dCS Vivaldi Apex Digital-to-Analog Converter

By Jacob Heilbrunn

“Lord of The Ring”

This past summer I had the good fortune to attend a performance at Washington’s National Cathedral of Brahms’ German Requiem, which was dedicated to the people of war-torn Ukraine. Where I was seated high up in the balcony, with a bird’s-eye view of the orchestra and chorus, it was hard not to be wowed by the sheer grandeur of the cathedral. The sound effortlessly expanded into space, whether it was the soloists or the mighty brass section.

Listening to the dCS Vivaldi DAC with the new Apex upgrade vividly reminded me of this concert for a variety of reasons. Foremost among them was the ability of the Vivaldi Apex to reproduce the sense of air in concert halls or recording studios, allowing it to position an instrument or singer firmly in the soundstage and to capture a wealth of ambient detail (down to the degree of hall echo produced by a performer) with well-nigh uncanny accuracy. Until now, no digital system in my experience has succeeded in capturing this phenom…