Reviews

Product of the Year Award Winner 2025

Product of the Year Award Winner 2026

"Music Server/Digital Source of the Year 2026"

"If there is a gateway to the sacred in high fidelity, it is Varèse…"

Joint Overall Product of the Year 2025

Stereophile Recommended Component 2025: A+

dCS Varèse named Technology of the Year 2025

"I have never experienced so much pleasure and satisfaction, revelling in all kinds of music, in my music room..."

"An amazingly sophisticated product that advances digital audio playback technology..."

"Nothing can prepare you for this. It's nothing like digital or analogue. It feels like being in the studio..."

"A monumental achievement."

High End Headphone System of the Year 2023

Best Product 2023

"Astonishingly sophisticated…comfortably the best headphone performance I have had the pleasure to experience."

"A stunning addition..."

"Lina isn't just an investment, it's a passion for life."

"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."

"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."

"If there's a detail in the song – no matter how small – Lina will deliver it to your headphones."

2022 Best Stack - High End

2022 Overall Product of the Year

"Lina colours nothing...it lets the music flow through as it was recorded. It represents perfect neutrality."

"Simply irresistible..."

"Easy to use, sounds fantastic, and it fits in about any environment"

"Lina is a total success...establishing itself as the best headphone listening solution ever heard"

"the finest solid state headphone system I've seen to date"

"The best solid-state amplifier I've heard with our headphones"

"Undoubtedly at an absolutely world-class level"

"A true reference system for the most discriminating listener"

"If you're looking for the very best in digital reproduction, Lina delivers. Completely blew me away with its transparency and uncolored sound."

Joint Overall Product of the Year 2023

Vivaldi APEX DAC: The Absolute Sound Golden Ear Award Winner 2023

"The APEX upgrade delivers a vast jump in every aspect of the Vivaldi One's performance..."

HiFi Statement - Statement in High Fidelity Award 2023

Editors Choice Award 2023: dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC Upsampler Master Clock

"Unquestionably a technical masterpiece"

"Recorded music has never sounded as full, rich, flowing, rewarding, and natural…"

"The DAC has the piano resounding so emphatically...that it constitutes the very essence of sonic realism..."

Winner of the Tone Masterpiece Award 2022

The Absolute Sound: Product of The Year 2022

"To hear what the Vivaldi Apex can provide is mesmerizing."

"The APEX DAC sounded more natural, more organic, more... human."

"The new Ring DAC APEX technology will offer even more of what they appreciate"

"The most versatile digital system I've used and also- by far- the most sonically complete"

"The Himalayan heights of digital playback...I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't be happy with it"

"The Vivaldi 2.0 adds even more resolution. I think of the term as encapsulating everything about the music and the recording, from the rhythmic flow and movement, right through to the instrumental detail itself."

"The dCS Vivaldi components produced a texturally supple, delicate, musically involving sound filled with color and life. Their soundstaging and imaging capabilities surpass what I thought was possible from digital."

HiFi Live reviews the dCS Vivaldi

"The Vivaldi DAC is a stunning achievement. It elevated the Ralston listening room system to new and unexpected heights, and wrought significant improvements even in my more modest system."

"As disc followed disc, that evening went on to be one of the greatest listening sessions I have ever had with musical revelations following one upon another."

Ne Plus Ultra - dCS Vivaldi Digital Playback System

Vivaldi Sings - dCS Vivaldi Digital Playback System

Stereophile Recommended Component Class A+ 2024

"The Rossini isn't just another high-end DAC; it's a statement piece that embodies decades of digital audio expertise…"

"The time that one spends in the listening room with the Rossini cannot be long enough."

CD/SACD PLAYER of the Year 2024

Winner of the Tone Masterpiece Award 2022

"Leaves the listener in no doubt that they're hearing one of the finest digital front ends that money can buy..."

"The most capable digital-to-analogue converter we've ever reviewed…"

"The Rossini Apex is on another level. Period. End of story."

"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."

"Not listening to this setup will be a serious mistake..."

Digital Source Component: Product of the Year 2022

"Hard to imagine how it can be bettered."

"A transformational change..."

"The Rossini APEX DAC is more than another upgrade; it's a major advance in digital sound reproduction"

"As close to digital perfection as I have ever heard"

"The new mapper delivers greater focus and grip, allied to superior detail, poise and dynamics"

"Digs deep into a recording, providing as much spine-tingling insight as any listener could want"

"When you listen to the Rossini, all you get is beautifully fleshed out music"

"There's just so much resolution here. We hear textures in instruments and dynamic nuances that most rivals simply don't notice"

"Whether ones listens to folk, rock, jazz, vocal or classical the Rossini is completely capable of absolutely stellar music reproduction"

"Recordings were portrayed with utter honesty and an intensely satisfying realism"

"Flexible, future-proof, superbly well-engineered, and equally superb-sounding"

"The combination of the dCS Rossini Player and Clock produced what was, overall, the best sound from digital I have experienced in my system."

HiFi i Muzyka Poland reviews the dCS Rossini

"The subtle growl in Plastikman’s Mind Encode rolls out into my listening room in such a sinister, encompassing way, it’s almost frightening. It instantly reminds me of the aural magic that its much more expensive sibling, the four box Vivaldi, which until now was the only digital playback system capable of being this visceral."

"The Rossini excels in creating a sense of believable musical realism, and that is far closer to where I would like digital audio reproduction to be."

"The dCS Rossini DAC and Clock are capable of exploding the listening experience into a fabulous psychedelic adventure constrained only by imagination and time."

“The dCS Rossini sets a high standard for digital audio of all kinds today. You may find ‘different’ but you won’t find ‘better’ at anything even close to this level.”

Read Vietnam Audio Visual Magazine's review of the dCS Rossini

Bartók APEX with Lina Master Clock & Headphone Amplifier awarded DAC/Amplifier System of the Year 2024

"Simply breathtaking..."

Stereophile Recommended Component Class A+ 2024

Bartók APEX DAC: The Absolute Sound Golden Ear Award Winner 2024

"Pairing the Bartók APEX with the Lina Master Clock unlocks an even more musical experience, allowing users to confidently claim they own one of the top digital music sources available today"

"The perfect streamer, DAC and preamplifier. It doesn't compromise in any area and allows even the most demanding sound expectations…"

"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"

"The sonic improvements are a triumph of naturalism and harmonic detail that will floor even the most jaded audio listeners."

DAC of the Year 2023

2023 DAC/Amplifier of the Year

Digital Source Component of the Year 2023

"World-class...The very best digital reproduction I have experienced."

"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."

"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."

"It startled me and my guests by triggering new responses to music we'd all heard many times before..."

"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."

"Takes you into a rarefied world of elite digital sources with precious few compromises. Hear it if you possibly can."

"Suddenly seems to have acquired more depth & space...even more musicality"

"Bartók 2.0 Easily exceeds the performance of the original...simply brilliant"

"The performance of the Bartok is nothing short of breathtaking"

"Hugely sophisticated"

"Elegant, opulent sound."

"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"

"Don't buy a new car. Buy a dCS Bartók"

"Digitally streamed music through the Bartók feels entirely joined-up and full of rhythmic transient music and life"

"A truly spectacular product"

"It has sprung surprises since the moment I started listening and redefined elements of what I felt to be possible"