dcs are made in uk with most of the components sourced from chinatheres many vintage dacs in £2000 max that can wipe the floor with £20k dcs stuff
Bartok DAC
- Thread starter philiphifi
- Start date
Colin L
High-tech low-life
Hard to understand that, but then I look at your green stubby ears and it all makes sense
It like this really.
Put a bartock, rossini both now running the same software on the dac into a balanced quantity system and you will soon realise what it's all about.
It's certainly no good feeding a quality dac I to a system that just can't do it justice, as you will only hear a percentage off what it can do, and more likely it will only show up the problem you have in your system.
Dave v bartock 2.0, the dave will sound cold and more sterile in comparison
Put a bartock, rossini both now running the same software on the dac into a balanced quantity system and you will soon realise what it's all about.
It's certainly no good feeding a quality dac I to a system that just can't do it justice, as you will only hear a percentage off what it can do, and more likely it will only show up the problem you have in your system.
Dave v bartock 2.0, the dave will sound cold and more sterile in comparison
Taken from dCS forum, this is from a question asked about materials, and where from.
Question answered from a member of staff from dCS.
As you will read, you are very wrong and misinformed.
This thread is almost spilling over into non audio or music related so I’m keen to try and keep on topic.
To answer some of the questions I’ll start by echoing Ben’s point that any audio product is the result of many years research and development, prototyping and testing before going into actual assembly and production. At dCS it doesn’t stop there, as we continue to innovate and update our products through their life, mostly through software updates.
We have been in audio for over 30 years, starting out in A-D and the recording end of the chain before moving into signal conversion (upsamplng/downsampling) and the playback end with D-A technology. All through this time our engineers have been working to advance the state of the art in digital playback. In terms of product design we do not use standard off the shelf components (e.g. SPDIF receivers, DAC chips, output stages etc.). Any competent electronics engineer could make a DAC if they went down this route, but at dCS the entire signal path is in the dCS domain and any design trade-offs or decisions are made by us (not the chip designer) and with performance in mind.
You are correct that most of the components you will find on a printed circuit board originate in the US or Asia. However, our PCBs are manufactured in the UK by various contract manufacturers, depending on the complexity of the board. It is worth pointing out that our hardware is proprietary to dCS as is the software code that runs on them. All of the design effort to create this hardware and software is the result of our years of experience and performed by our team of engineers in our UK factory.
Second, our raw metal is milled in Europe, cut into billets and slabs, transported to the UK and then machined into fascias, sides, tops, buttons etc. by various precision engineering firms in the UK before being anodised. Different engineering firms have different competencies and tools so we always try to match the right supplier to the part or process required. This is a skill in itself and crucially important when products are in the market for many years as fit and finish must remain consistent.
A dCS audio product is not just the kit of parts. It is the results of years of R&D, extensive prototyping and testing, unique hardware and proprietary software. Our suppliers and partners also bring extensive experience and expertise which we tap into to ensure our products are state of the art. Performance, reliability and ease of huge are so important to us so without our partners we could not build the products we do.
Finally, unlike many audio companies we do all of the final assembly in house as our assembly technicians are skilled craftsmen (and women) who are able to assemble and test all of our products.
And yet on the dCS Forum it was stated and not refuted that the Ethernet input was a cheap off the shelf piece......
Colin L
High-tech low-life
dCS are quite pragmatic about ethernet, eschewing fancy cables, audiophile routers, SFP's and other add-ons which they view as unnecessary. I think they see it as established tech and fault free. Some of their customers differ of course.
Their streaming module is I think from an Austrian company (might be wrong on this) who make higher end devices though still not pricey in the scheme of things. What happens once onboard in terms of data handling is fully under dCS control and that's where their expertise lies.
Their streaming module is I think from an Austrian company (might be wrong on this) who make higher end devices though still not pricey in the scheme of things. What happens once onboard in terms of data handling is fully under dCS control and that's where their expertise lies.
Amber Audio
This is the Day
How is that any different to other manufacturer specific forums, upgrade path threads abound, just look at LP12 or Naim Amp threads for examples.
Amber Audio
This is the Day
We’re all made different. I’m on the dCS forum regularly too and appreciate reading threads by folk who’ve made the move to the next level up - Vivaldi+Upsampler, it doesn’t make me enjoy listening to my Rossini any less, I’m content with my choice.
I did go Bartok (original) to Rossini Apex, the jump was worth the outlay to me. Lots of folk stick with the Bartok and seem very happy with it as their end game.
As for the Ethernet, admittedly I've not delved into it much but I’d be very surprised if many/any DAC makers produce their own inhouse NICs or SFP modules from scratch. JCAT is well renowned as a standalone netword card maker but even their PCIe NIC boils down to an Intel i350 chip, the same as I have in some of my Windows Servers.
Disagree. Firstly it's not a problem: the dCS did not cut it on sonic grounds so went to a good home. Secondly, it does dent any pride of ownership. I don't know if this is common to any other brand Fora. The only one I do know-Cayin owners-reflects owner satisfaction whether a cheaper or more expensive product.
nostromo
pfm Member
I aspire to a dCS DAC, sadly not in this life unless I win the lottery. I've heard the Vivaldi on a couple of occasions and it sounded superb. It's the best DAC I've ever heard. I don't know why the Units are so big neither do I understand how they filter the signal although it was explained to me. The external clock box which is also huge. I have not been impressed by Dave at all in comparison.
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
That’s the horrible thing in hifi- giant killers are the stuff of legend (only).
Hard to understand that, but then I look at your green stubby ears and it all makes sense
Couldn't ask for a better example of a groupthink response to a divergent view.