Weiss Dac2/Minerva?

Bsal, thanks for your opinion. Best price I've found on the Aplha is 5K, I'm hoping to spend a bit less.

I'd like to hear that too. Something to remember tho, the Weiss Dac2 is $2000.00 less than the Berkeley Alpha. And yet it is supposed to have the same internal electronics as the $5000.00 Weiss Minerva, making the Dac2 a better buy.

"A better buy than the Minerva or the Alpha?"
Berkeley Alpha - $5000.00
Weiss Minerva - $5000.00
Weiss Dac2 - $3000.00
So if the Weiss Minerva and the Weiss Dac 2 have the same internal electronics and the same sound, it is not hard to determine which is the better buy. Weiss vs Berkeley is another matter that would have to be determined on sound & build quality rather than price alone. Also, as you mentioned, the Weiss has firewire I/O, that may be a determining factor for some. It would certainly easily interface with a mac mini or Macbook pro music server.
I have not heard either one, but my feeling in reading the reviews on the Berkeley & Weiss dacs is that the Berkeley may be the better sounding dac, but is it worth the extra $2000.00 over the Weiss Dac2?
You may find these interesting:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Berkeley-Alpha-dac-and-Weiss-Minerva
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/Berkeley-Audio-Design-Alpha-DAC-Review

I was referring to a better buy price-wise between the two Weiss units. I do envy you your experience with the EMM labs CDSA and Weiss Medea, but now you are in the 10K range new.
If I had that kind of budget (I don't), I would also look into the Playback Designs MPD-5...

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.

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

Indianears, interesting, what sort of files were you running through iTunes? Uncompressed?

Thanks for sharing your impressions of the Minerva!