Maybe I’m imagining it, but it seems the new firmware loaded onto my Vivaldi Upsampler in conjunction with the updated Mosaic app, has elevated the SQ of my system. Seems everything has more focus and impact along with a quieter background and finer details. I’ve yet to play more challenging recordings - those that have extremes of one kind or another. These may well reveal more of just how much this update improves the sound I’m already sensing.
Anyone else picking up any of these things?
Damnation !!! You revealed that the Apex software does not need the Apex hardware to improve sound quality 
mmmm, updated Mosaic, had the Rossini downloading the update, and all went downhill, new update is not installed on Rossini, Mosaic cannot find my Rossini anymore, cannot do the update via the Rossini display, have tried switching it of a couple of times, and have done a factory reset, but no luck 
Firstly, please make sure you have the latest version of the Mosaic app downloaded to your phone / tablet as that should solve the problem with Mosaic not seeing your Rossini. This was only released overnight, so may not have automatically downloaded yet.
Next, could you let me know what the Rossini shows as the software versions running on it? You can see details on how to find that out here.
Thanks James, I just completely removed Mosaic from my Ipad and re-downloaded it, when opening up it connected to my Rossini showing it needed an update, I am in that process now, update is being performed. (also moved my network cable to the "fast"side of the Melco switch, shoud help the download)
All ok now, sorry for the panic 
, when I hit reply after my firtst post I remembered that I had a simular situation with the last update and that switching to a fast port of my Melco S100 switch helped (and fully deleting the Mosaic app from Ipad)
Now, this is interesting.
I was going to write exactly the same comment: “Seems everything has more focus and impact along with a quieter background and finer details”. These four things, the exact words!
I have a Rossini with clock.
Can’t really fathom how it can be. But maybe this firmware changed something in how - and especially when - the network card is polled? As if less noise gets through for some reason.
Let’s hear the tech people …
Andrea
Can’t comment on any sound quality changes (but one would assume that if any sonic impacting change to the code was made, dCS wouldn’t keep it a secret, why would they 
)
As for the network card, it’s is not polled actually. The incoming TCP streams are buffered, reassembled, and unpacked into PCM/DSD, then synchronised to the system clock, and streamed off as synchronous I²S to the FPGAs for digital signal processing.
Just noticed playback bar scrubbing in Mosaic is now synchronized with Roon. Very nice. Thank you!
Complete disaster for me. My Rossini Transport can’t read SACDs anymore… trying to figure out what happened 
No explanation then …. I’ll try some well known tracks tonight, but I totally agree about the differences, at least for the moment.
Hi Franco,
I understand that not being able to play SACDs at the moment is frustrating and annoying however we have “spoken” about this on here and I have said that we are looking into it and will get back to you as soon as I have some information …
Your Transport does also seem to be working perfectly, it seems to be the Rossini that isn’t playing DSD from the transport (given that the Rossini has just had an update and the Transport hasn’t changed) and I have asked you (in reply to your PM) for some additional information that I believe I am still waiting for?
BR
Phil
That’s correct Phil. Thanks much for all your help. Franco
It would be nice to know what changes were made in the code that would potentially affect the resulting sound we hear - without giving away anything about the “secret sauce”. For instance, if factors related to timing or frequency or such are “fixed” that might suggest what I’m hearing. Just an FYI: I output nearly all source to DSD in the Vivaldi Upsampler.
Listening right now to “Crazy” (Gnarls Barkley).
It sounds better. No doubt. More air around instruments, better timing, more details in all voices . And silence in the background.
Guys, please tell me that just cycling the boxes off and on did the trick, and I’ll believe it.
Or please give me a better explanation.
A.
What Anup said. Seriously, if dCS thought they were improving SQ, why wouldn’t they make a point of it? This is vaguely reminiscent of the Roon 1.7->1.8 upgrade. Half of everyone insisted they heard a difference. Roon’s authors insisted there were no changes that could affect SQ. But . . . audiophiles. Unless one could do an actual A/B/X comparison, and I don’t know how you could here, why would one think this is anything more than expectation bias? My upgrade took under 8 minutes, and I hear no difference in SQ. If you do, well, enjoy!
P.S. To Steve’s point, I have a question for @James and the other dCS guys: was there a “firmware” update here? Was it across the board, i.e., for all models? Or was this all about control software only? My impression was the latter. From an engineer’s point of view, were changes made that theoretically could have an impact on SQ? I am not a fan of audiophoodoo, but changes can produce changes.
Oh but there may be tons of explanations!
Like when you have a cold and you hear things in a different way.
I was not expecting any SQ difference, so when I noticed it I tried to find a reason. But, if there are no scientific explanations, I’ll have to wait a few days and see if it stays there or not.
A.
Thanks Greg. I’m not of a “conspiracy theorist” mind, or otherwise seeking to find any change where none should exist.
My experience with the update began when I happened to update the Mosaic app and then discovered it wouldn’t find the Upsampler. So, I knew something was amiss, as Roon happily worked fine. That’s when I launched my browser and pointed to the Upsampler and it had no problem presenting that interface. I figured to see if an update was available. Sure enough it found one and I dutifully launched the download/installation process. Upon restart of the Upsampler I could now get Mosaic to work.
It was over the course of the day that I was struck by the perceived sonic changes I’ve reported. It’s as if there’s a clearer focus in the spatial sense. And it’s top to bottom with a greater delineation of all sonic characteristics, including, but not limited to the spatial and, at least for me with my system, more lower bass layers - altogether less “muddy” (coalesced). This stuff is quite hard to describe.
Yea…gotten run to the medicine cabinet and pull out one of the “free” Fed supplied Covid tests. You never know…maybe a new symptom (delusional audio nervosa).
No changes that impact sound quality in 1.2 - the release added features (transport controls, TIDAL Connect) and did some maintenance & bug fixes on the backend, but no changes that would have caused any difference in SQ.
The only products that received an update to the control board were the Rossini DAC and Player, the rest were all updated only on the network side.