I thought I'd start a thread about the new dCS Bartok, to allow AA members to share their thoughts and impressions of this new product.
I will start with my experience.
I own a PS Audio Directstream DAC w Bridge II (and snowmass firmware), which I have been happy with. My dealer got a visit by a couple folks from dCS and they brought a Bartok demo unit with them. I asked whether they would be ok to do a direct shoot out between the Bartok and the DirectStream (my hope was to prove to myself that I had reached a point of very limited returns and that differences between the two units would be incredibly minor or differences of subjective taste at best).
The setup consisted of Wilson Yvette speakers, ARC Ref6, transparent (super?) interconnects for both DACs, stock power cables on both units and the ARC REF75SE. Each DAC was fed the same songs via Roon over a locally switched ethernet connection. Each DAC's output was level matched to each other. The room was sound treated.
I played a variety of tracks from electronic music albums (Trentemoller "The Last Resort", Shpongle) to more standard classical fare( Nemanja Radulovic's recent "Journey East" , Andras Schiff Bach concertos, Hilary Hahn Mozart and Bach concertos). The rep played some Beyonce and some other tracks I didnt recognize
Overall the PS Audio Directstream comported itself pretty well, the dCS representative was kind enough to acknowledge as much
. However, and not entirely surprising given the significant difference in cost, there were definitely notable performance differences I could discern. The dCS rendered a more holographic soundstage, mid bass content was more cleanly and clearly rendered, the tails of room reverb and effects especially on high res material was more clearly represented lending the music a more lifelike, vibrant sense. Overall the presentation seemed more warm without being colored, more emotionally engaging on the dCS (I dont know the filter chosen for sure, I believe Filter 3 was engaged?)
I never thought I would spend that much on a DAC...but to me the differences in performance were enough to order a Bartok, which should get here within the next 3-4 weeks.