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Tag Archives: computer

Bartók APEX The Next-Generation Bartók

The following is a press release issued by dCS.

February 2023 – dCS’s engineers continually research how to improve existing technologies and products, a discovery process motivated by our drive to deliver unrivalled measured performance and the resulting musical experience.

Often, innovation comes in the form of software. With the recent Bartók 2.0 software update, we improved DSD upsampling and added new filter options. Mappers originally designed for Vivaldi APEX and Rossini APEX are now available in Bartók. The Mappers control how data is presented to the Ring DAC core. Bartók now includes three Mapper settings. It also includes DSD128 capability and an additional filter setting for DSD.

Additionally, our products feature a modular approach to construction. The design allows for future upgradability, which enables us to offer new hardware to existing owners. Such was the case with the Vivaldi APEX and Rossini APEX, and now we are excited to invite existing owners to upgrade their Bartóks. Units upgraded to Bartók APEX are identical to the new model in every way, including the APEX nameplate on the rear panel.

The New Bartók APEX Further Elevates the Listening Experience

The Bartók APEX retains the original’s powerful, dynamic and detailed soundscape and adds elements of resolution and refinement previously only achievable with the Rossini or Vivaldi APEX. dCS engineered Bartók APEX to inform and inspire.

APEX sets a new benchmark for transparency. It organically resolves the finest details and un- covers textures and subtleties that most systems overlook. From the broadest dynamic swings in volume to the subtlest shifts in tone, Bartók APEX reveals each aspect of a recording with a sense of effortless refinement and control.

Designed and hand-assembled at our headquarters in Cambridgeshire, Engalnd

Bartók APEX is born from meticulous craft, exhaustive development, and obsessive attention to detail—a pursuit of musical purity that has inspired us to reimagine the limits of sound reproduction. Sharing the same electronics as our Vivaldi and Rossini systems, it features the latest generations of our pioneering Ring DAC™ APEX, clocking architecture, and digital processing platform—a unique combination of hardware and software unrivalled in its sonic and technical performance.

Bartók APEX combines precision engineering with an elegant and timeless aesthetic. Standard-setting build quality means Bartók APEX withstands even the most intensive use and reliably delivers superb sound quality at all volume settings and outputs. With flexible and upgradable software and hardware, Bartók can grow and evolve, providing a state-of-the-art listening experience for years to come.

The Ring DAC APEX

The dCS Ring DAC is integral to all dCS DACS and integrated music players. This novel invention—one of several bespoke technologies created by dCS—is one of the reasons our systems have earned global acclaim for their transparency and fidelity.

Developed from the ground up by dCS engineers, it features a combination of proprietary hardware and software that has been carefully honed and refined over three decades to deliver a world-leading technical and sonic performance.

In 2022, we released a significant update to the Ring DAC’s hardware, which allowed us to enhance further the musical performance of our Vivaldi DAC, Rossini DAC, and Rossini Player. Our obsession with remaining at the forefront of measured and musical performance meant that it was only a matter of time before we developed an APEX upgrade for Bartók owners.

The latest-generation Ring DAC APEX hardware brings several benefits. Noise and distortion have been further reduced, and linearity increased by over 12dB. Our subjective listening tests, in turn, have revealed a number of sonic improvements, with listeners noting enhanced dynamics, rhythm and timing, greater soundstage resolution and image focus, blacker backgrounds, and a heightened sense of realism.

For APEX, the engineering team made extensive changes to the Ring DAC’s hardware. With the exception of the resistor array, which remains unchanged, the latest-generation Ring DAC hardware is all new.

 

Improvements Include:

  • Modified reference supply that feeds the Ring DAC, resulting in lower output impedance
  • Enhanced the filter, summing and output stages of the Ring DAC
  • Improved the symmetry of summing stages
  • Created an all-new output stage
  • Reconfigured the main Ring DAC circuit board
  • Replaced individual transistors on the board with a compound pair

 

The Bartók APEX upgrade program will commence March of 2023

In addition to the launch of our next-generation Bartók APEX, we are making our Ring DAC APEX hardware available to existing Bartók owners through a global upgrade programme. Owners of the dCS Bartók are eligible to purchase upgrades, allowing them to receive the latest generation hardware without the need to purchase a new system.

Customers who purchase an upgrade will receive the new APEX hardware, plus a new APEX escutcheon. dCS will also issue a one-year war- ranty on all upgraded units, free of charge. Please contact your local dealer for pricing and details.

The post Bartók APEX The Next-Generation Bartók appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

Apple Mac Pro Rack: A Real-World Review

The Mac Pro Rack dominates the 10 RU rack that houses it in Rich Tozzoli’s workspace.
The Mac Pro Rack computer dominates the 10 RU rack that houses it in Rich Tozzoli’s workspace.

If there’s one thing that we studio people like, it’s consistency in our gear. As the primary brains to most setups, the computer is central to that theme, so when my trusty Mac Pro “cheese grater”—which ran perfectly for 10 years—went down for the count a few months ago, I didn’t take it lightly. It was time to make some big decisions. I weighed the basic questions we should always ask ourselves when upgrading: Do I stay with my current platform (a Mac, in my case)? What’s my budget? What’s the latest hardware on the market to fit my I/O needs? Am I buying for the short term or long?

Over the last few years, I thought about upgrading my old Mac Pro, my primary DAW platform, when I ran into roadblocks with OS upgrades, software and Pro Tools compatibility, but the little “trash can” shape that Apple used for Mac Pros manufactured between 2013 and 2019 just didn’t work for me. I didn’t want to put my Avid HDX card and my UAD Octo card into a chassis. The trash can form factor is now history, however. After working on my laptop for a few months to get me through my “crisis,” I made the move and went big with a new Mac Pro Rack.

Inside the Apple Mac Pro Rack
Inside the Apple Mac Pro Rack Apple

Luckily for me, my friend, producer/drummer extraordinaire Omar Hakim, had recently been through the whole process, so I had a guide. “Right before I got my new Mac, my ‘trash can’ suffered a catastrophic thermal meltdown,” he told me. “I ended up using a laptop for a few months while I was waiting for the release of the new Mac Pro Rack. I settled on a 12-core Mac Pro Rack model with 96 GB of RAM, a 2 TB factory SSD card and a base video card. I added two 2 TB internal Samsung SSD EVO 970 NVMe M.2 cards with two Vantec PCIe adapters—components I purchased, assembled and installed myself. I then loaded up my two Avid HDX cards and Universal Audio Satellite PCI card. My studio has never run smoother!” He noted that he purchased the base amount of RAM from Apple and bought the rest from OWC.

With his feedback in mind, I made the decision to purchase a Mac Pro Rack over an iMac Pro or Mac Mini. I visited Apple.com and went through the process of ordering the components I wanted: a 3.2 GHz 16-core Intel Xeon W processor-based machine with the base 32 GB of 2933 MHz DDR4 RAM to get started.

I also worked with Rob Zenn at Alto Music on this purchase; Zenn convinced me to get the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X 16 GB graphics card, as it includes four additional powered Thunderbolt 3 ports. We made sure the hardware came with macOS Catalina version 10.15.5 installed so as not to get into conflicts with the upcoming Big Sur OS release.

The good news: I had a machine that would rock. The bad news? It came to a whopping $9,900. However, since this is the brains of my setup, which I use every day to compose, mix or create music, I judged it to be a good allocation of funds. Besides, it’s a tax write-off!

The new Mac Pro Rack was quickly teamed up with the brand-new Avid Carbon interface.

When the machine arrived, crated in foam, I couldn’t believe what a monster it was. It’s built like a tank. I was taken aback by its design and downright sturdiness. I’ve had a lot of Macs in my day, but nothing like this. It came with eight PCI Express expansion slots, two of which were filled by my Avid HDX card and the Universal Audio UAD-2 OCTO card.

Engineer Mike Dwyer and I slipped on the heavy-duty rack rails (sent separately from Apple) and slid it into the 10-space rack I purchased for it. We hooked up an HDMI video cable from my Samsung to the Mac, set up the cool black wireless keyboard and mouse, and fired it up. Within a few minutes, it was game on.

Next, we attached a single AVB Ethernet cable from my new Avid Carbon interface (which I reviewed last month) to the Mac Pro, and plugged in a Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88 Mk2 keyboard and PreSonus FaderPort 8 into two of the included USB ports. I had made an Apple Time Machine backup of my laptop the night before and saved the data on a portable SSD drive, which I hooked up to the new computer.

REAL-WORLD REVIEW: Avid Pro Tools Carbon Production System

Using Apple Time Machine’s Migration Assistant, I transferred the files from my backup to the new Mac Pro Rack, and while it took almost two hours, everything transferred over to the new Mac: Pro Tools 2020.11, Reason, all of my Vienna Instruments, Omnisphere, Universal Audio Console and all of my plug-ins. I opened Pro Tools and everything simply worked. With just a few software updates, it was the easiest migration I’ve ever experienced.

This week, I’m ordering 32 GB more RAM and a few SSD internal drives to load the chassis up even more. It’s been flawless in its performance so far, and not even my heavy virtual instrument sessions can choke it. For the first time, I’ve found a machine that works faster than I do, which has already helped my creativity. For me, it’s already worth the money.

Apple • www.apple.com

 

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