dCS
Vivaldi CD/SACD Transport II
$36,500.00 USDVivaldi CD/SACD Transport II
$36,500.00
Engineered for the ultimate listening experience, the Vivaldi APEX reflects our uncompromising attitude, relentless innovation, and obsessive attention to detail. Featuring a dedicated DAC, Upsampler, Clock and CD/SACD Transport, it separates the core aspects of the playback process for a performance that is technically precise and musically profound
Otherworldly Performance
With total precision and composure, the Vivaldi unravels even the most complex recordings with ease, projecting a sound that feels utterly natural and beautifully complete. Under its delicate hand and invisible touch, music comes alive, with each note unfolding to reveal a panoramic view of a recording or mix.
From the smallest inflections to the swiftest shifts in tempo and tone, it captures it all with a sense of perfect rhythm and flow. With its wide and far-reaching gaze, it uncovers not just the fine details in a recording, but the silences and spaces in between - the tension, drama and emotions that lie beneath.
Crafted for the purest musical expression, the Vivaldi is designed to disappear, leaving you absorbed in sound and immersed in the world that an artist creates. Its pioneering architecture builds on three decades of innovation to present our most ambitious system yet: a four-chassis design with almost limitless potential.
With the Vivaldi’s launch, we devised a blueprint for a new generation of digital playback systems. We reimagined our core technologies - including our Ring DAC™ system, clocking architecture and the dCS Digital Processing Platform - and developed a new technical DNA that has shaped the creation of each dCS product since.
Unrivalled in its sonic and technical abilities, the Vivaldi has earned global acclaim for its ground-breaking design and captivating sound. A product of visionary thinking, and fearless engineering, it remains the most revealing and lowest distortion playback system available - and its design continues to evolve.
With the Vivaldi APEX, we’ve once again redefined state-of-the-art in digital audio. We’ve further enhanced the Vivaldi DAC with the addition of our next generation Ring DAC APEX™ hardware. This major upgrade allows us to take the Vivaldi’s world-leading performance to a new level - resulting in an even more immersive musical experience.
Limitless Potential
Compatible with all high-resolution music formats, the Vivaldi is a system that can flex to serve whatever mood or music you ask it to. Whether you’re streaming or spinning discs, it offers superlative sound and an effortless listening experience. And with its wide range of settings and filters, its performance can be tailored to suit your music collection and audio setup.
The Vivaldi DAC features AES3, Dual AES, SDIF-2 and S/PDIF inputs, along with an asynchronous USB 2.0 interface. Its enhanced digital volume control allows direct connection to a power amplifier, removing the need for a separate preamp, and its maximum output can be set to one of four levels to suit a range of amplifier and speaker combinations.
Thanks to its high-performance UPnP streamer, the Vivaldi upsampler provides instant access to audio from a wide range of streaming services, including Roon, TIDAL, Spotify, Qobuz, Deezer and Internet Radio, as well as external devices and storage drives. Add a CD/SACD Transport and you have a system that delivers extraordinary sound from any digital source.
Playback is easily managed via our Mosaic platform, which allows you to browse music from multiple libraries and adjust the settings on your dCS system through a single mobile app. Available on all Android and iOS devices, it provides endless choice and complete control over your listening experience through a simple, intuitive interface.
Uncompromising Design
The Vivaldi represents British engineering at its finest. Designed and hand-assembled at our headquarters in Cambridgeshire, England, it is a product of meticulous craft, exhaustive development and an obsessive attention to detail: a relentless pursuit of musical purity that inspired us to reimagine the limits of sound reproduction.
With the Vivaldi’s creation, we set out to develop a new visual language for dCS. Referencing the signature wave developed for our Paganini and Puccini systems, we developed a distinctive and timeless aesthetic that blends order and precision with artistic expression.
The curves on its fascia represent movement, rhythm, life and natural forms - a nod to our emotional connection with music and the sound that inspires us to create - while its understated top and side panels, streamlined controls and ordered rear panel help to aid performance and ease of use.
Each model is encased in aerospace-grade aluminium - a material chosen for its acoustic properties - and fitted with internal acoustic damping panels to reduce mechanical vibration and magnetic effects. Panels are sculpted using state-of-the-art milling machines and treated with a smooth and durable pearlescent coating.
From its external casework to the unique software and hardware deep within its core, each aspect of the system has been honed and refined to present sound with the lowest possible levels of distortion and noise - providing a robust architecture that delivers an outstanding experience no matter how you choose to use it.
Crafted from the finest materials, and built to exacting standards, each system is exhaustively tested and inspected prior to leaving our factory to ensure it delivers the utmost reliability and the finest possible sound.
CD/SACD Transport MKII Key Features
- Utilises the latest generation dCS Digital Processing Platform for state-of-the-art measured performance and unrivalled fidelity.
- Designed for maximum flexibility, both input and output configuration can be optimised for systems with various digital sources.
- New auto clocking mode used in the Vivaldi range improves ease-of-use and jitter performance when used with various digital sources.
- Improved power supplies give lower running temperature and superior tolerance to AC supply variations.
- Multi-stage regulation ensures sensitive analogue circuitry is unaffected by digital interference.
- Aerospace-grade machined aluminium chassis fitted with tuned acoustic damping panels reduces magnetic effects and vibration.
Specifications
- Type:
- Upsampling CD/SACD Transport
- Finish:
- Silver or Black
- Mechanism:
- Sound United D&M SACD mechanism
- Dimensions (WxDxH):
- 444mm/17.5” long x 435mm/17.2” deep x 178mm/7.0” high. Allow extra depth for cable connectors. Allow space for air flow around the unit
- Weight:
- 23.0kg/50.7lbs
- Digital Outputs:
- 1 x Dual AES Pair on 2 x 3-pin male XLR connectors (AES1+2). While an SACD is playing, the interface outputs encrypted DSD data. While a CD is playing, the Settings > Upsample Mode menu page sets the interface to output either encrypted DSD data (1 bit at 2.822MS/s) or DXD data (24 bits at 352.8kS/s) or DSDx2 data (1 bit at 5.644MS/s); 1 x AES interface on 3-pin male XLR connector (AES3). Outputs 16/44.1 data, whether a CD or SACD is playing. 2 x SPDIF interface on 1 x RCA Phono and 1 x BNC connectors. Each outputs 16/44.1 data, whether a CD or SACD is playing
- Wordclock I/O:
- 1 x Word Clock Input on BNC connector, accepts standard Word Clock at 44.1, 88.2 or 176.4kHz. Sensitive to TTL levels. Lock range is +/-300ppm. 1 x Word Clock Output on 1x BNC connector. With the Transport in Master mode, a TTL-compatible Word Clock is output
- Clock Accuracy:
- The calibration accuracy when shipped is +/-10ppm, (not temperature compensated)
- Software Updates:
- Updates are loaded directly from CD-R
- Local Control:
- dCS Universal Remote (supplied with Vivaldi DAC as standard) via the Mosaic app, RS232 app, or a third-party device
- Power Supply:
- Factory set to either 100, 115/120, 220, or 230/240V AC, 50/60Hz
- Power Consumption:
- 16W typical / 50W maximum. Consumes less than 0.5W when powered down from the front panel