Weiss Dac2/Minerva?

Drubin and Teddy_Bear, I still haven't purchased a new dac yet. Thanks very much for the comparison of the Berkeley and the Weiss. And Drubin, your question really points to a major deciding factor between the two: firewire vs usb to spdif converter. I have the feeling that direct firewire may be the superior interface with the mac mini, but if the SQ of the Berkeley is in another league above the Weiss, the Berkeley may be the better way to go. But, for about half the price of the Berkeley there is the Weiss Dac2 and the new unknown Ayre QB-9 dac with it's asynchronous USB interface... I've been waiting for some user reviews on the Ayre.

You could go with a Weiss AFI1 between the computer and the Alpha Dac.

I have EMM SE separates and Minerva. One for SACD the other for hires and uncompressed dedicated music server.
In my opinion the Weiss is a better bet because of the interface. Shoe-horning low-jitter and hires into USB is tough and fundamentally limited in terms of bandwidth. It has taken a lot of expensive and complex technology for Wavelength DCS and others to make this work reasonably well. Firewire was designed as a networking protocol for media flow: audio and video. It is a better platform now and in the future. The Weiss, in particular, provides a huge amount of input and output flexibility (unlike Linn DS series) plus a great DAC, if not 'world class' whatever that is.

PNCD, can you give us a sound quality comparison of the EMM dac (non SACD) and the Weiss?

I can't to be honest. I understand that these forums are full of golden-eared critiques of various components and combinations, but I do not work that way.
Both are very good. Listening to CDs ripped to FLAC through Minerva I do not miss the CD played through the EMM combination. HiRes sounds superb through Minerva, just as good SACDs sound through EMM.
My point to you was that the Minerva offers a very good package of qualities: digital in and out plus analog, including Firewire and HiRes. Not preventing you from using a different DAC later. It is very good and the support from Daniel has been superb.