Is berkeley dac as good as absolute sound review?

Don't put words in my mouth. I may or may not find it meaningful. To what degree I find it meaningful would be influenced by what he paid for it.

Purchasing decision is based soley on performance and NOT because it's a great deal. Not the other way around which is a VERY VERY important distinction.

If you don't find it meaningful, than don't - but it is meaningful to me since buying something has meaning to me, especially when I have the opportunity to buy anything and from that I choose to buy something in particular. Perhaps reviewers function differently, but I doubt it. Unless they are buying at a discount to sell at a profit, but I suspect that is not their motive, no, they may actually like the piece of gear, and happy to have gotten a good price on it, or they could just buy it used on Audiogon. I do agree though, that if he paid $10 for a $5000 DAC it might questionable, but I suspect they are getting a wholesale price, nice savings, but not a giveaway either.

I respect your opinions. Fair enough.

So, how many actually own the Berkeley and how does it compare with the
likes of DCS, Esoteric, and EMM Labs? Are these the top brands today? Do they
really distance themselves from what seems like a really well regarded effort
by Bryston on the player and DAC fronts? They do hit a much more
reasonable price point. I would love to put it up against my EMM Labs player.
By the way, to this day I really regret selling my Audio Logic 24XL (I think that
was the model) that unit is a bit old today, but I thought it was a very nice
sounding DAC and not really sure things got better since then. I would surely
recommend it if you can find one used - of course, no USB input.