Berkeley Reference Series 2

ack

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Ken Newton

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What I find interesting, in a pejorative way, is here comes yet another $20K DAC. The pricing increases of home audio gear seems to track the rise in the age of the industry's baby boomer customer base. It certainly doesn't seem to track inflation or increased unit demand.
 

bmoura

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Sep 6, 2013
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What I find interesting, in a pejorative way, is here comes yet another $20K DAC. The pricing increases of home audio gear seems to track the rise in the age of the industry's baby boomer customer base. It certainly doesn't seem to track inflation or increased unit demand.

Or you could check out many other DACs at a fraction of the $20K price....
http://nativedsd.com/database
 

Ric Schultz

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Jun 21, 2013
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With all the raves about upsampling to DSD512 via HQplayer........well, why would there be a DAC without that capability?......in this case...no DSD at all. Maybe 16/44 upsampled to 512 DSD through a modded Gustard or T+A cannot quite equal the PCM played through the 120 lb. $38,000 Aries Cerat? But, maybe it does. Maybe PCM is dead. There will be better and better pure DSD (512 capable) machines available in the near future.....many coming from China that will sell for $1000 or less......fun stuff ahead. $20,000 PCM only DAC? At least with the Aries Cerat you get a 100 lb. barbell set included....he he. What I really want is the big Aries Cerat thang.....two 120lb boxes. One on each arm......forget a woman on each arm....we want DACs on each arm! Move over ahnold.....me the new muscle man!
 

Bruce B

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Good for them that they offer an upgrade for the original Reference.
 

ack

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Not a word about what is updated in the new version.

I'll take a guess... in my system thread, I compared the original Reference to my modded Alpha 1 - not a single difference, driven by the same Spectral transport, which is admittedly as optimized as they get. So I am willing to guess they improved the output section. Let's see how far off I am..
 

Elberoth

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Dec 15, 2012
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I would to have a look of the internal photos of this Ref Series 2.

+1

Too bad Chris never opens the components under test, like the German magazines do, for example.
 

Rhapsody

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Rhapsody.Audio

ack

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ack

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May 6, 2010
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Computeraudiophile full review http://www.computeraudiophile.com/c...o-design-alpha-dac-reference-series-2-review/

When speaking to the Berkeley Audio Design team, they stress the importance of striving for neutrality with their components. They absolutely, to the best of their abilities, try to design out any sonic flavor. It's not in their ethos to color the sound or produce a sound some people may like. If you like neutrality, or no sonic signature, they build the components for you. To do this, they compare the sound reproduced through the Alpha DAC Reference Series 2, to the sound of the microphone feed at Keith Johnson's recordings for Reference Recordings and also use Keith's master recordings during the design process. These subjective comparisons serve to improve upon the objective measurements. When one reaches the limit of the best testing equipment available, one must have a sense for what neutrality "sounds" like. Given what I know and have heard, I'm willing to bet Berkeley Audio Design manufacturers some of the most neutral components ever produced.


(Note: Keith Johnson is a friend of the company, but not involved with the products in any way).
 

lbkwhitney

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Jul 25, 2016
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Alpha Mods

I'll take a guess... in my system thread, I compared the original Reference to my modded Alpha 1 - not a single difference, driven by the same Spectral transport, which is admittedly as optimized as they get. So I am willing to guess they improved the output section. Let's see how far off I am..

Hi - Where can I find a description of the mods you made to your Berkeley Alpha DAC?
 

ack

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