Any insight with the Berkeley Alpha DAC ..??


Reference Recordings, which had had some spectacular CDs on the market is launching a "HRx" DVD-A product which is 24bit and sampled at 176.4 or 88.2 kHZ ...They recommend using a Windows XP desktop fitted with a Lynx AES 16 card and a Media Monkey as it's player and play this 2 channel DVD-R disk through a BERKELEY Audio Design Alpha DAC.

This has been favorably mentioned as a breakthrough in the Absolute Sound April/May edition....has anybody had any experience with this???

I would appreciate your response. Thanks
128x128jafo100
I listened to the Berkeley Alpha DAC last week and came away very impressed. The setup was not optimal yet it was easily the best sound I've heard from a digital source (I'm an analog guy). The alpha DAC was being used only as a converter for a Cd redbook transport and I never listened to to it with any other source (HRx, HDCD, etc.).

I was so impressed that I spoke with michael Ritter yesterday for more info. After a long conversation, here are a couple of points he made that I came away with: 1) jitter from a hard drive digital source is typically much less than a transport. 2) he prefers WAV files to flax as the processor has less overhead to process and less noise, therefore.

I plan to do a lot more evaluation but came away impressed.
i'm using it on redbook with a nagra as the transport. it's connected by a tara labs zero aes ic. incredible!!
What's the price tag on the Berkley? Can't find too much about it on the net, any comments on it's sonics? Comparisons to previous digital you've owned?
it costs $5,000 US. this dac is capable of converting PCM from redbook up to 24/192. i've spent most of my time listening to CDs, and couldn't be happier with it's translucent resolution and timbral accuracy. there's an overall coherency from top to bottom, three-dimensionality and ease which is frankly a steal for the $.

Maxx2man,

Are you running straight into the amp, or do you have a preamp in the chain?

Thanks.