I’ve been given an opportunity to buy a used Berkeley. It would be used to pass digital music streams to my tube int amp, an Audiomat Prelude Reference MKII. Speakers are Quad ESL-63. I listen primarily to classical music and opera, but will digress to folk, international, country and more. I tend to like “simple” music, music that might feature one or two performers playing piano, or violin, or harp, or guitar, or banjo or singing.
The reviews on the Berkeley are pretty consistently raves. It’s hard to trust reviews completely though so I’ve prowled around on a few forums looking for feedback on the Berkeley and found almost nothing which surprised me. I thought this would be a popular choice for a DAC. I recall finding only two comments, one was a “meh”, the other thought it wasn’t very musical. The Berkeley doesn’t do DSD.
I’m hoping someone here has listened to one. I am under some pressure to choose a couple of DACs to focus on in the next 2-3 weeks.
An alternate I've considered is the Naim DAC. The streamer/server would be the Naim Uniti Core and Naim has a reputation for being musical. The Core stores up to DSD128 and the DAC processes it. Has anyone listened to it?
I’m not a confident listener; I don’t trust my ears to be able to make the best choice. Would much appreciate feedback.
The reviews on the Berkeley are pretty consistently raves. It’s hard to trust reviews completely though so I’ve prowled around on a few forums looking for feedback on the Berkeley and found almost nothing which surprised me. I thought this would be a popular choice for a DAC. I recall finding only two comments, one was a “meh”, the other thought it wasn’t very musical. The Berkeley doesn’t do DSD.
I’m hoping someone here has listened to one. I am under some pressure to choose a couple of DACs to focus on in the next 2-3 weeks.
An alternate I've considered is the Naim DAC. The streamer/server would be the Naim Uniti Core and Naim has a reputation for being musical. The Core stores up to DSD128 and the DAC processes it. Has anyone listened to it?
I’m not a confident listener; I don’t trust my ears to be able to make the best choice. Would much appreciate feedback.