A few months ago my dealer gave me the opportunity to lend his Vivaldi dac with apex to compare to my own Vivaldi dac. I told him I had no intention to buy the expensive upgrade, my system was already performing great so what more could I want. He insisted I would compare the two a few days and brought the apex Vivaldi anyway.
I swapped the dacs and listened. The difference was noticeable. The usual words came to mind: more blackness, more focus, you know the jargon. I can best say that the placement of instruments was more robust and stable with the apex.
I put my own dac back in the system the evening before the apex should be returned. Only then the difference was most apparent. It was a hassle to swap both, but I did put the apex back in one more time just to be sureā¦
The result was I ordered the upgrade, although I did not want to before hand. This weekend the apex board will be fitted.
Canāt comment on Vivaldi, but my Rossini APEX upgrade provided a significant improvement - much more than I had expected from the demo at the dealer. This was noticeable immediately in my system and did not need hours of āburn inā.
Just a few days ago my dealer was informed by dCS that the APEX upgrade to both Rossini and Vivaldi incorporated a change in the analog stage: the output level optimization moved from 6v to 2v. Seems so many customers had issues in using 6v with their preamps, which forced them to drop to 2v that dCS chose to make this change. My preamp, a Spectral SV, was a happy camper with the pre-APEX set for 6v. So, the dealer has been informing all customers who have made this upgrade and using preamps to switch to 2v.
All I can say is after changing the āOutput Levelā setting on the Vivaldi APEX, itās moā bettaā in so many respects. My first impression is that someone moved my seat almost into the laps of the performers, with a consequential wider soundstage, greater precision of everything in space, etc.
Suggest if you have a preamp being fed by the APEX, contact your dealer to confirm whether or not theyāve been provided this guidance and get their assessment of your setup for testing this out. I know it seems silly, but Iām a bit of a stickler for crossing my tās and dotting my iās on things that might become a problem.
Yes. Initially, the information came from another vendorās rep and was then confirmed by John Giolas. The āsweetā spot, if you will, for setting the Output Level for an APEX DAC (either Rossini or Vivaldi) has moved from 6v to 2v. Assuming that youāre using a preamp, this is now the ideal setting. Sonically, at least with my Spectral preamp, the result is quite noticeably better. Just give it a try to confirm.
I suspect the best approach is to contact your dealer to ensure communication is properly shared. Then it may not be put into writing until the next release of either a new dCS APEX DAC manual or an updated version of the current one. That would spell out the differences between the older version of the DAC and the APEX version, as to āOutput Levelā, and when each option should be used. But thatās just me
Well thats interesting as i had a vivaldi apex dac on demo for the last few weeks and ran it at the 2V setting, started at 6V but found it very loud and i just preferred the way it sounded at 2V over the 6V.
My non apex rossini was always running 6V into my naim pre amp and after many swapping up and down, i found the 6V better.
Just like Dunc I settled on 6V with my Naim 552. Several other friends are doing the same.
Steve appears to be stating things have changed with APEX. I am willing to entertain this as I had a similar discussion with my dealer regarding mapping. When I purchased my Rossini I received an email from John Quick with explanations and recommendations of mapping and filter settings. My dealer explained these were determined via years of consensus built amongst various dealers and reps.
He told me I should experiment as APEX may result in a rethink of previously used mapping and filter preferences. I have not done any concrete experimentation however informally I have changed my filter preference since upgrading to APEX. It is possible the same may be true with the voltage setting. Any comment from dCS would be welcome as it would confirm or deny any measurable changes (as Ben alluded to) which may have occurred with APEX
When I had the Bartok I found the 6v output definitely better. Having since upgraded to the Rossini APEX, I would say the 2v output is much improved. The 6v doesnāt now seem to offer much of an advantage.
Listened to the Halle recording of Wagnerās Parsifal over the weekend. It was recorded in Londonās Albert Hall - cavernous acoustic, sumptuous sound. The embodiment of āhere, time becomes spaceā - to quote a famous line from the libretto.
Anyway, with the Bartok, I would have used 6v as a matter of course for such a large scale piece. But I found 2v at least as good using Rossini APEX. I think it will become my new ānormalā setting.
In addition to my previous reply Sourav, Iād like to say that my limited time so far with the upgraded Vivaldi APEX DAC suggests a bit less of a noticeable difference between Mapper 1 and Mapper 3 than Iād previously experienced. Mapper 1 still seems to lend itself more to classical music while Mapper 3 finds a home in jazz and most popular music. Hard to put my finger on this one, however. The distance just seems to have narrowed.
I still seem to find filter 5 my favorite for the DAC when PCM or DSD is playing (I do upsample to 352 and 384). I donāt find particular variations in the filters for the Upsampler. But Iāll need to spend more time with all of the filters now that Iāve got the APEX set up using 2v output.
Would love to hear from others any judgments theyāve made on the many options.
