dCS Bartok DAC - Interesting Video Review

Thanks, I was thinking of getting one of those.

B

It’s interesting that GoldenSound is willing to risk his hard-earned reputation finding fault with this $18,500 DAC.

The DAC has received stellar reviews from virtually all reviewers without a reservation. However the initial Stereophile review was kind of lukewarm. It was followed by a complaint from dCS, and then another far more favorable review.

Given what’s available in the marketplace can a DAC, even with a built in streamer, be worth that kind of money?

Two observations: throughout the review the Bartok was fed on SP/DIF, hardly the best interface available. Further, the softness in attack in my experience is typically a result of clocking issues between server and dac; this is why I2S and USB are better interfaces through their better clocking control. But a pretty bad outcome for DCS, this.