Andrew,
I’m seriously considering the purchase of the Bartok. I’d like to ask you several questions, and apologize if a few are basic or may focus on the wrong issues. Your patience is appreciated. With that said, please accept my thanks in advance for your responses:
(1) I assume your view is that the ethernet connection is the audio equal of the USB inputs? (The other inputs don’t offer the highest resolution playback.)
(2) How sensitive is the audio quality of the Bartok to the type of ethernet router and ethernet cable? I have an older but stable Asus RT-N66R Gigabit Router, and use standard Cat 6 or 6a cables from Blue Jeans cable, which tests each cable and provides the results with the cable.
(3) How sensitive is the audio quality of the Bartok to whether the FLAC files are pulled from an external hard drive through a windows media center? (I utilize a G-Technology raid 1 unit to store my audio library.). That means that the files are passing from the hard drive, through a USB connection to the PC, and finally out the RJ45 ethernet jack on the PC to the router, and then to the Bartok.
Is there any clear advantage – in terms of audio quality – by simplifying that by using a NAS directly to the network and then to the Bartok?
(4) Finally, there is a growing list of DACs which can handle DSD 256 or even 512, see this list:
Why did dCS decide to not include DSD 256 in a new unit? There is a growing list of true DSD 256 files offered on Native DSD Music, for example.
Again, many thanks in advance for your response.