dCS Rossini APEX Player

The Rossini APEX Player is the integrated version of the Rossini APEX DAC. Electrically the converter is the same: dCS's Ring DAC, a thermometer-coded array of equal-value current sources switched by latches under FPGA control so that component errors average out as noise rather than appearing as harmonics, running at 6 MHz (mapper settings 1 and 3) or 3 MHz (mapper 2), with the APEX board's revised reference supply, summing stage and compound-amplifier output stage. dCS quotes more than 12 dB better second-harmonic linearity for APEX over the previous board. What the Player adds is a CD mechanism, a Stream Unlimited JPL-2800 SilverStrike with an aluminium tray, feeding the same Digital Processing Platform as every other input, so a CD can be upsampled to DXD, DSD or DSDx2 and passed through the same filters as a stream. The Player handles CDs only; SACD requires the Rossini Transport, which outputs encrypted DSD to the Player's Dual AES input.

The Player's converter is the one Jason Victor Serinus reviewed in the Rossini APEX DAC for Stereophile, concluding that it was "more than another upgrade; it's a major advance in digital sound reproduction" and taking it to the magazine's 2022 Digital Component of the Year. John Atkinson's earlier review of the original Rossini Player with the Rossini Clock established the Player's approach: a single component that treats a disc as one more data source and gives it the same upsampling and clocking as everything else. dCS's own Rossini page quotes a reviewer finding that "rarely have we come across a product that sounds so pure and natural", which is consistent with how the APEX Rossini DAC has been described elsewhere.

Apart from the drive, the Player's connectivity matches the Rossini APEX DAC. Ethernet carries Roon Ready, TIDAL, Qobuz, Spotify, Deezer, internet radio, UPnP and AirPlay through the Mosaic app, with full MQA decoding on the network and USB-B inputs. The asynchronous USB-B input takes 24-bit/384 kS/s PCM and DSD128, a USB-A port plays from a drive, two AES/EBU inputs run singly or as a Dual AES pair to 384 kS/s and DSD128, and S/PDIF is on RCA, BNC and Toslink. Balanced and unbalanced outputs offer 0.2 V, 0.6 V, 2 V and 6 V full-scale settings for direct connection to power amplifiers or a preamplifier. Two word clock inputs accept the Rossini Master Clock's 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz outputs, and a word clock output lets the Player act as master for a transport or a second unit. The dCS Universal Remote is included with the Player.

In the dCS range the Player is the choice for a listener with a CD collection who wants one box with the Rossini converter inside; the DAC plus Rossini Transport is the route for SACD, and for the mechanical isolation of a separate drive. Above it, the Vivaldi Transport II and Vivaldi APEX DAC split the same functions across two larger chassis. The Player is available to order; ask us to arrange an audition in Portland, and to set up the Rossini APEX DAC and Rossini Master Clock so the shared converter section can be heard.