Music Server with no DAC?

The Berkeley Alpha DAC surely blows away - and I mean really blows away the Transporter, particularly at 24/192.

Is this speculation on your part, or have you actually heard the two in the same system and compared? Have you seen the interior of a Berkley DAC? I don't think you'll ever see it coming down to $1.5K with the amount of work it must take to build one (that IS speculation on my part). There's always going to be one step better...the carrot on the stick attached to your head just out of reach. When does one start enjoying what they have? I'm in a similar place as Grant describes. The MWTP simply does not have any glaring flaws or even minor flaws that calls attention to itself. I don't doubt it might be bested by other things out there in critical listening comparisons, but I wouldn't speculate or waste time or energy thinking about it when there's so much music to be enjoyed, and absolutely nothing about what's coming out of my system leaves me wanting to dissatisfied with it. I have gone through a few DAC's and players before this, and also have made some direct comparisons to some comparably priced digital front-ends in a very revealing system, and I have to say I'm very happy with what this does for me. You asked for direct comparisons so this is what I've compared the MWTP to in several blind tests with various types of music: Empirical Modified Northstar DAC with Empircal Pacecar via i2s, Electrocompaniet EMC-UP, MHDT Havana with and without Pacecar. My friend and I ran blind listening sessions on each of these in his very revealing system and listening room. In every case we both chose the MWTP over the other front ends. The closest, believe it or not, was the MHDT Havana using the Pacecar. That combination was the most difficult to judge for me, and I'd say my blind call on that might have been swayed as the differences simply were not as pronounced as with the others. Sorry, I've done no comparisons with anything else that you've asked about. Again, I'd point to using a dejitter device like the Pacecar on one of the servers that provide a digital stream to your favorite DAC. I also can't really relate to speculation in terms of investment on returns. Everyone has a different threshold as to what they're willing to pay for the enjoyment of something, and I wouldn't presume to know someone else's. Everything changes, and these days at a rapid pace. The world is always in flux. Life is fragile and short and completely unpredictable when you get right down to it. Again, the same question comes to mind...when does one start enjoying what they have?

"The closest, believe it or not, was the MHDT Havana using the Pacecar."

The mhdt Constantine is SS and would be an interesting one to compare if the mhdt tube DAC was the closest otherwise.

I have both Constantine and Paradisea. Each cost under $500 second hand.

Constantine sounds more like a good SS DAC. Paradisea with stock tube sounds like a tube device, particularly in the mids. OTher tubes can change the sound. The NOS Tung Sol equivalent makes it sound more SS like the COnstantine.

Overall I agree with what you are getting at - and you'll love this - to prove your point I have bought a Beresford for my AV DAC needs which at $250 (a far cry from 5k) is probably at the 90% or even 95% level of anything available in 2000... While not matching CD output from my MF A5 it is quite quite stunning in what it can do for $250.

Hey - just for fun (I mean it, just for fun!) lets agree to respond to this thread in 5 years and see how much it costs to get to the quality of the Berkeley Alpha DAC. There might be some whole other approach, using nano-something by then that might even be much less than 1.5k...

And btw, I absolutely love my $250 TC-7520 Beresford and I have started to enjoy it several weeks ago when I got it! :) (The beginning of certain shows like House or Medium - the music is amazing when put through the Beresford comapared to AV without an external DAC.)

Lightminer- I think your thinking is colored by the price of a stand-alone DAC. The MW already has a case, power supply, inputs and outputs, product distribution/marketing, streaming software and hardware, and R&D built into the cost. If you eliminate the DAC your costs probably don't decline by more than $100 and I bet is quite a bit less than that (I will admit that this is rank speculation, so if anyone knows what the bulk cost of the DAC chips and assembly might reasonably be, please chime in). So the question is, if you can provide a very good quality one box solution of $2K (list), will people spend $1.9K in order to have the option of adding a DAC, with extra cabling and maybe a de-jitter device.

Please don't get me wrong, I do like the idea of a modular product w different options. Of course the "differences" between many of the DACs you are talking about could and probably does, have lots to do with better implementation of power supplies, analog stages, etc, as well as to a "better" digital to analog conversion per se.

Yeah, I agree. We'd have to know what % it is... And that is indeed the crux of the argument!

If it is incrementally (assuming one already wants the rest of the device, which is an assumption we are making) not a high % to add it to what exists as the rest of the machine, then all is good in the world just as it is right now :). If it is a high or medium % of the total price, then I suggest the things I suggest above, such as same product with no DAC and/or upgradeable DAC boards, etc. etc.