I would add a slightly different take here, which I believe is well supported by evidence. There has been an unmistakable trend toward higher concentration of wealth in the last 50 years. Luxury products in general–homes, planes, cars, art, etc. have done very well during this period. The wealthy–many if us who can afford these very products–will always have demand for high quality, luxury, prestige products, and dCS has demonstrated both a beautifully built hardware platform, and a future-ready software path (albeit with slower upgrades than one would like). So… I think dCS has a promising future for many years among the people who spend $20k+ for a DAC.
I do think @miguelito brings up a very interesting question if the Ring DAC architecturally could be made obsolete by newer approaches, but I am not qualified to opine on that.
Sure, it is a little off topic, 90% of the threat is totally off topic, so being just a little off topic gets off topic of the totally off topic thread
With Vivaldi the question does not arise. Remember when upsampling there are two digital filters in use at the same time, one for the upsampling process and one for the DAC replay. As Vivaldi has two separate boxes for upsamping or digital/analogue conversion the Upsampler display shows the filter used for upsampling and the DAC display shows the one for conversion.
I do not know the preference that Bartok , Rossini or Vivaldi One have for displaying which at any given time though, of course, the filters are selectable.
Although I am not an expert, my interpetation of the Mola Mola Tambaqui architecture is that it’s similar to the Ring DAC but with 32 bits. I am probably wrong on many levels but right there you have an innovator who’s wowing every reviewer.
Tell me this: If I want to spend $50k on a DAC that is not almost 10 yrs old, can I go to dCS or MSB? No. Is the argument that the 10 yrs old tech is the best. Can’t be.
According to the Stereophile article the Mola Mola is based on tech from 2012 - a decade old now!
Newer audiosciencereview-ed chip DACs, fancy new ladder DACs all seem to measure well beyond what we all can hear, but do they actually sound better? I can say from first hand experience as an owner of one of these super spec chip DACs (RME ADI) that no it doesn’t sound better than say my Esoteric Esoteric spinner. Every new ish ladder DAC I’ve heard at a show sounds a little unnatural to me. Some say warm - I hear hard and artificial - but that’s just me. As for the 50K price range - I couldn’t say (I don’t live there and never will!).
My question is not about the filters themselves, but about which one is displayed when both are set and you are upsampling to DSD.
Vivali one, Rossini and Bartok have only one filter displayed.
According to manual PCM filter is the one displayed (when PCM is the source), so it was on the Bartok, but now, on the Vivaldi One, the one I see is DSD filter, regardless the source is PCM or DSD.
Malfunction or wrong user manual description?
Happy to. Too busy with work for any drastic changes.
I will say though that of all the things coming out in DAC world, a few, not all, are leaps from what I hear from experts. Mola Mola is one (it is pretty new despite FPGA tech dating from 2012 - it’s all in the code!); the Holo May (and the Spring 3); the Terminator Plus.
I think the established players need to be very careful at this point.
No name brands that may have a good product (I have never demo’d), but no legacy to protect.
I respectfully note that the bar for dCS to improve on the Vivaldi is quite high, and that, consistent with the title of this thread, Apex is technically the second (?) upgrade to the Vivaldi in the last ten years
Porsche doesn’t bring out a new model regularly. The 911 has been in production since 1965…
The “3.125MHz/32bit” on the Tambaqui is just the asynchronous upsampling of all digital inputs. The actual Digital-to-Analog conversion stage design dates back to Bruno’s PWM undergrad thesis work from ’95 that he eventually got patented in 2006 (and presented at AES’s Paris convention that year).
In the Digital-to-Analog conversion market, there are no ground-breaking new designs as such, just better components with stricter tolerances operating at higher frequencies
Agreed, but small tweaks and changes in implementations can lead to differences that can be ground breaking. Manufacturing tech is no small part of this: today sourcing high precision resistors is easier and cheaper than it ever was, for example, making some R2R designs viable at a low cost.
No. Not only do we not know what the price might be we do not know whether there even is to be a hardware upgrade that can be fitted to existing machines. We are awaiting an important announcement from dCS " later in February ". It otherwise remains as speculation.
, you have a Vivaldi, how does it behave regarding filters display?