dCS Rossini Network DAC v2
Digital sources
The dCS version 2 Rossini DAC is a three-purpose device that replaces a DAC, a streamer and a preamplifier. It comes in silver or black satin aluminum finish and has dCS proprietary Ring DAC inside.
Function and form
The network interface can stream digital files from a NAS, a computer, or online music services (Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, Deezer, Airplay) over an RJ-45/Ethernet connector with up to 24bit/384kHz (WMA, ALAC, MP3, AAC, OGG) where the format allows for it, plus DSD/64 & DSD/128 in DFF/DSF format. The Rossini DAC v2 supports full decoding and rendering of MQA data from the Network and USB2 inputs.
In the DAC mode the USB 2.0 input is used for data streams in DoP format. Other inputs include 2x AES/EBU on XLR, 1x BNC, 1x S/PDIF on RCA and 1x optical Toslink. Outputs are both balanced and single-ended. As usual the dCS devices allow for connecting external clock on BNC connectors.
The DAC offers 10 digital filters, 6 for PCM and 4 for DSD, as well as the user can select PCM upsampling to DXD, DSD or DSDx2.
Ideally the Rossini should be a part of stack together with a dCS transport and a dCS clock. During my experiments I found the DAC’s attenuator to be ‘lossless’ at any volume setting which is the trend I am really happy to see in high-end audio: the digital path does not ask for any ‘preamplification’ anymore and traditional preamps are becoming merely input switches.
Bass management
There is a lot of precision to the Rossini DAC v2’s sound. The dCS devices have always been favouring technical superiority over romanticism and the Rossini is not different. Still, there are some remarkable improvements over the last generation. The DAC v2 has improved in overall balance and clarity and it can be clearly heard from the lowest octaves already.
With the Rossini DAC v2 the bass drum in O Fortuna (Donald Runnicles / Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Symphony Chorus, Telarc) was impactful and forceful, with wonderful ‘snap’ and a leading-edge transient. It was as if the drum strokes were microscopized, analyzed and only then carefully sent to my ears. At the same time the dCS did not sound ripe or analog-like, quite opposite – it was controlled and sometimes even unexciting, yet there was something thrilling in how everything was accurate and neutral in the best sense.
Clarity & delicacy
The absence of noise resulted into a very quiet background against which reverberating ripples and decays of sound exhibited great contrasts. It was very dependent on the quality of the recording whether the balance of the Rossini DAC v2 was perceived lean or monumental, however it never was rich. Whatever I listened to gave me the sense of improved focus and detail, yet without any added harshness. The agility of the dCS made Dire Straits’ Ride Across the River on Brothers in Arms (20th Anniversary Edition, Vertigo) sound amazing, with the shaker jumping out of the soundstage with a great contrast. In fact every sound, no matter how tiny, was appearing and disappearing with energetic authority and everything was happening on a crystal clear background. No wonder I found myself unconsciously increasing volume for there was no congestion or a loss of control during really loud playback.
Tonal accuracy
The Rossini DAC v2 will not provide you with ´Class A´ sound, that is the cymbals strokes were drier and the delicacy of their textures remained a bit underdeveloped, as if there was a kind of pixelization in the sound. While the sound of the dCS was at least Ultra HD, it did not have the depth of analog photography. Well, it does not mean that the Rossini sounded digital, but it did not sound analog either. During the listening sessions with the DAC v2 the feeling of live musicians in my room had never arrived, everything was too precise to be natural. Once you accept this type of presentation you will love it, however. And the powerful dynamics of the Rossini will tip the scales easily. Orchestral tuttis were like a hurricane, and subtle microdynamic shifts of oboes and flutes were thrilling.
Spatial resolution
By now you should not be surprised if I say that also the soundstaging of the Rossini DAC v2 is exact and well-focused. You get everything, and more, with micrometer precision. Some components sound forward and deliver vividness that can become a bit fatiguing over time. Other components draw the listener into the presentation with a more distant view of the soundstage. In my view, the dCS shared the best of the two worlds – its spatiality was neither reticent nor forward, it imaged just right. It also means that it will require a very carefully balanced system as the Rossini will highlight any imperfections in it.
If I should summarize my two weeks with the Rossini DAC v2 there are things I will miss – the sheer slam, clarity, tonal purity and the dCS´s unbiased view on music. Still, to make the DAC v2 my preferred go-to-DAC I wish it had more emotional engagement with music, more ´liveness´, not merely reproducing the program material no matter how superb this reproduction is. It may be that adding external Rossini Clock would help but it is +50% increase to the already expensive DAC.
Recommended resellers
Soundstyle s.r.o, Praha, +420 739 402 253
Manufacturer's website: http://www.dcsltd.co.uk
Associated components
- Sources: CD/SACD/DVD-A Linn Unidisk 1.1, dCS Rossini transport, TW-Acustic Raven One turntable, Graham Phantom tonearm, Transfiguration Orpheus cartridge
- Amplifiers: Spectral DMA-150, Constellation Audio Pictor preamplifier, Constellation Audio power amplifier, phono Gruensch Reference Phonostage MCS
- Interconnects and speaker cables: MIT MA, MIT MA-X XLR, MIT V2.1 Oracle, Stealth Audio Hyperphono
- Loudspeakers: Magico M3 w/Mpods
- Power conditioning: Shunyata Research Triton v2/Typhon, Shunyata Research Python Zi-Tron, Shunyata Research Sigma v2 XC and v2 NR
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