I listened to the Berkeley Alpha DAC last week and came away very impressed. The setup was not optimal yet it was easily the best sound I've heard from a digital source (I'm an analog guy). The alpha DAC was being used only as a converter for a Cd redbook transport and I never listened to to it with any other source (HRx, HDCD, etc.).
I was so impressed that I spoke with michael Ritter yesterday for more info. After a long conversation, here are a couple of points he made that I came away with: 1) jitter from a hard drive digital source is typically much less than a transport. 2) he prefers WAV files to flax as the processor has less overhead to process and less noise, therefore.
I plan to do a lot more evaluation but came away impressed.
I was so impressed that I spoke with michael Ritter yesterday for more info. After a long conversation, here are a couple of points he made that I came away with: 1) jitter from a hard drive digital source is typically much less than a transport. 2) he prefers WAV files to flax as the processor has less overhead to process and less noise, therefore.
I plan to do a lot more evaluation but came away impressed.