Hey golden I think my ears are fucked beyond repair because the two door cinema club song sound harsh but the second stage sound fine to my ears. Chain is spotify-zencan-magnius balanced HD560s. Am I fucked?
Too bad the moving camera makes me nauseous. I’ve tried twice, third time was the charm, have to agree you do get into the weeds of this Chord. Usually listening to Jazz so this piece of kit should improve my Bluesound Node immensely. You turned me on to Bob Moses, Cheers for that. 🙏
Very brave of you to offer such a verdict on a product from DCS, a truly world class company. For what it's worth, your verdict aligns perfectly with my impressions when I auditioned a number of expensive DACS & streamers to replace a Naim CDS3 cd player. I described the Bartok as being the best player of elevator music that I have ever heard. Music was beautifully smooth, refined, inoffensive and incapable of retaining our attention. All this in the context of a high end system with Innuos Statement server, Naim 500 series electronics and expensive Focal, Wilson & Kudos loudspeakers. By way of contrast, the Naim ND555, DCS Rossini (with external clock) and Chord DAVE (but only with M Scaler) all seemed to replay engaging music very well indeed, albeit each with its own character and strengths. N.B. my auditions were conducted before the APEX upgrade, so the Bartok may be materially more engaging now. Thank you for a super review.
@goldensound you stated in your hypsos oor review: "The SINAD/THD+N value is limited by PSU noise it seems. This PSU noise is due to leakage from the HYPSOS. It can be eliminated by using the stock power supply, but in doing so you’d lose the transient power correction capability of the HYPSOS, so whether the HYPSOS or stock PSU will give a better sound". Is it correct that hypsos leakage may spread out to other gear through AV line?
GOODBYE MQA: starting July 24, 2024, you will no longer be able to access music in the MQA or 360 Reality Audio formats via any TIDAL application or integration. For stereo sound, FLAC was chosen as the format we’ll support going forward because it is open source-meaning any artist can deliver their music in high quality directly to TIDAL without the involvement of a third party. This makes it easier for their fans to experience music in the highest possible sound quality on all their devices. For immersive sound, Dolby Atmos was chosen as the format we will support going forward due to the number of compatible devices, catalog availability, and artist adoption of the format. Through our continued partnership with Dolby, we’ve given artists the opportunity to expand on their sonic vision, allowing their fans to experience their music like never before. If you have an MQA track or album in your Collection - including in playlists - the track will automatically be replaced by the highest quality FLAC version that has been distributed to TIDAL. If you have an MQA track or album downloaded for offline access, you will need to update to the latest version of the app on July 24. You will then be prompted to redownload these tracks. This will download the replacement FLAC version of any MQA track you previously downloaded. If you have a 360 Reality Audio track or album in your Collection - including in a playlist or downloaded for offline access - you will see the track or album grayed out and unavailable for streaming if you try to select it.
Tash Sultana - Blackbird - 7 Layers Sessions #5 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DnGPxmxVTuE.html is amazing! Thank you for your reviews.
Thanks for the review. I have a dCS Bartok APEX version pairing with Mcintosh MA1200 and FOCAL Sopra NO2, and it sounds amazing and lovely. I didn't hear what you are mentioning.
not even close. SP3000 and T are the usual well resolving l delta sigma with a nice but heavy housing. Nothing to rave about. Same with N8ii and n30le (second one got great amp section). The only competition is RS8 but its tuning is arguable worse.
I have an android phone and been debating which music streaming service I should go with to give me the best sound quality in my sound sytem in my truck. I want as clean as possible with no distortion and atleast cd quality music. I been using RU-vid music but not the premium but thought about purchasing YT premium, Apple Music, Tidal. Which do you think I should go with with my andriod
Your advice about the suede pads turned out to be spot on for me too. I bought some after watching this review because I had to admit that the peakiness you referred to was an issue for me as well that I'd been trying to live with. Thanks for the great advice.
Absolutely great review. Thank you! A quick question though: You can see the SVS subs playing in one part of the video. Was that part of the DAC test? If so, how was the cross-over realized, as the T+A is only a 2 channel DAC?
At 14:57: the ringing isn't an artifact or interpolation; that is really there in the source content, unlike what you say in the note. As you can see in the zoomed in view, the samples are still all 0 except for the single sample. The fact that it looks like a unit impulse curve is just because the samples happen to line up in that exact position. The ringing curve shown is what the samples describe and was always present.
Heyo, I don't have a video on this. But right now the two best DACs I've tried at any price have been the Holo May KTE and Rockna Wavedream Signature Balanced
3:35 curious why your sub of choice is an SB16-ultra (closed/sealed) instead of a ported PB16-ultra. I assumed the PB16-ultra would be better because it is a larger enclosure and a higher price, but is there a reason related to sound quality why you chose a non-ported SB16-Ultra?
Generally, ported subwoofers have the advantage of being able to achieve higher SPL for a given driver size than sealed, but sealed subs will have better actual SQ due to having less time domain ringing, can have a flatter FR, lower group delay and phase rotation. Generally people describe them as being 'Tighter' and more controlled sounding. If buying for a home theatre system where you want to be able to achieve the maximum SPL for the form factor, a ported sub is probably the way to go. For critical listening applications and hifi, generally a sealed sub is likely to be better. I have two of the SB16 Ultras and for my room two of those is somewhat overkill so the extra SPL of a ported sub would be wasted. I'm maximising for quality and so the sealed sub was the way to go.
@@GoldenSound thanks for the quick reply. Super interesting, thanks for the info. Sounds like I would go for sealed as well then. Do you recommend 2 subs for hifi or critical listening over just 1? Not for extra volume, just for sound quality alone. Usually just one sub would mean that it is placed slightly to the right or left of a wall instead of right in the middle, but since it’s a sub and not a normal speaker, would you be able to tell that the sound is coming more from that left/right if it’s just one sub or would you not be able to tell really?
@@camoturtle18 I would 100% recommend going for multiple subs over one, even if it means getting two smaller subs. Multiple subs are the single most effective way to control room modes and can do so effectively below frequencies that it is practical to address with room treatment. As to whether you should set your subs up in mono or stereo it depends on how low your speakers go and what your configured crossover frequency is. If you are using the subs with bookshelf speakers and the subs are crossing over up around 100hz or something, you should probably set them up for stereo. If you are using full size speakers that already go down to 40hz etc, then there is no localisation information down that low (and sound actually doesn't behave in a typical directional fashion anyway, search for "schroeder frequency" if wanting to learn more), and so you should configure them for mono and position them in the room in the way that provides the flattest frequency response in the bass
the headphones themselves look so similar to the Bravura, including the driver itself, to bad you can't connect the Bravura on the Aperio energizer/amp/dac, because i would like to know how much of the difference in sound quality is the drivers vs the electronics. Bravura is currently top on my list for my next pair of headphones, how much better are the Aperio's ?
Sensational review, absolute credit to you for speaking your mind on exactly how the Bartok sounds to you. Takes an awful lot of courage to talk down a piece of HiFi equipment, especially from dcs, but no other HiFi reviewer I’ve come across is prepared to offer anything other than good reviews for every product they get in their house. Subscribed and looking for more from you 🎉
