Vivaldi One v. Rossini Apex

Why unfortunately? That would sound like a good thing …

Because now he knows he has to buy 3 Vivaldi boxes at the new pricing :scream:

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I am starting to think the limitation is in the digital format itself.

Actually considering MSB

It used to be more expensive than dCS…but these days… :laughing:

I do not think it is, at least inherently. However for many recordings the digital mastering is less than optimal.

We all know (or should) the sonic penalties arising from the digital loudness wars. However this is not the only problem . Much digital remastering of back catalogue has been carried out with a" conveyor belt" mentality. The engineer has to remaster x number of albums in a work shift. Has he the time to listen to everything in detail and refine the sound? No, he laces up the tape ( if analogue) , checks if the original engineer has made any technical notes in the tape box, uses predetermined average settings on the digital conversion rig and presses “Go” listening and watching out only for catastrophic faults. Then on to the next one, then the next one until it’s time to go home.

Further , as I have remarked elsewhere,. some original masters actually sound pretty awful. when great mastering engineers were more common than they seem to be now hours could be spent trying to achieve the best sound with numerous tape passes for each element of EQ decided upon. I doubt that today’s business constraints always allow for such perfectionism.

Where care has been taken digital can sound fabulous. See my forthcoming comparison of the same title from Mercury Living Presence in SACD and LP formats which I will post in What’s Spinning hopefully later today :smiley:.

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My observation is more anecdotal than it is precise. I have most of my vinyl in digital form, and oftentimes I am playing something in digital and it is sounding amazing. And then I switch to vinyl, and often, not always it sounds MORE amazing.

I described the case of the Nina Simone somewhere in this thread. The ability to truly compare is rare. And it is also true that the mastering matters a lot - possibly Ryan K Smith is better at mastering on a lathe than tuning a DSD encoder properly (whatever that means).

My conclusion is: regardless of one sounding better than the other, digital and analog sound different, always. Sometimes close, always different. And although digital might be sounding amazing, it often happens to me that I move to vinyl and my experience is even more awesomeness - and this in spite of all its flaws like noise floors et al.

It has been a wash for some time.

dCS is digital only, but many of us have analog front ends too. Who’s starting a vinyl thread? Would be useful to have these informative conversations in a dedicated place.

You might like to read through this, to get an idea why:

In the case of the Nina Simone by Ryan K Smith, the very same analog chain was used. Possibly there were small tweaks for the lacquer cut vs the DSD encode.

There is a lot to do with vinyl mastering, with many techniques and options, not just small tweaks:

https://xvinylx.com/info/DMM

OK, the other way around now. We are way off topic. The OP’s question was on user opinions to help him decide whether to keep a Vivaldi One demo unit or to wait for Rossini Apex.

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Keep it…:wink:

The answer between Rossini Apex (whatever that is) and Vivaldi is SME 20/3… :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Which, of course , makes the question fundamentally unanswerable for the time being.

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Another thales user here and love it

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What is with all the flagged posts? Is it someone in the community trying to play moderator - or someone from dCS themselves.

Threads tend to drift. They eventually get back on track. Detours are normal and there is nothing wrong with them.

Best
Gregg

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Just checked: the price of an MSB Reference DAC (the top one is the Select) is $39,500. Same as my Rossini+Clock give or take, cheaper than Apex Rossini+Clock.

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Miguel, have you posted this in the correct thread? Should it not be in the adjacent dCS Vivaldi vs MSB one?