DCS Rossini + Digital or Puccini + CDs?

Not sure you want to hear this but my experience as a dCS Paganini full stack and now four box Vivaldi owner is that in each and every instance the same CD played back on a disc is far superior to the track ripped from a computer, played off a stick or streamed. Every time in every place the CD sounds best.

So if I was you I’d buy the Rossini with transport and settle back to enjoy your CDs forever plus have the ability to play streamed music if that floats your boat (it does nothing for me -- I’m a strictly physical media guy)

What I cannot say is if the updated DAC in the Rossini is so much better that even with sub-optimal digital sourcing (i.e. from your server) it will still sound better -- I suspect it will -- but you’ll never know what the same disc played natively could sound like.

One option would be to retain the Puccini as a transport and use it to feed the Rossini DAC .. however the Puccini is short of the better digital outputs (no AES, not even fire wire) so you’ll always be hobbled by having to use the PCM RCA interface which frankly sucks

Sorry this may not be what you want to hear ...

@folkfreak  I wish I had known this. I auditioned the Vivaldi stack a few months ago. Source was a streamer. It was really good, but I walked away slightly underwhelmed relative to the calibre and price of the components and system. Are you saying I need to (must) demo it with a CD transport, preferably a dCS unit? Thanks.   (For that audition I figured it was the streamer and not the stack...)

@folkfreak 
Thank you very much for your reply.  This is exactly the question I am trying to answer:

"What I cannot say is if the updated DAC in the Rossini is so much better that even with sub-optimal digital sourcing (i.e. from your server) it will still sound better" than CDs

All comments to this question are welcome!

Auditioning a dCS stack is not at all easy. Suboptimally setup (Cables, footers, clocking etc) they will sound dry and sterile. And in my attempts to use them with direct non physical digital sources such as computer based, USB stick or streaming have always sounded thin and lifeless. Put a good CD in to a well configured setup however and you are away and in my case it’s only my even more religiously tweaked analog rig that beats it ... my system description has a pretty thorough description of the steps I make to optimize my four box setup.

regarding the OPs question.  @keiserrg why are you unwilling to countenance keeping your CDs? The marginal cost of the Rossini vs DAC is (in the context of the base price) low and likely less than you need to spend on the interconnect to the streamer itself. You own the CDs, and if you’re bothered about the space needed for storage switch to sleeves like I did. The pursuit of the absolute sound is typically not accomplished by moving two steps forward and one back, better to always be moving ahead 😉

@keiserrg I’m not familiar with dCS other than my recent audition of the Bartok, Rossini, and Vivaldi DACs and my ongoing interest in the Network Bridge. With that out of the way...

I am confident that a correct pairing of a server/streamer/player and the Rossini, will provide you with excellent sound quality.

Please note MY BIAS: I don’t buy into > "sub-optimal digital sourcing (i.e. from your server)"

Also note that I am heavily invested in streaming and have been since the mid 2000s when I walked away from CDP playback.