Hi Romney. I just purchased the Bartok w the class A headphone amp, after some negotiations with the dealer I was able to get his demo for around $12,500.00. Not chump change for a small part of your setup. I'm still scratching my head or maybe examining it on why I picked such an expensive pastime. Hopefully, with the gate arrays that DCS uses, I won't need to buy another unit because they are continually upgrading the software. I haven't heard the Esoteric N-01. However I traded the PS Audio DSD w network bridge. I was excited to set this unit up having heard it at several dealers and also having read rave reviews in TAS and other respected publications. It takes some tweaking to set up properly with your system so be patient. After several interconnect and ethernet attachments I got it to play and immediately noticed how much more musical it was compared to the PS Audio. A much wider sound stage and timber. Let me say that after listening for a few minutes, I had to shut it down, it was really killing my ears with brightness. After some research, I adjusted the output to 2 volts instead of 6 volts to match my BAT 53-Se tube preamp. I also noticed by letting the unit achieve it's proper operating temp, which takes about an hour from the stand by mode, this unit really opens up an sings. Make sure you leave this unit ON. I heard nuances in my test tracks that I'd never heard before and was highly impressed. I called DCS America and they were very helpful with helping me fine tune the unit and getting the app to work with all of my networked music.
The DCS app is really much better than the PS Audio M-Connect, which was the big reason I switched to Bartok in the first place. Making playlists are a snap with all of my networked music, not just what's on Tidal.
The DCS app is really much better than the PS Audio M-Connect, which was the big reason I switched to Bartok in the first place. Making playlists are a snap with all of my networked music, not just what's on Tidal.