Vivaldi vs Vivaldi Apex Impressions

That makes me very curious, Greg.

And that is why :wink:

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That itself says a lot.

I am finding Rossini Apex itself to be too good (and getting better day by day even after 4 months). So wondering how Vivaldi Apex wud sound like.

Regards,
Sourav

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Erno, and if I cannot, well, Iā€™ll just have to continue to bear the burden. :wink:

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Please do let us know how you (try to) integrate the 2 setups. I guess analogue cabling and a Dodocus-like switch need to be used. I hope not a split XLR cable set. Or did you find a suitable preamp with a pass-through?

Yeah, this will be interesting. As I already have a Dodocus in the headphone stack, trying it out will be easy enough.

What is the distance between your Vivaldi stack and headphone stack?

Theyā€™re on two different floors, probably minimum of 30 feet distance. If Iā€™m going to make this work, I will probably need to get my wifeā€™s indulgence to move a vertical version of the headphone system into the living room.

How heigh is your living room? A vertical version of your headphone system will take some :grinning:

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Hi Greg,

Did you ever consider demoing the dCS Lina headamp?

Nah. Donā€™t need another DAC. I am pretty much end state in my headphone rack.

What is your headphone chain?

I meant the Lina headamp. It sounds wonderful together with my non-Apex Rossini DAC, so it must be truly great with your Vivaldi Apex.

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Nah, also donā€™t need another or replacement head amp. :wink: I am sure it sounds great. But I donā€™t feel a compelling sense of dissatisfaction with any of my head amps. To the contrary. Plus, thereā€™s the whole electrostat/ribbon factor.

Source: ļ»æROON Nucleus+ (same that feeds speakers)

DAC: MSB Select II w/ network renderer (and Transport, which I rarely use)

Outputs:

  1. T2ā€“>Stax 009S, and probably 9000 (one on loan now from Ben)

  2. Mjolnir Carbon CCā€”>Stax 007 Mk1 & Mk2

  3. RAAL HSA-1bā€”>SR1a ribbon ear speakers

  4. Trafomatic Primaveraā€”>Susvara

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I would love to compare by my Susvara the dCS Lina headamp with the Trafomatic Primavera, but cannot demo the latter.

FWIW I love my Bartok with the Ferrom Oor headphone amp (plus Hypsos). This is a super fantastic system. Headphones include Dan Clark Audio Stealth and Expanse and the Meze Elite. Considering if I want to upgrade this system to Rossini Apex.

For two channel, Iā€™m considering moving to powered speakers to downsize. Iā€™ve gotten very used to headphones and I love that I donā€™t have to work hard to optimize a room for a two channel system, a room that has multiple uses.

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Yeah, I bought mine during the pandemic, ears unheard, but with the comfort of a good European friendā€™s enthusiastic recommendation and a lot of time on the phone with the US distributor, and reviews of course. Were it not for the pandemic, I would happily have traveled to Serbia to demo the amp. But that wasnā€™t a possibility at the time. In fact, even if there had been local or regional demos available, nobody was open. So I took the plunge. Zero regrets. On the Primavera, the Sus are a match for the Stax and RAAL in many respects. The Sus and the ZMF VeritĆ© C are the closest things I have to ā€œtraditionalā€ cans. They sound superb on the Primavera, though I use the ZMF mostly for desktop listening when I need isolation. The Focal Utopia also sounded about as good as I could get it to on the Primavera, it I never loved those headphones. Sold them soon after.

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Thanks Greg,

I am still curious to hear the Primavera prior to buying.

I know you liked this ā€œFactory Tourā€ of Trafomatic Audio, and I know a lot of high end audio manufacturing is cottage industry, but I think this beats it to the point of doubt :smiley:

Oh yeah, I loved that! :rofl: Seeing the amp itself in person, you would have no idea it did not come out of a high-end, CAD-assisted, Hollywood-style, sterile lab environment. Though I swear I smelled strong tobacco the first time I fired her up.

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How do you route to the different amps? Some form of switchbox or just plug/unplug?