DSC Bartók, a network streaming DAC and headphone amplifier. ... In addition to featuring asynchronous USB, AES and coaxial inputs, the Bartók can stream from a NAS drive, from music services such as Tidal and Spotify, and from Apple devices over Airplay - all over an Ethernet connection
This is the beauty of dCS build quality: every input tried was dead neutral and musical. Fully transparent sound across the board. Music as clear as I have heard. Everything I threw it as a source of ones and zeros was handled with aplomb.” 5/5 Audiophile
The new dCS Bartók DAC brings together dCS’s past, present and future. It is first and foremost a state of the art network streaming DAC that uses technology developed for the Rossini range. With the addition of the unique headphone amplifier it brings the extraordinary dCS digital experience to both headphone and stereo listeners.
This single-box digital music player features the legendary dCS Ring DAC™ and signal processing platform, plus a custom high performance UPnP music streamer.
Bartók plays music through an array of industry-standard USB, AES or S/PDIF digital inputs. It can stream over Ethernet from a NAS drive or online music services such as TIDAL™ or Spotify™, and from Apple devices via Airplay™. The network interface can perform full MQA™ decoding and rendering.
The DAC section is equipped with independent balanced and unbalanced line outputs that can drive power amplifiers directly, avoiding the need for a separate preamplifier. The Headphone DAC features a custom designed headphone amplifier that works extremely well with both high and low impedance headphones in balanced or unbalanced formats. All of the outputs can be set to one of 4 maximum levels to enhance system compatibility.
Designed for flexibility and ease of use without compromise, Bartók uses the very latest dCS Digital Processing Platform and Ring DAC™ technology, originally developed for the Rossini series. Its single FPGA offers streamlined signal processing and superior flexibility, effectively making it future-proof.
Bartók DAC has a powerful new user interface, plus a custom control app that lets listeners manage their music playback from any source in an elegantly simple way – accessing iRadio channels, digital and UPnP sources all from one control point. The Bartók app provides easy access to the DAC settings.
Featuring DXD upsampling as standard, the multi-stage oversampling design offers optional DSD upsampling plus an extensive selection of DSP filters to suit individual taste and music choice. The network streaming functionality within Bartók is proven in terms of jitter, ease of use and sonic performance. The network interface currently runs at up to 24-bit, 384kS/s and DSD128, supporting all major lossless codecs, plus DSD in DoP format and native DSD.
