Please see the link. Although it relates to Vivaldi and Rossini Apex, the Apex upgrade appears to be similar in the respect of Bartok.
If your question relates to sonic or musical improvement then right now nobody can comment as nobody has heard one ( outside of the factory and perhaps those dealers who have already received their upgraded demonstrator models ). So maybe it will be a few weeks before user subjective assessments come in and which relate specifically to Bartok. The threads here have numerous reports of the Vivaldi and Rossini Apex upgrades otherwise
The Apex upgrades for Vivaldi and Rossini were only carried out by dCS in the UK. In regard to other territories parts were supplied to the local distributor and from there to local dealers as appropriate. If you have no local equivalent you may need to seek the advice of dCS ( email [email protected]).
Given that dCS priced the APEX upgrade for Vivaldi and Rossini at the same amount they raised the price of new APEX versions ($9K in the US) perhaps they will price Bartok APEX upgrades at the same delta, which would be $3K in USD. As a Bartok w/HPA + Rossini Clock owner, selfishly, that would be nice, but I’m honestly doubtful the Bartok APEX upgrade will be that affordable. Hard to imagine DCS would charge 66% less for Bartok owners versus Vivaldi/Rossini owners.
I’m not following your point. But if you’re referring to my outline on the costs, I was stating that if the $9k upgrade cost for more-than-two-years old Bartoks is true, the original purchase price back then plus the $9k upgrade cost is more than the cost of a brand new Bartok APEX w/HPA.
IOW you’re total investment to upgrade an older Bartok ($15k new, $9k upgrade) is almost $2k more than the cost of a brand new one ($22,950).
The lower rumored $4500 cost feels more reasonable in this scenario.
Yes, and why would you expect it would match the cost of the new Bartok? In a new Bartok, dCS did not have to manufacture and then throw away the non-Apex board. And in an upgrade, there are labor costs involved as well.
I have only listened casually to my Rossini with now Apex upgrade, while indeed burning in. For the moment I notice much better bass, wider soundstage, better instrument separation. Also it seems I have lost some top highs. More later, after it all has settled in.
Let me put it a different way: I paid around $15k more than 2 years ago for my Bartok HPA. If in my case the APEX could cost $9000 (vs $4500) – that is almost 2/3s of the original purchase price. The point is, that is a very high percentage of the original cost to make the upgrade.
And if the rumors are true, I would be paying $9k only because my Bartok is over two years old, vs $4500 if it was less than two years old. dCS still has to throw out the older board and it involves the same labor. The point is not the things you list–the point is the discrepancy between the $9k cost and $4500 cost based on an arbitrary point in time.
But hopefully dCS will announce the upgrade prices and process asap to clear up all this confusion.
Andrew - I’m in exactly the same scenario you are. I bought both my Bartok with HA and Rossini Clock prior to the first of 2 dCS price increases, back when the Bartok with HA listed for $15K USD and the Rossini Clock was $7,500. So I am with you-waiting to hear from my dealer as to costs—he is waiting for the pricing info from dCS, we have has several email exchanges on this since the Bartok APEX became official.
I was almost ready to upgrade to a Rossini DAC when Apex first hit the market. The $9K cost increase post-APEX was too expensive for me at the time. I was about to go ahead with Rossini APEX when Bartok 2.0 provided a nice upgrade, so I invested those funds in a D’Agostino Progression S350 instead. Still want to upgrade my DAC soon though, so need the costs to sort out which way to go.
Well…eventually it is the Bartok Apex the next generation…dCS…let’s wait for the next generation then…Most of the customers seem to be very happy for various reasons…that is the most important I guess.
I’m hopeful that the lower measured Analogue noise floor of the APEX’d units will increase the performance of the digital pre amp section. Even a 6db reduction of noise should theoretically improve the usable range of digital volume control no?
The noise-floor level itself seems to be about the same as before, but what’s most obviously changed is the noise floor is much cleaner with less harmonic distortion than before (filter 4’s noise-floor performance is significantly fixed though, but I suspect that was done with Vivaldi 2.0).
Pity JA doesn’t seem to have done as comprehensive a set of measurements as he did with the Vivaldi 1.0 review. For example, there are no jitter performance measurements done for Apex - albeit, being an analog section update, perhaps unsurprising, still, it would have been nice to see a complete new set of measurements for the whole stack that JVS reviewed.
I am sorry to say it, but what a disappointment, to publish that type of countdown on the website, and draw everyones attention and hope towards a new era of dCS products…
Same here. Seems either dCS did not communicate pricing to their dealers time to put them in position to book upgrades for Bartok APEX upgrades, or my dealer’s manager got busy with in-store customers, which is obviously quite possible. However, we did have several email exchanges just after the intro indicating he was waiting for a few additional details. Expect we will see the pricing very soon.
I am very happy to see this new Bartok APEX upgrade option as I will weigh it against opting for the Rossini APEX DAC.
Wow, if that is true it is very interesting! I would really like to see that option as I do listen to and enjoy my headphones about 10% of the time (usually when it’s late at night or reasonable volume doesn’t suit due to whatever my wife may be up to). That might be a great option as the Rossini APEX becomes pretty steep when I add the cost of both an outboard HP amp and a pair of high quality cables that are unnecessary in my Bartok + HA setup.
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