Oxford Audio Consultants - Saturday 4th June

[f1eng]

After reading this thread I looked around for reviews of the dCS Vivaldi stack and was surprised to find that the products date back to late 2012.  

Apparently the boxes demo'ed at OAC were the new Vivaldi 2.0 system which offer various improvements. Details here:

http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/wp-content/uploa...032016.pdf

True, and the software/firmware is improved from time to time anyway. The control software Liam was using to demonstrate the upsampler as a versatile streamer was in prototype form to be released later this year.
I will consider a Vivaldi transport when my Goldmund Mimesis 36+ dies, but as streaming is not an important source for me the actual impressive kit demonstrated on Saturday makes no sense for me.
Having heard the benefits available, however I will do some experiments with my Mutec + USB for the few music files I don't have on CD/LP, and for Qobuz.

Hi Frank my understanding is that the Vivaldi Upsampler works well with their Transport (or any other CD player) and is used to convert redbook CD to DSD, upsample to DXD etc. In addition to this it is a fully fledged network streamer as demonstrated at the OAC event. It's a hugely flexible component.

I still can't get over the AirPlay streaming sound quality! 

Guillaume

My understanding too Guillaume, but the transport has upsampling of CD to DSD available too so I could economise since streaming isn't worth spending much money on for me, particularly if I get near with software and Mutec. Mind you the clock is apparently beneficial with the transport too