![]() Similarly, the rear panel remains just as comprehensive, with its array of digital inputs – one optical and three coaxial, four AES/EBU (configurable as two pairs), and one asynchronous USB for computer audio up to 384kHz/24-bit PCM and DSD128 in DoP. ![]() There's a useful signal generator to allow channels to be checked, and it's also possible to switch the volume control to balance adjustment. The full-scale output can be set to 6V, 2V, 0.6V or 0.2V, for matching with your amplification, while phase can be inverted and channels swapped left to right. You can also set a range of output options, these going beyond the simple selection of RCA or balanced XLR out, and fixed and variable level. It's also possible to defeat the default data-buffering, for example when using the Vivaldi with video sources and where picture synchronisation is vital. ![]() Press the menu button then the two arrow keys, and you can scroll through numerous settings, right from the Mapping – the way incoming data is presented to the DAC matrix – to a range of master clock options. However, beyond that apparent simplicity is a comprehensive menu system, enabling detailed setup of the Vivaldi APEX DAC. Nor is there anything on the panel or display to indicate its APEX status. The company's high-quality alloy fascia, complete with its swooping swage-line, minimal control buttons and single rotary – which here adjusts volume when the unit is used to drive a power amp directly – is unchanged. Outwardly there's nothing new to see in the Vivaldi DAC, or indeed the other 'new' dCS models. The balanced analogue output has its own regulated PSU The 96 current sources (a 2x48 matrix) that comprise the Ring DAC core are visible here with the two driving FPGAs sitting alongside. The APEX update is its most significant to date, for while the DSP core and Ring DAC resistor matrix are unchanged, the main board on which it sits is entirely reconfigured with new output devices, power supply filtering and regulation. Under the bonnet, there's an element of 'if it ain't broke' going on: the Ring DAC concept may be more than three decades old, but it has been refined over the years, and still sets a sufficiently high standard to act as the 'reference' in the HFN listening room. There's also an upgrade service available for existing Vivaldi and Rossini units – this costs £6000, and bookings are now open. These include the flagship Vivaldi APEX DAC we have here, selling for £33,000, as well as the £25,500 Rossini APEX DAC, and the £28,000 Rossini APEX Player. ![]() Not content with having its own world-class digital-to-analogue conversion system – the famous Ring DAC – the company has now revisited and revised the technology, creating the new Ring DAC APEX solution that's being rolled out across at least two ranges of dCS digital products. ![]() That's certainly the case with the engineers at Cambridgeshire-based Data Conversion Systems, better-known as dCS. You know that old saying about the devil making work for idle hands? While the periods of lockdown over the past couple of years left a lot of hands idle in the hi-fi industry, the wisest turned this fallow period to good use, regrouping and rethinking. The APEX upgrade is tested here in its flagship Vivaldi DAC Lockdown afforded dCS's engineers the time and space to look at the implementation of its iconic Ring DAC afresh. ![]()
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