That makes no sense. Rossini is using the Vivaldi software, Bartok is on Rossini v1. V1 —> v2 was huge. Nonesense
I’m expecting delivery of the Vivaldi Clock in a little while and will then be able to write about its effect on the sound along with the Rossini Dac, as well as the effect on my Niimbus us5 pro. Thanks Ben for your review. I was guided in my choice by him among other things.
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@miguelito I’m with you that it makes no sense, but I’ve heard all of the below except one. All were direct comparisons except the Bartok on v1 with Vivaldi Clock vs. the Rossini on v2 with the Rossini Clock.
- Rossini on v2 with a Vivaldi Clock.
- TBD: Bartok on v1 with a Vivaldi Clock.
- TBD: Rossini on v2 with a Rossini Clock.
- Rossini on v2 with no clock.
- Bartok on v1 with a Rossini Clock ← haven’t heard this one
- Bartok on v1 with no clock.
(Unsurprisingly, the best was Rossini on v2 with a Vivaldi Clock. It sounded fantastic.)
The Vivaldi Clock made a much, much bigger difference to both the Rossini and Bartok than we expected — it wasn’t close to us.
I was fully expecting that the Rossini, its newer software and other improvements would better the Bartok with the Vivaldi Clock. To my ears, and in my system, it did not. It was actually worse in ways that were important to me. (Perhaps this is where @PAR is onto something — we each enjoy different things from our systems. The better timing added more for me than the better software and more capable DAC hardware.)
It still sounded delicious of course, but my money would go on a Bartok and a second-hand or demo Vivaldi Clock over a Rossini with no clock. One day I’ll find out if adding a Rossini Clock to a Rossini DAC (@Anupc is paying attention!) would restore the range order 
That’d give you Rossini Clock² 
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Interesting…
What’s the full system and source music?
@miguelito, as you know, no test is a test unless it is administered blind, by a third party, so you have zero expectation bias.
I was actually talking about price differences between dCS and MSB
What cables are you using for word clock and interconnects?
That was a question because it sounds strange to me as well…
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Cables between the clock and the DAC. The stock cables are very generic. When I got my Rossini and Rossini clock I got a pair of 50cm, BNC terminated Cardas Parsecs which I found to improve the sound.
To be fair dCS do tell you that in the User Manual " The cables supplied with the unit are " commercial grade" because most owners will have their own " audiophile grade" cables or will prefer to make their own cable choices".
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Just to add to the conversation, based on forum recommendations, I started with Apogee Wyde Eye between my Rossini and Clock. Last month I purchased a previous generation pair of Black Cat Digit 75 cables. There was an improvement - enough for me to order their new Mini Tron clock cables which are trickle down technology from the Tron cable. Supposedly the performance of these $1150 each Mini Tron cables bumps right up against that of the $2300 Tron. When I purchased my Rossini Clock in the spring of 2020 it was approximately $7000. I simply cannot bring myself to purchase $4600 worth of digital cables for a $7000 clock. I can afford it however the VFM simply does not compute.
Marco is happily using the Tron cables.
Best
Gregg
PS - guilty as charged of thread drift as there are other dedicated threads speaking about clock cables.
PSS - more thread drift. I am going to try BlackCat’s premium brand Grace Line and have ordered a set of Level 2 XLR cables to use between my Linn Klimax DS and various dynamic and electrostatic headphone amplifiers
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What has the miniTron added to the sound? Was it much different from Digit-75? Do you think this substitution is justified?
@miguelito Miguel, I agree with you. I wasn’t sure how large the gap was between digital and vinyl until I compared a couple albums to the Redbook rips using my Rossini. I compared Dave Brubeck’s ‘Time Out’ album and Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Axis Bold as Love’ album. Digital sounds lifeless compared to the vinyl. I didn’t have SACD rips and I don’t own a Vivaldi so I suspect your results may be closer than mine. However I only have a Project RPM 9 turntable and Sumiko Blue Point No 3 cartridge so your SME setup must sound very special.
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From the wall to my ears:
- DR Acoustics Antigone, strung up with…
- A bunch of Iconoclast power cables, re-terminated with Furutech FI-50s/52s as needed
- Keces P8, which powers a Cisco router, Roon Nucleus+, and a GigaFoil optical isolator
- BlueJeans Ethernet cables
- dCS Bartok
- dCS Vivaldi Clock
- SRS Perf10 Reference Clock
- T+A A 3000 HV power amp
- Enleum 23R headphone amp
- Von Schweikert VR-7 Reference speakers
- Susvara, Empyrean, Liric, Vérité Closed, HD800S, Z1R headphones (plus some others)
Interconnects and speaker cables are all Iconoclast (OCC and SPTPC respectively).
Clock cables are 1.5m Van Damme.
Music is anything and everything, but I suspect my listening approaches @anon30536008 more than @PAR (though I like them both as humans).
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Ben,what do you like about Susvara and what is the difference with HD 800S? It’s all about the Apex series. I’m wondering how I should prepare for its release so as not to fall into a puddle. 
I’ll explain why I’m interested. I have an HD 800S. 2 weeks ago I got a custom balanced litz silver cable. The sound gain was very impressive. The stage and holography of the sound went up many times over. I think it would be hard for other headphones to compete with the HD 800S.
