cables is much more substantial than the BJC plastic connectors as well.

I thought I’d never get to the point where I’m not looking for the next upgrade; I am there now. The only thing that could round out the system would be a Vivaldi clock. I don’t have the rack space, so I’ll just have to make due with the Rossini clock…

9 Likes

Nice. But if you have room for Rossini Clock, how do you not have room for Vivaldi Clock? Perhaps not optimal, but it can’t be set in the same space?

Greg,

At present, the Rossini clock/Vivaldi DAC stack are the same height as the D’Agostino preamp. If I substituted a Vivaldi clock for the Rossini, that stack would be a few inches taller than the preamp…it’d look unbalanced.

My alternative would be to ditch the maple platform on which the Vivaldi Upsampler rests, and put a Vivaldi clock on the second shelf. Vivaldi clocks don’t come up on the used market often, if ever, so I’ll just bide my time until one does. Until then I ain’t gonna obsess over it…

Slainte,

Mitch

1 Like

Still hesitating between a clock or the up sampler…

8 Likes

To me that is a simple thing to solve. You already have a network bridge. Add a Vivaldi clock and you improve the sound to both DAC and NB. Buy the Upsampler and you then still need the system clock to get the DAC and Upsampler to run in synch. The money involved would also help me make the choice: in the UK £13K for the clock but £18K for the upsampler.

However whichever choice you make you do need a bigger or second rack to avoid stacking components on top of each other. It virtually always results in electromagnetic interference between them.

1 Like

Hello,

Thanks for your opinion, you might be right : 13k + a new rack <= 18 k :laughing:

A bit altar-ish in this pic, but markedly less so now that I’ve decided that the mono-blocs beat the stereo amp. Down to two stories only now. And likely shorter still once I’ve gone to the Vivaldi short stack that @PAR and @PaleRider aren’t helping to talk me out of :upside_down_face:

10 Likes

Wouldn’t dream of it Ben! :smiley: