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Audioquest Dragon, XLR: $11,900/1m pair
RCA: $9500/1m pair
Uses "Solid Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS)" conductors with a dielectric comprising fluoropolymer air tubes. MF compared the balanced Dragon with his TARA Labs' "The Evolution Zero" interconnect and concluded that it was considerably more open but not brighter, faster but not leaner. (Vol.45 No.9 WWW)

AudioQuest ThunderBird XLR: $3900/1m pair
RCA: $2900/1m pair
When he substituted the balanced Thunderbird for his previous interconnect, HR wrote that his system's sound changed so dramatically…

Audioquest Dragon Zero: $27,500/8' pair
"Notably transparent, able to deliver dynamic slam and detail," wrote MF. (Vol.45 No.9 WWW)

Audio Art Cable SC-5 Classic: $240/10ft pair (gold spades; add $10/pr for silver spades), $250/10ft pair (gold bananas)
The SC-5 has silver-coated OFC conductors (14AWG), a foam polyethylene dielectric, a PVC jacket, and an internal packet of vibration-absorbing fibers. It can be terminated with gold-plated brass banana plugs or, for $10 less, DH Labs' gold-plated copper spade lugs. Compared to AudioQuest's Rocket 33, the…

DH Labs Silver Sonic D-110 AES/EBU: $145/1m
(NR, but see EL's review of the Bel Canto DAC3.5VB in Vol.34 No.6 WWW)

Kimber Kable Orchid: $948/1m
Expensive, but the best AES/EBU link JA has used. J-10 loved the Orchid's midrange liquidity and detail, but preferred Illumination's S/PDIF cable overall. SD (almost) doesn't equivocate: "Probably the best out there for now. . . .A stunner!" RH and RD are also fans. New lower price usefully brings this cable in reach of more music lovers. (Vol.19 No.5)

Kubala-Sosna Expression: $900/m, $240/…

If your ears see,
And your eyes hear,
Not a doubt you'll cherish—How naturally the rain drips
From the eyes!—Bujutsu Sosho

The more audio gear I review, the more fascinated I become by the fact that as I listen to recorded music, I can close my eyes and see musicians on the stage at Carnegie Hall, or djembe drummers in a desert by a tent, or a bass note penetrating the Milky Way. What a gift of consciousness. And what a great hobby it is that focuses my attentions in this manner.

Similarly, I'm amazed that in a silent room, I can close…

Soon thereafter, I heard from Peter McGrath, Wilson Audio's director of sales, that he was blown away by the sound of his dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC—the flagship DAC from Data Conversion Systems (dCS) of Cambridge, England. Nor…

For comparison, I chose the EMM Labs Reference DV2 Integrated DAC ($30,000), which I'd reviewed previously. When I compared the DV2 to a dCS Vivaldi DAC I then had on loan, I felt that their bass…

Description: Upsampling Network D/A processor with volume control and remote control. Roon Ready and compatible with AirPlay, Spotify Connect, and UPnP. Streaming from Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, and internet radio. File playback of PCM, DSD, and MQA from NAS, external drive, or USB stick via dCS Mosaic Control app or other playback software. Automatic upsampling to DXD, DSD64, or DSD128. Filters: 6forPCM,4forDSD,1for MQA. Digital inputs: Network (Ethernet RJ45) accepts up to PCM 24/384 and DSD128 in DFF or DSF format; USB-B 2.0 accepts up to 24/384 and DSD128 in DoP…

Digital sources: dCS Rossini DAC 2.0 and Clock; EMM Labs DV2 Integrated DAC; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS, Uptone Audio EtherRegen with AfterDark Giesemann Emperor Double Crown Master Clock, Small Green Computer Sonore Deluxe opticalModule, Linksys mesh router and Arris modem, all powered by HDPlex 300 linear power supplies; Roon Nucleus+ music server and Nordost QNET Ethernet Switch, both powered by Nordost QSource linear power supply; Apple 2017 iPad Pro and 2017 MacBook Pro laptop with 2.8GHz Intel i7, SSD, 16GB RAM.
Preamplifier: Dan D'Agostino…

I measured the dCS Rossini Apex with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system, repeating some measurements with the higher-performance APx500. I performed the testing with the serial data and USB inputs then repeated some of them with JVS's preferred Network input, using Roon.

The AES3 and coaxial S/PDIF inputs accepted data sampled at all rates up to 192kHz. TosLink was restricted to 96kHz data. I didn't test the Rossini's dual-AES3 input, but as with earlier dCS processors, it will accept data sampled at rates up to 384kHz. Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed…