Hello all, I’m new to the forum and considering purchasing my first DCS unit. I’ll be starting with a single box, either the Rossini or the Vivaldi.
I understand the Rossini effectively combines the functionality of the Vivaldi DAC + Upsampler. I’m using a USB DAC at the moment and have a fairly well optimized USB pathway, so I can live without the network interface.
What I’m curious about is how the Vivaldi behaves in the absence of the upsampler. Will it directly convert whatever sample rate is fed to the ring DAC format for conversion or is there some inherrent upsampling going on?
I guess what i’m trying to get at is whether I could effectively replace the upsampler functionality with HQPlayer or whether the Vivaldi will notice the absence of the Vivaldi upsampler and try to do something on its own that might make HQPlayer detrimental/unnecessary.
Of course I’m not trying to suggest that HQPlayer could equal the sound quality of the dedicated hardware, at this point it’s more technical curiousity perhaps the desire to have more switches to flip on a new toy
Vivaldi DAC does not upsample* and will work fine with e.g. HQ player running on a device connected by USB and which is upsampling to maximum rates of 24/384 PCM or to DSD 64 or 128.
You raise the question of using Rossini instead of Vivaldi . I would point out that Rossini is also a fully functional network player as is the Vivaldi Upsampler. In both cases optimum performance both sonically and in user experience would be to move from USB connection to network connection and to use the dCS Mosaic control system which can be run on your phone or tablet. You would then have access to your local files running on a NAS, high resolution streaming services such as Tidal or Qobuz ( subject to subscription) and a huge range of internet radio stations. I expect that you would also be surprised at the enhanced sound quality over what you were used to with USB ( I certainly was).
I would add that although the Rossini DAC is excellent in its own right if you can stretch to the additional cost of Vivaldi it would not be regretted and would be an excellent start to building a full dCS stack. That is more or less how I went about it with an “interstage” of adding a Network Bridge in order to give me network access until I could afford the Upsampler . I know that other members here are following a piece by piece path, not so many people being in the fortunate position of being able being able to buy it all in one hit.
*You mention the Ring DAC. Its operation does involve a form of upsampling as a technical stage but that is not upsampling in the sense of changing output to a higher resolution as you encounter it with an upsampler ( hardware or software) . The end result effectively remains as per the input e.g. feed it 16/44.1 and you still get 16/44.1 resolution.
Remember to keep us informed as to how you get on.
I have got a Vivaldi Dac + Network Bridge…It works great. I had the opportunity to compare the Rossini to other dac…well…I heard better Dac for less money…but none of these Dac were better than the Vivaldi…I bought it
Sounds interesting! Doesn’t sound primising for my wallet though…
So far I have also auditioned the Esoteric K1x and N-01xd. I don’t really want to pay for the transport on the K1x, but it does sound very nice. These were at a different shop than the DCS though, so not possible to compare directly. MSB is also on my list, but no demo available at the moment here
