I enjoyed your post. A voice of reason :-)
I have a berkeley Alpha DAC 3 and it is a fantastic product for anyone seeking a great price to performance ratio (in the high end category). The guys at Berkeley are some of the best minds in the industry. Grammy award winning minds! There are many great DACS out there and I think Berkeley is one of the best and I have had at least 8 different high end DACS so I speak from experience.
I have found Berkeley to be a stand up company.