DCS Bartok APEX or LINA and master clock

What should be the expected cost (USD) to upgrade my Bartok? Purchased last Sep 22 from a dealer. I’m being quoted $5K. Is that in-line? Or is there better pricing available?

As far as I’ve read, the Lina isn’t a stripped down Bartok. It seems to be an improvement over the non Apex Bartok.

Likely not an improvement over the Apex though. But I'm not sure.

I know this is off topic but I can’t help but notice the large quantities of Bartok dacs that have been on the used market this year. Seems like a large migration away from it. Wondering if the cost of the Apex upgrade vs the Lina is driving this or have people just grown tired and are moving on?

@designsfx we can only speculate, I suspect there’s something off putting about a company coming out with an upgrade option that expensive. Same thing happened with totaldac, saw an unusual number of those on the used market, when their latest upgrades were announced (bearing in mind it’s a boutique within a boutique in terms of size of customer base)…a “night/day” upgrade makes you think, was what I had before really not all that good in the first place? Let me try something else.

Grateful that my DAC hasn’t had any upgrades for 6 yrs, though if they did announce one, I couldn’t help but me curious. A dealer once told me digital is easy these days, it’s the analog output stage that really separates brands…get something with a killer output and you’ll quickly lose any interest you may once have had keeping up with the Joneses

I haven’t heard it personally but my dCS dealer told me that Apex upgrade was substantial and worth pursuing. I honestly don’t care for dCS as a brand, firstly its house sound and their policies for 2nd hand customers (upgrades and warranty).

I feel very fortunate to invest in a DAC that doesn’t do frequent upgrades and provides full support to all end users. 3 plus years, I haven’t felt the desire to upgrade to anything else out there.