What is the best DAC ever made?

I've been listening to an Audio Note 4.1X Balanced (with an Esoteric P0s or Forsell Air Bearing transport) for awhile, now. Ascending the AN food chain would certainly be interesting...listening to a Zanden with accompanying transport would also be enjoyable.

Best,
Sam

I've heard alot of buzz about the Berkeley DAC, but have no idea how it might compare to some of strong units from a year or two ago, not even sure that there is much real progress being made in digital processing, the "numbers" seem to get better, but not sure thaqt necessarily makes for better sound.

Just update to my post above.

I have settled on the Zanden Transport and Zanden DAC signature since last two years. I also use the Zanden DAC with the Kalista Transport (no longer have the c2a signature DAC) but the best digital sound for my preference now is still the Zanden combo.

i hope the buzz about the berkeley that pubu157 brought up is correct...i've been waiting 4 1/2 weeks for one and it should be here next week! i have read some awfully strong stuff about it from pretty credible sources, not the typical fanboy hype...

The best DAC I've heard so far is the one I am currently using built by Alex Peychev of APL Hifi - Denon 3910 chassis, 4 32-bit 1st-generation AKM Dacs, digital input, Class A tube output stage, etc.

I'm also fortunate in that it appears later this week I will finally receive the first APL stand-alone Super-DAC consisting of most of the mods done to create the amazing NWO-4.0SE, including 20 second-generation AKM 32-bit DAC chips per channel.

As good as the 3910 DAC is (and it is VERY good in my system) the new one promises to be substantially better. That's difficult for me to conceive of at this point, but Alex has never let me down, so I guess we'll see how it sounds in my system. He is well known for pushing the digital envelope in a good way, so I'm pretty excited.