DCS BARTOK DAC/HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER

THIS ISSUE: Herb Reichert on the dCS Bartók; Ken Micallef reprises his Schiit Sol review, trying it out with some better ancillaries.

- HERB REICHERT & KEN MICALLEF

I finally get what those unboxing videos are all about.

As I deciphered my way through the dCS Bartók’s triple boxes,1 my sense of audiophile entitlement rose as I opened each successive box. Inside the last box, the Bartók was wrapped in a black velvet drawstring pouch. That made me smile until I realized that the Bartók was so big that I had nowhere to put it. It requires a shelf at least 19 deep that can support 36.8 pounds. My desktop system shelf is only 16 from its front edge to the wall; previously, the biggest DAC/headphone amp I’ve installed there was the Mytek Manhattan II, which only needed 14 front-to-rear (including space for cables) and only weighed 16lb.

On my desk, the dCS Bartók usurped 323 square inches (17 × 19 with cables connected). Which suggested to me that it was intended to be installed not on a desk or shelf but on a fancy equipment rack.

When I moved the Bartók to my not-so-fancy equipment rack, I discovered it provides no line-level inputs. Therefore, even though the Bartók includes the optional headphone amplifier, I’d need a second headphone amp to listen to LPs via headphones.

As I double-checked the innermost box, I realized the Bartók has a front-mounted volume control, but a remote control is not included.2 Apparently, dCS intended the Bartók to be used via Ethernet with their own Mosaic Control app. Which is mostly what I did.

Listening

When the Bartók arrived, I was setting up my floor system so that I could roll some tubes for this month’s Gramophone Dreams. After installing the Zu Audio Soul Supreme loudspeakers, I played