Product Reviews

Filter by Components

"Images in the soundspace were more conspicuously crystalline, and the space around them was emptier…"
29/02/2024
"Designed and built with the utmost care, it offers an experience that overturns habits and reticence about the digital transition. It's an investment for life."
14/02/2024
Mono & Stereo Best Buy Product Award & Highly Recommended Product Award 2024
19/01/2024
‘a performance of impressive authority…’
10/01/2024
High End Headphone System of the Year 2023
09/01/2024
Best Product 2023
29/12/2023
Editors Choice - High End Streamer 2023/ 2024
01/12/2023
Stereo Sound Best Buy Award 23-24
10/12/2023
Stereo Sound Grand Prix Award 2023
10/12/2023
"Astonishingly sophisticated…comfortably the best headphone performance I have had the pleasure to experience."
01/11/2023
"Consistently seemed to remove an opaque barrier that had been preventing me from connecting more deeply with some of my favorite music."
17/08/2023
"A stunning addition..."
15/08/2023
"astonishingly capable and beautifully realised"
08/08/2023
"Lina isn't just an investment, it's a passion for life."
07/07/2023
"The Lina worked as perfectly in my two channel system as it did in my headphone system.... one of my great audio experiences of the summer."
04/08/2023
"Breathtaking to listen to and will drive any dynamic or exotic planar design effortlessly. Massive soundstage and performance are all uncolored with exceptional transparency and lifelike imaging."
10/07/2023
"The Lina system as a whole is what enables Pearl Jam, Natalie Merchant, and Van Morrison music to tug at my heartstrings like no other headphone system on the planet."
07/07/2023
‘a much more powerful amplifier than its specs and desk-friendly size would imply... '
08/03/2023
'If there’s a detail in the song – no matter how small – Lina will deliver it to your headphones.'
22/02/2023
"This thing sounds amazing. I loved it. I really enjoyed listening to it. I want it."
08/02/2023
2022 Best Solid State Amplifier
21/12/2022
2022 Best Desktop DAC
21/12/2022
"Lina colours nothing...it lets the music flow through as it was recorded. It represents perfect neutrality."
30/11/2022
2022 Best Stack - High End
19/12/2022
2022 Overall Product of the Year
"Tightens up that stock performance considerably...breathing life into those mids and highs and fleshing everything out quite beautifully..."
04/11/2022
"A high energy, articulate performer with world-class resolution"
19/09/2022
"Simply irresistible..."
15/09/2022
"Truly remarkable…neutral, transparent and highly revealing"
12/09/2022
"The perfect high performing partner to it's siblings"
27/08/2022
"Easy to use, sounds fantastic, and it fits in about any environment'
25/07/2022
"Lina is a total success...establishing itself as the best headphone listening solution ever heard"
01/06/2022
"the finest solid state headphone system I've seen to date"
24/05/2022
"The best solid-state amplifier I've heard with our headphones"
24/05/2022
"Undoubtedly at an absolutely world-class level"
24/05/2022
"A true reference system for the most discriminating listener"
23/05/2022
"If you’re looking for the very best in digital reproduction, Lina delivers. Completely blew me away with its transparency and uncolored sound."
30/05/2022
Joint Overall Product of the Year 2023
18/11/2023
Vivaldi APEX DAC: The Absolute Sound Golden Ear Award Winner 2023
01/09/2023
"The APEX upgrade delivers a vast jump in every aspect of the Vivaldi One's performance..."
01/06/2023
HiFi Statement - Statement in High Fidelity Award 2023
23/05/2023
Editors Choice Award 2023: dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC Upsampler Master Clock
13/03/2023
'Unquestionably a technical masterpiece'
01/02/2023
‘Recorded music has never sounded as full, rich, flowing, rewarding, and natural…’
01/03/2023
'The DAC has the piano resounding so emphatically...that it constitutes the very essence of sonic realism...'
13/01/2023
Winner of the Tone Masterpiece Award 2022
02/01/2023
The Absolute Sound: Product of The Year 2022
01/01/2023
“To hear what the Vivaldi Apex can provide is mesmerizing.”
18/11/2022
" The APEX DAC sounded more natural, more organic, more... human."
21/10/2022
"The new Ring DAC APEX technology will offer even more of what they appreciate"
01/02/2022
"The most versatile digital system I've used and also- by far- the most sonically complete"
20/01/2017
"The Himalayan heights of digital playback...I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't be happy with it"
16/01/2017
"A Majestic performer that enraptures the listener...whatever one chooses to play"
22/05/2022
CD/SACD PLAYER of the Year 2024
15/01/2024
Winner of the Tone Masterpiece Award 2022
02/01/2023
"Leaves the listener in no doubt that they’re hearing one of the finest digital front ends that money can buy..."
27/04/2023
"The most capable digital-to-analogue converter we’ve ever reviewed…"
24/03/2023
"The Rossini Apex is on another level. Period. End of story."
17/02/2023
"Rossini APEX paints expressive pictures in sound right in front of your ears and they tell of a world, unlike ours, where anything is possible."
01/02/2023
"Not listening to this setup will be a serious mistake..."  
30/11/2022
Digital Source Component: Product of the Year 2022
01/11/2022
"Hard to imagine how it can be bettered."
02/11/2022
"A transformational change..."
01/09/2022
"The Rossini APEX DAC is more than another upgrade; it's a major advance in digital sound reproduction"
01/09/2022
"As close to digital perfection as I have ever heard"
19/03/2022
"The new mapper delivers greater focus and grip, allied to superior detail, poise and dynamics"
20/05/2019
"Digs deep into a recording, providing as much spine-tingling insight as any listener could want"
31/12/2018
"When you listen to the Rossini, all you get is beautifully fleshed out music"
05/10/2018
"There's just so much resolution here. We hear textures in instruments and dynamic nuances that most rivals simply don't notice"
04/04/2018
"Whether ones listens to folk, rock, jazz, vocal or classical the Rossini is completely capable of absolutely stellar music reproduction"
16/03/2018
"Recordings were portrayed with utter honesty and an intensely satisfying realism"
"Flexible, future-proof, superbly well-engineered, and equally superb-sounding"
28/10/2017
"A significant upgrade on the original and the 2.0 versions of this world-class all-in-one integrated DAC, pre-amp, and headphone amplifier…it is audibly more refined and coherent sounding"
04/03/2024
"The sonic improvements are a triumph of naturalism and harmonic detail that will floor even the most jaded audio listeners."
06/02/2024
DAC of the Year 2023
01/01/2024
2023 DAC/Amplifier of the Year
11/12/2023
Digital Source Component of the Year 2023
18/11/2023
"World-class...The very best digital reproduction I have experienced."
09/10/2023
“The musical sounds coming out of this new Bartók APEX sound more fantastically appealing than the ones generated by my original Bartók or any other DAC I’ve reviewed. That’s a major achievement.”
03/07/2023
"The Bartók APEX impressed me throughout the test period. What particularly stood out here was the lightness and authenticity with which [it] is able to resolve the finest details in the mid and high frequency range."
15/06/2023
"It startled me and my guests by triggering new responses to music we’d all heard many times before..."
30/05/2023
"remarkably accomplished…whatever you play through the new Bartók, and however you choose to play it, you’re dragged closer to the performance and immersed in the music."
06/03/2023
“Takes you into a rarefied world of elite digital sources with precious few compromises. Hear it if you possibly can.”
22/11/2022
"Suddenly seems to have acquired more depth & space...even more musicality"
01/10/2022
"Bartók 2.0 Easily exceeds the performance of the original...simply brilliant"
21/10/2022
"The performance of the Bartok is nothing short of breathtaking"
21/02/2020
"Hugely sophisticated"
02/07/2019
"Elegant, opulent sound."
28/05/2018
"The Bartók is in the top of it's class...this is a player I can listen to for 12-16 hours a day (and have on many occasions) with zero fatigue"
28/10/2019
"Don't buy a new car. Buy a dCS Bartók"
19/07/2019
"Digitally streamed music through the Bartók feels entirely joined-up and full of rhythmic transient music and life"
19/10/2019
"It was like being taken back to the day of the recording, with a vast soundstage that was truly holographic"
"A truly spectacular product"
24/05/2021
"It has sprung surprises since the moment I started listening and redefined elements of what I felt to be possible"
19/04/2021