Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC Reference 3P & Alpha USB Reference

[GSOphile]

Any interest, experience with these units? Robert Harley, a long time user of three generations of the predecessor DAC has given an outstanding review of these units in the latest TAS. "The Alpha DAC Reference Series 3P and Alpha USB Reference Series combination is competitive with the world's best digital conversion but without the six-figure price tag."

 

[Ritmo]

Saw it and heard it at Axpona in the Joseph Audio room - it sounded fine.

The only reason I have never considered Berkeley is that it is not able to play DSD. I know there’s a workaround to convert to PCM but that’s very limiting.

 

[Randy Myers]

Saw it and heard it at Axpona in the Joseph Audio room - it sounded fine.

The only reason I have never considered Berkeley is that it is not able to play DSD. I know there’s a workaround to convert to PCM but that’s very limiting.

Exactly, and I have heard great things about Berkeley. I recently found out that a friend back in California has pickup one of their DACs. On the same token, he very recently got into digital and has never had the virtues of DSD bestowed on him . But holy cow does he have one heck of an analog setup!!!

Sorry, no matter how good a DAC is if it does not support Native DSD then not interested (DSD256 and up).

 

[GSOphile]

The DSD limitation has been a biggie for me too, but then I got to thinking. Of my favorite 100 or so recordings, less than 20% are DSD. Some of these are old and only marginally better than CD. Of my top 10, only one is DSD. For the rest of my music, under 10% are DSD. And nothing on Qobuz. So I'm asking myself, how important is DSD to me - really? I have an Esoteric K-01XD player, so I think I'm hearing a pretty good sampling of what DSD has on offer for the music I favor (classical and jazz).

 

[Ritmo]

Well, less than 20% of my music is DSD. But, that 20% is pretty darn good sounding. Lastly, given the cost of this DAC (and others at this price point), the ability to play DSD should be a standard feature.

 

[Mr Peabody]

It was one of the DAC's I considered when shopping. I need USB which is another piece to buy like MSB. Not really a deal breaker but I didn't have anywhere to listen. Some reviews said they have a sound of their own and I thought it was important to hear what that meant.

I believe I heard the same room as Mike at Axpona, the system sounded great. How much to attribute to the DAC is hard to say.

 

[Mike]

I’ve told them this DSD limitation is a road block for most customers but they get so annoyed. My God why don’t companies listen to the market?

 

[The Sandman]

The only reason I have never considered Berkeley is that it is not able to play DSD. I know there’s a workaround to convert to PCM but that’s very limiting.

I haven't found it limiting at all. My Aurender W20SE can convert DSD to PCM on the fly, or I can convert the files on my computer using JRiver. And I ripped all of my SACDs to files.

I’ve told them this DSD limitation is a road block for most customers but they get so annoyed. My God why don’t companies listen to the market?

That's because they believe having conversion within the unit or separate DAC chips for each to compromises sound quality. TBH, I don't think their business model would scale to 10 or 100 times their current sales... but they do make one hell of a DAC for the price.

 

[Mike]

I haven't found it limiting at all. My Aurender W20SE can convert DSD to PCM on the fly, or I can convert the files on my computer using JRiver. And I ripped all of my SACDs to files.



That's because they believe having conversion within the unit or separate DAC chips for each to compromises sound quality. TBH, I don't think their business model would scale to 10 or 100 times their current sales... but they do make one hell of a DAC for the price.

I disagree. Great DAC, but they are stubborn. A simple market analysis would prove I’m 100% correct. It is funny: the same thing that killed Linn Streamers and made Lumin successful: one originally put a fork in the ground and said NO DSD. The other did DSD. Linn has since reversed course realizing the error of their ways.

I really like the Berkeley products, but 99.999% of customers tell me “no DSD? No thanks.”

There are far far far far too many DAC brands these days for a customer to feel “limited”, even though, as you point out, there are easy fixes.

But why am I surprised? I see stupid shit in audio every day. One speaker guy uses his number one amp brand competitor. SMH.