DCS Bartok as Preamp

Unless you A/B DCS Bartok vs C22 in your system, there is no sure way to know if you can happily live with Bartok.

C22 is a very nice preamp, you may ‘miss’ the euphonic sound of tubes and unmistakable synergy between C22 / 462. 

That is very true.

I plan on keeping the C22 and doing an A/B with and without.

I am curious if anyone is using the Bartok as a pre now.

I listen a lot at low volumes so I wonder if that favors keeping the C22 in the chain.

We have used the Rossini as a preamp with the MC452 , you just have to crank the gain up to 6 volts on the dCS instead of the default 2.0 , when you were using it with a preamp. It sounded excellent, bypassing the C2600.

As I understand it, dCS makes pretty much their entire DAC, except for some very simple locally obtained parts in England. Plus they are incredible how they keep spare parts for so many years (so this is my understanding right now about their making their own dacs completely)

We upgraded to the MC462, and I’m going to see how the Bartok sounds as a preamp today (assuming I can as with the Rossini) without the C2600.. Doing and ABA kinda test, maybe ABAB... ;)

Actually, I think I'm gonna wait a few days for the breakin of the clock, so next week sometime I'll share the compare.

Hi I was wondering what your thoughts were with and without the C2600 using Bartok as a pre?

I have been running my Bartok into the C22 then into the MC462.

It sounds really good but I will eventually try the Bartok as a pre.

Let us know what you think. I’m interested in this unit, as I generally quite like DAC to amp...but I’d have to sell my nice preamp to afford the Bartok and that’d be a risky move. 

I ended up making a system change.  I trade in my Bartok and got a killer deal on a Lumin X1.  The I added 2 Lumin M1s to replace my sonos zones. Now I have a great 3 zone HiRes system.

I think the Lumin X1 sounds more analog that the Bartok and a multizone DCS system would have been way to expensive.

I am still running the X1 through the C22 and into the MC462.

I also added a Lunim T2 to a MA6500 in my vacation home and am very happy.

Mcintosh and Lumin seem to be a very good combo!

Does the Bartók feature a variable volume out for connecting to monoblocks that don't have a volume control?

@efoo Have you compared the T2 directly to the X1, and if so how would you describe the differences?

I have an X1 which is the best DAC I have owned, but curious how close the T2 comes.

Hard to compare because of the different set ups but I am happy with both.  Only downside is Lumin multi room has sync issues so you have to use roon.