In 2018, dCS launched the Bartók – an upsampling network DAC designed to deliver exemplary sound quality. In 2022, dCS issued a major software update – Bartók 2.0 – including an upgrade to the mapping algorithm that controls the dCS Ring DAC technology, improvements to DSD upsampling and new digital filter options. Another year on and it’s time for the next major revelation – Bartók Apex, incorporating dCS’s new Ring DAC Apex technology.
Apex is dCS’s latest Ring DAC innovation – a hardware revision that is pushing the boundaries of digital audio still further, both at an objective level and a subjective one. dCS claim that when scientifically measured, nothing matches the performance of the Ring DAC Apex. Ring DAC Apex technology was introduced to dCS’s top-end Vivaldi and Rossini product families in 2022, and now it’s reached the Bartók.
Price: dCS Bartók with integrated headphone amp: £21,500, dCS Bartók without integrated headphone amp: £19,000. The Apex upgrade programme for existing Bartók owners begins this spring, in the UK, the upgrade cost is £7,500 per unit and Absolute Sounds will begin taking bookings in March.