Product Reviews
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"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"
"Tonally the performance is completely on point – it simply sounds exactly right.”
"Images in the soundspace were more conspicuously crystalline, and the space around them was emptier…"
"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."
Mono & Stereo Best Buy Product Award & Highly Recommended Product Award 2024
‘a performance of impressive authority…’
High End Headphone System of the Year 2023
Best Product 2023
Editors Choice - High End Streamer 2023/ 2024
Stereo Sound Best Buy Award 23-24
Stereo Sound Grand Prix Award 2023
"Astonishingly sophisticated…comfortably the best headphone performance I have had the pleasure to experience."
"Consistently seemed to remove an opaque barrier that had been preventing me from connecting more deeply with some of my favorite music."
"A stunning addition..."
"astonishingly capable and beautifully realised"
"Lina isn't just an investment, it's a passion for life."
"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."
"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."
‘a much more powerful amplifier than its specs and desk-friendly size would imply... '
'If there’s a detail in the song – no matter how small – Lina will deliver it to your headphones.'
"This thing sounds amazing. I loved it. I really enjoyed listening to it. I want it."
2022 Best Solid State Amplifier
2022 Best Desktop DAC
"Lina colours nothing...it lets the music flow through as it was recorded. It represents perfect neutrality."
2022 Best Stack - High End
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..."
"A high energy, articulate performer with world-class resolution"
"Simply irresistible..."
"Truly remarkable…neutral, transparent and highly revealing"
"The perfect high performing partner to it's siblings"
"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"
"A Majestic performer that enraptures the listener...whatever one chooses to play"
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 perfect streamer, DAC and preamplifier. It doesn't compromise in any area and allows even the most demanding sound expectations…"
"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"
"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"
"It was like being taken back to the day of the recording, with a vast soundstage that was truly holographic"
"A truly spectacular product"
"It has sprung surprises since the moment I started listening and redefined elements of what I felt to be possible"